insidetime
VILE PERVERT usical
The M
the National Newspaper for Prisoners
reviewed by Bob Woffinden ... page 35
Circulation 42,000 (monthly) / ISSN 1743-7342 / www.insidetime.org / Issue No. 108 / June 2008
At least four in ten offenders go back to crime By Eric McGraw here has been a slight rise in the number of offenders going on to commit further serious sexual or violent crimes in England and Wales, Ministry of Justice figures show.
T
Out of a total 74,407 proven re-offences recorded in the first quarter of 2005, 388 were classified ‘as most serious offences’ – up from 347 for the same period in 2000. This translates into less than one serious offence for every 100 re-offenders. Significantly, the research showed that 80 per cent of ‘the most serious offences’ were committed by offenders who had never committed a serious sexual or violent offence before. The Ministry of Justice figures also demonstrate that the overall proportion of convicted offenders who went on to reoffend declined slightly, from 43.7 per cent in the first three months of 2000 to 41.6 per cent in 2005, leaving at least four in ten offenders returning to crime. Overall however, the rate of adults reoffending in the same period fell by 11.4 per cent and by 17.4 per cent for juvenile re-offenders. This occurred despite a similar size group of around 44,500 re-offenders in the first 3 months of 2000 and 2005. It is also the case that the vast majority (87 per cent) of fresh lawbreaking involved acts such as minor violence, thefts, criminal damage, vehicle crime and public order offences.
for adults and juveniles to cover the period 2000 to 2005. Rather than just showing the crude number of re-offences committed they also, for the first time, identify the frequency of re-offending and number of ‘most serious’ re-offences. These two additional measures are likely to provide a better and more reliable picture of re-offending, the Ministry of Justice said.
PROPORTION OF ALL RE-OFFENCES COMMITTED IN THE FIRST 3 MONTHS OF 2005 Vehicle crimes Public order Minor violence Prostitution Theft/handling Absconding/bail offences Criminal damage Motoring offences Drugs possession: supply small
% 3.1 6.8 10.0 0.3 26.3 10.6 4.7 20.5 4.7
TOTAL
87%
Serious violence Robbery Sexual Sexual (child) Burglary Fraud and forgery Drugs import/export/supply Others TOTAL
0.4 0.7 0.3 0.1 4.8 2.5 0.8 3.4 13%
Based on 74,407 re-offences and 44,324 re-offenders.
These latest Ministry of Justice statistics have been produced under new measures
Continued on page 12
Re-offending of adults: new measures of re-offending 2000-2005 England and Wales. Ministry of Justice 9 May 2008
Judges boldly go ...
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips in his funky new gown Professor Sir John Baker, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge asks: “Why are judges even considering doing away with robes, which they have worn, with only slight modifications, for centuries? Robes perform an important symbolic function. They were worn through the Wars of the Roses, the Civil War and the Blitz by the guardians of our system of justice. They are well known everywhere and are still worn in many Commonwealth countries. No other costume is more closely associated with freedom, judicial independence and fairness. The remarkable costume modelled by the Lord Chief Justice owes nothing to our traditions of formal dress in this country, and seems to have been inspired by science-fiction cinema. At a time when the law of England faces perhaps the biggest threats in its history, it is severely unsettling to the public to find our judges wanting to look like warlords from outer space.”
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Fighting the demons ..............................................................................................................
a voice for prisoners since 1990
JAYDE TAYLOR - HMP PETERBOROUGH
the national newspaper for prisoners published by Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of New Bridge, a charity founded in 1956 to create links between the offender and the community. A ‘NOT FOR PROFIT’ PUBLICATION
I write in response to the letter from Ryno Bernard featured in April's Inside Time, in which he suggests that heroin addicts in prison get ‘special treatment’
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Board of Directors Trevor Grove - Former Editor Sunday Telegraph, Journalist, Writer and serving Magistrate. Eric McGraw - Former Director of New Bridge (1986 - 2002) and started Inside Time in 1990. Tony Pearson CBE - Former Deputy Director General of the Prison Service. John D Roberts - Former Company Chairman and Managing Director employing ex-offenders. Alistair H.E.Smith B.Sc F.C.A. - Chartered Accountant, Trustee and Treasurer of the New Bridge Foundation. Chris Thomas - Chief Executive, New Bridge Foundation
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I don't think that addicts should be treated better than anyone with diabetes or cancer but I do feel that they need help. I am 19 and have been a heroin addict for many years but in the ten months I have been in prison I have got clean - without the help of any substitutes. Although drugs are a matter of choice, circumstances in life often contribute to a person resorting to them. When a lifestyle consists of seeing drugs and drink being used as a means of getting through the day, it surely isn't any wonder that myself and many other girls have taken this route. This drove me to prostitution as a means of paying for my habit. I was sexually abused by my closest male relatives, this desensitises you to sex - if my dad could take me why not any man, and at least they would pay and fund my habit. I do not blame the abuse or my upbringing for my crimes, I merely use them to illustrate why I chose the route I did. I have lost nearly everything and got pretty close to losing the love and support of my mum; it is this that has made me want to get clean and when I go out, live a life that will make my mum proud of me. I'm scared of release, but with the right support and the knowledge that my mum and brothers will be there for me and 'fighting' my corner, I'm determined to make a fresh clean start and turn my life around.
The courage to write .............................................................................................................. KEVIN MOORE - HMP BUCKLEY HALL Although I’ve read and enjoyed Inside Time for many years, I’ve never previously had the courage to write, however was encouraged to share my feelings by the contribution in your May issue from Sophie Barton-Hawkins in HMP Send; this relating to self-harming and faster care packages. I have self-harmed and twice attempted suicide; I lost my father and sister, who committed suicide, whilst on this sentence and still find it all very difficult to come to terms with. However since arriving here at Buckley Hall, I have had so much help and support from staff with my various problems.
Rachel Billington Novelist and Journalist
John Bowers Writer and former prisoner
In the middle of April I started to self-harm really badly as it was the anniversary of my father’s death, however before things got out of control the authorities put a plan into action and I was in a cell with two Listeners who stayed with me all night to make sure I was coping. The staff too were there for me 24/7 and went out of their way to settle my mind. There is still a long way to go, but I am moving forward and now trust the staff; therefore through your paper would like to show my appreciation to the Listeners, nurses and staff here at Buckley Hall and finally to Sophie in Send, because if it hadn’t been for her letter, I might not have had the courage to put pen to paper.
Eric McGraw Author and Managing Editor
John Roberts Operations Director and Company Secretary
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A racist establishment? ..................................................... KAISER SHAH - HMP WOLDS Myself and several other concerned prisoners read with interest your reporting regarding ‘The Inspector Calls’ in the April issue of Inside Time, particularly the inspectorate’s remarks concerning HMP Wolds whereby they indicated that ‘marked progress in the support of foreign national prisoners was evident, although more work was needed to improve race equality issues.' There may indeed have been improvements but we should like to take issue in several areas: • Ethnic prisoners are targeted unfairly by security; • There is stereotyping - resulting in negative entries on ethnics’ personal files, thus preventing parole hearings and recategorisation; • Only a certain number of ethnics permitted within the whole prison and also within individual units • Not one ethnic officer on duty in the whole establishment; • Inadequate provision of food suitable for Muslim diet. Although we appreciate that we are going to receive unwelcome attention from the authorities as a result of this letter, everyone is entitled to their own opinion (freedom of speech). We have therefore contacted the IMB regarding these concerns and are waiting to be contacted by them. Security intelligence is making all ethnics feel that they are automatically suspected of possessing unauthorised articles such as mobile phones and direct involvement with the drugs culture; this is totally unfair and causing ethnics to feel discriminated against and making us ask the question: is HMP Wolds a racist establishment?
* This letter was signed by 30 ethnic minority prisoners at HMP Wolds.
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ.
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
✪ Star Letter of the Month ......................................................... Congratulations to Brad Foster who wins our £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter.
Secretary of State to influence the decision making process. It is clear that until a new system is in place that addresses the requirements and shortcomings, the existing board will always be viewed with misgivings and uncertainty by prisoners in general and lifers in particular, who are reliant on the Parole Board for their freedom. I acknowledge that in today's social climate, protection of the public is the key and any risk posed by prisoners to the community must be examined in depth when considering suitability for release. However, the decision making process must be fair and in line with the law Article 5(1)(c) authorises detention to prevent the commission of offences. However, it does not authorise a policy of general preventative detention against an individual or group of individuals on the basis that they have a propensity to commit crime.
Impartial or imposter? .................................................. BRAD FOSTER - HMP ALBANY Recent case law established that the Parole Board was not independent of the executive sufficient to satisfy the requirements of independence under Article 5(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights or the common law principle of impartiality. Appointment of Parole Board members and their security of tenure was also criticised, along with the issuing of directions by the
The Parole Board has been targeted by the media and subjected to criticism and attack concerning the use of their discretion to release certain high profile prisoners who then committed further offences. Such external pressures and unlawful influences have clearly had an impact on policy and in particular their approach and use of discretion in cases concerning life sentence prisoners’ suitability for release. With this in mind, perhaps responsibility for DLPs should be handed over to the judiciary or make the Parole Board a proper court. This would go some way towards instilling confidence into a concerned lifer population that decisions made about their applications for release or move to open conditions would be made fairly.
Confidentiality on legal visits ................................................................................................ HARRIETT MATHER - CARTWRIGHT CLARK, SOLICITORS, MILTON KEYNES Further to the letter featured in your April issue concerning legal visits at HMP Parkhurst being held in the main visits hall as no other facilities exist, doubtless other people will have written to you to raise the difficulties that exist at HMP Wellingborough whilst they are undergoing a period of refurbishment. For a considerable number of months now, it has been extremely difficult to get visits in a period of less than six weeks unless you are happy to meet with your Client in social visits. The present arrangements are not in any way suitable but we are having to ‘make do’ with them, which consist of between five and six Clients meeting in a portacabin with their legal representatives, and people are accepting this because they feel that this is preferable to the domestic visits; however parties can hear and see what is being said which isn't in any way appropriate, and this wasn't the case under the previous regime of legal visits at HMP Wellingborough. I hope that when the improvements are complete they are indeed improvements and that the wait will have been worth it; and that prisoners are afforded the confidentiality they so rightly deserve during these confidential visits. Institutionalised criminality page 8
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Families needing help ..................................................... LUCY GAMPELL - DIRECTOR, ACTION FOR PRISONERS’ FAMILIES We read with interest Robyn Levers’ letter in your May issue about prisoners’ families (Try Walking the Walk) and we are disappointed that Robyn is ‘bewildered’ as to what organisations like Action for Prisoners’ Families (APF) do for these families. APF and our members have been working hard for many years to ensure that the voices of families of prisoners are heard and their needs understood, and that they receive appropriate support so that children can maintain meaningful relationships with their imprisoned mothers, fathers or siblings. One of our commitments is ensuring that the families of prisoners receive useful and relevant information and support as soon as someone is sent to prison. To this end we try and encourage the work of those providing information in the courts, at visitors’ centres and on induction to families. Both APF and our members have been encouraging prisons to hold family visits to allow for more meaningful contact, and many prisons have risen to the challenge. We collect feedback from families who have attended these family friendly days and know how much they value them. We are genuinely pleased that Robyn does not feel she is isolated, nor in a worse off position than other members in her community. Unfortunately however this is not the case for all families and children of prisoners. Many feel stigmatized and unable to ask for support; children can feel traumatized, get bullied or teased at school, and suffer serious consequences. We also know that many children are not told the truth about their parents’ whereabouts so, to this end, APF has produced booklets and stories to encourage carers to talk openly to children. Each month we talk to over 1,200 family members who call the Prisoners’ Families Helpline, managed by APF, because they need information or support. The number of visitors to the Helpline website went up from 12,350 in 2004 to 43,430 in 2007. These are all families needing help. It is true that in seeking to raise awareness of the impact on children and families of prisoners with government departments, statutory services and the general public, we focus on the problems faced. This is to ensure that where bad practice exists it is challenged and changed, that where services are needed, they get developed, and where policies need changing we work to make this happen. * Prisoners’ Families Helpline: 0808 808 2003 - the freephone national helpline offering information and support to anyone with a relative or friend in prison. www.prisonersfamilies.org.uk
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Adjudications Licence recalls Parole reviews Lifer/IPP parole board hearings Judicial review Categorisation & transfers Contact Olivia Gray or Cassandra Bligh at Dalton Holmes Gray
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Contents Mailbag ........................ pages 2-9 News from the House pages 10-11 Newsround ............. pages 12-17
Prison health 'needs cash boost' .................................... page 14
Month by Month .......... page 18 Inside Health ................. page 19 Comment ............... pages 20-28
An open challenge .................................... page 25
Short Story ................... page 29 Legal Comment ............ page 30 Legal Advice ................... page 31 Legal Q&A ............. pages 32-33 Book Reviews ........ pages 34-35 Jailbreak ................. pages 36-38 Poetry ...................... pages 39-40 ARE YOU A VICTIM OF CHILD ABUSE? WANT COMPENSATION? for FREE information write to: Lucy-Ann Kirkham
HSRLAW
Law Chambers 8 South Parade DONCASTER DN1 2ED
7a D'Arblay Street Soho London W1F 8DF
01302 347800
0207 025 7878
LEGAL AID AVAILABLE
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Mailbag
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ.
.....................................................
‘Exceptional circumstances’
GARY HALL - HMP BIRMINGHAM
.....................................................
A whole new world I would like to comment on the advert in Inside Time from the Shannon Trust appealing for mentors for the 'Toe by Toe' reading programme. I am a mentor and it is the most rewarding thing I've ever done! Helping someone learn how to read and watching them steadily grow in confidence, and their attitudes and behaviour change because a whole new world is opening up to them, has been an education for me as well; according to education staff I am an ‘excellent teacher’ and also assist with ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages). People can and do change but some need help, so if you can be that helping hand and would like to be a Toe by Toe mentor, I would encourage you to contact the Shannon Trust directly or make enquiries in your library or education department to get on the scheme. Be the person that allows one of the estimated 40–60% of prisoners in the UK who cannot read or write to find the pleasure in reading a book or writing to their family; if you are reading this, I bet you take that for granted! By giving another prisoner that opportunity you too will grow enormously in confidence and self-esteem, and who knows where it will lead. So stop thinking about it and go for it trust me, you will not be disappointed. ➜ Lucy Charman, former prisoner and Toe by Toe mentor at HMP Peterborough, writes: The Shannon Trust and Toe by Toe scheme are indeed brilliant and it is very rewarding to watch someone rise from struggling with finding their name on a list to being able to actually read and write a letter home. Shannon Trust advertisment page 34
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
DARREN WHEATLEY - HMP ACKLINGTON When I was first sentenced I was told that, despite being given an HDC eligibility date, I would not be considered because of a previous recall (2003). However it is my understanding that in 'exceptional circumstances' I could in fact apply to be considered for HDC. I have addressed my offending behaviour by fully keeping to my OASys plan with what's available; on enhanced status; no positive MDTs; and I work as an orderly in the Offender Management Unit. I have done an internal course to be an information, advice and guidance advisor, encouraging other prisoners to seek employment or further education whilst inside, and even gained a place at Teeside University – a once in a lifetime opportunity and even if I say so myself … one hell of an achievement! I considered that all the above must surely constitute 'exceptional circumstances' and applied to the Governor to have my eligibility reconsidered. I was ‘knocked-back’ almost immediately; the reasons given being that part of my sentence is under twelve months (under the 1991 Act), together with my previous Section 40. So despite addressing my re-offending in every way possible; agreeing to live in a supervised hostel and gaining a University place, which I will now lose because my release date is late October and after the term starts; none of this is considered 'exceptional circumstances'. Yes, I can hopefully take up my place at Teeside next year but in the meantime the system is actually placing me back in the situation which puts me at risk of re-offending; yet to have reconsidered me for HDC, let me out that four months earlier on the tag, would have substantially minimised that risk.
Glyn Travis, Assistant General Secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, told a radio programme that prison is ‘so cushy prisoners refuse to escape’. His remarks, which created more heat than light, predictably received national media coverage. Inside Time’s John Roberts (pictured above) challenged the POA’s views on BBC News 24.
Get a reality check! .............................................................................................................. GARY BACHIN - HMP LITTLEHEY I was both surprised and amused on Friday 25th April to wake up to the news that Glyn Travis, assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, was stating that prisoners ‘don't want to escape’ as we have a ‘cushy life with drugs, booze and prostitutes breaking into jail'. Also, we all have ‘breakfast in bed, 42” flat screen TVs, satellite channels and all the luxuries’. May I ask where these prisons are, as I would dearly love a transfer! We certainly don't have any of these ‘luxuries’ here at Littlehey! We're lucky to have cheap 14” TVs and have to queue up for breakfast; a bowl of cereal, soggy toast and a carton of warm milk - let alone the rest of the ‘perks’ he alleges we have. If things were indeed so good, and prisoners didn't want to escape, that would be better for the public and better for prison officers, as there wouldn't be any attempted break-outs and no fights! The POA claim their officers continually have to put their lives in danger, yet if what Mr Travis states were true, no prison officer's life would be even remotely at risk. After all, we would be stoned from drugs, drunk from booze, tired from prostitutes and, if we were still awake, watching all the soaps and films on our 42” flat screens! If Mr Travis should decide to wake up and get a reality check, maybe he should visit a few prisons and see for himself what really goes on in an average week. Or he should speak to both officers on the ground and prisoners; I for one would be more than happy for him to visit my cell, have a cup of prison tea in a plastic cup, introduce my pad-mate, and show him just what we don't have!
.............................................................................................................. GEOFF CARTER - HMP BROCKHILL Did Glyn Travis actually stop to ‘engage brain’ before his recent extremely damaging comments to the media, whereby he claimed that ‘dealers are breaking into British jails to sell drugs to inmates’ who in turn are ‘living such comfortable lives that they are ignoring chances to escape’. This blatant publicity seeker then went on to maintain that prisoners are ‘treated to luxuries such as breakfast in bed and TV in their cells’, and in some cases were being offered ‘cash perks’ for good behaviour. Mr Travis claims that …’members of the public were climbing over the prison wall to take drugs into prison. They had a ladder on the opposite side of the wall and prisoners were so comfortable in the environment they were living in that none of them tried to climb up the ladder and escape’. To their credit, the Prison Service rejected his claims with a spokesperson saying ‘it is ludicrous to suggest that prison is cushy’ … ‘the comments by the POA undermine the excellent work done by prison officers - their own members.’ I have never been inside a prison that has ‘breakfast in bed’ or people climbing in to deliver drugs, and the reason we don’t escape is fear of the repercussions and also, believe it or not Mr Travis, many of us actually wish to be rehabilitated during our far from cushy time in prison. So can I suggest that next time you are tempted to seek publicity, you pause for a moment and consider your words very carefully before uttering any more absolute nonsense. Did I say that? Page 13 / Cartoon Jailbreak page 37
Ross SR Samuel Solicitors Criminal Defence and Prison Law Specialists • Licence & Parole Issues • Categorisation • Recall to Custody • Ajudications • Tariff & Judicial Review For Immediate Visit, Clear Advice and Effective Representation, write or call, Pedro Kika at:
Samuel Ross Solicitors 253 Camberwell New Road London SE5 0TH
0207 701 4664 N AT I O N W I D E C O V E R A G E
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Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Try wearing my shoes
mix with fellow cons or be trusted in a room with people?
.....................................................
My latest book, Loontology, hits the shops soon. It’s 500 pages of pure madness. I called it Loontology because that's how I see the penal system. It's insane. We are all living in one big asylum! You'd better believe it! It's no longer porridge, it's cornflakes; no longer mailbags, it's making fairy cakes; no longer planning the next bank job, it's doing an anger management course. The screws no longer wear studded boots and peaked hats, they wear moccasins and gel their hair! The days of hard cons and brutal screws are a thing of the past; even prison governors are softies – political correctness comes first.
