The rise of the woke prison
Our justice system has become subsumed by intersectionality.
What’s the difference between a prison and a north London playgroup?
Sadly, this joke comes without a punchline. Training for prison officers now includes therapeutic, woke meditation sessions. Participants sit back, close their eyes and imagine they are walking through a park, greeting friendly faces along the way. Only this is intersectional meditation: the aim is to sniff out wardens with unconscious bias. So if, on this imaginary walk, they see only white men then, well, who knows what awaits? A spot of re-education? Or a spell behind bars?
News of the training sessions, reported in the Telegraph, has provoked the ire of justice secretary Robert Buckland. It’s ‘like the Teletubbies are in charge’, bemoaned one source. Indeed. But why the anger now? Prisons have been woke for some time.