Could you live with a Prison at your back door ?

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
I know the UK has very little space for building homes.. but this is ridiculous. This prison has been built literally on the doorsteps of these homes in Scotland.. actually in the very town I was born..

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Families living next to a new £85million women's 'superjail' say they are being tormented by prisoners screaming, swearing and threatening to kill each other.

Locals beside HMP Stirling in Scotland claim dog walkers have had abuse shouted at them from the prison yard and say they can hear inmates fighting at all hours.

The jail was finished in May and was built to replace HMP Cornton Vale, which hit headlines in January when trans double rapist Isla Bryson was housed there.

The complex, which also contains a youth offender's institute, is next to a quiet cul-de-sac on a housing estate. Residents say it has caused disruption to their lives.

Morris Anderson, 67, said: 'I can't even sit out in the back garden without hearing them cursing and swearing or saying, ''I'm going to kill you'' to each other.

'The other day, a woman was whistling and howling for over two hours.
'Female lags in Britain's new £85m superjail make our lives a misery'
 

In a town not far from me is the Attica Correctional facility. It is in a relatively rural/commercial area.
The prison is famed for a major riot that occurred in 1971. Many officers were taken hostage (including a friend of my husband) and many on both sides died.
My brothers father in law was a guard at the time..he was off that day but was called in, as were most other guards



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Nobody wants a prison nearby("not in my back yard"), least of all the affluent. That's why we have so many prisons here in the high desert.

But, I have empathy for those living close by, perhaps the townspeople could pressure the prison or township to build a sound barrier, like what is common here in So Calif, alongside the many freeways.
 

Warrigal said:
I don't know whether I could or not, but if it was a women's prison I might think about volunteering to teach willing women to read, write and handle mathematics. Not all inmates are incorrigible and given a leg up, might turn their lives around.
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Apparently they're making those neighbours lives intolerable...
 
No one could sell their house for what it's worth let alone find a buyer for it.

It looks like that whoever was in charge of the building didn't considered what impact it would have on the people whose backyard it was put in. I agree with @Nathan a sound barrier should be put up. The residents of the town shouldn't have to put up with harassment from the inmates when walking, so make it a solid for the towns people privacy.
 
I've got one kinda close by in Chowchilla. Might be a women's prison???
Another one is Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga. They transferred Sirhan Sirhan there in 2009.
Charles Manson was close by.
All are smaller populated towns.
 
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It wouldn't be an ideal situation, especially if I were raising a family. I would certainly oppose it at any township or council meetings.

There is a reason why prisons are normally located outside the bounds of communities and what is being described here is why we build these structures a distance away from the citizen living in the area.
 
A home/house for me is not just a place to watch TV and sleep. I had enough of that growing up in Chicago. The space around me is very important. I don't even want neighbors on the other side of the fence. I wouldn't want to live next to a prison anymore that a factory or clearcut. If all one needs is a place to flop and is fine with that, then living next to a prison wouldn't be a big deal.
 
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Would I mind having a prison built next to my home? Actually, no. Would I mind if I could hear abuse, get shouted out etc? Yes, I would. There had to be a way to design the prison so open areas weren't closest to peoples homes.

But this reminds me of another topic - building new homes. Everyone seems to recognize that we need to have more homes built, especially affordable homes, but no-one wants them built near THEM. Sadly, we can't have both.

As a further aside, I had a home in Chelmsford that had a senior school (12-16) built up to the back of it. It wasn't bad except Friday afternoons when the brass band would play in the playground. :D
 
VaughanJB said:
Would I mind having a prison built next to my home? Actually, no. Would I mind if I could hear abuse, get shouted out etc? Yes, I would. There had to be a way to design the prison so open areas weren't closest to peoples homes.

But this reminds me of another topic - building new homes. Everyone seems to recognize that we need to have more homes built, especially affordable homes, but no-one wants them built near THEM. Sadly, we can't have both.

