Saturday, January 03, 2009



Prison inmates should not be called 'inmates', says British government

We read:
"Prison officers have been told not to refer to their charges as "inmates" because it might offend them. Ministers claim the age-old term is not appropriate if criminals are to be treated with "respect and dignity". One prison officer leader attacked the move and warned jails have already become too soft as he called for a return to tough prisons in 2009. Opposition MPs said it was "politically correct nonsense".

In a scathing outburst, Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, called for an end to the "namby pamby attitude" that has led to soft prisons. "It never ceases to amaze me, the hypocrisy of politicians and senior civil servants," he said. "On the one hand they say we are not going to have soft prisons but on the other phraseology that has been around for a long, long time suddenly becomes offensive to our dear charges. "As far as I am concerned they are convicts, they are prisoners, they are inmates. "We should treat them fair and properly but prison should be tough. As we come to 2009, prisons should move away from being seen and actually being soft options to be challenging and demanding places of punishment. "Without that we will continue to slide down in the views of the general public and will send people out of prison more likely to reoffend."

Prisons minister David Hanson revealed the Ministry of Justice stance in a letter to an inmate in HMP Wakefield, in which he said: "Prison staff are expected to treat prisoners with dignity and respect and for this reason the term 'prisoner' should be used in preference to the term 'inmate'." He went on to say the term "offender" was not inappropriate.

Earlier this year prison inspectors at Bullingdon jail in Oxfordshire, said prisoners should be addressed by their first names, given free condoms and be served evening meals later time to stop them feeling hungry in the night. In 2006, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, criticised jail staff for calling prisoners "cons". [Short for "convict" or "convicted person". Must not call a convicted person a convicted person, apparently]

Source

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's happening to US prisons too.

Anonymous said...

In fact, it started in US prisons a long time ago, when they went from being places for punishment, to places of rehabilitation.

A friend of mine has a neighbor who's an illegal from Mexico, and a hard-core criminal. I've heard him say that our worst prisons are better than their best hotels! Any wonder why they're so overcrowded?

Lute said...

I suggest that they will eventually stop referring to prison guards as guards, and address them by their more appropriate job description, which is fast becoming, Butlers.

Anyway, thanks for an amusing but very scary story. My condolences to the British subjects. We in the US regard you as harbingers of our forthcoming doom, since we seem to be adopting more and more of the leftist gibberish.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it's time for prisoners to be made to do long hours of hard work daily, especially in the blazing heat of the deserts in summer without shade. It sounds like prison is becoming less a punishment than a REWARD.

Anonymous said...

And prison is such a nasty word too - don't you know that the proper term is "correctional facility"? So maybe we should call them Correctional Facility Residents? How about just Guests? That sounds so much better for their self esteem.

Anonymous said...

I think the detention camp in the movie Coolhand Luke should set the standard for incarceration centres.

Personally, I believe the word Inmate is a perfect description. After all the convicted folks are IN prison and many of them MATE but usually only the one on top enjoys it!

Anonymous said...

'In 2006, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, criticised jail staff for calling prisoners "cons".'

Is she French? In French, 'con' is a big insult.