Inmates at HMP Whatton, a Category C jail for 800 male sex offenders in Nottingham, are furious over what they describe as Little Britain-style disability fakers who use wheelchairs to whizz around prison landings for giggles. Writing in the prison paper Inside Time, inmate Charlie Quinto said there is an issue with people abusing their disabilities to use wheelchairs.
Abuse of wheelchairs on prison wings
Quinto said: “There are wheelchair users who don’t need to be in a wheelchair. If healthcare spent more time policing these wheelchair users, they would see that the majority of them do not need one.” He described seeing “wheelchair-bound” people stand up, peek around a corner to check the landing is free, and walk to the bin or food trolleys without any aid. “But then someone comes out of their cell and they go back to struggling to walk.”
He added: “It makes people chuckle that these fraudsters are just playing on their disabilities.” Quinto called for prison bosses to take action against the “plastic users” he reckons should be stopped by “robust checks.”
Calls for robust checks and walkers
Quinto said wheelchair users should be encouraged to use walkers to get around the prison. “If they get out of breath, they can sit down on the seat of their walker and recover and then continue with their journey.” He noted that some prisoners with breathing problems or COPD refuse wheelchairs to keep their independence, using walkers instead.
“Wheelchair handlers like me are frustrated with those who can physically walk around the houseblock without the aid of a wheelchair or their walkers,” he said. He stressed there are genuine users, such as those who have lost feeling in their legs, who need wheelchairs for medical reasons. He also mentioned that some prisoners have been witnessed lifting walkers above their heads when wheelchairs need to pass, and bragging that they do not actually need the walkers.
Demand for action
Quinto concluded: “There needs to be routine, robust checks carried out by prison officers and healthcare workers to ensure that the fraudsters are removed off their walkers if they continue to misuse them.” Earlier this year, Inside Time reported that a wheelchair user held in a women’s prison a week past her release date and discharged in the dark without support was awarded £14,000 in compensation.
