A city within a city

Medium

Text

Form

Poem

Artist / Maker

Mathew, HMP Liverpool

A city within a city
A community of its own
Cold stone walls washed in white

Pictures of your loved ones stuck to
the wall with toothpaste

Punishment and hard done by?
Chance to start again?

Amidst the stone and stell, computers and
gym and education.

Routine and rehabilitation
Opportunity should you choose to seize it

Long landings where the saying
‘Life is what you make it’ echoes every night.

– Mathew, HMP Liverpool

Why have we collected this work?

We want to understand what these prisons are like to live and work in, and how has this changed over time. We are examining the ways that these prison buildings carry traces of the past, while operating in the present day.

The project considers how and why these buildings have survived for so long, and asks how we will know when they have reached the end of their operational lives. We consider the significance of the Victorian prison in shaping public and professional ideas of what prison should be like. Crucially, this project explores the implications of the continued operation of Victorian-era prisons for the contemporary prison service, and aims to inform policy development.

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