Get behind yer door!

Medium

Text

Form

Poem

Artist / Maker

Paul, HMP Liverpool, 2023

“GET BEHIND YER DOOR!”

The adverts say the sales are on.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
Blaze explains the earth is flat.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
The news leaves shit around the rim.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
A single cell to take a twin.

A number blocked,
An ignored app,
A broken kiosk
paper thin in a frozen bap.

They don’t play requested songs.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
She won’t let me call my sons.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
Discussion brings a reprimand.
“GET BEHIND YER DOOR LAD!”
Always short staffed and badly planned.

Dug a tunnel from “the fours”
and a Christmas card from C.G.L.
Pavlov’s fucking dogs
behind yer door without a bell.

– Paul, HMP Liverpool, 2023

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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