There’s a fascinating looking exhibition about Perth Prison at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery. It’s called “The Tension of a Line” by Martin Fowler who taught art to prisoners in Perth.
Before parts of Perth’s jail were pulled down in 2008 during its modernisation programme, Mr. Fowler drew and painted the disused and derelict wings earmarked for demolition. The resulting work forms the exhibition which runs until 8 May 2010.
Colourful gouache paintings of the prison exteriors and black ink drawings of the prison’s interiors capture the unique personality of the architecture.
“For me, the drawings were about tension,” said Mr. Fowler.
“There is the tension of a prisoner, the tension of a maximum security space, the tension of a line. I found prison to be a place where I considered my every word and my every move to cause no offence, to not look weak, to not convey anxiety, to coax, to calm and to reassure. In prison I always felt that it was easy to put a foot wrong.”
More information about the exhibition is included in this article in the Perthshire Advertiser http://bit.ly/9gjLot.
If you’ve been to the exhibition (or one like it), why not let Just & Reasonable™ readers know what you thought by posting a comment.
Last night’s BBC2 documentary, Requiem for Detroit, mentioned the Goodwill Deconstruction programme run by Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. The programme offers unemployed people, including ex-prisoners, the chance of rehabilitation through gainful employment while learning new skills deconstructing derelict buildings to salvage or recycle the building materials.
You can see a short video about the programme below:
If this worthwhile programme piques your interest, why not check out some of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit’s other programmes on their website like their youth training programme in partnership with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (http://www.goodwilldetroit.org/programs/ben-and-jerrys.aspx#).
Sir David discovered that many prisoners can only apply for benefits after release from prison. Many ex-prisoners therefore face delays before receiving their benefits at a time when they’re already facing the challenge of re-acclimatising to life outside prison.
The government could address this problem by issuing a benefit card to prisoners on their release from prison. The ex-prisoner would receive welfare benefits for a given period of time via the card. Importantly, the card would be ready immediately on the prisoner’s release.
As mentioned in the Just & Reasonable™ blog post on February 3rd, 2010, it would not be possible to withdraw cash from the card or go overdrawn and the card would be non-transferable (i.e. it could only be used by the ex-prisoner). It would be illegal for retailers to allow users of the card to pay for products like alcohol and cigarettes – in much the same way that it’s illegal for retailers to sell alcohol to children. In this way, users of the card would be encouraged to spend state benefits on the things for which they’re intended.
The card would also make it much harder to spend state benefits on illegal drugs because few street drug dealers are set up to accept plastic. In this way, the card would help to reduce the current outrageous redistribution of wealth from hard-working taxpayers to illegal drug dealers via the benefits system.
Those of a more liberal persuasion may say that it’s bad for someone’s self-esteem to have to use a card which identifies them as an ex-prisoner. But is this any worse than any stigma already attached to a prison sentence or a community sentence?
On the contrary, the card might help to improve self-esteem by discouraging spending on addictive substances like alcohol, cigarettes and illegal drugs. Indeed, the card could be a helpful reinforcement to addiction treatment programmes on release from prison.
In small ways, the card could also help to improve financial literacy. For example, managing the account and calculating how much money remains available on the card. Improved financial literacy could also help to build self-esteem.
One day we might consider extending this use of card technology to the whole cash benefits system. In the same way that chip and pin cards helped to reduce the level of credit card crime, this card system could help to reduce benefit fraud, for example by a combination of chip and pin technology and having a photograph of the holder on the card.
If you think any of this sounds like a good idea, please let me know by posting a comment (just click on the blue comments below). Any improvements on the idea will also be gratefully received. If there’s enough of a positive response, I’ll be encouraged to write to the Ministry of Justice about the idea.
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