Inside

Today is the Troubled Young Man's 26th birthday.  His first inside.  A poignant day for the family.  I don't know how it will have been for him. The first of how many?  Probably at least 2 more...

By coincidence, we chose today to visit Shrewsbury Prison, ("The Dana") and I must admit there were parts of the visit that I found difficult.  It's a very old prison building originally built in the 1770s by Thomas Telford on the principles established by Howard.  It's been extensively reworked and adjusted through the years until it was eventually closed in 2013 when it was a prison housing male and female (I think)  category C prisoners - about 320 of them at any one time.  Our guide, who was excellent, was an ex prison guide.  He basically explained to us what life consisted of in prison from arrival to departure.  Departure for some being the ultimate departure - death by hanging and we were taken into the room were a condemned prisoner would spend his or her last few days and then the execution room.
Most of the prison is a typical Victorian Prison in Design with a lot of open space and walkways and stairs where a minimum of officers can see everything that is going on as far as possible, like the prisons that exist in many places still, places such as Manchester and Birmingham.  It was a very thought-provoking visit on very many levels.

I was fascinated by the shapes and the different materials and the light inside the building - this is the main block which housed the male prisoners. I thought it would be an interesting Abstract Thursday Blip on the theme of patterns, and I also thought it would serve as a record of the day a young man became 26 at a very difficult time in his life and our time as a family.  We may want to forget, but we have to acknowledge the truth of reality.