Visiting my dad in prison, I realised the public sector can mistreat people too
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Version 0 of 1. I remember very clearly going to see my father in prison for the very first time. There were many things about it that were terrible – how broken he seemed, how slowly the time passed even though there was so much to say. But there was one thing that struck me and has fundamentally influenced all my political views since then – how little the prison and its staff cared about either him or me. On reflection over many years, the reason this jarred with me was because I am middle class, educated and used to being treated with decency and respect in my daily interactions with people and institutions. Instead, in the prison I was roughly manhandled, given abrupt and aggressive instructions and spoken to as someone who had done something wrong. And I was just a visitor. Over the weeks and months as I continued my visits, I became increasingly frustrated by the inefficiencies and unfairness of the system and the hardship that this caused both prisoners and families alike. Like my sister and I spending four hours trying to get through on a booking phone line to make visits. Or having no buses from the local train station to the prison on visit days and having to spend£15 each way on a taxi. Or the difficulty of getting phone credit to make calls. I could go on. Ultimately, though, I was in a position where I had the resources, ability and the commitment to navigate these hurdles for my father. A lot of prisoners do not have the privilege of having someone on the outside to do this on their behalf. What made me most angry is that there was an acceptance that this was the way things operated and it was unlikely to change any time soon. It was difficult to work out who I might even contact if I wanted to change any of these things. This is what made me realise that some public sector organisations can get away with operating in a monopolistic vacuum with limited accountability. We are blinded by the idea that they operate for our public interest because they are publicly operated and not tainted by the evil hand of private-sector capitalism. Well, I can tell you that the public sector can treat the public pretty badly too. And in many cases you cannot do anything about it because there is no alternative or you cannot exercise any element of choice. While this is true for prisons, it can equally be true for healthcare or schools. It can be hard to find someone who will listen to you when you say “this is not working for me” or, as you get more desperate, “this is making things worse”. It can be even harder if you don’t have the resources, ability or inclination to maneouvre the bureaucracy that is put in place to thwart you from challenging an entrenched system. This doesn’t mean that I want to privatise everything, nor that I believe the private sector will necessarily provide better services. It is that I think, wherever possible, you should always have the choice to look for an alternative that is actually different. Not just transfer to an organisation that has the same ways of working and is effectively a replica of what you have moved from. If there is a better option available, I couldn’t care less if that organisation is run by the public, private or voluntary sector. It could be run by Martians as long as it does its job well. I know this because if someone had told me that my father could move to a different, non-public sector prison that treated us like humans, made it easier to book family visits and arranged a bus from the station on visiting days, I would have said “yes, please”. I don’t think I would be alone. So, in a way I am a bit perplexed about why we continue to be so hung up on sectors: a conversation essentially about who pays the staff. Surely it should now be about moving the debate on to how toprovide better services to the public. The author is writing from personal experience. Talk to us on Twitter via @Guardianpublic and sign up for your free weekly Guardian Public Leaders newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you every Thursday. |