ABSTRACT
Prison staff enforce segregation of prisoners from the outside world. A prisoner entering prison for the first time is at high risk of self-harming or suicide. The more draconian traditional prison traditions – bang-ups, nickings, and segregation – are one way of dealing with the problem. The majority of prisoners at Grendon, and most probably other prisons too, would be deemed too unstable to engage in any psychotherapy groups on the outside. Irritability at the inefficiency of prison and its hidebound routines surfaces regularly, especially as a commonly colluded defence to looking at one’s own problems. The distinctions between therapy and prison life in a prison therapeutic community are impervious. The wider ideals of prison, discipline, enforcing boundaries, challenging selfish and abhorrent behaviour can be seen as a working partnership between therapeutic ideals and the prison system ideals. Prison rules, regimes and restrictions often conflict with the ideals of a therapeutic community, creating its own unique subculture.
