I got the train back from London today and, although I had a stand class ticket, I was ushered into first class - result! The train started off and then we got the message over the tanoy that at Watford Junction a group of football fans were getting on the train and that for our benefit they thought that it'd be wise to segregate us from the football fans. The 'dirt' was being separated from the 'clean' and i was with the clean people.
I started to think about the dirt; this is explored in great depth in 'Dirt, Greed and Sex' and then of course by Kester, and an experience came to mind when i was visiting Forest Bank Prison in Salford. Whilst there I noticed that all the prison staff, both guards and chaplains, had a small plastic bottle with a pump action disposer on their belt. Every so often they would press the top of the pump down and a liquid would be dispatched onto their hands, they’d then rub their hands together. When I asked what the liquid was they replied it was an antibacterial hand wash that the staff used after they had contact with the prisoners.
I was quite surprised and whilst, I recognise that occasionally from a hygiene point of view it may at times be necessary, I felt that it had become an institutional way of dehumanizing the prisons. It defined all the prisoners as dirt. The staff were clean and therefore needed to cleanse themselves after touching the dirt. The prisoner is perceived and treated as dirt, the staff are clean and to keep our cleanliness we need to establish distance between ourselves and the person who is dirty. This happens on a societal level through our prisons and the disinfecting of hands enhances and focuses this sense of those who are clean and those who are dirty. The prison guards and chaplains are clean, the prisoner is dirty.
There is something deeply disturbing about this status quo...
There is also something deeply disturbing about Status Quo but that's another post!
