Prison Morality

The murder of an utterly degenerate sex criminal evokes a visceral atavistic reaction. Good job. Reinforcing the universal belief that sex cases are invariably harshly dealt with by other prisoners, that criminals are somehow best placed to judge the crimes of others, the conscience of society.

And so we can find ourselves tipping our hats to the two murderers who did for sex criminal Ian Watkins at Wakefield nick the other day. Murderers being elevated as moral arbiters isn’t a common event, but due to the mythos of prison, we find ourselves in this embarrassing position of having sent two men to prison for murder, now wanting to buy them a pint for, er, killing again.

It is true that, as in all cultures, prisoners have a hierarchy. Or rather, hierarchies. As it is impossible for a single source of complete power to ever reside amongst prisoners, there are many hierarchies. There are those at the top of the wealth pile, others top of the physically tough pyramid, and so on. One’s position across these hierarchies doesn’t rest on one factor, your crime. Rather it rests on several features, some fixed, some fluid, your peccadillos being only one.

Pop culture has you believing that sex cases are invariably rock bottom of every possible hierarchy, including cockroaches. There is a visceral reaction against sex crimes that simply doesn’t exist for any other breach of normality, even amongst those who themselves committed the most serious of crimes, murder. Murder doesn’t repel us in the same way, which its why murder is a staple of popular entertainment. Sex crimes against children, not so much.

The measure of which crimes are worse than others is an exercise in painful mental contortions and staggering hypocrisy. How can you possibly calculate, even define, what is “worse”? Worse for who? Society, or the individual? It would take me little effort to argue that reckless bankers cause far more harm than paedophiles. But no one duffs up shady bankers.

The measure is, in reality, centred on that visceral reaction to certain crimes, that truly brainless reaction. And so we find murderers at the top of prison society, as a class, with sex cases firmly held to be at the bottom. Murder as the most SERIOUS crime, but not the WORST crime.

However, prison myths are just that. The black and white judgement on the crimes of others is regularly tempered by self interest. If a sex case is a 7 foot black belt, he’s often good to go. If he has a good supply of drugs, his crimes are obfuscated by addiction. If he is surrounded by friends who defend him, again , he walks with impunity.

Prison morality is a figment of the imagination, a projection by a society who actually wants us to commit violence on other criminals, a society that exercises its loathing through prison justice. It’s a morality that absolves the cannibal while condemning the rapist. It’s a morality built on narcissism and hypocrisy. Because if you suggest to the killers of Watkins that the families of THEIR victims would like to be allowed to kill them, I’m guessing they’ll unwaveringly cling to the rule of law…

Wanting to hurt those who have hurt us is all very human. But controlling our base urges is what separates us from animals. To this extent, the role of the criminal justice system is to protect us from ourselves, from our worst urges. It should not exist as a channel through which we call upon bogeymen to do our bidding.

Ben Gunn is “one of Britain’s best known prisoners…he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility of the system” The Times. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when he was 14 years old, Ben has since renounced violence and consistently fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result of speaking truth to power, Ben has served far longer than the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to argue that Ben “has been punished excessively for a crime committed as a child”, and Lord Ramsbotham to state that “It is expensive and unnecessary to keep Ben Gunn in prison”.