It was a hot day in Texas when I visited in 2018. Hotter still inside the walls of the Eastham Unit, the men’s prison near Huntsville where I spent a few hours. My hands were sweaty enough as it was, as I focused my attention on the target board in front of me and practised firing rounds from a small silver pistol.
The men and women with me were wardens at the Eastham Unit. “I wouldn’t do this job without a gun for no amount of money,” said one. These were experienced correctional officers who knew the Texas prison system well. And they were baffled that, as an English prison officer, I didn’t carry a gun. But I felt differently. There were plenty of things that I would have changed about our prison system, but introducing weapons wasn’t one of them.