CHARLES BRONSON - HMP WAKEFIELD I love Inside Time, especially the Mailbag pages where cons are snivelling over petty things; it just cracks me up … a real tonic! If they had to live my existence they would really have something to moan about; let me educate you guys what real porridge is all about. My world is a cage…isolated…year after year of total emptiness and hopelessness. It's nine years since I had an open visit, even my parole reviews are closed, the judge is told I'm too dangerous to be in the same room - it's all done in order to prevent me progressing; I can't progress, I'm not even allowed to become enhanced. Nine of us are on this Wakefield cemetery CSC graveyard; all buried along with our dreams. Doubtless some will say 'good, it's what Bronson deserves’. Ten, twenty, thirty years ago I would have agreed with you; I accept I was a really nasty bastard, but what a lot of people don't realise is that I’m now marching on sixty. In the last eight years I've been anti-violent, I've only had a handful of minor nickings. I really have proved I've changed but here I still remain, buried, with no hope of ever winning parole. How can a judge free me when I'm not even allowed to
I just wish some of you cons could live my existence for just a month, then and only then you’d wake up and start to appreciate just what you have got; TV, radio, CD’s, carpets, curtains, flasks, own clothes, open visits, phone calls, gym, pool, canteen even the food is not so bad. Accept it, be grateful for it, and stop moaning about pathetic things!
➜ Inside Time writes: Charles Bronson is the subject of a new film and has been advising the film-makers from his cell on how he should be characterised. A feature drama about 55-year-old Bronson, who has been in prison for 34 years, 30 of them in solitary confinement, is among several films about criminals being promoted at this years Cannes Film Festival. His visitors now
include Tom Hardy (pictured), the British actor who appeared with Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's epic Band of Brothers and who has been cast to play him in Bronson, and Danny Hansford, one of the film's producers. The two men began working on the film four years ago. Hansford said: “Everyone told me I was insane to get involved but he was very friendly from the beginning. We get across his humour and his warmth. He is one of the funniest people I've met. Being with him is like being with Billy Connolly for two hours. “How the hell can this guy still be in Wakefield prison?' His violent days are over, I totally believe it, but they are making an example out of him, like the Krays, because he's so notorious”. *Loontology will be reviewed in the next issue
Two roads to freedom .............................................................................................................. BRUCE KENT - CHAIR, PROGRESSING PRISONERS MAINTAINING INNOCENCE (PPMI) I was dismayed to read Steven Battram's highly judgemental letter in your April issue: 'The Innocent Brigade', in which he expressed a view relating to those prisoners who maintain their innocence.
Stylish but affordable ..................................................... After noticing this past year or so the state of the clothes that some of my fellow inmates are wearing, some decidedly scruffy, I’ve had an idea in the pipeline and have been drawing up designs for a new clothing range which would be ‘stylish but affordable’ and a much bigger range than is currently available through prison mail order. I’ve already designed quite a few things, from T-shirts to towels, and also formed a business plan for when I’m released in October. I would welcome feedback and ideas from the male and female estate, and will respond to all letters. Write to: Dwaine Smith VT7154, HMP Doncaster, Marshgate, Doncaster DN5 8UX.
There must be every chance of finding people getting on your nerves in prison. It is an utterly abnormal community of people thrown together in confined spaces only on the basis that they have been convicted of a crime. The people you can avoid outside prison because they are boring or difficult, or endlessly complaining, you can't avoid inside. However the fact is that some of those inside are innocent of the crime for which they have been convicted. Gerard Conlon, Paddy Hill, John Kamara, Stefan Kiszko - the list is a long one and will get longer. The obstacles facing those maintaining innocence are enormous. To get out, there are only two roads. They have to satisfy a Parole Board that they no longer pose a risk to the public; which is not easy granted that they deny the crime in the first place. The other road out is to persuade the Criminal Cases Review Commission, not the most speedy official body in the world, that they have a sufficiently compelling case to be allowed back to the Court of Appeal. There has to be some expectation of convincing that Court that they were wrongly convicted. It is one thing to have a good case, it is quite another to get it within the requirements of the CCRC. Steven Battram is no doubt right; there are people who, for different reasons (shame for instance) say they are innocent when their guilt is highly likely. They do indeed need help in facing up to the consequences of what they have done. However there are also people inside, some for many years, who really are innocent and who suffer the deep frustration of being unable to make progress to the outside world. The innocent brigade does exist. Its members need help and sympathy … not harsh judgement.
SEB Solicitors Prison Law Specialist
Has your right been ignored, Act now! We are a specialist Criminal and Prison Law practice based in East London. We are willing to fight the Prison Service system for you and can provide effective advice and assistance in the following areas:
Licences recalls -Sentence Calculation Recategorisation & allocation HDC conditions & breaches Lifer reviews - Tariff reduction Parole - Criminal appeals and CCRC Adjudications - Human rights issues MDT and Independent urine tests Judicial reviews Criminal Defence - Appeal and CCRC Transfer to other prisons
Please contact Ms Shewli Begum or Mr Tuoyo Eruwa at SEB Solicitors, 328b Bethnal Green Road, London E2 OAG 0207 729 9042 or 0207 033 9697 We shall be pleased to visit you as soon as we hear from you
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Warder working hours ..................................................... SEAN MCGUIGAN - HMP BELMARSH In reply to Paul Sullivan’s article in your May issue (If it was left to me) in which he maintains that ... ‘prisons are now run for the convenience of warders, who rarely work before 7am or after 7pm’, I would have to disagree with this statement. Whilst attending my three week trial at the Old Bailey for blackmailing a member of the Royal Family, I found that many of the warders were working very long hours; in fact the same warders who unlocked me at 6.30am were still working when I got back on the wing at 10pm. So in response to Paul Sullivan’s question: ‘Do the working hours disrupt normal family life? I think from my experience the answer is pretty obvious.
INSIDE? YOU NEED A FRIEND ON THE OUTSIDE... At Keith Park Solicitors we have many years experience representing our clients, not only before sentencing but also once they are in custody. There are many ways we can help you with advice and representation once you are on the ‘inside’. Our team of Legal experts will be your friends on the outside. We specialise in: OUTSIDE ADJUDICATIONS. Have you committed an offence whilst in custody? We can provide representation for you in front of the adjudicator. PAROLE BOARD HEARINGS. We can supply written representations and attending oral hearings. CATEGORISATION. If you want us to assist by way of written representations – we can help.
PRISON RECALL. Have you been recalled and do you think the decision is justified? We can prepare written submissions and appear on your behalf before the parole board. PRISON COMPLAINTS AND REFERRALS TO THE PRISON OMBUDSMAN. If you feel you are treated badly in prison, you can make a complaint. We can help you through the procedure.
Call us on freephone: 0800 374388 (24 hours).
CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYERS
Keith Park Solicitors Claughton House, 39 Barrow Street, St Helens WA 10 1RX E:
[email protected]
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Initial Categorisation of IPPs .............................................................................................................. DIANA BARTRAM - PUBLIC PROTECTION UNIT, MINISTRY OF JUSTICE I write in response to the article in Inside Time (April issue) about the Initial Categorisation of IPPs. As one of the lead managers on indeterminate sentences, I have had several queries about the status of IPP offenders and what the phrase “move towards the determinate model” mean? So I thought this would be a good opportunity to clarify some issues for your readers.
God’s Rotweiler ..................................................... GERARD MCGRATH - HMP DOVEGATE The incumbent Pope, Benedict XVI, recently made a state visit to the USA where he was met and feted with due ceremony by President Bush. During the course of the visit he publicly addressed the shameful matter of the sexual abuse of children by certain paedophile priests in cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York, and offered a long overdue apology to the victims (many of them compensated for the abuse they suffered), some of whom he met in a private meeting. Speaking as one who himself was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of paedophile priests, I was not as appreciative of the apology as I might have been had the apology come from other than the Pope who, during his time as a Cardinal, ordered the cover-up and denial of the abuse of children by priests. Not for nothing was the then Cardinal Ratzinger known as 'God's Rotweiler'. Those who sought to publicly expose the abuse were threatened with excommunication. All of that, and more, was presided over by the now Pope and all is well evidenced; hence the fact that his apology sounds a tad hollow to me. Benedict XVI will forever be 'God's Rottweiler' and never a gentle golden labrador leading the blind. I reject the qualified apology for its caprice and hypocrisy.
Views expressed in Inside Time are those of the authors and not necessarily representative of those held by Inside Time or the New Bridge Foundation.
The changes referred to in Prison Service Instruction 07/2008 relate to the allocation and categorisation criteria for IPPs. This change does not mean that IPP offenders will be treated like determinate prisoners in any other respect. To make the situation clear, there has not been any change in the following arrangements: • how IPP offenders are initially assessed; • how IPP offenders are assessed for release on temporary licence; • how they are assessed for transfer to open conditions or for eventual release; • the categorisation of women prisoners and young offenders. The change in the Initial Categorisation of IPPs means that IPP offenders should be able to access the Category C estate. As stated in your article, the revised algorithm makes it possible for those IPP prisoners with short tariffs (3 years and under) to be categorised as Category C and to be allocated to the Category C training estate in the same way as determinate sentence prisoners. Aside from this change and the fact that IPP prisoners are allocated an offender manager located in the community, lifers and IPP offenders continue to be treated in the same way in terms of assessment and preparation for release. A step in the right direction page 30
Economic boycott ..............................................................................................................
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Different emotional needs ..................................................... LISA MARIE DAVIES - HMP SEND I write in response to David Pollard's contribution in your May issue relating to women being ‘let off far too easily’, and to say I felt angry at his views is an understatement! I am a two strike lifer, sentenced in 2000 with a three-year tariff. At my first trial, back in 1995, I was told by social services that if I received a non-parole sentence (under four years at that time) my son could stay with temporary foster parents and be reunited with me upon my release. Despite my barrister saying all of this in court, Judge John Curran promptly sentenced me to five years. My son, who was 18 months old at the time, was brought to say our final good-bye and was taken away for adoption. He’s 15 this year, and I’ve not been allowed any contact since that final visit.
KIM RAMPLEY - HMP WHATTON I fully agree with Shah Mohammed Haque's comments in your May issue (Tame the Tabloid Parasites) and would make the following points: • The only way to make certain commercial organisations change their ways, e.g. publishers of the News of the World et al, is an economic boycott; pleading and lobbying just won't do the trick. • If the frequent media attacks on prisoners were made on any other group, say the disabled, Jews or the overweight, the papers would possibly be prosecuted. • Vulnerable prisoners in particular must be sick and tired of the clichés used to describe them; ‘beasts’, ‘monsters’, ‘fiends’, whatever their offence. I would put the following to these 'journalists', and I use the term somewhat loosely: • How, I wonder, did they report the Stefan Kiszko case, one of the worst miscarriages of justice of the last century? More pointedly, how did they react to the fact he was clearly shown to be innocent of the charges? • Have none of the newspapers concerned own workers, of whatever position, ever been convicted of offences and imprisoned? • Do these ‘journalists’ seriously believe that we should all be subject to 'slop out' and incarcerated in cells with no heat or sanitation and given pointless, soul-destroying manual tasks, treadmills etc, as in Victorian times?
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Women are predominantly the primary carers of their children, not always the case I know but the number of women I have met in prison who have had their children adopted due to length of sentence is astounding. I rightly deserve to be in prison and I do not blame the fact that I was sexually and mentally abused as a child as an excuse for my offending behaviour. I don't doubt that men can be as vulnerable as women but there are obvious differences between us and we have completely different emotional needs. Grow up David and stop harping on about the fact that women are able to wear their own clothes. I'd much rather have my children in my life than this privilege and I am sure I speak for many other mothers in prison. Short story page 29
Mailbag
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‘Psychologists have pulled a con trick on the Home Office’ ....................................................................... KEITH ROSE BA (HONS) - HMP LONG LARTIN “Psychology is as unnecessary as directions for using poison” (Austrian writer Karl Kraus)
psychology courses, it has not been independently assessed as ‘fit for purpose’.
the re-offending rate, indeed it seems to have increased following the exponential growth of psychology's power over prisoners.
Another “stereotypical" view of mine is that trainee psychologists are unable to get even the simplest fact right, so I am unsurprised to note that the letter states I hope to join the sub-species of graduate? If our baby psychologist had bothered to read any of my articles correctly, she would have noted that I am actually an Honours graduate. Indeed, Inside Time omit the bulk of my academic qualifications to leave room for the articles.
Our trainee may have noticed that in the same issue as her letter appeared, there was an article on Listeners. Listeners often have to pick up the pieces after prisoners have had an emotional session with trainee psychologists, "exploring their offending behaviour".
I am delighted to be able to reply to the trainee psychologist's letter in your May issue from somewhere in the West Midlands, as it has given me the opportunity to employ two of my favourite psychology quotations.
It is also stated that prison service trainee psychologists are paid much less than those in the NHS, so would I be correct in assuming that the prison service only employs the NHS rejects?
My initial thought on reading the letter was "Stereotypical views influencing judgement?" Whose department is it that believes every convicted person is guilty and thus allows this erroneous view to sway their judgements and reports accordingly?
Taking my tongue from my cheek for a moment, and getting serious. It is my belief that psychologists have pulled a con trick on the Home Office, worthy of L. Ron Hubbard, Enron and Robert Mugabe combined, that their art is worthy of serious consideration, thus justifying the power they hold over prisoners' lives.
My next thought was this letter was shoddily drafted, rambling, did not have a clear conclusion or appear to have a theme. Then the penny dropped, poor dear, it was written by a trainee psychologist, MSc or not, who probably hasn't written anything original since leaving school, it has all been copy, copy, copy other people's work and views. It also occurred to me that there was underlying anger in the letter. Ordinarily, I would have no hesitation in recommending the CALM course except, like 14 out of 15 of current prison
What's in a word ..................................................... CHARLES POYSER - HMP PRESTON
Psychology is pseudo-science, a false science based upon opinion and conjecture. As for our trainee's claims of psychology's results being reliable and valid, I suppose they are, as accurate as other pseudo-sciences like astrology, tarot card reading and others of that ilk. The frightening thing is that since 2001, only 6, yes six, trainee psychologists have passed the British Psychological Society's Diploma in Forensic Psychology; yet around £250 million of Home Office money has been spent on their often-discredited courses. There has been no reduction in
Address exposed ..........................................................................
This being the case, Brian Uttley is also correct when he says that every sex offender appears to be branded a paedophile even when this is clearly not the case and the crime isn’t against a minor. Therefore you may be a registered sex offender, but it doesn't mean you are a paedophile or a hebephile.
There are many prisoners who have suffered abusive childhoods, but prison psychology departments offer no counselling services, even when leaving a prisoner emotionally destroyed and distressed. As a Listener, I have often wondered, following a listening session with a prisoner, if these trainee psychologists derive some perverse pleasure from asking such questions as; "When you were 12 and in a children's home, you destroyed a plant in a fit of temper". "Why did you destroy that plant, and explain how the plant felt". That was an actual question asked of a young inmate. Our trainee also asks where my opinions came from; the answer is a dispersal prison somewhere in Yorkshire. However, I am pleased to answer this letter probably from a trainee in a dispersal prison somewhere in Worcestershire. The final word on prison psychology I leave to someone far more eminent than any prison psychologist or myself: "Popular psychology is a mass of cant, of slush and of superstition worthy of the most flourishing days of the medicine man". John Dewey, US psychiatrist, philosopher and educator. (The Public and Its Problems). Prison education page 24 An open challenge page 25
person is or the crime(s) for which he has been convicted. The potential for abuse is ever present in the prison environment and such a risk should never need to be taken by those sending in parcels.
➜ The Prison Service writes:
E DOUGLAS - HMP ALBANY
John Leaver (Inside Time, May issue) is absolutely right to say that the distinction between ‘hebephile’ and ‘paedophile’ is irrelevant as far as the law is concerned. However, it clearly highlights the fact that words and terms are frequently misused by the media, thereby creating a greater misunderstanding by the majority of tabloid readers and causing sensational and misleading headlines.
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Can Inside Time advise regarding prisoners having access to the addresses of other prisoners’ friends or family members? Here at Albany we are instructed to inform family members sending in parcels that they must put the sender’s address onto the parcel. When the parcel arrives at the prison it is handled by the (prisoner) reception orderly, and whilst accepting that this person has been ‘security cleared’ he nonetheless remains a prisoner. My family have made it quite clear they do not wish their address exposed to any other prisoner, particularly given that they have no idea who this
Mr Douglas has asked if there is any requirement for family or friends to put their name and address on the outside of parcels they send in to prisoners. I can confirm that there is no such national requirement but, like ordinary mail, parcels will be opened and examined by staff for any illicit enclosures. It could be that there is a local policy in operation at HMP Albany that stipulates this requirement and if this is the case, I would suggest that he takes this up with the prison. However, if a letter or parcel has been sent ‘recorded signed for’ or ‘special delivery’ it must be opened by a member of staff in the presence of the prisoner to whom it is addressed. A record is kept of the receipt of all parcels and recorded signed for/special delivery letters. This can be found in PSO 4411 - Prisoner Communications (Correspondence) paragraph 9.9.
Patrick Hunter - Safer Custody & Offender Policy Group
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Institutionalised criminality
A bunch of predators?
Mailbag
................................................................................... MILES COOPER - HMP WHITMOOR I was interested to read the contribution in your March issue regarding the illegal bugging that allegedly took place at HMP Woodhill; many of us have been waiting a long time for someone to expose this institutionalised criminality. Bugging is not the only way the system has of undermining prisoners; I am aware of a number of incidents that occurred when I was at Woodhill - unfortunately all very difficult to actually prove. For example, I became aware that my mail, incoming and outgoing, was not getting through. This included a batch of legal documents sent by my solicitor. A duplicate package was sent by recorded delivery but was refused by prison staff. When asked why, they came up with various stories; ‘not allowed to accept recorded delivery’…not true; ‘never arrived’ … documented evidence proves otherwise; ‘package delivered damaged and returned to sender’…returned intact! The trouble is, unless you are actually expecting mail how can you be sure that you are getting it all?
Prisoner food costs ..................................................... JOHN ALLEN – HMP GARTREE I noticed the following item in a national newspaper: ‘£12 a day spent on prison cell food: prisoners held in police cells have up to four times as much spent on their food as hospital patients, it has been revealed. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, disclosed that police forces were given as much as £12 a day to feed detainees - compared with about £3 per head in hospitals and £2 a day for those in prison’. From my time working in the kitchen office in HMP Winchester back in 2002, I recall that the daily food allowance then was £1.44 per prisoner, although the allowance for prison dogs was over £3! Does Inside Time happen to know what the current figures are?
➜ The Prison Service writes: The Service provides approximately 75 million meals each year at an average food cost of about £2 per prisoner per day. This cost includes the provision of all food and beverage requirements, i.e. breakfast, midday and evening meal and a supper snack, together with all condiments and beverages. Comparisons drawn using food costs from other parts of the public sector should be treated with caution. Consumers are not the same. The food requirements of adult prisoners or even young offenders are not the same as schoolchildren, hospital patients or military personnel. The National Audit Office study: ‘Serving Time: Prisoner Diet and Exercise’ (March 2006) reported that on the whole the Prison Service provides a well managed and professional catering service. Mr Allen referred to an item which stated that the cost of providing food for prisoners held in police cells under Operation Safeguard was up to £12 per day. The use of police cells is a contingency and it is the nature of contingencies that costs may have to be higher to guarantee availability at short notice. Provision of food in prisons can be planned with much greater certainty and can be purchased in bulk, resulting in lower costs than in Safeguard. We are currently considering, with the police, how we might improve upon current Safeguard arrangements.
Derek Allen - Policy & Planning Unit
On one occasion, my solicitor's car was broken into and a document case stolen - this while the car was parked in the car park of a high security prison and no other cars damaged! I was advised by a member of my legal team that in cases such as mine, it is not unusual for legal staff to be spied on. It is possible that many other legal professionals have not disclosed this type of surveillance for fear of damaging their careers. At some point during the run up to my trial, I acquired a pen-pal, someone claiming to remember me from school. When even my mother's letters did not always manage to get through, my 'friend' always managed to communicate. Out of curiosity I wrote back and included some artwork with my letters. I was surprised to see those pictures appear in the Daily Mirror at the same time as my trial ended; together with some images I had given to another inmate shortly before he left Woodhill. The same image, a sketch of my cell, was sent to my mother and one given to another prisoner, both sets were confiscated. Since publication, my mystery pen-pal has not been in touch!
