Freedom of Personal Autonomy

According to the Cambridge dictionary and thesaurus, the word autonomy is defined as the right to be independent or "the ability to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else" (Cambridge dictionary online, 2023)! It is taken as a basic human right to have personal autonomy and is rightly fort for around the world when we feel that this has been taken away. This affects us by making us angry, stressed, confined, powerless, restless, unfulfilled, invisible, worthless, not valued, frustrated, depressed, anxious or suicidal.

Consider the decisions you have made the last few days. Now imagine if each one of them was made on your behalf or taken away completely with out any regard to your personal autonomy, health or welfare. Even basic decisions as using the toilet or bathroom was forbidden or you had to ask to use them. No using your mobile, very limited ability to chat to friends or family members, no TV or radio, no takeout's, no computer, no going for walks or to the gym, no sex and certainly no popping to the shops. How do you feel now?

This is the daily experience of over 90,000 men, women and children in England and Wales. How comes? These people are in the prisons and young offender institutions. And to compound these experiences we demonise, ridicule, subjugate, turn our backs on and force them into abject poverty and unemployment. The majority of those in our prisons and wider criminal justice system are not serial killers, murderers, drug barons, paedophiles or rapists. They are just like you and me. They have been forced into low level criminality due to poverty and victimisation. So the next time the newspaper we pick up, a friend or colleague ridicules them - "throw the key away/they got what they deserve" or the social media post/conspiracy theory we read or agree with remember to think twice about spreading that hate and fake information and remember - THEY ARE ME!!!