Too Comfortable to Go On Living

The Government's ombudsman for human warehousing and profitable probation has described a sixty-four per cent rise in prison suicides as "troubling". Levels of mental illness are increasing; prison staff are consistently failing to identify those at risk, and monitoring and review systems are presumably more conducive to punishment with a free-market face than to anything so liberal-lefty as prevention and cure. The relevant minister, Chris Graybeing, has said that he takes the issue seriously, after his usual Zen fashion: "We saw a rise in numbers earlier in the year; we saw a fall in numbers across the summer," he intoned. "We may see a rise or a fall in the future." This is certainly helpful. Still, Graybeing undoubtedly takes the matter seriously, doubtless because he believes that the unauthorised self-destruct of a penitential unit shows an unacceptable level of unearned privilege.