..................................................... MIKHAIL IVAN GALLATINOV - HMP FRANKLAND I strongly disagree with the comment by Ken Hanson in Inside Time ‘Prison and Homosexuality’ in which he portrayed all homosexual prisoners as being nothing more than a ‘bunch of predators’ waiting for the next victim to come along and become ensnared in a trap. Contrary to what Mr Hanson and others may choose to believe, I can categorically state that the majority of prisoners that have often tried to manipulate, bully or coerce me into sex haven't been homosexual; the individuals who attempted to 'target' me were predatory prison gays and believe me, I have met quite a few during my 14 years inside. These are prisoners who are heterosexual and wouldn't practice gay sex outside of a prison environment; however when they find themselves incarcerated, they try and target prisoners they know, or assume they can manipulate and control for their own sexual gratification. Although I do agree that there are a few 'predatory homosexuals' within the system, who will target young and vulnerable prisoners for sexual favours, I think it is grossly unfair to assume that all gay prisoners are like that.
Chasing votes
Legal Freephone numbers
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HARRY BANNERMANN - HMP WAKEFIELD
HOWARD WOODIN - HMP PARKHURST At my previous establishment (HMP Nottingham) I raised several applications to have my solicitor’s Freephone number entered on my pin account and every time was informed ‘not in the rules: 0800 numbers not allowed’. I found this a ridiculous situation as during the past three years I have had many legal Freephone numbers on my pin account, and have asked several solicitors’ firms to ensure they have a Freephone number so that the burden of cost doesn’t hit the prisoner. Can Inside Time seek clarification from Prison Service HQ in order that I can get the Freephone number entitlement back onto my pin account?
➜ The Prison Service writes: While the Pinphone system places some restrictions on the use of 0800 numbers, in general these restrictions are only usually applied when their use would raise specific security or public protection concerns. On a call-enabling regime, once preliminary checks have been made by the prison, individual 0800 numbers may be added to pin accounts locally by application from the individual prisoner. Alternatively, following an approach from the organisation itself, they can be made available globally across the prison estate. The merits of each application would need to be considered on a case by case basis. With the use of an 0800 number, the recipient of the call would need to bear the financial burden associated with the 0800 service so there is a commercial decision that would need to be taken by each organisation considering offering this service.
Anne Parfitt - Safer Custody & Offender Policy Group
After reading recent statements by David Cameron, MP and general vote chaser, it seems as if he has not really thought his policies out properly, as is frequently the case with politicians. Cameron says he wants inmates to do their full term in prison and earn the ‘privilege’ of release. There are too many inmates in prisons all over the country over tariff by many years who have been model prisoners; many are old and suffering ill-health and in my view taking up valuable space that could be utilised to considerably ease overcrowding. But that doesn't matter to Cameron. He does not want releases, he wants to hold prisoners as long as possible in order to help get votes and keep the public happy and confident of his abilities. If the Tories get back into power, and recent events would suggest there is a distinct possibility of this happening, their attitude towards prisoners and prisons will mean the prison population will double or even treble in a matter of years. We’ll have a different orchestra ... but have to listen to the same weary tune!
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Mailbag
Good value for money?
The self-destruct button
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DANIEL JONES - HMP FRANKLAND
ANDREW WARD - HMYOI SWINFEN HALL
I read with incredulity the response featured in your April issue from Ian Smith (Operations Manager for Aramark) to Michael Clandillon's query about the legality of the 50p administration charge for orders placed through Aramark. Mr Smith seemed to be suggesting that we should be grateful that Aramark only charge 50p, and that this ‘represents good value for money’. Unless I'm mistaken, Aramark are paid by HMPS to provide this service, so surely any ‘administration and delivery costs’ are factored into the contract?
At 21, I’m back in prison having been released on completion of a previous sentence with no home to go to and was homeless for two weeks before my parents helped finance accommodation in a shared house with money they could hardly afford. However I was immature and not able to cope with the pressures of the outside world and my emotions, and duly hit the self-destruct button. And here I am again, paying the price!
Anyway, just exactly what are these ‘costs’? Let's see ... I put an order in, for example, for 10 CD's. Aramark then phone Gema Records (on a line paid for by the prison) and duly place the order. Gema then send the CD's through the post (presumably at their expense). Aramark stick a receipt to each CD and send them to reception for me to collect. Exactly what expenditure has Aramark incurred in this process? None that I can see? I have often said (and some of the prison officers here at Frankland agree with me) that if Aramark was a high street store and treated their customers the way we sometimes get treated, they would soon be out of business. Cue the usual patronising stereotypical response from somebody who probably doesn't care less what we think, because we are and will remain a captive audience.
Tapes and CDs ..................................................... MARK COSSINGTON - HMP HIGHPOINT I seek clarification over the issue of having CDs and tapes sent in. Here at Highpoint, CDs are only allowed to be sent in if purchased from Gema Records, always supposing you can find anything you actually want to hear as there does appear to be a concentration on music for the more mature ear! A year ago I was having tapes sent in but they were always delayed in reaching me; very upsetting when the tapes were from my nine year-old daughter excitedly telling Daddy all the news. I have lost count of the times I have asked screws about the tapes I had sent in six weeks ago, and some of the excuses were the lamest I've heard, including ‘you're not allowed tapes’! I know prison rules differ from jail to jail, but are tapes allowed to be sent in? Surely they can’t stop tapes recorded by our loved ones? Incidentally, the reason CDs are not allowed in is to discourage bootlegs!
➜ The Prison Service writes: Mr Cossington enquires whether tapes and compact discs (CDs) can be sent to prisoners in Highpoint.
Tasty recipes! ..................................................... IAIN HOLDEN - HMP LINCOLN Since coming into prison in 2006, I have been continually surprised by prisoners’ ingenuity and inventiveness when it comes to delicious and tasty foodstuffs made from a combination of items purchased from the Aramark canteen sheet and other ingredients obtained from regular meals. So much so that I would like to bring them all together and put them in booklet form. Obviously in order to do this I would require the help of prisoners throughout the system who might send recipes for such as a sandwich filling, snack, or even cheesecake ... anything tasty! Send your recipes to: Iain Holden PF6936, HMP Lincoln, Greetwell Road, Lincoln LN2 4BD.
Decisions on how and from what source tapes and CDs can be sent to prisoners are determined by each establishment and included on their facilities list. At Highpoint, standard or enhanced level prisoners can order pre-recorded tapes and CDs only from Gema Records. This policy has been adopted for security reasons to prevent inappropriate material being sent into the prison. Pre-recorded tapes and CDs that are sent to prisoners from any other source are held in stored property until a prisoner transfers or is released. Prisoners who wish to access an item that is not on the list or from a source other than those listed should make an application to the Governor. The Gema Records catalogue covers a wide range of musical tastes. Anyone who has difficulty reading the catalogue should ask staff for assistance.
Richard Martin - Briefing & Casework Unit
The thought of this current IPP sentence has pulled me up short and made me realise that I must take life far more seriously. Now I'm no longer lying to myself or manipulating the people I love and have made significant changes, including quitting smoking. My aim whilst inside is to get the A levels I need to go to university and train for youth work, hopefully preventing more young people from taking the same path as I did. I hope that this time I will be given proper constructive support upon my release, to ensure that I have a home to go to and systems in place to prevent me making the same mistakes again, particularly regarding suitable accommodation.
➜ Inside Time writes: We recommend that Andrew takes full advantage of the ‘Road to Resettlement’ programme developed at Swinfen Hall and featured in our June 2007 issue.
NACRO resettlement checklist .............................................................................................................. SALLY BURNELL - NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE CARE & RESETTLEMENT OF OFFENDERS Planning for release can never start too early, but many prisoners will find themselves with just a few weeks to sort out accommodation, employment, benefits, bank accounts, and more. Crime reduction charity Nacro, which runs a resettlement helpline as well as projects to help ex-offenders with housing, education and employment, is launching a Resettlement Checklist for prisoners to work through from 12 weeks until release. The checklist contains useful contact details, step-by-step guides and advice covering issues from applying for official identification and budgeting to checking your credit history and claiming benefits. Copies of the checklist are being sent to prisons in England and Wales via governors, libraries, chaplaincies, and the heads of resettlement and housing advice. Prisoners who want to request a copy can speak to prison staff or contact Nacro's Resettlement Plus Helpline by calling 0800 0181 259 or writing to 159 Clapham Road, London, SW9 0PU.
Photo credit: Martin Cooke
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (concise and clearly marked) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ. Please note letters for publication may be edited. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, if you have a query and for whatever reason do not wish your letter to be published in Inside Time or appear on the website, or yourself to be identified, please make this clear. We advise that wherever possible, when sending original documents such as legal papers, you send photocopies as we are unable to accept liability if they are lost. We may need to forward your letter and /or documents to Prison Service HQ or another appropriate body for comment or advice, therefore only send information you are willing to have forwarded on your behalf.
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News from the House (Summarised by Inside Time)
Average number of vocational training hours per week for prisoners in juvenile prisons
ZZZZZZZZZ
YEAR Based on 4 operational areas
02-03 03-04
3.1
3.45
04-05
05-06
06-07
3.2
3
3
(On average, 25 minutes a day in 2006-07 spent on vocational training. Probably more time was spent on the lavatory Ed)
Crimes of Violence: Young People Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged (a) under 16 and (b) between 16 and 25 years were convicted of a violent crime in each of the last five years.
Prime Minister, this is a wake-up call
Maria Eagle: The information requested covering convictions for indictable offences within the violence against the person category for the years 2002-06 is provided in the following table.
Labour Poll Shock at Bye Bye Election Drugs: Sentencing David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average custodial sentence given to those convicted of dealing (a) heroin, (b) cocaine, (c) LSD, (d) ecstasy and (e) cannabis was in each of the last five years.
and female offenders (including young offenders for each gender) in each of the last five years, PRISONERS HELD OVER 100 MILES FROM HOME
Mr. Straw: Average determinate custodial sentence length (1) for persons sentenced to immediate custody for supplying a controlled drug, all courts, England and Wales, 2002 to 2006 England and Wales
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
MALE All Adult 11,900 10,900 10,150 9,200 9,750 8,800 11,150 10,000 11,350 10.100
YO 1,000 950 950 1,150 1,250
FEMALE All Adult 1,200 1,100 1,000 900 700 600 850 800 850 800
YO 100 100 100 50 50
The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for violence against the person offences by age group, England and Wales, 2002-06 (1) 10-15 16-25 26-35 36 + All ages 2002 2,568 18,193 9,394 7,553 37,708 2003 2,495 18,041 9,490 8,010 38,036 2004 2,606 18,977 9,251 8,315 39,149 2005 2,810 19,928 9,273 8,918 40,929 2006 2,832 20,873 9,150 9,009 41,864 (1) These data are on the principal offence basis.
AVERAGE CUSTODIAL SENTENCE LENGTH (MONTHS) Controlled drugs Heroin Cocaine LSD Ecstasy Cannabis
2002 41.1 43.1 28.0 30.7 16.5
2003 39.4 44.1 29.2 31.2 14.8
2004 40.2 43.6 30.5 30.9 8.0
2005 36.4 41.5 39.6 29.2 11.4
2006 36.6 38.3 44.8 29.0 13.8
(1) Excludes life and indeterminate sentences Notes: 1. All figures are
for the offences of supplying or offering to supply a controlled drug and for having possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply
Prisoners: 100 miles from home Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (3) how many (a) male offenders, (b) adult male offenders, (c) young adult male offenders and (d) juvenile male offenders were held over 100 miles away from their home in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement; (4) how many (a) all female offenders, (b) adult female offenders, (c) young adult female offenders and (d) juvenile female offenders were held over 100 miles away from their home in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Hanson: The following table shows how many offenders were held over 100 miles away from their homes for male
MARTYN HEWETT
Prisoners: Training Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hours a week of vocational training was provided on average to prisoners and juvenile offenders in each of the last five years, broken down by region; and if he will make a statement.
Maria Eagle: Vocational training data is included within the data collated for purposeful activity and is collated at the level of prison establishment. The following tables show the average number of hours of vocational training per week in prisons which predominately hold non-juvenile prisoners and prisons which predominately hold juvenile prisoners in each of the last five full financial years. (Summarised by Inside Time)
Average number of vocational training hours per week for prisoners in non-juvenile prisons 2002-03 3.5 2005-06 3.7 2003-04 3.4 2006-07 4 Based on 13 operational areas 2004-05 3.6
(On average, 34 minutes a day in 2006-07 spent on vocational training. Probably more time was spent on the Inside Time Quiz Ed)
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Young Offender Institutions: Education Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of those in each (a) young offender institution and (b) secure training centre were in education at the latest date for which figures are available. Mr. Hanson: The Prison Service does not centrally collate education data at prisoner level. The following table shows the provisional average number of hours spent in educational activity per week per prisoner in young offender and juvenile institutions in 2007-08. Young offenders held in prisons categorised as adult are not included. (Summarised by Inside Time)
Number of YOI’s: 19 Average number of hours spent in educational activity per week in 2007-08 13 Each of the four secure training centres (STCs) in accordance with STC Rules 1998 ensure that each trainee participates in education or training courses for at least 25 hours a week, except when on authorised absence such as attending court appearances or sickness. (If every young offender is on education for 2 1/2 hours every weekday, what are they doing for the remaining 9 1/2 hours? Ed).
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News from the House
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Prisoners: Voting Rights
Offenders: Deportation
Prisoners: Contries of origin
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign national prisoners were (a) released from prison and (b) removed from the UK in each of the last five years.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of the prison population was born in (a) Britain, (b) EU-15 countries, (c) EU A8 countries, (d) other EEA countries, (e) Africa, (f) North America, (g) Central America, (h) South America, (i) the Middle East, (j) Asia and (k) Oceania in each year since 1997.
when he plans to issue his response to the consultation voting rights of convicted prisoners detained within the United Kingdom - The UK Government's response to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Hirst v. The United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
Bridget Prentice: The Government are currently considering how to take forward the implementation of the Hirst judgment in light of the first stage consultation on this issue and will publish the responses in due course. We also remain committed to carrying out a second, more detailed public consultation on how voting rights might be granted to serving prisoners, and how far those rights should be extended. This is a sensitive and complex issue and we need to look very carefully at what the right approach should be.
Prisoners Released on ECL
Mr. Hanson: The following table shows the number of adult and young adult foreign national discharges from determinate sentences on completion of sentence in each year between 2003 and 2007 from all prison establishments in England and Wales. Information on the numbers released from Scottish and Northern Irish prisons is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive and the Northern Irish Prison Service. Data have been rounded to the nearest 100. Foreign national discharges from prison (England and Wales) 2003 - 6,200 2004 - 6,500 2005 - 7,900
how many early release offenders who have been recalled since June 2007 are still at large; what steps are being taken to apprehend them; and what offences they were convicted of.
Mr. Hanson: The End of Custody Licence was introduced on 29 June 2007. Eligible prisoners serving between four weeks and four years may be released under licence from prison up to 18 days before their automatic release date. All prisoners released on ECL are liable to recall if they are reported to have misbehaved during the period of the licence. A decision to recall an offender from ECL lies with the Governors of establishments, and it is the responsibility of the establishments to ensure the police are notified that the prisoner's ECL licence has been revoked and the offender is to be returned to custody. Between 29 June 2007 and 29 February 2008, 745 offenders were notified as recalled, following their release on ECL. This equates to 4 per cent. of those released on ECL. As of 21 March 2008, 612 (82 per cent.) of these offenders had been returned to custody, while 133 (18 per cent.) had not yet been returned to custody. The offences for which those 133 offenders were convicted are listed in the following table: Offence category Number of offences Violent offences against the person 38 Burglary 36 Robbery 4 Theft 51 Fraud 5 Drug 9 Driving 9 Other 52
Total prison population (a) UK National (b) EU 15 Countries (not UK) (c) EU AS countries (post 2004) (d) Other EEA countries
2006 - 7,300 2007 - 7,400
4781032652986473 3268781032652986 Shepherd Experts in Prison Law all over the UK Reynolds Solicitors
(The Minister omits to say exactly how many foreign national prisoners were removed from the UK in each of the last 5 years. A vague figure of ‘over 4,200 were removed or deported from the UK in 2007…although they may have been discharged from prison in previous years.’ So the question is: what happened to the remaining 3,200 (or more) foreign national prisoners discharged from prison in 2007. Moreover what happened to the 35,300 foreign national prisoners released in the 5 year period 2003 till 2007 Ed)
Prisons: Overcrowding Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were held two to a cell in cells certified for one person in each prison at the end of February 2008. Maria Eagle: Establishments report the number of prisoners who, at unlock on the last day of the month, are held in crowded conditions. This includes those held two in a cell with a certified normal accommodation (CNA) for one (doubling). The number of prisoners who were held two to a cell in cells certified for one person in each prison at the end of February 2008 is shown in the table as follows. (Summarised by Inside Time)
No of Prisons: 139 Number of prisoners held two to a cell certified for one person: 19,337 prisoners
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1997 61,467 56,611 1,274 0
2007 79,734 67,760 1,526 688 253
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(e) Africa (f) North America (g) and (h) Central America and South America (i) Middle East (j) Asia (k) Oceania (l) West Indies (m) Unrecorded (n) Other Europe
920 111 158
3,202 124 371
118 868 46 811 179 369
670 1,892 46 1,639 877* 681
(includes EU A8 Countries until 2004 and Romania and Bulgaria until 2007 and Cyprus and Malta until 2004)
*(In the period 1997 - 2007 the nationality of 7,682 prisoners were not recorded Ed)
Prisoners: Time out of cell Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what was the average number of hours a prisoner spent outside his or her cell per day in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) collects time outside of cell data per weekday and therefore cannot answer the question in the format requested. The table below shows the average number of hours a prisoner spent outside his or her cell per weekday in each of the last 10 years. (Summarised by Inside Time)
Top 10 overcrowded prisons Prisoners held two to a cell certified for one Wandsworth 1084 Birmingham Preston 680 Altcourse Leeds 736 Durham Doncaster 708 Manchester Lincoln 574 Forest Bank
658 856 678 596 656
YOU’RE NOT JUST A NUMBER!
• Oral Hearings
(Summarised by Inside Time)
(Excludes Romania and Bulgaria until 2007 and Cyprus and Malta until 2004
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
• Lifer Reviews
Mr. Straw: Data on prisoners’ country of birth is not available. The following table gives figures and proportions for the numbers of prisoners by nationality held in all prisons in England and Wales since 1997.
Average timebyout of cell per prisoner per weekday Summarised Inside Time over the last ten years - 10 hours (In contrast to these figures HM Prisons Inspectorate posed the same question to 3359 prisoners at 41 prisons in the year 2005/06. Only 15% of prisoners said they spent on average ten or more hours out of cell per weekday Ed)
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Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Newsround
Re-offending statistics: continued from the front page.
Here is the News...
‘In all, the offenders from 2000 had committed 84,455 new offences over the course of the 12 months while the 2005 group had committed 74,407.’ BBC News May 9. The figures for new offences broadcast by the BBC were in fact for the first quarter of 2000 and 2005 and not for the whole year.
‘More than half a million crimes were committed by offenders within a year of their release from jail or starting a community punishment.’ The Times May 10
Both The Times and Daily Mail took the total figure for re-offenders for the first three months of 2005 and simply multiplied it by 4. To help their readers the Daily Mail added: ‘There were 1552 cases of serious violence including homicide, along with 936 sex attacks on adults and 248 sexual attacks on children in 2005’ Again these figures were not in the report but were arrived at with the help of a calculator. The Ministry of Justice strongly advised against multiplying the first three months figures of 2005 by four and warned:
Good evening, this is Jeremy Vine and welcome to Panorama ...
‘Figures on the total number of offences cannot be aggregated up to full year figures because there is no evidence that the first quarter is representative of the full year… The highest numbers of re-offences are committed in the first three months of the follow up. The rate of re-offending then reduces gradually month by month’. But they did it anyway!
Panorama investigates prisons and Inside Time investigates Panorama ‘If you add up all the people who have absconded from an open prison over the last decade there have been almost 14,000’. According to published Prison Service figures the total number of absconders from open prisons in England Wales and Scotland in the last ten years total less than 7000 - half the number quoted by Panorama. ‘Tonight an admission from one of the men who run the Prison Service that more difficult prisoners are being sent to open jails’.
‘Re-offenders commit half a million crimes a year.’ Daily Mail May 10
The Guardian May 10 decided to use a Press Association news report rather than have one of their journalists read the new report from the Ministry of Justice. It was a pity they didn’t do so because if they had they would have noticed that the headline, although certainly arresting, was not accurate!
