Spirits in a prison

Medium

Text

Form

Interview quote

Artist / Maker

Prison officer, HMP/YOI Lincoln

There’s got to be some sort of spirits in a prison aren’t there, you know, the amount of people that… I don’t know if you believe in spirits and things like that, but the amount of people that have come through here and the amount of people that have died here and things like that, it’s mad, it’s got a, like you say, it just plays on your mind. And then your mind starts playing tricks and you think, “did that just happen, did I see that or, or did I hear that?”

– Prison officer, 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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