‘Suicidal feelings are not signs of weakness but are a natural consequence of the lives many prisoners have experienced.’ Photo: Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash
Hear hear: Hugh McMichael works with prisoners
‘The three days I spend training Listeners are some of the most rewarding of my life.’
I have spent three of the last eight days in a local prison, training Listeners. Listeners operate in every British prison, acting as Samaritans for their fellow inmates. Prisoners are at the highest risk of suicide in the general population. This is not because they are in prison but because of the poor quality of their lives outside prison. Almost all suicidal prisoners have made previous attempts to take their own lives before incarceration. In other words, it is a population with very high levels of chronic distress and personal trauma. And it is their misfortune that their traumas often lead to criminal acts. This is now widely understood, as a result of ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’ studies. These have now covered tens of thousands of people, way beyond what might be criticised as soft left-wing wishy-washy thinking.
The three days I spend training Listeners are some of the most rewarding of my life. The trainees arrive from an environment where they have almost no control over their own lives, in a regimen which has security as its primary aim. They want to help their fellow prisoners. Most are nervous, expect to be told what to do and say, and to be tested and pass or fail.
The first ‘lesson’ is being asked to focus on their own feelings at that moment (as a model for what they will be offering to others). They begin to realise that their feelings matter too. They realise, for example, that the suicidal feelings many of them have experienced are not signs of weakness but are a natural consequence of the lives many of them have experienced to date.
Violence, murder, suicide and the early death of siblings (often through addictions) are commonplace. And these are the same sorts of backgrounds shared by the people they will be supporting.
We model much of the training on the support they will be offering their fellow prisoners: respect for their autonomy and listening to feelings and stories.
Over the three days of training, the Listeners develop from (about) ten anxious individuals into a group with a high degree of trust – this among people who might never have really trusted anyone before. They trust us, the trainers, and might even stop calling us ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’! I am reminded of M. Scott Peck’s definition of love, being concerned for the spiritual growth of the other.
The trainees are as ready and as prepared as they can be to respond to their fellow prisoners’ distress. They have learned that the caring, concern and love they can offer is the greatest gift of all.
We are all caring human beings and that potential for loving is present and accessible for us all.