On the same day the re-offending figures were released, the Chief Inspector of Prisons spoke out against the closure of Thorn Cross Young Offenders Institution in Cheshire. Thorn Cross, a purpose-built institution was, the Inspectorate said ‘a beacon of good practice in working with a small number of young people and preparing them for the transition to life outside.’ A spokesman for the Youth Justice Board said that Thorn Cross struggled to fill available places and ‘represented poor value for money.’ (They should not have found it difficult to fill places because in the last 10 years a total of 1,254 residents absconded. Ed) T.Osmani & Co. is a leading East London quality accredited legal aid law firm delivering a dedicated criminal appeals only service. We can assist you with applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission and to the Court of Appeal. Find out if you qualify for free help - contact T.Osmani & Co. ,121 Woodlands Avenue, London E11 3RB
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No need to wait for a Freedom of Information request because Prison Service figures show that in the four-year period from 2004 till the end of December 2007 a total of 157 absconders were still at large from open prisons in England and Wales. And in the three-year period from January 2005 till December 2007 a total of 37 prisoners convicted of murder and 3 convicted of a sex offence had absconded. Of those, 3 were still at large at the end of February 2008.
The programme featured Colin Moses of the Prison Officers’ Association (who of course doesn’t run the Prison Service) and NAPO’s Harry Fletcher. Both men said, that too many of the wrong people were being sent to open prison. But neither men, nor indeed Panorama, explained to viewers that open prisons are actually designed not for shoplifters but for, among others, long sentence prisoners prior to their eventual release. The programme highlighted three disturbing cases, which dated back to 2005. The first concerned a prisoner who absconded from Ford open prison in Sussex and two other prisoners who absconded from Castle Huntly near Dundee. Clearly all three men should never have been sent to an open prison so early in their sentence. The POA and NAPO union representatives were both however silent on the role and responsibility of their members in preparing vigorous risk assessments before prisoners are transferred to an open prison. ‘We put in our Freedom of Information request on the number of prisoners failing to return to jail way back in January and we’re yet to hear anything, but we’ll let you know when we do via the website.’
BBC Panorama - Prisons Unlocked was transmitted on 5 May 2008.
Newsround
Cannabis upgraded to class B drug
Did I say that…?
to parliamentary approval, as a class B drug. My decision takes into account issues such as public perception and the needs and consequences for policing priorities.
Statement to the House of Commons on 7 May 2008 The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jacqui Smith): With permission, Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the classification of cannabis. In July 2007, my Right Hon. friend the Prime Minister announced that we would seek the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, as we are obliged to do by statute, on the classification of cannabis. I am publishing the results of a study undertaken with 23 police forces across England and Wales. This provides clear evidence that skunk now makes up 80 per cent. of streetseized cannabis, compared with 30 per cent. in 2002. Furthermore, its potency has increased nearly threefold since 1995. The council believes that the evidence of the impact of stronger cannabis may not be clear for some years to come. It has recommended that cannabis remain a class C drug. I have given the Council’s report careful consideration. Of its 21 recommendations, I accept all bar those relating to classification. I have decided to reclassify cannabis, subject
David Davis (Con): First, may I say that I fully support the Government’s decision to upgrade the classification of cannabis to class B, even if their decision to do so has come rather late? The Government’s historically lax approach to drugs has been a hallmark of our broken society under Labour. The UK has the worst level of overall drug abuse in Europe. Drug crimes have increased by almost a half under this Government, and Britain has the highest rate of teenage cannabis abuse in the European Union. We all hope that today’s statement means that the Government now recognise that cannabis is a very dangerous drug; that it wrecks lives and is a gateway to harder drug abuse and fuels crime. Dr. Evan Harris (LD): The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs looked at the questions of harm, potency and the potential for binge smoking and recommended that cannabis should be class C. So the Government’s proposal to make it class B cannot be rational or based on evidence about any of those issues: instead, it has to be based on what the police have asked for and on the Government’s perception of public views. When the police give more priority to policing the possession of cannabis, what will they deprioritise? Does the Home Secretary accept that the policy that she has announced today drives a coach and horses through any claim that the Government might make about making evidence-based policy in this area?
Jail staff fear serious incident A Prison Service report obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform under the Freedom of Information Act has expressed serious concern about problems with the high number of Muslim inmates at high-security Whitemoor jail. A 14-strong Prison Service team carried out an investigation in February and found staff were fearful of
‘There is something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs and prostitutes but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside.’ Glyn Travis, Assistant General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), speaking recently to Talk Sport Radio. In response, Erwin James wrote in The Guardian on April 26: Here we go again. Contrary to what we ❝ are constantly told, prison is just a great big wheeze. Life inside is so cushy that none of the ‘lags’ want to escape. Travis was referring to HMP Everthorpe, a category C ‘training prison’ in East Yorkshire where, earlier this year, an investigation found that a drug dealer had indeed scaled the prison walls several times to deliver contraband to a prisoner through the bars of his cell window. It was
doing the wrong thing, "shifting the power dynamic towards prisoners". It found staff at Whitemoor "appeared reluctant to challenge inappropriate behaviour, in particular among black and minority ethnic prisoners, for fear of doing the wrong thing. This was leading to a general feeling of lack of control. The report said there was an "ongoing theme of fear and instability" around the prison and many staff believed a "serious incident" was imminent. It said
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a scandal, and a mark of shame on the competency of the prison officers at Everthorpe that such a farcical situation was allowed to happen - a failing that Travis chose not to mention. But Travis had another, louder bee in his bonnet. He went on to say that the public would be ‘appalled’ by the plethora of perks being enjoyed by the nation's rapists, murderers and paedophiles. "Prisoners receive a wage for being in prison," he said. They also "receive a bed, a TV in all cells, free telephones and ‘breakfast in bed’ on many occasions". Excuse me while I splutter into my cornflakes. They receive a bed? And breakfast in it? Is that right? No, actually it is not! While it is true that they do get beds, most prisoners receive a breakfast pack consisting of a small portion of cereals, a third of a pint of milk, a teabag and a sachet of coffee and sugar, which is normally handed out just before night-time ‘bang up’. It takes determination not to consume this during the 12 hours or so until the doors are opened. Those who succumb end up with no breakfast at all. Meanwhile, compared with callbox prices on the outside, prisoners are charged exorbitant amounts for phone calls. And yes, those lucky enough to have jobs will receive about £8 a week. The unemployed – the majority at present - get £3 a week. None of this translates to a ‘cushy life’ capable of ‘appalling’ the public. I think that if people really knew what went on in their name in our prisons, they would be ashamed.
the "very high Muslim population" - more than one in four of the 500 inmates - appeared to be "leading to anxiety and apprehension among some staff". "There is a danger of this leading to hostility and Islamophobia if it is not addressed," the report adds and recommended an "intelligence assessment of the Muslim prisoner group of concern and their possible activities" and "more cultural awareness and diversity training".
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Newsround
Prison pay rise abandoned
Prison health 'needs cash boost' The researchers also identified regional variations with spending in London at £416 per head, compared to £182 in the East Midlands or south west - a difference of nearly 130%. They say there are variations in the needs of prisoners in different regions, but that they cannot explain such a wide gap.
A planned 38% increase in the minimum weekly pay for prisoners in England and Wales was abandoned the day before it was due to come into force. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had delayed the decision on rates to allow the creation of a new inmate contract, which would encourage good behaviour and was currently being drawn up. The rise from a minimum £4 to £5.50 for work inside jails would have been the first increase since the mid-1990s. The Ministry of Justice confirmed that pay rates would now be reviewed as part of prison minister David Hanson's proposals for a new contract, which aims to prepare prisoners for life outside jail.
Butler Trust Awards 2008
Jinnie Jefferies, Head of Psychodrama at HMP Grendon, pictured at the annual Butler Trust Awards ceremony receiving the Terry Waite Award 2008 from HRH The Princess Royal for her outstanding work with lifers and long-term prisoners. Psychodrama offers serious and dangerous prisoners the opportunity to explore their offending behaviour and gain insight through guided dramatic action. Jinnie Jefferies has worked at Grendon for 25 years and prisoners have commented on her taking them “on a journey I had never imagined taking” with “a committed, passionate, hardworking person, quite an amazing woman”. 340 nominations from 138 different locations were received for the 2008 Awards, including 287 from UK prisons.
Mental health services in prisons are not getting the investment they need to provide adequate care, according to the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and a team at Lincoln University. Researchers found £300 a year is spent per prisoner on mental health care - a third of what is spent on people with severe problems in the community, and they also identified regional variations in spending after analysing NHS figures. Over 90% of prisoners have at least one type of mental health problem, four times the rate in the general population, and the risk of a prisoner committing suicide is seven times higher than normal. Researchers found about 4,700 prisoners got support from mental health in-reach teams, which were set up to help those with severe illnesses. But this was much less than the one in 12 of the 80,000 population that need them, the report added.
Sean Duggan, from the Sainsbury Centre, said: "Many in-reach teams are struggling to offer a decent service in the face of inadequate funding and very high levels of need among prisoners. We need to see a major boost in spending across the country, especially in those areas that are falling behind." Care services minister Ivan Lewis said investment in prison health had risen from £118m in 2003 to over £200m now, and denied there was a postcode lottery. He added: "The report is weak in its analysis of the number and types of prisons within each area, and the impact that these factors have on the allocation of resources. “It points out the comparatively low spend in the south west and the East Midlands - but these areas contain no large city male local prisons, whereas London has four large city male prisons and a significantly larger and more challenging prison population.” Responsibility for prison healthcare across England and Wales passed from the Prison Health Service to the NHS in 2006, in order to bring it up to the standards provided to the general population.
☺ NEWS IN BRIEF
As the Chancellor invites the major banks to the Treasury for crisis talks on the economy, the Halifax send their top man.
HELLO! Here comes the bribe … at this point the Royal couple promise to forsake all other publications.
Mobile phones banned Prison Service staff fear the banning of mobile phones under the Offender Management Act will have a big impact on the running of prisons, with staff authorised to hold a phone losing that right under the Act. Many fear it will be a step backwards in terms of staff contact, a barrier to quick and effective communication, and will cause problems at local level. However, Director General Phil Wheatley said: “Mobile phones threaten security and order/control within prisons, together with the safety of staff and the public. Security Group believes that the most common criminal purpose of mobile phone use is to arrange the supply of illicit drugs into prisons. “There is evidence to suggest that prisoners at the most serious end of the criminal spectrum are using mobile phones to conduct criminal activities. “To tackle the problem of unauthorised mobile phone use we are taking a strategic approach to minimise the number of phones entering prisons, for whatever reason; to find phones that are already in circulation; and disrupt phones that cannot be found”. P R I VAT E
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Newsround
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Early release plans outlined
❝Quote of the month❞
The government has drawn up plans to release about 550 prisoners early in an effort to ease overcrowding. The non-violent and non-sexual offenders will be automatically freed after half their sentences, instead of waiting until the two-thirds point.
Watch out, the Gestapo are about
Jails in England and Wales have been told to let out eligible offenders from 9 June and warned that failing to do so would amount to ‘unlawful detention’. The releases are due to happen over a 14-month period. Justice Secretary Jack Straw's plan comes as prisoner numbers reach a record 83,000 in England and Wales.
‘Ladette’ drink culture blamed for 25% rise in crime by girls robbery and minor assaults carried out by females under 18 have all increased, figures reveal. Over the same period the number of crimes committed by boys fell slightly, although boys and young men are still responsible for the overwhelming bulk of youth offending. Figures from the Youth Justice Board showed that crimes carried out by girls between the ages of 10 and 17 have risen by 25 per cent in three years, with violent attacks against people rising by 50 per cent.
The number of crimes carried out by girls has risen sharply as the emergence of a “ladette” culture linked to under-age drinking is blamed for a surge in violence. Offences of criminal damage, public disorder,
Although some experts blamed the trend on the ladette culture and under-age drinking, others said that the statistics reflected the fact that criminality by young girls is taken more seriously than in the past. Young girls were responsible for more than 15,672 crimes of violence against the person last year, plus a further 1,000 robberies – about 45 violent attacks a day.
Dr Eamonn Butler
❝
The blades of the helicopter beat as it hovers over a city of computer components. A police siren sounds, changing pitch as it speeds to some crime scene. We hear a big dog barking. Then comes the authorities’ message: “Your town, your street, your home. It’s all in our database.” The official voice is calm and patronising: “It’s impossible to hide,” we are reminded. There is a knock on the door. Our palms sweat. Everything fades to black. No, I’m not in some nightmare from the days of Cold War Russia. Nor on the wrong side of the law in communist China. I’m here and now, in the UK, watching the latest advertisement from the BBC as it tries to make us pay our licence fee. But however fine and well spoken the words, this Orwellian campaign - with its menacing soundtrack of licence-dodgers being rounded up by airborne police dog-handlers is complete thuggery. In 40 seconds, this sinister advertisement shows how far we have become the slaves of the database state, rather than its masters. You thought we lived in a free society? In a free society, no government could tell its citizens, with such quiet condescension and with no hint of embarrassment: “We are spying on you. We know all about you. Just watch your step.
❝
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "To allow the Parole Board to focus resources on violent and sexual offenders, we are implementing the Carter review recommendation on June 9, which will align the release arrangements for certain prisoners. The provision will mean this group of prisoners, convicted under the 1991 Act serving a sentence of four years or more but less than life, will be released at the halfway point of their sentence." She added: "In order to enhance public protection we are at the same time extending probation supervision to the end of the offender's sentence instead of the three-quarters point."
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Dr Eamonn Butler is director of the Adam Smith Institute
Pauline Campbell, January 20 1948 - May 15 2008 Pauline Campbell, who began campaigning for better jail conditions after her daughter died of a drug overdose, has been found dead near the grave of her daughter. Sarah Campbell, 18, died from a drug overdose in January 2003. She was the third of six women to die at Styal Prison in 12 months and died just 24 hours after arriving at the prison following her conviction for manslaughter. An inquest found that the prison ‘seemed more concerned with processing prisoners than caring for them, that it had a lack of suitable accommodation for vulnerable prisoners and a lack of structured training for staff’. Pauline Campbell sued the Prison Service under the Human Rights Act and the case was settled out of court in September 2006.
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Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Newsround
Did I say that…?
Health and wealth but what about happiness? Health and wealth does not appear to have brought us much happiness, according to a report comparing today with 20 years ago.
The state of the nation
Gary Lineker, the former England and Tottenham striker, who was speaking recently about footballers’ wages. Of course in this era of vast wages poor Lineker no longer plays football. He just gets paid £2 million a year, or just a little more than £38,000 a week by the BBC to talk about it.
1974:46% 2006: 22%
People in the UK that are clinically obese 1993:15% of population 2006: 24% of population
Smoking has halved, the cult of healthy eating is spreading and we are living longer, which gives us time to enjoy watching our wealth double. With these important areas covered, you might think we would be a happier, lesstroubled nation.
‘It is unbelievable the money they earn now ‘.
Percentage of UK population classed as white 2001: 93% 2007: 90% (England 65%)
Children living in single parent families 1986: 14% 2006: 24%
However, we are getting fatter, suffering greater mental health problems and are more likely to live alone. And the gap between rich and poor remains, although it has stayed constant since 1996. The findings were reported in Social Trends, a publication by the Office for National Statistics. It found disposable income had grown by 50 per cent in the past 20 years, rising from £231 to £362 a week. Life expectancy for men was a heart-stopping 45 a century ago but reached a reassuring 77 in 2006. Always a step ahead, the lifespan for women has gone from 49 to 81 over the same period.
UK population who smoke
UK Population 1981: 56,4million 2006: 60.6million
People living alone 7.5million people were living on their own in 2006, a three per cent increase on 20 years ago
AVG life expectancy 1901: Men 45, Women, 49 2006: Men 77, Women, 81
Disposable income
Children most likely to achieve at least five GCSE grades A-C
1987: £231 a week 2006: £362 a week
Chinese pupils: 83% Black pupils: 53%
Employment for people of working age was also up, from 73 per cent in 1997 to 75 per cent last year. But much of the comfortable reading ends there.
‘I am just a single unemployed mother of five fighting hard for a job.’ Tamsin Dunwoody, Labour’s candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, defends her party’s ill judged campaign of class war against Tory ‘toff’ Edward Timpson who went on to win the seat for the Conservatives. Ms Dunwoody failed to mention that she is the daughter of two Labour MP’s and the granddaughter of Baroness Phillips. As for her impoverished life, Dunwoody is reported to own an £850,000 house in Wales, which is set in 1.5 acres of land twice the size of Edward Timpson’s family home.
Babies with lower-paid fathers are more than twice as likely to die as those of fathers in managerial posts. In deprived areas, the suicide rate has risen to double the national average and children are more than twice as likely to have mental disorders. And 13 per cent of us now live alone, compared with ten per cent in 1987, with most living in what the report called ‘non-decent’ homes.
Infant mortality Low income households 6.1 deaths per 1,000 High income households 2.7 deaths per 1,000
Coomber Rich
1m more Britons The number of people in England and Wales has shot up by a million in only three years in a population boom of a scale not seen for a century. And the dramatic increase, mainly fuelled by immigration, is rapidly gathering speed with a record number of new passports issued last year - one every three minutes. Historians have to go back to before the First World War to find such a fast growth in population. The rate of increase now - likely to be reaching 5 per cent over a ten-year period is unmatched since the Victorian era of industrial revolution and the birth of Britain’s great cities.
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Do you know...? • Civil servants have spent nearly £1.5m coming up with a new slogan designed to reinvigorate confidence in HM Revenue and Customs in the wake of the lost data debacle. The result of several brainstorming “away days” and weeks of meetings was just two words: “HMRC Ambition”. Among the rejected ideas was a fluffy pink logo spelling out the words “Thank You”. • Young cricketers at a club in Buckinghamshire have been banned from practising in the nets because it makes too much noise. The club built the nets without planning permission; neighbours objected on noise grounds, and - although the club says the nets are only used on Saturdays the council backed them. • MPs spent £1.2m on foreign fact-finding trips during the last parliamentary session. The most expensive of these - by members of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee - was a £63,188 tour of the US and Canada to observe tourism and Olympic preparations. • A British cruise ship captain has been accused of racism for complaining about “Germanic behaviour” on board. The trouble started when passengers (none of whom was German) began fighting over the practice of “reserving” sun loungers. After several appeals for calm, Captain Wells made a Tannoy announcement, urging an end to the “Germanic behaviour” - for which he was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• Pepsi-Cola was invented by Caled Bradham in 1890 as Brad’s Drink’ as a digestive aid and energy booster. It was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898. • The electric chair was invented by a dentist. • Boxing became a legal sport in 1901. • William Shakespeare wrote his first play ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in 1593. • The sentence ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter of the alphabet.
• Lightning strikes men about seven times more often than it does women. • The first electronic mail, or ‘email’, was sent in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson. It was also his idea to use the @ sign to separate the name of the user from the name of the computer. • Thomas Cook, the world’s first travel agency in the world, was founded in 1850. • 11 of 12 men to have walked on the moon were once in the Boy Scouts. • 53% of births in London are to immigrant mothers - a figure that rises to 68% in the wealthy borough of Kensington and Chelsea. • There were 2.3 million cars on Britain’s
• When Lenardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, 6 replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price, in the 3 years before the original was recovered.
• The richest fifth of the British population cycles two and a half times further every year than the poorest fifth. • 52% of Korean infants aged three to five regularly use the Internet, spending an average of four hours a week online.
The authorities in Moscow say they can’t understand why there were no arrests of drunken Chelsea or Man United fans after the match.
• In 1970, 80% of British primary school children walked to school on their own. Today, less than 9% do. • In 2004, America’s richest 1% took home $1.35 trillion - more than the total takehome pay of France, Canada or Italy. • 70% of teachers in primary and secondary schools in Britain think the cult of celebrity is harming children’s aspirations. 37% believe their pupils want to be famous just for the sake of being famous. 53% of teachers said their pupils looked up to David Beckham, while around a third cited his wife, Victoria, of the Spice Girls.
After the Mayor of London election, Ken, Boris and Brian set aside their differences … Boris got 1 million votes and 2 million votes went to the others. So Boris was duly elected.
News that the Government plan to judge schools on teenage pregnancy rates, crime levels and drug problems has an early winner.
How will we know Miss?
