If you’re wondering where the Language Police will strike next, here’s a news item from across the pond.
Daily Mail Online, May 11th reports that employees of Britain’s Prison Service have been ordered by the bureaucrats who supervise the Service to stop calling criminals ”convicts” on the grounds it is ”offensive.” They should henceforth say only ”prisoners” or ”offenders.”
Calling criminals 'convicts' is now deemed as offensive: Prison service tells warders to drop the phrase 'ex-con' and instead call them 'persons with lived experience'.
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) May 12, 2023
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https://t.co/M8QyKgSo6Y
The report says the chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, representing actual prison staff, is unhappy about the new order. Quote from him:
There is nothing offensive about that language when you are describing someone who has been convicted and incarcerated.
How do the jailbirds themselves feel about it? We are not told.
