Her Majesty's Penitentiary: Part 3 - The Paper Trial, The Ghosts, and the Rotten Empire of Brick

⚠️ Trigger Warning: This post contains descriptions of suicide, violence, institutional abuse, neglect, and systemic injustice. Proceed with caution.

In Part 1, we opened the gates. In Part 2, we saw what spilled out. Now in Part 3, we go deep—into the documents, the lawsuits, the spectral whispers in the stone. This is the final chapter of a 160-year horror story still unfolding in real time.

The Numbers Game: HMP by the Data

In 2023, an internal government email (leaked via ATIPPA) called HMP’s population surge “unprecedented.”

They weren’t exaggerating.

The raw figures: in 2004, about 130 inmates. In 2024? Over 210.

That’s a 66% increase—in a facility meant for 195 maximum. And it's not just uncomfortable. It’s dangerous.

These aren’t just people serving short stints. Many are on remand, awaiting trial for serious charges, stuck in limbo. Court delays stack up. Cells fill. Pressure builds.

And HMP creaks under it all.

Staff Lockdowns: Cells Without Reason

Through access-to-information requests, journalists uncovered emails from 2024 revealing chronic staff shortages at HMP.

The result? Lockdowns. Not disciplinary. Not emergency. Just no one to unlock the doors.

Entire wings shut down. Inmates left in cells for days. Legal advocates raised alarms: this wasn’t just administrative dysfunction—it was arbitrary detention. A human rights violation hiding behind a staffing spreadsheet.

And again, ATIPPA peeled back the curtain.

Psychiatric Roulette: The Doctor, The Drugs, The Denial

From 2009 to 2012, inmates at HMP filed complaint after complaint. The accusation? That the prison psychiatrist was routinely discontinuing inmates' medications upon arrival—without adequate evaluation.

The Citizens’ Representative launched an investigation. Their 2011 report recommended the doctor be fired.

The Department of Justice said no.

They ran a peer review. It cleared him. But the damage was done. The records—exposed through ATIP—showed a disturbing pattern of mental health neglect that reverberated across the prison system.

Even the Human Rights Commission weighed in, demanding reform. Their letter was ignored—until someone published it.

The Auditor General Drops the Hammer (Again)