…you’re faced with people who are mentally ill, ruined by drugs and alcohol, right in the pits Photo: Photo: .v1ctor. Casale / flickr CC.

Jamie Wrench writes about the Quaker prison chaplains’ conference

‘A horrible, horrible place’

Jamie Wrench writes about the Quaker prison chaplains’ conference

by Jamie Wrench 15th November 2013

Quaker prison chaplains are a truly remarkable species. They work in some of the nastiest places in the country, with people who have often done truly dreadful things, who are regularly vilified in the press and for whom the prospect of being given the vote is enough to make the prime minister ‘physically sick’. They have to trust the untrustworthy and show compassion to those who the public think do not deserve it.