The Grayling Book Ban….

I don’t think anybody outside prison, and especially the media, has portrayed this book ban accurately, and it really frustrated me when I was incarcerated that I couldn’t respond to the news articles or televsion and radio debates about it. This is because there is a ban on prisoners contacting the media…….. hmm I wonder why! Now that would be dangerous to the powers that be!

In prison there is a behaviour modification system, very like a merit system you get in schools. It is called the IEP system which stands for Incentives and Earned Priviliges. The idea (which doesn’t work) is that naughty prisoners (and I use the term naughty as you are treated like a child in prison) will stop being naughty if given positive and negative IEPs. In prison slang an IEP is the piece of paper handed to you, usually for a negative issue, stating what you did wrong this time! There are also positive IEPs but these are pretty rarely handed out. Some shameless souls blatantly ask for these when trying to gain enhanced status, or just when trying to creep up to the offiers. “Ive put the bins out, can I have a positive IEP?”, that kind of thing! Prison isn’t very good at positive reinforcement, but very good at blame and shame and even better at getting it wrong… The threat of an IEP is used all the time inside, and you become completely desensitised to being told off or punished as it is constant. 

Negative IEPS are rarely fairly given and getting three of them leads to being downgraded to BASIC for 28 days. As the lady who fought the book ban once said to me;…. “you cannot even have normal behaviours in prison, the boundaries of right and wrong are twisted and impossible to understand, and it is impossible to learn which normal big wide world behaviours are actually allowed inside!” (thanks Barbara Gordon-Jones 2015)

In November 2013 a new PSI came in changing the IEP system. Until this time a prisoner could have items on the prison facility list handed in or sent in to prison every 3 months. Now, all you Daily Mail readers can stop right there! The facilities list is scrutinised by every individual governor and there is hardly anything on there. Yes, you can have a playstation, but only when enhanced, and only a very basic one. And usually the prisoner ends up buying it themselves by saving from their £10 a week wages! Mainly the items are clothes and some hobby items and also of course books! The full list is available here:  http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov.uk%2Fdownloads%2Foffenders%2Fpsipso%2Fpsi-2013%2Fpsi-30-2013-1.doc&ei=x6GGVcHxIoiS7AbV5pvQBA&usg=AFQjCNECYpkxf5lbCJXgeXBGjUsFjXZ_jw&sig2=UGwIxR2pxJOGaK08Kmy1-w&bvm=bv.96339352,d.ZGU

Thanks to Mr Grayling’s desire to make prison life harder….. (more on that in another blog…) the new IEP ruling stopped ALL items being sent in or handed in. So he didn’t ban prisoners getting books…. he banned prisoners getting anything! His theory behind this was that it would encourage better behaviour from prisoners and that they themselves would work harder and save up to buy their own items; items which can only be bought from specific suppliers.
Sounds lovely in theory doesn’t it? Well, in my last establishment you earned £11.05 a week. £1 a week pays for television, a small dodgy portable wth 8 freeview channels. No, Ms Daily Mail reader, we do not have sky tv in prison! Plus if you are locked in a small room on your own year after year, sometimes for 23 hours a day, then a rubbish tv isn’t really a luxury….So that leaves £10 a week, and if you smoke (which I don’t luckily) about £8 a week goes on tobacco. Not to mention the extortionate telehone charges, the £2 you have left would only pay for a maximum of 20 minutes off peak to a land line. So where on earth can you save? Yes a prisoner can have money sent in, and this is where the IEP scheme kicks in. An enhanced prisoner can have £25.50 a week, whereas a standard prisoner only has £15.50, and a BASIC prisoner even less. But, in my experience, a lot of ladies didn’t have anybody able to send in money, so this bribery from the government was completely useless!!

So, back to the book ban. With no hand-ins happening anymore, prisoners could no longer get new books. Although there are libraries, these do not cater for everyone, the books are old and often there is no allotted time to actually access it, especially with the current staffing shortages. For those studying at advanced levels, open university for example, the new PSIs meant they couldn’t get extra material sent in for their courses.

The wonderful Barbara Gordon Jones took a stand and took her fight to court…. and, as you all know, Grayling’s book ban was ruled unlawful. But….. did the prison service give in gracefully?? No of course not! Instead of allowing relatives to send any books in they want, for example my family buy from charity shops a lot as we have little funds, they decided to only allow books from recommended suppliers….. and, you have guessed it, these are expensive and not always easy to access. There is the added issue of the extortionate amount of time it takes in most establishments to actually get the item to the prisoner…..Plus there is a limit on how many books are allowed in a prisoner’s cell….12! So, in a way the book ban was overturned, but, as always, the powers that be found another way to stay in control.