I have been watching Time on BBC iPlayer. It is a grim affair about a
prisoner played by Shaun Bean and a prison officer played by the short
angry one in This Is England. Time covers the inherent futility of
putting people in prison without purpose. It is hard to watch but only
for the sense of nihilism which arises. You will certainly think
afterwards. What is the purpose of prison? Well it is to remove the
dangerous from society and to help those incarcerated to find
alternative purposes in life. The UK system fails to rehabilitate as
that costs money. Instead it locks people together in boredom other
than TVs and wonders why people get hooked on drugs. As ever, this is
one of those hard to fix items. Like the NHS, waste is everywhere and
without tackling the waste, you cannot find the money to fix it. So we
end up with a simply wank system. I thought this before watching Time
in fairness. It just reminded me of the hopelessness of the system.
Punishment for the sake of punishment has always seemed pointless. The
removal of liberties is the punishment and there should be a way to
help that person in that time. Help so that the cycle of misery stops.
The same seems to apply to homelessness in many ways. I was reading a
good article on the BBC news about a hotel in Manchester which has had
real success with homeless people getting help by being a constant
place for different agencies to reach out to those people. It avoided
the need for going between offices, making and keeping appointments.
The coordinator was a driven person who was working so hard to help
these people. She is doing an amazing job. Unfortunately the council
are not supporting the hotel further so it remains to see if the
impact will last or not.
On a happier note, I caught Elita's radio show called 'Lets Die Out
Together' on Anonradio this morning. It is a great show with charming
hosts and some great music. Go listen!
