On Cockroaches and Politicians | Roger Hallam | September 2020

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I am out of prison after four weeks. I just wanted to thank everyone who sent me emails and letters. It was great to have the support, and I really appreciated it. The conditions in prison are outrageously bad – far worse than previous times I have been inside. And this is due COVID and the decision of politicians to give money to their corporate bosses rather than to maintain anything resembling a functioning justice system.

Ecological breakdown is Social breakdown: the two things cannot be separated anymore.

I kept a diary – here is a written summary, and I have made a video about the experience:

Pentonville Prison London. September 2020.

In for 28 days.

- 1 week for us to get a pillow a kettle and proper bedding – the pillows had to “be nicked” by the prison officer for us as they didn’t have any.

- 3 weeks to get a change of clothes and get the washing done (my cellmate sent his washing to be done and it was sent back but had not been washed)

- 4 weeks to get any books sent to me – they were “censored” on the first occasion, and we were told they had to be sent directly from the retailer (this was not in the instructions) – so they were sent again from the retailer and when I received them I got the original books as well!

- Got no visits and only got through to my solicitor on the 4th week.

- Never got a vegan diet despite fillings in 2 application forms and two complaint forms. My Muslim cellmate was given non Halal meat without being told for the first two weeks.

- When I have moved cells they missed out three meals.

- It took us 3 hours to clean the new cell I was moved to – dead cockroaches and rotten food.

- The loo in the cell had ingrained shit on the inside of it – there was no loo seat, there was no loo brush (asked several times for one but there “weren’t any”), and the toilet did not flush properly (I had to break the poo into pieces to get it to be flushed away). To clean it I was given shampoo packets and a dishcloth.

- There was rust and mould and crumbling plaster around the cell, and we had to push newspapers under the cell door at night to stop mice and cockroaches from coming into the cell.

- For two periods of 6 days I was only let out of the cell once for exercise (around 40-50 minutes)

The worst thing is that people are put in these shitholes for months, and now years, on remand because of delays in their cases coming to court, i.e. before they are found guilty or innocent of an offence. For example, one teenager on remand for a first offence has been told he is likely to be in prison on remand for a total of 2 years before he comes to court. All prisoners are experiencing delays due to COVID.

Lastly, my conditions were not better or worse than other prisoners – I talked to several prisoners who gave similar stories, and stories about other prisoners. Everyone is totally pissed off, including prison officers. As one said to me “the governor talks about dignity” – with total contempt in her voice.

This is the 6th time I have been in prison, but by far the worst.

COVID is the latest stage in the ecological breakdown. The reality of it is the suffering and injustice against those with no voice.

Roger Hallam, 25-08-2020
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