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Brendan O’Friel, OS, a former governor of Strangeways, Risley and Featherstone prisons, and former chairman of the Prison Governors’ Association gave a thought-provoking talk on the subject of prison this week for the Senior Essay Society. Mr O’Friel raised the ethical considerations of taking someone’s freedom away and their subsequent treatment, quoting the prison reformer Alexander Patterson, who said  ‘prison IS punishment, not FOR punishment.’ With over 83,000 people in  prison in the UK, the system is seriously over-stretched and the challenges in providing adequate education, work or rehabilitation programmes for prisoners are huge. It was sobering to be reminded that 60% of prisoners re-offended within 2 years of their release.

Mr Peter Anwyl, chairman of the Independent Monitoring Board at HM Prison Preston, and former Headmaster of Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall, spoke too of the reality and problems within prisons, drug-addition and mental illness being among them. He said that we as a society have to look critically at the suitability of those we send to prison, and not to send so many.
There followed a lively question-and-answer session, in which various issues were raised, including the question of personal responsibility and alternatives to prison. 

Photograph shows, from left to right:
Philip Alton, Mr Peter Anwyl, Lavinia O’Hea, Mr Brendan O’Friel, Catriona Graffius, Fabian Twist, Hannah Phoenix, Michael McCullough, Yoann Belon