Something was wrong

Medium

Text

Form

Interview quote

Artist / Maker

Prisoner, HMP/YOI Lincoln

Well, I wasn’t on the wing where it started, I was on C Wing. I knew something was wrong when I could hear a bit of noise, and obviously you’re looking out the window, and you can see the officer going from the gatehouse. And then the next minute obviously someone’s come to the door with a pillowcase on their head, and obviously it is a scary moment because you don’t know who’s who, but obviously the doors are all getting cracked open, the bannisters are off, there are fires. You know what I mean? It was a scary moment […] Yeah, it was scary. It’s scary, not like you were going to get beat up and things like that, it was just an experience what you don’t normally see. It was just a bit of carnage, if you know what I mean. Like walking round that down the landing and the bannister’s out and you’re looking and the nettings have gone, and it’s a long drop when you look down. Things like that. It’s just madness, really. It didn’t go on for very long, went on for I think about eight hours, something like that. It wasn’t like days, like Strangeways and places like that, but yeah, it’s a bit mad.

– Prisoner, HMP/YOI Lincoln

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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