Row over plans to recycle 24,000 failing teachers Up to 24,000 incompetent teachers should be removed from their classrooms and put to work in neighbouring schools, according to the body responsible for upholding teaching standards. Keith Barley, the Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for England, said that urgent action was needed to retrain teachers who had “more bad days than good”. He said that it was unacceptable that only 46 teachers, from a workforce of half a million, had been judged incompetent since 2001. At present one of the best-kept secrets of the teaching profession is that head teachers routinely encourage sub-standard teachers to resign, allowing them to transfer, often with a passable job reference, to another school. This is easier than embarking on lengthy and stressful incompetence procedures, but it shifts the problem elsewhere.
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• Almost two NHS patients per week leave hospital after an operation with surgical instruments accidentally left inside them.
Alex we are going on strike again soon
• The average office worker spends between 90 minutes and two hours a day wading through emails.
• The largest giant squid ever recorded was captured in the North Atlantic in 1878. It weighed 4 tons. Its tentacles measured 10 m (35ft) long.
☺ NEWS IN BRIEF
• Under Gorbachev, 5% of senior Soviet officials had a background in the security services or armed forces. Under Putin, that figure has risen to 78%
• A house fly lives only 14 days.
• A school in Essex has come under fire for replacing children’s heads with smiley faces on its online newsletter. Cann Hall Primary said it was trying to protect the children. But parents questioned the point of publishing the photos if the children’s faces couldn’t be seen.
• Britain’s military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan cost £3.3bn last year - almost twice as much as in 2006.
roads in 1931, and 7,000 deaths in motoring accidents. In 2006, there were 33 million cars on the road and only 3,150 deaths.
17
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Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Diary
Month by Month by Rachel Billington
audience as well as cast were in tears, comes when Joe and his mother listen as the previously defiant and abusive Emma admits that if she had her time again, she wouldn’t have pulled the knife on Danny. This is a total breakthrough for a girl who has never been able to look at her actions from the outside and goes into wild (and very funny) arias about sweets - lime starburst is her favourite whenever she is put on the spot by psychiatrist Elizabeth. The play, directed by Synergy’s Esther Baker, is gripping theatre while at the same time making the serious suggestion that the long road of understanding through personal contact is a way forward for both the victims of crime and the aggressor. The confrontation may even lead to forgiveness, although not in this story as far as we see it. The evening is also sponsored by the Forgiveness Project, which has successfully brought together criminal and victim in many different countries, including South Africa.
A scene from the play ‘The Long Road’ Photo courtesy Synergy Theatre Project
“I’d like to be considered as important as my little brother who happens to be dead. I’d like parity with the stiff, if that’s not too much to ask.” This is Joe shouting at his parents in the way calculated to hurt them most. His younger brother, Danny, has been murdered by a total stranger and the family is falling apart. Joe feels they don’t care about him, and never cared for him as much as they did his brother. His dad, John, has taken to running until his body lets him down, then there’s always a bottle of whisky. John knows he’s ‘in flight’ but can’t bear the pain of confronting the truth of what’s happening. Joe’s mum, Mary,
cradles a pot containing the ashes of her dead son and looks well on the road to breakdown. On the face of it The Long Road (pictured), a play written by Shelagh Stephenson which evolved out of research with prisoners organised by Synergy Theatre Project, would seem like being pretty gloomy stuff. Remarkably, it turns out to be an inspiring experience. The Long Road explores what happens when Mary decides to go to prison and meet the young woman who randomly attacked and murdered her son.
The Long Road has already been performed in HMP Brixton, HMP Downview and HMP Pentonville, and is heading for HMP Wandsworth. The Soho Theatre audience was mostly young and most of them were already there earlier in the evening when a discussion about prisons took place. The panel consisted of the writer and former prisoner, Erwin James, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, the senior circuit judge at the Old Bailey and trustee of the Howard League, Peter Thornton QC and the Director General of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley. Wheatley was standing in for David Hanson MP, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice, whose vote was needed in the House of Commons.
The dramatic highpoint, when many of the
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The talk was chaired by Anders Lustgarten, who wanted to know ‘What is the point of prison?’ Juliet summed up her view by saying ‘Never send people to prison to do them good’, and that it should be ‘the punishment of last resort’. The judge pointed to the huge increase of the use of prisons and questioned the point of building three so-called Titan prisons holding 10,500 when at the present rate of
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increase, the prisons would still be overflowing. Irwin James insisted that prison was a valuable resource but only if used effectively. He pointed out wryly that we’ve been running prisons for 300 years and still we are asking ‘What are they for?’ Phil Wheatley emphasised that ‘prison is meant to be a punishment’. As far as he was concerned, it’s the length of sentences that has caused the overcrowding. When he started in the prison service, seven years was considered a very long sentence and now it’s normal. He also pointed out that there are now 11,200 men and women serving IPP or life sentences. He felt that any change must come from the politicians, driven by the people. Irwin joined in to add that ‘media and politicians feed each other with misinformation’ and blamed ‘sensationalist and weak reporting by the popular press.’ Peter Thornton agreed that politicians kept crime as part of the political agenda and competitively pushed up sentencing lengths. He told us that in the 80s and 90s, Finland separated crime and punishment from the politicians and it was run by a team of experts. The result was a 50% fall in crime. Juliet described prisoners as ‘kicked about like a political football.’ At this point it seemed a great pity that the Minister wasn’t there to make his case. Juliet said it wasn’t even that the voters were so keen on prison. A poll that the Prison Reform Trust ran with Smart Justice about the treatment of Young Offenders showed that most people rated prison far below, for example, supervision by parents or treatment of drug problems. The discussion moved back to the viability (or otherwise) of very large prisons; only Phil Wheatley had anything positive to say about them and even he admitted that, if they were to work, they should be run as a collection of ‘six or seven small prisons in one secure perimeter with some shared facilities.’ Sounding despairing, Irwin commented that ‘the government never take the advice of experts’ and in his view ‘Titan prisons were a huge mistake.’ All in all, it was a packed evening in which the drama rather than the discussion held out most hope for change. The message that it is in our own hands - the hands of anyone who has been a victim of crime or committed a crime - to change the situation for the better is a very challenging one. As I left the theatre, I asked my neighbour whether she could imagine herself behaving as the mother in the play did by trying to understand and help her son’s murderer. She was very unsure. We both agreed that The Long Road was an apt title. Yet we had been moved and convinced by the truth of the play, which surely is a first step in the right direction.
Health
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Inside Health... with Dr Jonathon Following the launch of Inside Health in 2007 we have received a number of queries from prisoners about health matters. Providing this service is Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, a GP practicing in East London. If you have a question relating to your own health, write a brief letter (maximum one side A4 paper) to Inside Time (Health) PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ. Everyone will receive a reply, however only a selection will be published each month. No names will be disclosed.
you might damage your jaw and cause even worse problems in the long run. You definitely need to ask the dentist to explain how best to bring an end to your infections - presumably by removing the tooth.
Q I hope you can help me with this problem
Q I've had an abscess since December 2007 and the dentist has told me three times the bad tooth must be removed and that I need an x-ray because my jawbone could be infected. When I saw him recently he obviously didn't remember me; he was rushing and said the tooth is fine and sent me away. My face keeps swelling up and I can't open my jaw to eat anything properly for weeks at a time until it bursts and I'm left with holes, scabs and scars. I've been taking antibiotics but they don't work. Is there anything I could do to get rid of it, like rip the tooth out? It's right at the back and this business is really getting me down.
A If a tooth is to be removed by a dentist, the infection should be treated with a course of antibiotics immediately beforehand to prevent the infection spreading during the surgery. Other than that, I can think of no reason why you should not already have had the recommended X-rays and surgical removal. It’s very likely that you will continue to have recurrent infections until the tooth is removed. I would certainly not recommend that you try to remove it yourself, because
of my skin looking yellow. I've told the nurse about it and since then had three blood counts. People keep telling me I look like that because I have hepatitis. I have never put my health in danger of that disease; I don't do drugs. I've recently given up smoking and it's really getting me down. My blood tests have all come back negative. Some days, when it’s cold outside, I look really pale but my skin turns yellow when I start to warm up and I get told I look ill. I am not suffering any pain. I’m 13? stone and 6ft tall, and I'm not suffering any loss of appetite. I started taking vitamins, eating loads of fruit, but none of this seemed to help. I have been worried that I might have a vitamin deficiency or cancer and although I have gone back to the nurse I am not getting anywhere with the problem. Can you advise?
A The medical condition leading to a yellow skin colour is called ‘jaundice’, and it’s a sign of excess bilirubin in your blood. It is easy to confirm with a liver function blood test that checks the bilirubin level. A level of over 14 is raised, though usually it needs to be over 30 for the yellow colour to be visible in your skin. Jaundice is associated with infections such as hepatitis as well as other liver diseases including cancer and certain types of anaemia. The blood tests you have had should have confirmed that your bilirubin level is normal and that you are not anaemic. If this is the case, then you can relax because a yellow colour without jaundice is not associated with these serious conditions. In rare cases, the yellow colour can be due to food colourings, or even from consuming large amounts of yellow or orange natural
foods such as carrots. Again, in these cases it is usually harmless. Pale skin can be normal or hereditary, or it may be due to anaemia, which can be picked up on a blood count. Assuming your blood tests are normal and you are feeling well, I would doubt that you have any serious condition to be worried about. I would make sure you are not consuming an excess of yellow or orange foods and continue with the healthy diet you have started.
Q My small toe is very sore and uncomfortable. It looks like the nail is rotten and my toe has gone black. I saw the foot doctor and he told me to wear bigger shoes, which I do, and he also trimmed the nail down. At the time it looked normal but it has grown back even worse. Please could you advise me on what this could be and any treatments that would be available? I've noticed that I am gaining a lot of weight on my legs - could that be linked with my problem?
A You are having trouble with your toe which you say is very sore and the toenail looks rotten. The foot doctor (podiatrist or chiropodist) said you needed to wear bigger shoes and he cut the nail down which helped for a time, though now the toe is sore again. You’ve also noticed that you’ve gained a lot of weight on your legs. It’s very difficult to say what the problem is without seeing your toe. Certainly you can have problems as you have described due to footwear that is either too tight or too loose; which then rubs. Other problems that cause sore, rotten-looking toenails include bacterial or fungal infections and skin conditions such as psoriasis. It is usually quite straightforward for a doctor to work out which of these is the cause by examining the affected toe and there is usually effective treatment. If your legs have become swollen without weight gain on other parts of your body then you should be examined to make sure that the swelling isn’t due to fluid retention that can arise due to heart or liver conditions which may also be relevant to the problems with your feet.
Q I am currently suffering with severe back pain due to a motor cycle injury; at least that is what I have put it down to. The injury was aggravated by infantry training. The pain comes and goes. It starts in the lower part of my back and shoots down my right leg. It seems to get more severe until I have a job to walk. I have to lie on the floor and my whole
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body seems to cramp up - it can last for up to three days or more and can then disappear for six months or so. Since last July I have experienced these bouts on at least three occasions; once I was escorted to the local hospital by ambulance. I was examined and x-rayed but nothing was found and no further treatment offered. How likely is it that I have sciatica at my age, 20, and if treatment is lacking now could it lead to problems later in life?
A Sciatica means pain related to the nerves which run from your lower back down your legs. The pain can be varied, but often can feel like hot/cold sensations, burning or severe aching going down into your calves or even feet. It is usually in one leg, though less commonly can occur in both. It may be caused by irritation of the nerves from muscle spasm or by a disc in the spine pressing against the nerve - sometimes called a ‘slipped disc’. X-rays are rarely of any use in young people; they tend to be reserved for cases of back pain in older people where fractures due to osteoporosis or cancer are suspected. In severe cases of sciatica, particularly where there is evidence from examination of significant, persisting nerve compression, an MRI scan can show disc lesions. If there is any suspicion of an inflammatory or infective condition such as ankylosing spondylitis or TB then blood tests can be useful. An examining doctor ought to be able to say whether these are necessary. Given your young age, it may be worth checking for ankylosing spondylitis. This condition still requires regular exercise to maintain core strength and flexibility, and like almost all causes of back pain worsens with inactivity. Your description of severe pain lasting a few days and then getting better for weeks or months is typical of most cases of uncomplicated, simple back pain and the long-term prognosis is that it continues to behave like this. It’s very important for your back that you do everything you can to maintain and improve your strength, flexibility and good posture. Keeping active, even when your back is painful, is very important and it often helps to take painkillers to enable you to do this. Physiotherapists and osteopaths can teach you exercises that will help to treat and prevent back pain in the future and since you’ve already suffered it on a few occasions, I would recommend that you be referred for this.
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Comment
Living under the jackboot Highly successful author Noel ‘Razor’ Smith finds himself under investigation for doing nothing more than trying to rehabilitate himself and seek a worthwhile future
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith he banning of free speech is the cornerstone of every totalitarian regime Hitler, Stalin, Mao and countless other dictators throughout history, right up to and including Robert Mugabe in present day Zimbabwe, and the Chinese government, have used censorship to control and oppress.
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They hound and persecute those who might dare to disagree with them or expose their practises, and the first to suffer under this official cloak of secrecy are usually the writers. Men and women who are able to articulate exactly what is happening, and present it to the world at large for examination, are hated and feared by these regimes, and quickly become casualties. In many countries writers are imprisoned, tortured and even murdered. And whilst my own experiences as an 'underground' writer can in no way be compared to those who have truly suffered, and in some cases are still suffering for their art, there are some parallels to be drawn from being a successful writer under the totalitarian regime that is the modern British prison system in general, and HMP Grendon in particular. Perhaps my story may serve as a warning to other prison writers and allow people to see the shameless hypocrisy of those who are charged with our containment and rehabilitation. My story is very typical, up to a point. I have a long history of crime and punishment behind me, dating back to the early 1970s, and have served over 27 years in prison on various sentences. My behaviour in prison can only be described as extremely troublesome, having been involved in assaults on staff, attempted escapes and incitement to riot. In 1998 I was sentenced to life imprisonment under the 2-strikes law and whilst at HMP Whitemoor, I penned an account of my life up to that point which was accepted by a major publisher and released to critical acclaim. The book: ‘A Few Kind Words and A Loaded Gun’, was by no means a glorification of my life of crime, rather it was a truthful account of a wasted life. The book is now in its seventh reprint and still selling steadily around the world.
As this was being published, I decided that I wanted to try and change my life and so volunteered for the therapy regime. It was no easy decision, but I'd heard that Grendon had a good reputation for rehabilitation of violent recidivists through group therapy. At Grendon, openness, honesty and responsibility were some of the essential ingredients for personal change and I embraced the work I knew I had to do. Apart from group therapy, I also enrolled on the National Union of Journalists course, which is a part of Grendon's educational curriculum and touted as a tool of rehabilitation. The aim of the course is to teach prisoners to write for the media, thus giving them genuine qualifications and job prospects. I graduated from Levels 1 and 2 of the course and then took a further ICS course in freelance journalism to add to my honours diploma from the LSJ, which had been suggested and funded by the education department at HMP Highdown. In the meantime, I wrote and had published two further books. In December 2007, I appeared before the Parole Board for the second time and submitted my own representations, telling them in great detail of the niche I had carved for myself as a writer and about my books and journalism work. I explained how I had not wasted my decade in prison but had gained qualifications and made many useful contacts in the publishing and media world. The Parole Board seemed impressed and recommended me for category ‘D’. In February 2008, the Home Secretary endorsed the recommendation and I was granted a ROTL. However, it was then that my life took a Kafka-esque turn. I must add here that at no time during the last 6 years have I kept my writing a secret from the prison system, or indeed from anyone. My manuscripts leave the prison by the ordinary postal and censorship system, free for any members of prison staff to read and question me on the content. My first book was splashed all over the national broadsheets and reviewed in many best-selling publications. Like all of my books, my most recent - ‘Warrior Kings’ - was advertised in the pages of Inside Time, a paper freely available within the prison system. And yet suddenly I was being told that the prison system were 'unaware' that I had written
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books! Not only that, but my ROTL was immediately cancelled by a governor grade at Grendon, who then initiated an 'investigation'.
Razor’s three published books As far as I am aware, I broke no law or prison rule; having worked strictly within the confines of Standing Order 5b and PSO 4470. However I now find myself in a state of limbo. My publisher has been inundated with phone calls from various characters seeking information on me (six in one day) and has traced these phone calls back to HMP Grendon, though they refused to identify themselves. My phone calls were under 'special' scrutiny, my mail, both outgoing and incoming, was being held up and examined - I had one outgoing letter stopped and confiscated because it was to a journalist, and the reason I was given for this was PSO 4411 (a recent addition to the PSO list) Section 7.1 (2) ‘Plans or material which could assist or encourage any disciplinary or criminal offence (including attempts to defeat the ends of justice by suggesting the fabrication or suppression of evidence)’.
I had letters stopped coming in and told that I was not even allowed to know who they were from! When I was informed that there was to be an investigation, I was told that I was not allowed to know the aims or parameters of the investigation; nor the name of the person who was to carry it out! Stalin had nothing on these people! HM Prison system, over many years, has encouraged me and many others like me to write. There are courses on journalism, creative writing and Writers-in-Residence at many prisons, including Grendon. There are cash prizes offered by the Prison Reform Trust, The Koestler Foundation and of course Inside Time, the only national newspaper for prisoners. Most people who have an interest in the genuine rehabilitation of offenders will agree that encouraging prisoners to read and write can have enormous benefits. Through my own writing, I have found the rehabilitation many seek. I have made a lot of contacts in the world of publishing and journalism, which will aid me in finding employment on my release from prison. Yet the way the prison system are now behaving, it seems they would much prefer me to go back to robbing banks for a living. It's a sad indictment on the prison system in general and on Grendon in particular, which has always had a good reputation. The matter is now in the hands of my very competent legal team, so watch this space for future developments. I would like to invite comment from readers on this matter, particularly other prison writers. Our situation does not require victory, it only forbids surrender.
Write to: Noel ‘Razor’ Smith CB7872, HMP Blantyre House, Goudhurst, Cranbrook, Kent TN17 2NH.
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Comment
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Bob Woffinden writes... Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights a case where Appeal Court judges apparently saw fit to ignore the blindingly obvious hortly after midnight on Friday 6 May 1994, Gerald Stevens and Christine Rees were shot dead in the offices of a small taxi firm in Risca, south Wales. Stevens, the co-owner of the firm, was a married man who had had affairs with a number of women and was then involved in a relationship with Rees, one of the firm’s drivers.
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The murders were quickly discovered by one of the night drivers. He rang the police and was, understandably, too preoccupied to attend to his next job. So, at about 2.15am the couple left stranded telephoned Michael Attwooll, who ran the business with Stevens. Some hours earlier he had taken them to Newport. Now, he had to get out of bed to pick them up and take them back home. Almost 12 hours later, at about 2.30 in the afternoon, the police asked Attwooll to go to the murder scene. Although the area was heavily bloodstained, they wanted him to get some office files for them and also explain how the furniture was normally arranged. He then drove off to carry out his afternoon commitments. Subsequently, Attwooll was charged with the murders, partly on the basis of bloodstains found in his car. John Roden, the partner of Attwooll’s daughter, Vicki, was charged alongside him. The main evidence against them was provided by Thomas Jones and Tony Hopkins [not their real names]. Jones said that, a few months prior to the murders, he had sold a .22 calibre air-rifle (the type of weapon ostensibly involved in the crime) to Attwooll. He added that Attwooll had come to his house early in
the morning after the murders and washed “nitro” off his hands. Hopkins then told police that Roden had asked him how to buy a gun and said that he and Attwooll had been touring the streets at night, trying to find Stevens and Rees together. Hopkins said that Roden had phoned him the morning after the murders to say, “We’ve done it!” Roden later went to see Hopkins with bits of a broken air-rifle in a black bin-bag, asking him to dispose of it for him. Hopkins said he had thrown it into the river Ebbw behind his house. Police searched the river and found it. The prosecution may have had this evidence, and some jailhouse snitch nonsense as well, but they didn’t have much of a motive. They suggested that perhaps the affair had given rise to resentment within the firm and, further, that Attwooll may have suspected that Stevens was cheating on him. Neither bore close examination but, in June 1995, Attwooll and Roden were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case, like many others, has never gone away, and in May last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission sent it for another appeal, which was heard recently. The three judges the most senior of whom was Lord Justice Latham; one of the others was Mr Justice Blair, Tony’s elder brother - turned down the case. Everyone who has ever studied this case has concluded that it is founded almost entirely on the evidence of Jones and Hopkins. The judges found that nothing they had heard undermined this evidence. Indeed, they
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blithely asserted, “no credible explanation has been given as to why they should have lied”.
was Hopkins. (Stevens, the victim, may also have been involved with drugs.)
