Time's bleak portrayal of young offender prisons is accurate, and warehousing prisoners without rehabilitation harms society
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alex-south. "When you watch the acclaimed TV drama Time, remember this: I’ve seen inside our prisons and they are just as bleak | Alex South | The Guardian." October 18, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author, a former prison officer, says the TV show Time gets the grim reality of prisons right: lots of time locked in cells, violence, and almost no education or rehabilitation. Since most prisoners are eventually released and reoffending is very common, this approach doesn't make society safer, so we should stop ignoring what happens behind prison walls.
Conclusion
The bleak, violent, and rehabilitation-free prison conditions depicted in the drama Time accurately reflect real English prisons, and because this approach fails to change prisoners and most will be released, society as a whole pays the price, so the public should not ignore the problem.
Premises
- Time realistically depicts prisons as places of violence, isolation, long lock-up hours and little training or education, which matches the author's experience as a former prison officer.
- Real prisons, particularly those housing young adults, rely on 'keep-aparts' and staggered regimes that give prisoners little time out of cell, which worsens division and violence over the long term.
- A recent report found children in custody were locked in their cells for up to 19 hours a day at almost every youth custody establishment, and the overstretched, understaffed system offers no integration, conflict resolution or education.
- Early release is inevitable because prisons are full, and nearly all prisoners, including young offenders, will eventually be released.
- About 80% of offending in England and Wales is reoffending, which suggests only a small minority leave prison changed for the better.
- Angry people do not come out of prison less angry after being locked up for 23 hours a day, so the young people in prison return to the community as the same or more dangerous people.
Assumptions
- A fictional TV drama can be treated as a reasonably accurate representation of real prison conditions.
- The author's personal experience as a prison officer is representative of the prison system as a whole.
- High reoffending rates are caused primarily by poor prison conditions and the lack of rehabilitation, rather than by factors outside prison.
- Providing education, association and conflict-resolution opportunities would meaningfully reduce reoffending.
- Public attention and political will can lead to reform of prison regimes.
- Punishment-oriented prisons are not justified if they increase future harm to the public.