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Today @HMIPrisonsnews released a report detailing what prison has been like during the pandemic including severe declines in mental and physical health. Here are some key findings:
Women are being locked in their cells for an average of 22.5 hours per day, seven days a week. To put this in perspective this is just 90 minutes outside of the small confines of your cell. The recommended time is 10 hours.
For most this short period of time is split – 45 mins in the exercise yard and 45 mins for everything else. This means there is often not enough time to get everything done so women have to prioritise. For example either queuing for the communal phones or taking a shower.
This is actually an improvement. In March people were spending just 45 mins outside of their cell. While many of us got to enjoy a respite from lockdowns in summer as one woman put it:
As you can imagine filling the rest of the time is difficult with some watching the same TV shows over and over again. Others listened to the ticking of the clock, counted down the days on the calendar or continually moved photos around on the wall.
