THE CLOSE SUPERVISION CENTRE (CSC) IS PART OF A SYSTEM THAT REQUIRES ENDLESSLY GREATER PUNISHMENT AND RESOURCES TO DISCIPLINE PRISONERS FACING DEGRADING CONDITIONS ~ Kevan Thakrar ~ On 26 March 2010, I was condemned to the Close Supervision Centre (CSC) system following the false and malicious allegations from the corrupt employees of HMP Frankland, who claimed I had committed an unprovoked attack upon multiple prison officers there on the 13 March 2010. As was later proven in Newcastle Crown Court, I had actually unsuccessfully attempted to defend myself using lawful force against a brutal gang of racist prison officers. The CSC system is purportedly designed to detain only the most dangerous and disruptive prisoners, utilising Prison Rule 46 of the Prison Rules 1999 to effectively impose indefinite solitary confinement upon those of us allocated to it. The United Nations (UN) defines solitary confinement as an individual being kept locked inside a cell in isolation for at least 22-hours per day. The UN Nelson Mandela Rules prohibits this occurring in excess of 15-consecutive days, classifying any longer as inhumane which is precisely what the CSC is. Since its creation in 1998 following the Spurr Report by low-ranking prison official Michael Spurr, it has been misused as an unofficial punishment and plagued by endemic discrimination easily amounting to institutional racism and Islamophobia, as well as institutional corruption. This was exposed by the state itself when, during the rare occasion its prison inspection body (HMIP) conducted a ‘full inspection’ of CSC 2015, it was unable to ignore the fact that around half of the CSC population were Muslim. If not through discrimination, how else could a minority group possibly become the majority within the most oppressive conditions available within English prisons? Dare to resist the state or come from a minority background, and prison is where they send you; but resist within prison, especially as a minority, and the CSC is the state’s further retaliation. Moreover, many CSC victims suffer from extreme mental health conditions amounting to disabilities, often developed within the CSC itself, making us even more vulnerable. This failing system costs the taxpayer more than £200,000 per prisoner per year, which is over 4-times the amount spent to detain those within the mainstream prison population. Despite these exorbitant costs, the CSC continues to expand like a cancer. This has become supercharged from the moment since Spurr himself somehow managed to slime his way into becoming Director of HMPPS, the most senior role within the prison and probation service. Since March 2010, although the overall prison population has remained relatively stable, the CSC has almost tripled in capacity going from around 20 men (women have never been deemed dangerous enough to warrant detention within the CSC it seems) to almost 60. Although Spurr himself was unceremoniously dismissed for the chaos in prisons under his leadership, he had already appointed minions who share his sadistic views to senior positions. The CSC experiment forms part of a much wider structural drive for control and oppression by those in power within British society not limited to the vision of its lead architect. Richard Vince, a former CSC prison officer and who was appointed to Executive Director of High Security Prisons by Spurr, is currently pressing ahead on the Spurr agenda by creating another costly CSC unit. Their plan is to close part of G-wing in HMP Frankland, which is where I suffered the racist events leading to my CSC detention, and a large part of it re-designated as a CSC unit. As each CSC unit only operates with the consent of the Prison Officers Association (POA), they have ensured a wildly disproportionate ratio of them to prisoners. This enables them to feel safe to abuse the prisoners knowing back-up is ready should any resistance occur. Currently, HMP Frankland is due to be plunged into a staffing crisis impacting the entire prison. This will lead to lockdowns, and these lockdowns in turn will build frustration, leading to behaviour that will result in CSC referrals. This process of degrading standards leading to the need for even more CSC facilities is central to endless need for more resources in our prisons, despite the fact that prisoners themselves are living off as little as a £2 food budget per day. It should come as no surprise when the direction of prisons emulates society, which at this time includes increasing police numbers and powers, creating new oppressive anti-resistance laws, and greater exploitation of the poor and disadvantaged who are directed to fight each other for scarce affordable handouts. As the system expands, those referred to the CSC who would otherwise be returned to main population due to a lack of space become more likely to be condemned to the system, and the chances of those within the CSC progressing out of it diminish further. This same principle applies with the expansion of all forms of prisons regardless of name or their target, it is the ‘Field of Dreams’ concept, “If you build it, they will come”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevan Thakrar is one of the UK prisoners under ongoing solitary confinement under the Close Supervision Centre (CSC) system. He can be written to at: Kevan Thakrar A4907AE, HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Road, March PE15 0PR —- or via emailaprisoner.com The post Field of Nightmares: The never-ending expansion of torture units in England appeared first on Freedom News.