An inside look at prison life

If you ever wondered about how you might cope in prison, RTÉ’s Life On The Inside is an eye-opener.
With over 4,000 men and women banged up in the country, this two-part documentary explores the Irish prison system through the eyes of inmates and prison officers.
Filmed over the course of a year, producers got full access to the closed, medium security prison at Wheatfield and open prison Shelton Abbey, with the idea of showing what life is like on the inside.
Six prisoners convicted for offences like drugs, robbery and murder shared their stories on prison conditions and how it affects them and their families by being in there.
The one thing that struck me as they mused their way through how it was that there were in there is that they all seemed to see themselves as victims. It made me wonder how the victims of their crimes might feel about matters.
Situated behind Liffey Valley in Clondalkin, up to 700 men can be incarcerated in Wheatfield, with many spending up to 18 hours a day in their cells. It’s not for the claustrophobic but the over-riding feeling I got from it is that rehabilitation is clearly not working in this country.
More staggering is how much it costs to keep a person in there for the year – a colossal €65,000. Multiply that by 700 and you get €45,500,000 a year, for just one prison.
When the programme got as far as the open prison Shelton Abbey in Wicklow, I nearly came off my chair. The overriding sense of self-pity was outstanding in what was effectively a holiday camp. The comment, “The regime in Shelton relaxes at the weekend”, just made me laugh, as I seemed to have missed the part where it was severe during the week. A 23-hour lockdown with a Playstation and comfy bed seemed to be as bad as it got.
They were also eating the finest of meals where all that was in evidence was branded goods, no Lidl or Aldi bulk-buying here. Hospitals don’t have anything near it.
The surroundings of the prison are rather lovely and there are plenty of activities and amenities for inmates including woodwork, arts and crafts, computers, French, English, maths, music, cookery, pottery and golf. It should be noted the rate of absconding is quite high from this facility.
There wasn’t too much evidence in the form of sincere remorse for their crimes. The only man who looked like he wanted to change on release, Michael, ended up back in the clink after just seven weeks.
The documentary was very well made and it is interesting to see the inside of the prisons and get a feel for how life goes there, but it should be an eye-opener for people who think small prison sentences are any kind of deterrent to crime. Outside of that, it’s worth tuning in for the entertainment value from some of the stories being spun by some of the residents. Part two airs next Monday night at 9.35pm.
Something has to fill the Jimmy Choo’s of Gossip Girl and so ITV2 has decided to go with 666 Park Avenue. It has a ring of Dirty Sexy Money about it in that it is set on Park Avenue and features plenty of rich, beautiful folk with questionable morals.
This is obviously taking the quest for money and all you desire a lot further though and straying into the realm of the supernatural.
What I gleaned from the first episode is that 666 Park Avenue is a sought-after address in New York apparently. Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor of Transformers fame) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable from Brothers and Sisters) get hired as the new co-managers of The Drake, the premier apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Everything appears normal; that is until Jane starts some wild dreaming and then runs into one of the tenants covered in blood. There is also a dragon mosaic in the basement. So all is not so normal then.
One of the tenants, Louise, almost meets her end courtesy of the lift door and, for some reason, another tenant is going around stealing jewellery.
Enter the creepy building owner Gavin (Terry O’Neill back in Lost territory). The tenant previously covered in blood makes a deal with him to bring his dead wife back, with a caveat – he has to kill some people. Refusing to kill a guy, he is sucked into the wall and his wife goes back to being dead. Confused? You should be. This series has already been cancelled in the US but if you want something nonsensical that won’t require too much commitment, then this is for you.

One to watch
Walking Wounded: Return to the Frontline (Thursday, Channel 4) While embedded with the US army in Afghanistan, British photographer Giles Duley stepped on an explosive device, which left him a triple amputee. Coming back from near death, he returned to Afghanistan to finish his documentation of the impact the invasion has had on civilians. He also takes a look at those who have sustained similar injuries to him.

Catch up
Fíorscéal (TG4 player): Inhabited by Inuit, the village of Kivalina is under threat from rising water due to global warming. So, they decided to sue big American oil corporations like EXXON, for having financed “fake scientists” to deny global warming. Can they beat the big boys and how do they manage the consequences of a quickly changing climate?