This was one of those moments when one wondered if the judges had been hearing the same case as everyone else in court. After all, the explanation of why Jones and Hopkins might have lied did appear blindingly obvious: they were themselves implicated in the murders.
The appeal court judges found that Jones “suffered real psychological problems during the period before trial because of guilt feelings as a result of the fact that he was to give evidence against Attwooll”. It had not, apparently, occurred to them that what would really trigger Jones’s “guilt feelings” would be the knowledge that the evidence he was due to give wasn’t true.
There are elementary problems with their evidence, which wasn’t even consistent. If Attwooll had already bought a gun from Jones, why would Roden ask Hopkins how to get hold of one? Why would Attwooll conveniently wash his hands, several hours after the murders, at Jones’s house? Wasn’t he likely to have done that at home? And why would Roden break up the gun, put the pieces into a bin-bag and then walk through the streets with it - passing numerous inviting wheelie-bins en route - in order to give it to Hopkins?
... it appears as though the prosecution has utilised the perjured evidence of the guilty in order to convict the innocent, but that approach has now been fully sanctioned by the Court of Appeal.
Neither he nor Jones had alibis for the time of the murders. They had both admitted to handling the gun. Indeed, Hopkins had disposed of it. Jones was a gun enthusiast who was known to be involved with drugs - as indeed
While the prosecution relied entirely on evidence that seemed highly suspect, the defence had evidence that was as straightforward as it was disinterested. The couple who got him out of bed for that lift home said he was wearing the same clothes as when he had picked them up. It would have been remarkable if, having got into his pyjamas, Attwooll had then re-dressed in clothing in which he had just committed two bloody murders. There is also good evidence that Stevens was afraid in the days immediately before the murders, whereas he displayed no apprehension in Attwooll’s company. While conducting its inquiry, the CCRC asked Gwent police to preserve the bullets, as they would be needed for further examination. Nevertheless, before any re-examination could take place, the police lost them. This is a complex case with more strands of evidence than can be explained here. However, it is the kind of case that brings the entire criminal justice process into disrepute. Not only is it a case where it appears as though the prosecution has utilised the perjured evidence of the guilty in order to convict the innocent, but that approach has now been fully sanctioned by the Court of Appeal. Glyn Maddocks, Roden’s solicitor, has been fighting for justice for his client for more than ten years. I am pleased to report that, following this seriously unenlightened appeal court judgment, he intends to carry on fighting for justice in the case.
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Comment
ack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has admitted that prisons will be at bursting point ‘for the next two years’. His disclosure has prompted fears that emergency measures, such as the use of police cells to house prisoners and early release schemes, are here to stay; at least for the foreseeable future. Mr Straw said there was unlikely to be an improvement until the supply of spare cells in prisons outstrips demand.
offence, then that has an effect on the sentences all the way down the table."
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Lord Woolf regarded the Blunkett approach as wholly inconsistent with what the Government had intended for the Sentencing Guidelines Council. "It had an inflationary effect on sentencing generally - which the Government was told about in no uncertain terms from all quarters. I appreciate that Mr Blunkett could not have done what he did without the authority of Parliament, but that does not mean it was not an irresponsible action on his part to promote legislation which would have this consequence. He knew - or he ought to have known - that he had a problem he could not solve. The prisons were already overcrowded, and there was no way in which he could avoid the consequences of his actions without making the position within the prisons worse than it already was."
A reliable indication as to how this unsatisfactory state of affairs has arisen may be gained from an examination of the recently published collection of essays and speeches by Lord Woolf, England's most senior retired judge. In these he is especially critical of the part David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, played in establishing present policies.
In Lord Woolf's opinion, increasing tariffs got people used to the idea that longer sentences were the norm. "This becomes self-defeating," he says. “Courts would continue to pass sentences that Parliament told them to pass and then, to stop the system exploding, the Government has to let prisoners out before they have served the sentence the courts felt was appropriate - which is what is happening to a greater and greater extent."
At the time of his appointment as senior judge of England and Wales in 2000, Lord Woolf had hoped the new Sentencing Guidelines Council would bridge the ‘geological fault' between the Home Office and the judiciary bringing together senior representatives from both sides and taking sentencing out of politics. By the time he retired five years later, he admits such optimism had been dashed. After the Home Secretary lost the power to set release dates for murderers serving life imprisonment, Mr Blunkett proposed what Lord Woolf describes as a ‘huge increase' in the minimum terms they would have to serve. "Nobody supported the new tariffs," Lord Woolf recalls. “Not Victim Support; not the police; not the judges; nor others working in the criminal justice system, and those views were made known to Mr Blunkett”. Nevertheless, legislation was introduced and passed by Parliament. "What had been lost sight of was that if you were going to have a logical approach to sentencing, you need a proper table of punishments where the sentence for one offence is proportionate to the sentences for other offences. If you dramatically increase the sentence for the most serious
Prison overcrowding whose to blame? John Allen looks at the enormous influence former Home Secretary David Blunkett had on the current prison overcrowding chaos
We can look again
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Lord Woolf stresses that judges must be realistic. He agrees that we need punishment, but punishment that will reduce the likelihood of reoffending. He does say he received support from Mr Blunkett on many matters but then goes on to complain that: "When politics entered the issue, the Home Secretary was more concerned with seeking plaudits from the media than he was with supporting institutions - such as the Sentencing Guidelines Council that he had been responsible for creating." “The criminal justice system in general, and prisons in particular, have been the victims of a war between the main political parties, with more attention being paid to being ‘tough on crime’ than to the causes of crime. John Allen is currently resident in HMP Gartree
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Comment
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org nybody who has spent time observing the dysfunctional Prison Service will have spotted a number of pointers to its continuing failure:
than those who don't: so the tick box mentality seems more important than reducing reoffending.
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Education departments are more interested in giving literate prisoners basic skills tests than teaching illiterate and innumerate prisoners so the 'passing basic skills tick box' is fully populated. It looks good but achieves nothing. MDTs and especially VDTs are targeted at known negatives. The negative 'tick box' is more heavily used - it looks better on statistics. The OASys system was set up for those who worship the 'tick box'. The random, scurried ticking of boxes generates an automated random risk factor which is worshipped as 'truth'. Two different OASys assessments on the same person by two different people get widely different scores. The prison system is absolutely riddled with 'tick boxes', like maggots on rotting meat. The 'tick boxes' support pointless and meaningless targets. Of course, nobody is going to tick a box that they have to justify or for which they have to take responsibility. The word 'responsibility' is not in the HMPS vocabulary.
No measurable purpose; No effective management; Worship of the 'tick-box' culture; Lack of common sense and realism.
We need to answer three questions. Firstly, what is the purpose for the existence of the Prison Service; what does it expect to achieve and how will it do this? Secondly, why do we stack people up in prison and what do we expect the end result to be? Finally, what is a manager - is not a manager's job in the Prison Service to deliver its purpose in a cost effective and efficient manner? So, why do we lock people up? "To protect the public!" comes the cry. "From what?" I ask. If a pensioner cannot afford to pay his/her poll tax, how is that helping them to pay? We are, in effect, punishing them for being poor. If a youth is jailed for breaching an 'Asbo' (which is imposed without trial) he may be jailed for something which is not an imprisonable offence on its own (e.g. annoying a neighbour with noise). If a person is mentally ill and therefore acts inappropriately, he is imprisoned for being ill. Would that happen if he broke his leg?
If it was left to me...
"Ah!" I hear the familiar cry. "Muggers, robbers and rapists ... and don't forget paedophiles!" Fine, lock them all up. Those who have done wrong, those who are locked up to 'solve a crime' and soon, if the government has its way, those whom psychologists think may commit a crime. What does the present system do to them? It tries to screw up their minds; splits them from their family and friends, and isolates them; making them mistrust the whole criminal justice system, as they see it, for what it is.
In the second of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers needs changing about the prison system. He looks at reorganization; introducing proper management; dismissing the warder ‘flock’ and hopefully making things better for warders and prisoners; and saving millions of pounds in the process.
However many years later, chuck them out of the gate: homeless, jobless, poor and emotionally damaged. Government legislation means that as ‘offenders' they will have great difficulty finding employment. Probation staff will harass them and in the process prevent them rebuilding their lives and relationships. Why? What is the purpose? What is this supposed to achieve? Certainly not crime prevention. The Prison Service has no commitment to any identifiable or measurable purpose or target. It publishes an abundance of ‘spin’ and 'focus statements' but really has no idea what it is supposed to be doing or achieving of a constructive nature. HMPS will trot out the weary mantra ... ‘to keep those committed by the courts...’ Everyone knows this is trite nonsense. Do a Jeremy Paxman and keep on asking … "What really is your purpose?" When a warder
goes home at night, what is he expected to have achieved?
bottom, the warder, expect to know? We cannot lay all the blame for apathy at their door.
There is no effective management of the Prison Service from top to bottom. Ministers consistently pass the buck. The DirectorGeneral is as ineffective as all the other career ladder-climbers. Very important areas of policy are delegated even further down the chain, as everybody carefully avoids having to make any decision for which they might actually have to take responsibility. When it reaches Governor level, the prison rules state that he can delegate his responsibility to anyone else. This fear culture has been developed partly because no one is allowed to make an error or wrong decision, so the natural reaction is to make no decision at all. If the people at the top don't know what they are supposed to be doing then how on earth can the guy at the
I see an abundance of senior and principal officers but no managers and no proper, effective management. If management jobs were made attractive and advertised externally, then people with qualifications, experience and proven track records might be encouraged to bring some really effective management to the system. Or is the chaotic money-wasting status quo a more comfortable and attractive proposition?
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The 'tick box' culture is in evidence everywhere one looks. Prisoners are blackmailed and coerced onto inappropriate 'courses' in order to tick even more boxes. The sad thing is that government statistics show that prisoners who attend courses are more likely to re-offend
That brings me to the lack of commonsense and reality. The Prison Service does not live in the real world. The problem being that every employee has to justify his existence and importance, whilst at no time displaying initiative or making any concrete decision for which they will need to take full responsibility. The result of this being that the service is locked in a land of negativity and stagnation. Every warder will know that if they show any initiative, and are successful, then someone higher up the ladder will steal the proverbial brownie points. If they can't, they will try to sabotage the good work. If the initiative backfires, the shit is quickly passed down the line. A new governor has to create something to show he/she has arrived - completely unable to comprehend the dire consequences of their actions. Governors still believe they can ignore prison rules as they keep their heads down … waiting to step up the next rung. Why can't the prison service employ intelligent, dynamic managers from industry - with ability and ideas, the desire to improve, and the skills to support and motivate - rather than appointing stale, scared, ineffective ladder-climbers. The government fiddles, wasting literally billions of pounds, playing ‘pass the parcel’ to increase their distance from failure. We have the Home Office, Justice Ministry, NOMS - all grossly incompetent and all going nowhere. * Next month, Paul Sullivan examines how he would reorganise, retrain and motivate the warder flock; force all staff to take and own responsibility; and start making prisons effective as well as efficient.
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Comment
Prison education Keith Rose says prisoners have got to stop being their own worst enemies and start taking advantage of the education opportunities offered "Re-offending rates runaway", raves the Sun. "Recidivism rampant", rants the slightly more literate Daily Mail. The words may be different but the message is always the same, but inevitably, and unusually, particularly for the Sun, there may be some truth in the message. It is inevitable that many ex-inmates will re-offend when the prison service effectively throws them out of the gate into the gutter, without even the wherewithal to survive for a fortnight. Thanks to previous and continuing hate campaigns by the gutter press, employers are often reluctant to employ ex-offenders. Many inmates leave jail with a £70 discharge grant and not much else therefore realistically, re-offending is pretty certain … return to jail assured. However, there is a route that may help overcome a potential employer’s prejudice by making yourself more attractive in the job market. This is by making use of education facilities in each prison. Not all establishments have a particularly good education department, which goes without saying, but often prisoners are their own worst enemies by simply treating an education department as a place to doss, swap lies and avoid the make-work workshops. This is prisoners conforming to the Sun & Daily Mail's frequently published opinion of all prisoners as lazy, idle, fit only for the scrap-heap. Any prisoner who missed out on basic education can take the opportunity to refresh their knowledge and/or take standard qualifications like GCSE or NVQ. Most establishments offer these facilities. There is no shame in admitting you played truant for most of your school years, and what do you really care about what another prisoner might think? Using your time constructively is common sense, unless you really want to end up like the San Quentin inmate who is now doing life
plus 500 years, after coming in with a 4-year sentence. That guy felt it far more important to impress his mates on the inside rather than think about his family and friends on the outside. Most prisoners are parents, much to the disgust of the Sun & Mail, and there is nothing worse or more embarrassing than not being able to answer a 7 year-old with a homework question. There is an area where prison education really comes into its own and that is the provision of Open or Distance Learning services. The number of course providers has increased dramatically in recent years, some of which are the National Extension College, BSY Group, Open College of the Arts, Writers Bureau and Whalley Transport Studies to name just a few. The best known is the Open University, which has had a highly successful collaborative scheme in prisons since the 1970's.
Open University degree. GCSEs, ‘A’ levels, Certificates of Competence, Diplomas or professional qualifications are all available. You can even undertake studies in items as diverse as Homoeopathy, Tai Chi Chuan or Stress Counselling - with the right in many cases to Professional Qualifications. So, you might ask, just who is the prat giving the ‘hard sell’ on the benefits of prison education? Somebody with an inflated title and accompanying ego from Prison Service HQ? No, far from it, it comes from someone who has actually fought for the right to learn, to self-educate. In my time, I have been banned from education for more than 5 years for upsetting the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, with a cheeky letter suggesting he was less than competent; so I upset him even further by walking out of Parkhurst Prison in 1995. I have been refused a music keyboard, whilst studying music, on the basis that … "you can make a mobile phone out of one???" I have
Of course you don't have to work towards an
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NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2008 QIA STAR AWARDS ARE NOW OPEN! The annual STAR Awards recognise and reward unsung heros in the further education and skills sector. The awards are your chance to highlight the work of a teacher, tutor, support worker or anyone who has made a difference in the system. Visit: http:llstaraward.qia.org.uk to make your nomination.
Nominations close 6th June 2008 Andrea Wilkinson from Wakefield college, who won the Outstanding Contribution in Learning Support Award in 2007. Inside Time understands that nominations will still be accepted if they arrive a few days late. Forms are available from prison education departments and nominations can be faxed to 02476 236873.
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This whilst being moved some 73 times, not including cell moves; and being, at various times, AAA, Exceptional Risk, AA, High Risk and single A; ensconced in Belmarsh, Whitemoor and Full Sutton Special Secure Units for indefinite periods of time, for pure revenge and at the whim of various security departments. I've been there, done it, got not only the T-shirt but the scars; however more importantly the right to put the following qualifications after my name, and what follows is the shorthand version, the full version would require another paragraph; BA (Hons), Dip. Mus, C. Nat. Sci, CPC RSA.
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Before you turn your nose up at the Open University simply because it is offered in your prison, think about this: the standard of teaching of the Open University is consistently in the top 10 of universities countrywide. The number, variety and quality of courses is often superior to and more fluid than any offered by Oxford or Cambridge. There is nothing cutpriced or sub-standard about any Open University course, and their qualifications are recognised as equal to any other university. In dispute with psychology? Take a psychology course and really get up their nose! Want to really learn about Archaeology, Aromatherapy, Business Studies, Geography, Music, Spanish, Sports Nutrition and/or Injuries, Writing, Civil Engineering, Writing Music, Jamaica, History, Black History, Egyptology, Science, Outer Space, Quantum Theory, Theology or virtually anything else? There is a course for you!
been thrown off an Open University Environmental Course with the excuse … "This course requires Unsupervised Field Trips with Unlimited Access to the Internet" … as if!
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Comment
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org utting aside the controversy of the role which psychology plays in prisons, I would like to throw up a challenge to the Assistant Psychologist (West Midlands) who, in the May issue of Inside Time, chose not to be named; relying instead on her academic prowess (BSc, MSc) to respond to a serving prisoner who dared (in a previous issue) to ridicule the whole area of prison psychology and its adherents. In criticising that prisoner, this individual goes on to label him and resorts to bland sarcasm and ridicule for expressing what he did.
legitimate place within academia but so far it has eluded them; for as many theories and lack of agreed definitions as there are, it is matched only by the number of psychologists who promote them and none more so than in the area of risk assessment and predictive measurements as to future offending, which of course is based on so-called statistical evidence. Well, we know one commentator’s view of statistics; that there are statistics, God damned statistics and lies.
P
Now we have it. I knew all along that psychologists too can be miserable and peeved at being labelled (labelling is something they are only too familiar with) or challenged as to the merits of what they do, or rather don’t do. I also know that their so-called professional judgement and opinion is often clouded in prejudice and bias, and I think many prisoners have been victims of that too. My challenge to all prison psychologists and assistant psychologists is this; where does there exist a peer review publication of the effectiveness of offending behaviour programmes and where, if it exists, is there long term follow-up research of those post release prisoners who have completed such programmes? By peer review, I do not mean Prison or Probation Service psychologists paying shallow lip service to each other or their seniors or falling in with Home Office researchers to prop up their careerist advancement. By peer review, a term which the Assistant Psychologist (West Midlands) should be familiar with, I mean a serious and far reaching academic review not only of those programmes currently delivered by HM Prison Service but programmes worldwide; and not necessarily psychology based but all with the objective of reducing offending behaviour. And by long-term follow up I do not mean the current benchmark of two years based on dubious statistics but evidence over a significantly longer period that would clearly demonstrate that those who have desisted from further offending have done so because of any offending behaviour programmes they have undertaken. Of course, it can never be known if those who have not reoffended have done so because of those programmes or in spite of them. Neither can we know whether it’s because they are still offending but have yet to come to the attention of the criminal justice system. With an almost 70% reconviction rate of those who appear before the courts within 2 years of their release from prison, and high levels of reoffending by those serving community based sentences, most if not all would have completed one psychology based offending behaviour course or another and I really am wondering how it can be justifiably argued that such interventions actually work, for such
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Sorry, but being able to add two and two does not make one a mathematician and the actuarial model which measures groups of same like offenders to predict how any one of the group might behave in future is hardly rocket science. In fact it is not science.
