'Lifers' (Channel 4) was grim viewing. The programme makers spent time with some of the prisoners in for 'Life' in Gartree Prison; most were in for murder and all of the crimes described were disturbing and shocking; it made the abstract very real. Yet this 'Cutting Edge' documentary was quite dispassionate when it came to the offenders who didn't appear to feel remorse and compassionate towards those who did. There was a particularly bleak outlook for the inmates sentenced to die in prison; of course most of them have committed terrible crimes but for there to be no prospect of rehabilitation made for depressing telly. One of the contributors (yes, they had a choice on whether to participate or not) wryly observed that his stodgy Christmas Dinner was not what the 'Daily Mail' would have referred to as a 'slap-up meal'. We saw the Probation Board at work and the sterling work of the prison psychologists; a prisoner rightly called the latter the 'gatekeepers' in the system, with the power to recommend that a person be let go to an open prison, set free or kept in jail. There were lighter moments, the production and confiscation of 'hooch' (illegally brewed alcohol, more like rocket fuel) for example, but these were few and far between. Yes these men have done appalling things, but 'Lifers' never lost sight of their humanity and eschewed the 'zoo-like' angle of many American prison progs (which 'thetvreviewguy' will admit to watching also). Chilling but informative; worth doing time with.
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