Thread by @MetroUK

Omar says that it wasn’t prison itself that had broken him, but the double lockdown.

When the UK decided to put restrictions in place last year, many lives were saved, but the survivors now have to deal with the effects of 23 hours a day in a cell 🧵

metro.co.uk/2021/12/05/in-…

When Omar was released from HMP Wandsworth in July, his family were excited to have him home.

They had missed him during the four months served; but the man who walked through the door – holding just a plastic bag containing a few clothes, trainers and letters – was a stranger.

‘When you come out, it’s hard to function,’ recalls Omar. ‘It’s like your eyes have been closed and then you come out into blinding light. It’s daunting. You’re suddenly just there, in the world.'

‘You’d think I would be happy to see my friends and family,’ he adds.

‘But I wanted to be left alone. For months, I would sit in my room the whole day and not speak to anyone. I’d just turn off the light and sit there.’

When the UK decided to put restrictions in place, lives were saved by the strict quarantine imposed on prisoners to stop the spread.

At the time, PHE predicted up to 3000 prisoners could die from Covid. To date, there have been 159 Covid-related prisoner deaths.

But, stark segregation took its toll and keeping the worst of the virus at bay was achieved at significant cost to the welfare and progression of prisoners.

In autumn last year, most spent the pandemic locked in their cells for 22.5 hours a day.

trib.al/GOZpd23

These conditions meant many lost hope and left prison without the tools needed to readapt to society.

In ‘normal’ times, they would have received a healthier routine; jobs, voluntary roles, education, vocational workshops and association gave them choices and opportunity.

A supportive, rehabilitative atmosphere produces individuals who are more likely to rebuild their lives and less likely to reoffend after prison.

But Covid lockdowns kept them cooped up like, inmates said, animals in cages.

Omar sank into a deep depression while inside, which he attributes to this horrendous lockdown.

He was sent to prison in March 2020 after being convicted for intent to supply Class A drugs.

‘Prison is bad as it is already, but during lockdown it was 100 times worse,’ Omar explains.

‘They would only let us out for 15 minutes to 20 minutes a day. 23 hours inside your cell, with no visits, no nothing, it was hard, mentally. It messes with your head.’

One night, Omar was awoken to his cellmate trying to end his own life. After he was moved, Omar suffered from insomnia.

‘I couldn’t sleep. I would wake every five minutes throughout the whole night.'

‘Prison is a scary place. I was just thinking – anything could happen to me in here. I don’t know who I’m in a cell with and I’m stuck in here. How long am I going to be in here? I can’t do this.’

He found himself unable to wash for five days at a time as he couldn’t get to the showers, which he found particularly distressing because, as a practicing Muslim, he wanted to be clean to pray. ‘It was dehumanising,’ he adds.

The UN defines solitary confinement as being held in a cell for 22 hours or more per day. It states that prolonged solitary confinement is cruel, inhuman, or degrading; ‘prolonged’ referring to anything over 15 days.

By the end of June 2020, there were 79,514 prisoners behind bars in England and Wales who had spent months under lockdown conditions.

According to the Prison Reform Trust, the restricted regime led many with depression, feelings of low self-worth and suicidal thinking.

40-year-old Michael* says he found himself institutionalised ahead of his release.

He had served half of a five-year sentence at HMP Wayland after being convicted of possession with intent to supply class A drugs in 2019 and has since been let out on supervision.

He says: ‘One day the whole prison system is normal, and then the next thing you know, you are in the cell 24 hours a day.

‘After a few days it begins to play on you. Then it got even tougher. Weeks went past and we were still on 24-hour lockdown. No exercise. Nothing.'

‘It was hot as well,’ remembers Michael. ‘It was summertime, the cells were roasting. You wouldn’t be allowed to keep a dog in that cell.

‘There were a lot of guys in there who had nothing. No family. They were absolutely going mad. Talking to themselves. Losing their sanity.’

‘I saw people get Covid and die,’ his voice dropping as he remembers the pain of losing a close friend. ‘When I was told he’d died, I went numb. You can’t do anything; you can’t go to the funeral, you can’t grieve. You have to put on a face. You don’t want to be seen as weak.'

Michael says the grief left him ‘bitter and angry’, but he was luckier than some.

‘One guy’s mental health deteriorated so much he killed himself. I lost a lot of friends. Inside and outside. I look back and think – how did I get through that?'

Like Omar, Michael was unable to access the services he needed to prepare himself for the outside world. ‘You’re supposed to get accommodation and help finding work, but I came out of jail with nothing. I had no help,’ he says.

‘I had nowhere to live, no job. I didn’t know where I was staying. I didn’t want to go back to London as I didn’t want to get back into crime and selling drugs. I wanted a fresh start.

‘When I saw probation, I was told there was nowhere to stay,’ Michael adds.

With a report revealing that less than 10% of prisoners get mental health support – while 70% have mental health needs – psychotherapist Hilda Burke, says a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, along with emotional support, is vital in helping prevent reoffending.

Around half of women in prison have both anxiety and depression and four in ten have made attempts on their lives. More than half were abused as children and 57 per cent have experienced domestic violence.

metro.co.uk/2021/04/17/wom…

Read more about life under double lockdown and it's effect on the most vulnerable below

metro.co.uk/2021/12/05/in-…