An open challenge Lifer Charles Hanson maintains that within the ‘prison psychology paramilitary’ there exists cultural bias and an ignorance of the experiences and thinking patterns of those from different cultures high levels of reoffending clearly demonstrates that they achieve no such thing. In fact, such is the short shelf life of some courses that so called ‘boosters’ are deemed to be required, which is all the evidence one should need to argue that they are ineffective and, at best, a short lived measure. The current thinking amongst forensic psychologists working within the Prison and Probation Service is that cognitive skills deficits are instrumental in offending behaviour and that offenders think differently, but as Ronald Blackburn, an eminent criminal psychologist and academic, noted in 1995 (The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, Theory and Research), ‘the functional relationship of cognitive skills deficits to criminal behaviour has not been borne out’. The Reasoning and Rehabilitation Course, a 36-session so-called ‘thinking skills’ course, was at one time held up as the best intervention and delivery of all programmes, and yet it was quickly abandoned when research revealed that there was no significant difference in the reoffending rates of those who had undertaken the course and those who had not undergone it (the control group). Even David Wilson, a one-time prison Governor and now professor of criminal justice, wrote as long ago as 2001 that, ‘successive attempts to isolate some difference between an offender and non-offender have failed time and time again throughout criminological history’, referring to all the various types of thinking skills courses now being run in our prisons. On a less formal note, the Enhanced Thinking Skills Course, or ETS as it is more commonly
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known, has a different meaning to many prisoners who have their own slant on ‘jumping through the hoops’. To them, ETS is merely ‘Everyone Talking Shit’. In 1982, the American Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, who between 1969 and 1975 spent upwards of 6 billion dollars on programmes to reduce offending behaviour, including 537 research projects, decided to close down due to crime having risen by over 50% during the same period. Clearly things were NOT working, which might explain why, in a toughened stance to drive down the crime figures and to protect the public, it resulted in an increased use of prison sentences with much lengthier terms, which it seems the UK is intent on following. Yes, we do tend to copy the American way, although the UK prison psychology industry has yet to catch on and we have yet to find effective strategies to reduce offending behaviour without the need for an increased prison population. It has also been known for some time now that cognitive skills courses can actually enhance the self-knowledge and effectiveness of some very dangerous individuals, so that even after completion of a course, those who participate rarely give test answers that are in line with the ‘man in the street.’ For many, psychology will remain psy-ence fiction, snake oil, junk science, soft science, pseudo science and pop psychology; all descriptions given to the discipline by more serious academics over the years and perhaps they have a point, for psychologists are forever attempting to seek scientific credibility and a
Psychology does not rank in the same league as the natural sciences and it never can do; for unlike, for example, the neurosciences, which have progressed and made advancements to benefit mankind, psychology remains as it always has done - theory bound and at the bottom end of academia. It is also now so much of a hobby horse for many that a monthly magazine ‘Psychologies’ now exists for those who might want to find themselves or make sense of some aspect of their life - a bit like an agony aunt dressed up in the pseudo science of psychology and written by those with an eye on making a few bucks. Why else would one want to write about the meanings of personality or some form of human behaviour? Within the prison psychology paramilitary, and I make no excuses for using that term for there does exist elements of coercion, threats of transfer to more secure conditions, punitive responses for not engaging with them and finally continued detention based on what they think and say, there also exists cultural bias, for much of the content of offending behaviour programmes does not take into account those lifestyles, experiences and thinking patterns of those from different cultures. What does exist springs from white, middle-class perceptions and values, hence cultural bias and, some would argue, prejudice, but because it is dressed up as psychology the chances are that those who are not attuned to what is expected of them will find themselves not progressing. I return to my opening challenge and eagerly await a response from Assistant Psychologist BSc, MSc (West Midlands) who might well have all the answers as to what reduces offending behaviour and if such a thing exists, can it be spoon fed and where is it available for the many offenders who have lived chaotic lives and continue to do so? I am intrigued. Charles Hanson is currently resident in HMP Blantyre House
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Comment
very time you write a letter to your solicitor and mark it ‘Rule 39’, you should thank Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook. In one of his more important wins in his various legal battles whilst he was still a con, he overturned the idea that we could only have free access to our solicitors when issuing legal proceedings. Up until that point, the Prison Service could, and did, interfere. That Inside Time still gets letters from cons complaining about screws messing with legal mail is a testament to the importance we place on this issue.
his qualification are less worthy of our custom is a step too far. That these lawyers are the only ones allowed to advertise in Converse makes this seem a tad incestuous and financedriven. A good prison lawyer not only knows the law but has the stones to fight the prisoner’s corner.
E
It is only in recent years that lawyers have taken much interest in our small world, and to be faced with hordes of them advertising themselves as ‘prison law specialists’ was disconcerting. In this respect, having Leech’s qualification at least implies that they have some vague idea of prison law. But alongside these new boys there were always lawyers who took an interest in us, and we learned who they were by trial, error and reputation. I'm no fool, and I use AS Law solicitors and Flo Krause as barrister for a reason.
He also roped Governor’s Adjudications into the arena of Judicial Review, persuading the courts to keep a beady eye on the shenanigans that went on. Leech changed the legal landscape for prisoners, and I for one will remember that effort. But this was many years ago; before most Inside Time readers knew the inside of a prison. Now, as they say, the boy has done good. Very good. The Prisons Handbook for starters. Now the paper Converse, and the Institute of Prison Law and its distance learning certificate of competence in prison law. He must be raking it in hand over fist.
Reputation counts for more than a basic certificate of competence. Undermining solicitors who choose not to use his services is a bloody awful way for Leech to behave, and looks suspiciously like a move to have all prison law work land on his doorstep; with the money that comes with it. It is not in the interests of prisoners to have their choices limited in this way, although it may be to Leech’s interest.
You know me, and by now some of you may be wondering where this is going to end up? Well, all I have said up to now comes with a big fat BUT attached to it. Given his history, I am very hesitant to criticize the man in any way. He took his lumps and he fought his corner; but that is history, no matter how significant to prison law geeks like myself. The fact that he has a reputation of not taking criticism lightly must also be born in mind. Even so, two developments have caused me to break silence on Mark Leech. The first is his criticism of barrister Flo Krause. Former prisoner John Hirst who, along with Flo Krause, was instrumental in getting votes for prisoners, has already defended her honour, so I will make a broader point. But that he took two digs at her in the latest issue of Converse makes him look petty and spiteful, and is what tipped me over the edge to write this. Leech has a Prison Law Institute to market and money to make. Fair enough. But to imply that lawyers who choose not to take up
Law on the landings For some time I have been having odd thoughts about Mark Leech, says lifer Ben Gunn. Where does his heart lie? With the Director General? The bank manager? Or prisoners?
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My second point is wider. Leech offers himself as "Britain's foremost ex-offender expert on prison - and its most contentious!". Easily said, but hard to deliver on. Whilst the Prisons Handbook is a useful reference tool, far too much of it is written by prison staff. When I want to read about offending behaviour courses, for instance, I don't want some selfserving Prison Service psychologist lecturing me. A far fairer view may come from elsewhere. It's simply not critical enough. This is one example. But it sets a tone, follows a pattern. Because whilst claiming to be a thorn in the system’s side (as he was years ago) Leech also wants to leap into bed with it; the Prisons Handbook is invariably introduced by the Director General. Personally, if I wrote anything that the Prison Service was happy to endorse then I would regard myself as having failed. This slide to a commercial ‘Dark Side’ has gone so far that Leech is happy to have this quote emblazoned
Comment
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org on his website; "I consider myself very lucky as Director General to have had you around. I consider you not only as a colleague but also as a friend". That was Martin Narey, "Mr IEPS, MDT and Volumetric Control" himself. When this was brought to my attention, I very nearly retched. Any prison law course is an excellent idea – his particular course, for some lawyers perhaps, and certainly for Leech. For prisoners though, at a cost of almost £1,000, it is priced way out of reach, let alone his Certificate of Competency in Prison Law Course at £2,800. This leaves us in the position we have always been in; having to grovel around for a lawyer to take up our gripes. It is disempowering. It would be far more useful if cons themselves had this type of training, then we could push for changes ourselves, harass management and wield the legal stick. If such courses were made available to cons (the cost of Leech’s means it effectively isn't at present) then we could see a nationwide network of cons on the landings with not only the stones to fight their corner (and for others), but the knowledge as well. It could effectively transform the system As it stands, Leech hasn't had that leap of imagination. Whilst making a very healthy living by claiming rebelliousness and militancy, the reality is that he has a standing invitation to break bread with the very people who are standing on our necks. Those of us who are really trying to fight for change on the landings have to make do with pathetic resources. Perhaps Leech could cast his mind back to when he was fighting cases from inside. Has anything he has done since release made that situation better? The law can be a powerful tool to effect change. At the very least it can curb the excesses of staff and make managers pause. Leech knows this. He is now in a position to help the rest of us use this tool, and yet he chooses not to. For a self-proclaimed rebel, that must be a disconcerting position to be in. Ben Gunn is currently resident in HMP Shepton Mallet
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Association of Prison Lawyers Lawyers practising Prison Law are to form an association With the knowledge of an association of lawyers being formed, who practice prison law, Inside Time asked Rikki Garg, Chairman of the Steering Group, to explain what had prompted this initiative. “Following legal challenges brought by prisoners in the 1970s and 1980s, prison law developed into a specialist field in the 1990s after the CJA 1991 enshrined DLP prisoners' right to advocacy at their oral hearings. “Every other area of law has an association that has developed their own formal contacts and consultation procedures with the Law Society, the Bar Council, the court Service, the Legal Services Commission and other bodies of obvious influence, like the Lord Chancellor’s Department and the Ministry of Justice. It is therefore important that Prison Law practitioners have a recognised representative voice and body that will protect the right of those who we seek to represent - some of the most vulnerable people in society. “It is also the case that the funding of prison law has, in recent times, been under more and more scrutiny, leaving those in custody often confused as to who can provide the necessary specialist advice. And more legal practitioners with criminal law contracts are providing a prison law service without possibly the necessary experience or training to support and underpin the advice they give. “There is, therefore, a real need for an established voice for those legal practitioners committed to the growth and development of Prison Law, with the knowledge and expertise to ensure that those who practice have the necessary and relevant experience, education and training to deliver the service people in custody have the right to expect. A prior-
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ity for the association will be to ensure the development of Prison Law in its own right and to raise standards beyond those which simply satisfy the Legal Services Commission.” Will anyone be able to become a member; regardless of the size or experience of the firm/practitioner? “Everyone who is currently providing legal advice in prison law may apply. Their current experience and training from any accredited training organisation will be acknowledged. Once established, the association hopes to provide specific training courses on a ‘not for profit’ basis for its members.” So what’s the next step? “A steering group made up of the country’s leading prison law legal representatives has been meeting regularly in the earlier part of this year to establish the association, and a draft constitution will be going out for consultation to everyone who has expressed their interest in the association shortly in advance of the association’s first AGM in July this year. After the AGM, the work of the association will begin with a sense of urgency to achieve the broad objectives mentioned in this article.” Will readers seeing adverts for the various firms in publications such as Inside Time know which of them are association members? “Once the first AGM has taken place, all of this sort of detail will be agreed and announced but the intention is certainly to ensure there is an end to any confusion about the credentials of prison lawyers, and that those seeking advice will be reassured by the existence of an impartial and recognised association which is focussed on maintaining and raising standards for those in need of this type of help and advice.”
NOTICE TO PRISON LAW PRACTITIONERS Association of Prison Lawyers
Annual General Meeting 17th July 2008 For those in practice, the steering group has agreed that there should be a formal association of prison law practitioners, be it firms of solicitors, counsel or those in the practice, and development of prison law to speak as a collective voice for our growth. To this end, we are in the process of ensuring that we make our intentions known to all relevant parties involved in this procedure. The intention is that if you wish to be involved in this process, then please register via email by 4pm 30th June 2008 to:
[email protected] Upon registration, a draft constitution will be sent out for consideration and for comments, together with a list of prospective committee members. The steering group will consider any comments and a final constitution will be sent to all no later than 7 days before the meeting. At the same time, if you wish to be considered to join the committee for the association then please send a detailed biography of yourself with the details of 2 references, which will be taken, prior to a final list of prospective committee members being sent with the constitution. Rikki Garg, Chairman (steering group) Association of Prison Lawyers.
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Comment
A lifetime of labelling Enver Solomon, Deputy Director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, maintains that prisoners should be far more involved in decisions that affect their lives and futures
n the world of business, the consumer is king. What consumers think and say about products and services matters. And in the realm of public services, users of those services are also now being seen as all-important. So, for example, in the NHS the concept of patient power has become embedded in the structures of hospitals and primary care trusts. But when it comes to criminal justice it is a very different story. It is only victims who are considered worthy of consultation. The voices and views of offenders are ignored. They have no say whatsoever in the operation of the criminal justice system.
I
The government’s rationale for this is that by committing crimes, offenders have forfeited their rights as citizens. Former Home Office ministers, such as David Blunkett, have said that the right to consultation and community participation is contingent upon performing one’s responsibilities, and since criminals have been ‘irresponsible’ in their actions they lose that right. But surely this is grossly unjust. Not only are offenders punished by the courts for their crimes, they are then punished further by being denied the rights of citizenship. It is, in effect, labelling offenders as second-class citizens who are deemed undeserving of fundamental human rights. For many prisoners this manifests itself not only in being denied the right to consultation and denied the opportunity to inform criminal justice delivery, but also the daily treatment they receive on the prison landings. Stories I hear from ex-prisoners suggest that putting in an application for a legal visit, for example, can be no easy matter; as often prison officers are reluctant to assist and cooperate. This is precisely because the dominant culture is that prisoners have forfeited their rights, so any assistance is often delivered begrudgingly. At worse it can result in inhumane and degrading treatment. In so many ways the current prison system deprives prisoners of their human rights. They lose total control over when they can receive visits or when they should be moved to another jail. They have no choice over how they spend their time or what they eat. They lose the right to self-protection against violent prisoners and aggressive staff. And they remain powerless to act against unjust and inhumane treatment. Prisoners and ex-offenders are all too aware of this. Indeed, when I recently shared a room with a group of 35 men and women who between them had spent some 200 years behind bars, there was a strong feeling that their experience of prison had been a double punishment. Their stories were of being disrespected, discriminated against and undervalued. They had been through a lifetime of labelling and stigmatisation that had left them feeling utterly disempowered. For them,
Prison Law
prison had been a thoroughly dehumanising experience. Yet despite this, all 35 men and women had an enormous amount to offer. Their insights and views on prison and the entire criminal justice experience were thoughtful and perceptive. Rather than creating a prison system that reinforces and compounds the negative experiences that had led them to offend, they were calling for a more therapeutic and humane system that valued and genuinely supported prisoners to be able to cope on release. Their views would have opened up the minds of many policy makers and prison managers. Just hearing how they felt about what happened to them whilst in custody provided lessons for how to rehabilitate and support offenders to turn them away from further criminality. There is of course intrinsic value in consulting prisoners and offenders. Not only does it give policy makers access to a great reserve of knowledge and experience about what works for prisoners, it also assists prisoners in their own rehabilitation. The process of genuine consultation and involvement in decision making is greatly empowering. It is a crucial part of a prisoner’s rehabilitation and fosters greater responsibility. Indeed without a voice that is heard, prisoners are left frustrated, angry and socially excluded. Currently there are prisons that operate forums, wing groups and councils. However these are primarily mechanisms for ensuring the smooth running of the jail. They are used to provide information to prisoners and to ‘sound out’ prisoners on proposed changes to operational matters. It is very much a limited reactionary approach to prisoner involvement that is not based on genuine, joint decisionmaking. Prisoners do not have any real or significant capacity to change prison policy. Prisoners should be viewed as informed participants. And there is no reason why this should not happen, as other countries have implemented it without any problems. In Canada and Denmark, prisoners are seen legally as stakeholders. Input into decisionmaking is enshrined in legislation. In Denmark, the law requires prison management to facilitate opportunities for inmates to exercise ‘co-
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determination’. In Canada, legislation enshrines the principle of prisoners as ‘informed participants’. Prisoners are expected to be active participants in the management of their sentence through transparent sentence planning and involvement in decision-making by getting involved with inmate committees in every prison. If imprisonment is to contribute to rehabilitation, then prisoners’ rights to be justly treated and to have a say in decisions which affect them directly should be respected and fulfilled. As Alexander Paterson, Prisons Commissioner from 1922 to 1947 remarked: ‘You cannot train me for freedom in conditions of captivity’. * The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London is an independent charity that informs and educates about all aspects of crime and criminal justice. They provide information, produce research and carry out policy analysis to encourage and facilitate an understanding of the complex nature of issues concerning crime.
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Short Story
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
This Way Up In 2006, we ran a popular nine-part series entitled ‘This Way Up’, which portrayed the various troubles experienced by Colin, an alcoholic repeat offender. The series followed Colin's release from jail and the subsequent problems he faced as he tried to turn his life around. Inside Time has been in touch with Col's creator, Andy Thackwray, who has developed This Way Up into a soon to be published novel. By popular demand, both Andy and prisoner illustrator Matthew Williams have agreed to team up once more and portray more of Colin’s hilarious, madcap and often deeply moving experiences. This month we find Colin reflecting poignantly on his troubled childhood …
A summer lost
Rice's three-bedroom detached in the heart of middle-class suburbia. All these visits and trips were collectively part of a cleverly staged adoption process orchestrated by social services, about which the young Colin was oblivious at the time. Colin vividly remembered the first time he was shown around the Rice's house. When showing him his new bedroom, with its abundance of toys and solitary single bed, he'd never forget the look of shock on the faces of Mr and Mrs Rice when he innocently asked: "Where's Gregory and Joanne going to sleep?" They came one sunny Saturday morning. Col thought he was going to spend the weekend with the Rice's again. They carried two enormous gift-wrapped parcels. Colin learned later that these presents represented a cheap diversion tactic, devised to try to occupy and placate his brother and sister; distract them for a few days, hopefully to make the shock of losing a brother ‘so much less of a trauma.' "Thank you,” they said in unison as they received their respective gifts. They were ushered into the lounge and began ripping excitedly at the wrappings. Without so much as a goodbye, young Colin was led out of the home for the very last time and into the Rice's waiting car, which had been covertly filled with all of Col's belongings. He has never seen his brother or sister since.
Matthew Williams
olin came from a one-parent family of four: two boys and one girl; same wayward mother, three different absent fathers with Col being the eldest of the three siblings. Colin never knew his father and only harboured vague memories of his mother. Along with his siblings, Gregory and Joanne, Col was taken into care when he was only four years old.
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Col experienced many ‘firsts’ at the children's home. Wearing clean clothes every day, eating fresh home-made food and playing out in the big house's garden. Best of all, seeing his brother and sister with smiling faces; clean and free from grime and tearstains. Col also experienced his first ‘real’ summer at the home; playing out in the sunshine, breathing in fresh, clean air and ending the days, tired, sleeping in a warm, dry bed - alone. All a far cry from what he'd experienced in the first four years of life whilst in the ‘care’ of his
mother - cold, hungry, stale air, darkness, strangers and pain. The day he was taken away from the children's home is one of Colin's darkest memories. Unbeknown to young Colin, Mr and Mrs Rice were to be his new adoptive parents. Mrs Rice had chosen Colin from the adoption agency's photograph book of ‘available children’. After an initial visit to the home, they began paying Colin weekly visits; spending hours playing with him and gaining his trust. Soon, Col was taken on days out, leaving his brother and sister behind, crying at the gate of the home. These trips always involved a ride in a car to the seaside or seeing animals. He was able to give Gregory and Joanne a small gift upon his return. To see them smile as a consequence compensated for any earlier tears. Days out were replaced with entire weekends away at what was to be his new house - the
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As the car sped away, Mrs Rice's dream became a reality - at last she had a son of her very own. Years of family planning had proved unsuccessful due to Mr Rice's infertility; which had to be confirmed to him threefold for he was reluctant to accept ‘his little fellas were swimming the wrong way’ from just one fertility expert. However, he accepted the fact he was firing blanks when a third expert confirmed, at the expense of two grand and yet another Playboy induced masturbation session, that he'd never father a child. In order for him to enjoy any form of quality home life, he conceded to his wife's constant nagging and threats of leaving him by opting for adoption. However the adoption process wasn't without certain conditions set down by Mr Rice - the child had to be male and past the nappy-changing, bottle-feeding, keepingyou-up-all-night stage. Mrs Rice, ‘as long as she got to choose’, agreed to her husband's selfish conditions. As Mrs Rice reassuringly cuddled Colin in the back of the car, she realised she finally had the glue to hopefully keep her marriage intact. The whole trying experience had her feeling overwhelmed. As for the young Colin, being smothered half to death in her bosom, the whole experience would leave him feeling betrayed and like the pick of the litter for years to come!
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Colin became Mrs Rice's most precious possession. She fiercely shielded and protected him from what she considered the ‘contaminations of the world' well into his teenage years, preventing Col from experiencing difficult, real life situations and, more importantly, how to deal with them; thus denying him the chance of developing any coping strategies of his own. Being virtually abandoned by his natural mother, torn from his brother and sister and brought up in middle-class surroundings as an only child, had a deep, detrimental effect on Colin's psyche. He felt denied, though he was privileged; rejected, though he was much loved; lonely, though he was seldom ever alone. These contradictions were locked in combat in his subconscious mind, leading him to always search for what he considered to be ‘balanced normality' and ridding himself of the mental confusion of living one way whilst feeling another - a condition which left Colin permanently discontented and always looking and striving for more. As well as leaving his beloved brother and sister behind at the home that warm summer's day, he also left behind the only true happiness and contentment he'd ever known. He eventually found it again, quite by accident, just after his fifteenth birthday at the bottom of an Alco-pop bottle. Though he discovered this liquid form of happiness and contentment to be only artificial, temporary and very addictive - it was better than nothing! Fifteen years later, and far from being happy and content, Colin lay looking up into the darkness of an arch from within the confines of a cardboard box. "Fuck 'em all," he mumbled. Blaming his upbringing always helped Colin to justify the predicament he was in lonely, homeless, penniless, angry and pissed. Earlier, the homeless hostel hadn't answered the door to him, let alone given him a bed for the night - throwing a blanket out to him from the front window had been their only show of ‘compassion’. Disgruntled, he opted for a cardboard box under the railway bridge, together with the blanket and a stolen bottle of White Lightening. As he stared into the darkness, he heard the gentle rumble of a train overhead, reassuringly confirming he wasn't alone in his crazy world. He fumbled for his bottle, drained it, then slipped his brain into neutral. Soon he was asleep … dreaming of a summer lost. * In next month’s instalment Colin steps out onto a career path, but nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems! Andy Thackwray is currently resident in HMP Hull
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Legal Comment
A step in the right direction
Did I say that…?
