Many of the prisoners we spoke to experienced their segregation as punitive and damaging. One person said: ‘I’ve already been given my sentence from the judge – I don’t need more on top of that’. Others accepted their placement: ‘jail is jail’, as another prisoner said – but thought that more should be done to allow them time outside their cell, and to enable more frequent and flexible use of the telephone to contact their families. More generally, practices and policies lacked flexibility and were risk averse, for example regarding the number of people required to unlock a prisoner, what they could keep in their cells, or how often their cells should be searched. This sometimes led to arbitrary practices which were not always conducive to the prisoner’s wellbeing or to good order and discipline in the prison. A newly built cell. Regimes remained basic, with segregated prisoners mostly receiving no more than their A toilet in an outdoor exercise yard. 21