Pentonville Prison

The past two day's have been very informative. While writing by pre-departure papers I had a few questions dealing with the UK prison system. Mainly I was confused by the structure of the prisons. The prison we visited was Pentonville prison. I did NOT take any picture so I will up load a few from google to illustrate the scenery of the prisons.
 



While we did get a briefing on the prison, I will not explain that in order to not waste your time. If you want the historical information and details visit http://www.victorianlondon.org/prisons/pentonvilleprison.htm. Now I will talk about the things that seemed unique to me. First of all I will talk about the dress code of the prisoners. The prisoners are allowed to wear street clothes. Which seemed like a high privilege to have, for a prisoner. Along with wearing street clothes ,in my opinion, they have less of a harsh environment. After booking the prisoners are taken and sat an in electronic chair to check for metals. If metals are detected they are strip searched and asked to squat. They officers do not do body cavity searches. If the prisoners refuse they are kept in a separate cell, until they give up the object. Now they most unique thing about the structure was the bars in-between the different floors, as shown in the picture above. It was designed this way to prevent food from being thrown and prisoners from committing suicide. The guards carry different weapons then the American guards. They don't carry guns. Also they use a whistle to alert when a guard is in trouble. All in the prison tour was interesting, in my opinion the prison was less harsh on offenders than the ones in the United States.

Cheers,

Danielle