Noting facts, and fantasies

There are more beds in the Invercargill men’s prison than there are at Southland Hospital (Kew).

And the same prison is planning on tucking 43 more into that great stone pile. We haven’t heard of any more beds for Kew but all they have are well used, not exactly double bunking but not left lying empty for long.

It feels like when you get loads of visitors and you whip sheets off for the wash, find another set to remake the bed and hope the first lot well be washed, dried, ironed and aired before the next invasion arrives.

The prison laundry is unlikely to face that sort of pressure because inmates are there for ages, unlike the hospital where people are out fairly quick smart and a stay of more than a week is odd.

During the past 14 months I have visited people in both the hospital and the prison, each more than four times and the similarities between the two big southern residential institutions are as startling as the differences.

One lot are dubbed patients who demand care. The others are inmates who need to be held in secure care. Forget what they said - hospital meals are okay, tastier and more generous and varied I think than Corrections menus.

But what has impressed me about both places is the pleasant tone of people speaking to their juniors, their patients, their prisoners.

I like the way registered nurses carefully mentor students on the ward without showing impatience or superiority, just sharing what they knew while treating the other as an equal.

In just the same way I appreciate hearing prison officers address their charges pleasantly, using their Christian names and the words please and thank you.

In turn, they can receive an agreeable acquiescence and the degree of respect they are due.

I know life is not always easy, patients and prisoners alike can be difficult, bolshie, irritable and demanding.

And so too can those caring for them. We are living in a real world, not an ideal one.