As a further aside, I had a home in Chelmsford that had a senior school (12-16) built up to the back of it. It wasn't bad except Friday afternoons when the brass band would play in the playground. :D
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I was visiting a friend in St Albans...they literally have a school in their back garden... a little path between 2 houses leads to a Primary school and it's playground and all the noise that goes with that..
 
hollydolly said:
I was visiting a friend in St Albans...they literally have a school in their back garden... a little path between 2 houses leads to a Primary school and it's playground and all the noise that goes with that..
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There is a small green outside my home today, and the kids play out there when it's sunny. Lots of screaming, shouting, balls being kicked. On the one hand, it can ruin some peaceful time. On the other it's a celebration of life, and a reminder of a time when I had more energy than I knew what to do with. The world belongs to them really, not us old folk.

The brass band though.... that was tougher.
 
VaughanJB said:
There is a small green outside my home today, and the kids play out there when it's sunny. Lots of screaming, shouting, balls being kicked. On the one hand, it can ruin some peaceful time. On the other it's a celebration of life, and a reminder of a time when I had more energy than I knew what to do with. The world belongs to them really, not us old folk.

The brass band though.... that was tougher.
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I don't agree... the world belongs to us all, but mostly to us oldies, because we made it what it is today....

However having a school playground literally in your back garden with 500 children out there on a daily basis making noise, is just too much to expect to stay sane..
 
VaughanJB said:
There is a small green outside my home today, and the kids play out there when it's sunny. Lots of screaming, shouting, balls being kicked. On the one hand, it can ruin some peaceful time. On the other it's a celebration of life, and a reminder of a time when I had more energy than I knew what to do with. The world belongs to them really, not us old folk.

The brass band though.... that was tougher.
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I can relate to that. When the Santa Fe train line went out of business and their rails removed the area beyond our backyard became a public park. That is nice for the swath of nature now in our view shed but kids love to play along the creek and they get rather loud in their play. Little girls in particular seem to love to let loose high pitched screams that sound like loud whistles. Occasionally there will be public concerts in the park too. But all in all I’ll take the bad with the good. I have a back gate that will let me out along the creek nearest the park so I can throw a ball for the dog illicitly off leash at odd hours.
 
hollydolly said:
Apparently they're making those neighbours lives intolerable...
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Are the neighbours walking around the perimeter of the prison? I note well established trees between the prison perimeter and the houses. I also observe that the main cell blocks are quite some distance away from the boundaries. I don't disbelieve that sometimes a fracas in the exercise yard might be audible but disorderly conduct is not usually allowed to go on for any length of time.

I have visited an immigration detention centre not too far from where I live and went through the usual security. It is located within a residential suburb and the inmates are kept well away from the perimeter. Armed guards and other security measures seemed effective unless a riot breaks out. Riots are not frequent events in properly run gaols and detention centres.

This is an arial photo of Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney.



Bathurst Correctional Centre house men and women convicted of serious crimes. You will note that the gaol is on one side of a country highway and on the other side is a residential area. Further down the road is the town cemetery and the gaol's back fence has a golf course on the outside. The residents of Bathurst are not inconvenienced at all by the presence of the gaol in their lovely old town. It is a source of employment for many of the locals.

 
Other residents have young families – children can't even play out in the back garden now for all the swearing. I took my dog out for a walk, and they were shouting at me.

'I looked to my right and could actually see the woman looking at me. She shouted, ''all right big yin, what you up to?'' This was around eight o'clock too. I have to take my dog along a different path now.'

HMP Stirling if by the far the biggest women's jail estate in Scotland.

Its predecessor, HMP Cornton Vale, housed some of the UK's most notorious crooks including killer carer Avril Jones, 63, who murdered vulnerable 19-year-old Margaret Fleming in 1999 and wasn't caught until the discovery of the young woman's body in 2016.

Transgender double rapist Isla Bryson was in the facility in January before being moved to the male estate after a public outcry.

Other infamous prisoners include Edith McAlinden, responsible for arranging a triple murder in a Glasgow flat in 2004, and former SNP MP Natalie McGarry who was jailed for embezzlement last year.
 
MarkD said:
Little girls in particular seem to love to let loose high pitched screams that sound like loud whistles.
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:D Totally can relate. There are three girls who often play out there, and man - they LOVE to scream like banshee's. We probably made as much noise when we were young. I refuse to be that old man who is always bitching and moaning about noise and kids playing. I may not always like it or appreciate it, but they're just having fun playing football or whatever other games they play. It's the joy of life, that's all.........
 
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