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Reflecting on questions about how drugs are getting to prisoners under lockdown, it's worth noting that although staff corruption is an important issue, there are many routes, and the only one that has *actually* mostly stopped is visits, which is a minor one 1/
Various organisations are claiming prisons are in "lockdown" as if everyone's getting their dinner slid under their cell door. That's not the case. Huge amounts of activity are required for prisons to physically function- there is still "moving about" 2/
I understand how hard it must be to see from the outside, but it's definitely worth thinking about how many organisations and fashionable political positions (Abolish, Defund, etc.) Require them to see prison staff as fundamentally "bad" 3/
Showing prisons as evil institutions is necessary to their project, and honesty isnt. It's not particularly for most a thought through view either, imo, more of a psychological need. Prisoners are *always* victims, in this case being fed drugs by staff 4/
Prisoners *have to be* victims of the carceral state, they cannot be predators, or sophisticated criminals continuing their (capitalist) project inside, because the "Abolish" argument is weakened. 5/
The actual partial answer to many of the problems is "invest in better design and new technologies" (the new scanners are great for e.g.) and "employ more and better trained staff". Even....
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Build new prisons
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Build new prisons
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