Burying the problems

Twelve pieces exposing the reality of imprisonment

< image © Bertrand Gaudillère.

Excerpts from the book InsideOutside (7/12)

Prison Insider, represented by Clara Grisot, contributed twelve compositions to the book InsideOutside in order to succinctly articulate the current challenges of prison life. All content pertains to 21st-century prison systems unless otherwise indicated. These twelve pieces serve as windows into major themes including mental health, overcrowding, life sentences, and torture.

Seventh piece: mental health.

Staff resort to solitary confinement to deal with situations to which they struggle to respond effectively.

Prisons are packed with people suffering from mental health issues, including anxiety, psychosis, neurosis, insomnia, paranoia and suicidal tendencies.

In Morocco, individuals who have been declared not criminally responsible for their actions are nonetheless imprisoned. In Belgium, individuals suffering from mental health issues who have committed an offence are given an evaluation and placed in the psychiatric annexes while they await the result. However, these wings are not care settings, and the country has received repeated censure for the inhuman and degrading treatment to which these prisoners are subjected.

Prison is a convenient answer to some forms of marginal behaviour, in the absence of proper measures to support mental health. Unwell individuals can languish in prison for years while they await judgement for crimes such as minor robberies.

In South Africa, there are 79 psychiatrists for 162,000 prisoners. Over 40% of prisoners in Italy have at least one mental health issue. This percentage stands at around 30% in Spain, 35% in England and 60% in the Netherlands.

Prison does not permit the effective treatment of mental health issues. Isolation, overcrowding, a lack of monitoring, noise and boredom can all contribute to worsening prisoners’ mental states. Substance abuse is widespread. These factors can trigger, fuel or intensify existing mental illnesses.

Prisoners are effectively alone with their illnesses, which continue to generate violence or pain. Their mental health issues can render them unpredictable, mute, rebellious, distressed and sometimes violent or irrational. Staff resort to solitary confinement to deal with situations to which they struggle to respond effectively. In the state of New York, some prisoners with serious mental health issues spend decades in solitary confinement.

Clara Grisot
Translated by Rebecca Neal and proofread by Maura Schmitt

InsideOutside, the book

From 2017 to 2021, photographer Bertrand Gaudillère and Prison Insider engaged in a photographic correspondence with ten prisoners detained worldwide. Graphic designer Yannick Bailly joined them to transform this journey into a book, published by Libel Editions in December 2023. The book is available for purchase for €35. Interested in learning more? Click here to place your order or email us to request the press kit.