Associate solicitor Katy Cowans of Henry Hyams Solicitors examines the highly contentious issue of IPP sentences and more recent developments, including categorisation, which should mean swifter progression for IPP prisoners he inability of HM Prison Service to cope with the unpredicted influx of around 140 prisoners per month ordered to serve indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP) has been well documented. In February 2008, in the case of Secretary of State for Justice v Walker and James, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the Secretary of State had acted unlawfully by failing to provide measures to allow and encourage IPP prisoners to demonstrate to the Parole Board that they were no longer dangerous by the time of minimum term expiry.
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Essentially, by the time the Parole Board considers the continued detention of an IPP prisoner, it must be presented with material to show whether further detention is necessary or not. That basically means post programme reports for offending behaviour courses or at least verbal accounts of the prisoner’s participation on such courses that show to the Parole Board Panel that the prisoner has reduced his risk. If such material is not available, a fair review of detention is not possible. In December 2007, the Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, made a statement to the House of Commons that there would be amendments to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill introducing a minimum tariff of two years for IPP and extended sentences. Obviously that Bill has not yet become law, but the message behind the announcement
and the impact of the Walker and James case has already been reflected in a change in the way IPP prisoners are categorised. Prison Service Instruction 07/2008 was introduced on 18 February 2008. The categorisation system before this PSI required all IPP prisoners to be categorised initially as B. That resulted in the gridlock that the system is currently attempting to deal with. The PSI recognises that “IPP prisoners now form a significant proportion of our indeterminate sentenced population” and that prior to IPPs, similar types of offenders would have been determinate sentence prisoners who fell within Category C. As of 18 February 2008, newly sentenced IPP prisoners with short tariffs of under 3 years should be allocated to Category C. Category C prisons cannot limit the number of IPP prisoners they are prepared to accept. IPP prisoners cannot be categorised as Category D immediately when they are sentenced. As with the old system, the Prison Service has adopted an algorithm, which is basically a checklist of questions designed to place the prisoner in the right category. A determinate sentence prisoner with a sentence over 10 years or an indeterminate sentence prisoner with a tariff over 3 years will initially be categorised as B. The Prison then applies a series of factors to all other long term and IPP/Lifer prisoners to determine the appropriate category. Briefly, if the prisoner has one or more of the
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following: previous sentences over 10 years; escapes; current or previous sentence involves violence, threat to life, firearms, sex, arson, drugs or robbery - they will be initially categorised to B. All others will be categorised to C. It is important to note that the OCA department of the prisons will undertake a general risk assessment and if there are any circumstances which indicate that a particular prisoner should be placed in a higher security category than indicated by following the algorithm, that will be recommended and passed to a second prison officer of Security level to countersign.
‘All fire services must make sure that by 2013 the number of minority ethnic recruits reflect the local working population … (and) the number of women must increase five fold’.
Following the introduction of the PSI, all Governors/Directors are required to ensure that this practice is used with newly sentenced prisoners and that the category reviews of all existing male IPPs in Category B prisons must be done with the new procedure. The PSI does not specifically refer to “lifers”, but the algorithm for calculating the initial category refers to IPPs with tariffs over 3 years and “all other indeterminate sentence prisoners”, which clearly covers those sentenced to life.
The Fire Services Minister, Parmjit Dhanda
All indeterminate sentence prisoners are released on a life licence. That has not changed and there is no suggestion that it will in the near future. It remains to be seen whether the introduction of the new PSI and the Walker and James case will have a positive impact upon the stalemate that many IPP/Lifers have reached, but it does at least seem to be a step in the right direction.
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Duncan Warburton, Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of the West of England, writes: I find it impossible to see how this could be achieved legally. To suggest that people in any activity can only perform their duty effectively if the individuals in question reflect the ethnic or gender basis of the local population is nonsense. That the only logical conclusion is that a fire officer, police officer or juror of a different ethnicity to the subject they are dealing with is unable to come to an effective, fair or just decision because of their ethnicity or gender clash is indefensible. To rig the composition of the fire services could only be done contrary to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act.
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Legal Advice
Conspiracy to Murder: To Plan a Death Aziz Rahman and Jonathan Lennon Why write an article about such a specific offence? The answer is that this offence comes up so surprisingly frequently. There seems to be no end to the varieties of situations that can lead to this charge. As will be seen, that is because the essence of the offence is in the ‘agreement’; there need not be a body. On the other hand, prosecutors sometimes like to use this charge when there is more than one person in the dock and all are alleged to have played a different role in an unlawful killing. In those circumstances, it is sometimes easier to charge conspiracy to murder even though there is a body. Definition of Conspiracy Conspiracy to murder is just like any other conspiracy. So just what does it mean to be charged with a conspiracy offence? We concentrate here on statutory conspiracy as this, as opposed to common-law conspiracy, is the most commonly charged type of conspiracy – especially in murder cases. Under section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 it is an offence “if a person agrees with any other person or persons that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions …” results in the commission of an offence. That means simply that just as it is a criminal offence to rob or murder or steal, so it is a criminal offence for two or more persons to agree with one another to rob or murder or steal – or whatever the offence may be. Even this has to be carefully considered by defence legal teams. Is there really evidence of a conspiracy to murder? The course of conduct proposed must be something that will be done by one or more of the parties to the agreement; thus if Defendant ‘A’ agrees to contact and hire a professional hit-man, that is not in itself a conspiracy to murder on the part of ‘A’ under the 1977 Act. ‘A’ would-be a secondary party to the subsequent murder and could possibly be prosecuted under the common-law of aid, abet and procure – but would be ‘not guilty’ of conspiracy to murder. Proving the ‘Agreement’ Judges will remind juries that for the prosecution to prove an ‘agreement’ they do not have to produce a signed contract agreeing to commit an offence. Juries are invited to make inferences from the evidence – for example, circumstantial evidence of a series of suspicious meetings; links to other coDefendants by telephone calls. Often the facts are agreed, but the inferences that can be drawn from these facts are not agreed. Tactical care and skill is required to identify how best to attack the prosecution’s case – i.e. that a series of calls or meetings etc equals participation in some unlawful agreement. Is there another explanation? The fact is that the defence may, either through cross-examination or through the Defendant’s evidence, show that there are
other ‘co-existing circumstances’ which explain the issues and can weaken the prosecution’s inference. The defence lawyers can consider asking the Judge to give a jury direction on circumstantial evidence. This simply means that the Judge will remind the jury that, as a matter of law, it should distinguish between arriving at conclusions based on reliable circumstantial evidence and mere speculation. Juries are often told that speculating in a case amounts to no more than guessing, or making up theories without good evidence to support them; as that is an un-supportable basis for a conviction. Acts and Declarations In conspiracy cases there will often be significant areas of evidence which, on the face of it, seem damning but which in fact are not admissible against a particular Defendant. A basic rule of evidence is that, ordinarily, acts done or words uttered by ‘A’ cannot be evidence against ‘B’. But in conspiracy cases there is the so-called ‘acts and declarations’ rule. This provides that the acts or declarations of any conspirator or co-accused made in furtherance of the alleged common design may be admitted as part of the evidence against any other conspirator. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 preserves this rule as an exception against the common-law exclusion of such evidence: s118(1). To be admissible against a co-Defendant, the declaration in question must be in furtherance of the common design; it must “be demonstrated to be one forming an integral part of
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the machinery designed to give effect to the joint enterprise” – R v Reeves, unrep. Dec 4 1998. Descriptions of past events etc are not made in furtherance of the common design and are therefore not admissible against anyone other than the maker. For example, say an undercover officer covertly records a suspect ‘X’ discussing the preparations for an offence where ‘Y’ is mentioned. This could be admissible evidence in a conspiracy case against both ‘X’ and ‘Y’. The acts and declarations rule can, and very often should be tested by the defence, see e.g. R v Gray and Liggins [1995] 2 Cr. App. R 100.
sentence. We all know that there is only one sentence for the offence of murder and that is the mandatory life sentence for adult offenders. That is not true in conspiracy cases; the sentence is open – though, depending on the facts, a conspiracy to murder case may well attract a life sentence.
Difference between Murder and Conspiracy to Murder The main difference of course is that no one needs to be killed. This comes up often in socalled ‘honour killing’ plots, where the accused will all be members of a family who are accused of taking steps to kill another family member; usually a female with plans to marry outside the family race or religion. The police will get wind of the case and either make arrests or even, in a case which Rahman Ravelli Solicitors were involved in, employ an undercover officer to pretend to be a potential hit-man.
Joint Enterprise This topic is not strictly one for this particular article which considers conspiracy cases rather than joint enterprise. However, no discussion on murder involving more than one Defendant would be complete without some mention of the complex law on murder charged on a joint enterprise basis.
The intention in a murder charge is an intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). The intention to actually kill must be present in a conspiracy to murder charge; it is not enough to have an intention to commit GBH only. However, when there is an actual death and there is more than one Defendant in the dock, the Crown will sometimes prefer a straight murder charge as the intention element may be easier for them than that in a conspiracy charge – i.e. charge murder on a joint enterprise basis; see below. Another significant difference is of course the
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Provocation is a partial defence to murder. It cannot be a defence to conspiracy to murder – you cannot plan to be provoked and lose your senses so much you kill your provoker.
Joint enterprise simply means two or more persons embarking on a course of action together so that each is responsible for the outcome – e.g. the getaway driver in a bank robbery is guilty of robbery even if he never set foot in the bank. In R. v. Powell and another; R. v. English [1999] 1 A.C. 1, H.L. the House of Lords considered the vexed question of the liability of secondary parties in joint enterprise homicide allegations. In English, the defence of the secondary party was that he contemplated that GBH would occur to the victim (who was in fact a police sergeant) using a wooden post but did not know the principal would pull out a knife and stab the victim. The trial Judge directed the jury in effect that they could convict English even if he did not know about the knife if he nevertheless knew there was a substantial risk that the principal might cause GBH with the wooden post. The House of Lords did not approve of this direction and the conviction was quashed. However, that does not mean that a difference in the final weapon used always exempts secondary parties from liability to murder, it all depends on the facts and specifically what sort of different weapon was used – i.e. using a gun instead of a knife might be held to make no difference, as each is a highly dangerous weapon to use and so even a secondary party not knowing about the gun could be convicted; see generally R v Rahman [2007] 3 ALL ER 396. Conclusion As we said at the beginning of this article, it is all too easy to find yourself on the wrong end of a conspiracy to murder charge. Just as in any conspiracy case, the essence of the defence lies in a clear understanding of what inferences are going to be made from primary facts, and knowing how to tackle them. The prosecution of course take all their cases seriously, but you cannot help feeling, as a defence lawyer, that when there is a dead body the prosecution move up a gear. This has to be met with a clear understanding of how to tackle a conspiracy allegation and, as ever, early preparation. Aziz Rahman is a Solicitor-Advocate and Partner at the leading Criminal Defence firm Rahman Ravelli Solicitors, specialising in Human Rights, Financial Crime and Large Scale Conspiracies/Serious crime. Rahman Ravelli are members of the Specialist Fraud Panel. Jonathan Lennon is a Barrister specialising in serious and complex criminal defence cases and Prison Law at 23 Essex Street Chambers in London.
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Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Legal Q&A If the assessment identifies risk factors such as violence and substance misuse or education needs which attract particular attention, OASys will, where appropriate, trigger the use of further specialist assessments. It is therefore vital that the information used in your OASys report is accurate.
Inside Time Legal Forum Answers to readers’ legal queries are given on a strictly without liability basis. If you propose acting upon any of the opinions that appear, you must first take legal advice. Replies for the Legal Forum kindly provided by Frank Brazell & Partners; Levys Solicitors; Parlby Calder Solicitors; Stephensons Crime; Stevens Solicitors; Henry Hyams Solicitors; Morgans Solicitors - see advertisements for full details. Send your legal queries (concise and clearly marked ‘legal’) to our editorial assistant Lucy Forde at Inside Time PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ. For a prompt response, readers are reminded to send their queries on white paper using black ink or typed if possible. Use a first or second class stamp.
My advice would be that you ought to challenge the contents of this OASys report by completing a request/complaint form in the first instance. If you have no joy, you should then instruct your solicitor to challenge this further.
From: Mr C HMP Edmunds Hill Q I have had two OASys reports; the first was
From: Mr F HMP Wealstun Q In March 2007, I was sentenced
to four years for various offences. I received my release date, which was half, as expected. A couple of days later, I received new release dates stating that because I was given less than twelve months for each offence I was under the old law therefore my sentence was a parole sentence. Can you clear this up for me?
fine but then out of nowhere came a second full of libellous comments from my first probation officer who was removed at the start of my sentence. I haven't spoken to a probation officer since. Is it normal for the probation service to write defamatory, libellous statements on OASys reports and if not, can I take that person to court? I think the reason they have done this is because I do not want anything to do with them and to serve my full sentence. I don't feel that they should be able to make me out to be someone I'm not. I welcome your comments.
From: Mr R HMP Lincoln Q Please could you advise me how I can get the form MG6C? I would also like the contact details for the support organisation that deals with those that have been falsely accused.
A The MG6C is the schedule of unused material. Whilst proceedings are ongoing, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is under a duty to disclose to the defence any material that undermines the Prosecution case or assists the defence case. Your solicitor should have a copy of the schedule, failing that the CPS. With regard to the False Allegation Support Organisation, their address is: FASO, PO Box 4, Crosskeys, Newport NP11 7YA. Tel: 0870 2416650.
A You state that you were sentenced in March 2007 to 4 years imprisonment for various offences and that the prison has told you that you must apply for early release on parole licence, rather than being automatically entitled to release at the halfway stage.
A I have read your question with some interest. Allow me to explain the background of the Offender Assessment System, commonly known as OASys. The OASys was developed over the last few years and the purpose of it enables the Home Office to assess the likelihood of an offender being reconvicted; the crimogenic factors that need to be addressed if their behaviour is to change; any risk of serious harm they pose; and it provides an initial sentence plan. It is used as part of the Offender Management Process in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). Basically it was developed jointly between the National Probation Service and the Prison Service.
Unfortunately without further information I cannot advise you fully. If any of your offences were committed prior to 4 April 2005 then they fall within the Criminal Justice Act 1991; all offences committed after that date fall under the CJA2003. Sentences are dealt with differently depending upon which Act applies. In particular, consecutive sentences under the CJA91 are joined together to make a single term, and if that single term is then longer than 4 years the prisoner will have to apply for parole at the halfway stage rather than being automatically released. If the sentences are a mix of CJA91 and CJA03 cases, the way they are calculated is set out in PSO 6650 and the prisons employ people who are specifically trained to ensure that calculations are done correctly.
In the preparation of the assessment, it is common for the Probation Service to have an input and, as such, they have to provide a true reflection of your current offence, offending history, financial management and income, relationships, lifestyle, drugs and alcohol misuse etc.
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From: Mr C HMP Ranby Q I have a query regarding HDC appeals. I sat a board in January, eight weeks after my HDC eligibility date. My application was not successful and at the board I was told by the governor that this was due to an entry on my security file and when I received form HDC (6) it stated that I was refused due to risk of reoffending. I decided to appeal and requested clarification of the exact reason I was refused. I was advised that enquires were being made to the board and I would be given details ‘in due course’. I was then advised that I must contact a solicitor and they should request the details, in writing. I referred to PSO 6700 which states that a prisoner has the right to see reports and other documentation on which a decision is based. I have now been told that I have to contact the Treasury Solicitor. I don't understand please can you help?
A
As you correctly state, PSO 6700 clearly states that prisoners are entitled to see all documents used to make a decision regarding release under the Home Detention Curfew scheme. Certain information does not have to be disclosed but a prisoner should be informed that information is not being disclosed as it has been deemed non-disclosure material. There is no requirement that the prisoner has a legal representative to request the information or that a request should be made to the Treasury Solicitor. The position is that any prisoner can request sight of all documents being used to make a decision as to release under HDC either before or after the decision is made. The documents should then be disclosed. If the request is made beforehand, the prisoner should have the opportunity to make representations for the HDC Board to consider when making the decision. The prison is not dealing with your request properly and you should make a complaint in this regard. However as time is of the essence, you may be best served to instruct a solicitor who specialises in prison law who can deal with this on your behalf. It may be that the prison will tend to the disclosure properly once the position is clearly outlined to them by your solicitor.
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Legal Q&A
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BANKS ON SENTENCE Answers provided by Robert Banks, a barrister who writes Banks on Sentence, the book the Judges use for sentencing more than any other. www.banksr.com Q
I pleaded to reckless arson and received an IPP with a 3 year tariff. The psychiatrist said I suffered from a mental illness but if I took my medicine I posed no risk to the public. The Judge accepted this but considered there was a risk I would not take my medicine. That would make his sentence a cautious one. Do I have grounds of appeal?
A The issue is whether the statutory criteria are made out. The principle matter is whether “there is a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm”. I consider the answer to that depends on what is the risk of you not taking your medicine. If the Judge thinks you will not take your medicine, and is able to set out his reasons for that, I consider the Court of Appeal would consider the statutory criteria are made out. I think the decision sounds harsh but I do not have sufficient information about all the background to answer your question in full. I suggest you ask your barrister for a written advice on sentence. S/he knows all the background. You are entitled to that advice.
Q
I was up for sentence. My solicitor handed a letter to the Judge which was confidential. It was a private letter. The Judge said he was going to go along with the recommendation in the presentence report. However having read the letter, he said he would consider a lengthy prison sentence. He then criticised the barrister and gave the case to
another Judge. I was given a new barrister. The new Judge gave me 13 months custody. Is there a point in appealing? Can I launch a civil action?
A
You seem to have been treated very badly. I assume the second judge never saw the letter. It is common for advocates to hand letters to the Court. However only helpful letters should be handed in and you should have been told in advance what he was going to do. This is so you make the decisions in your case, not your legal team. Your problem is that the damage has been done and the irregularity corrected by the new hearing. Your only appeal is if the second Judge’s sentence was manifestly excessive, and it does not seem you think it is. I see no advantage in wasting money on a civil action because the fault would be considered to have been corrected by the new hearing. The court would not be interested in the indication from the first judge. You say the letter was handed up by your solicitor and it was the fault of your barrister. I am therefore not sure who you should complain about. In any event, I doubt the Law Society or the Bar Standards Board would give you much satisfaction if you complain but it is relatively easy to do. If it was the fault of your barrister you can let your solicitor know
about the barrister if s/he does not already know about the incident. You can also complain to the barrister’s chambers and they will investigate your complaint. To do that you should write to the barrister’s Head of Chambers setting out all the details.
If your legal team has already advised against an appeal, without funding there are very limited methods to reduce the sentence. If you are unhappy about the advice you received you can ask your solicitors to try to obtain a second opinion. This may not be possible.
Q
I pleaded on a limited basis. I then had a Newton hearing to determine that issue. My account was rejected. Can I appeal the Judge’s findings about the facts?
A The way to appeal the decision is to ask your counsel to advise you on appeal. You are entitled to a written advice. Newton hearings are where the Judge determines the factual basis for sentence usually with evidence called by one or both sides. The rule of thumb for advocates is to avoid them as they are hard to win. The discount for the plea of guilty is invariably reduced if the defendant account is disbelieved after a Newton hearing. It is much better to negotiate the best possible basis for plea with the prosecution. The Judge is able to reject the defence view of the facts if there is material to do so. I suspect he gave a judgement setting out the reasons for his rejection. Unless his findings are untenable, I expect the Court of Appeal would uphold his decision.
* A Latvian prisoner wrote asking about his fraud case. He supplied no name or address, so I cannot reply to him. If he sends me his details I can reply to his letter. Please make sure the question relates to sentences. Unless you say you don’t want your question and answer published, it will be assumed you don’t have any objection to publication. No-one will have their identity revealed. Facts which indicate who you are will not be printed. It is usually not possible to determine whether a particular defendant has grounds of appeal without seeing all the paperwork. Going through all the paperwork is normally not an option. The column is designed for questions and answers. Please address your questions to Michaela Hoggarth, Frank Brazell & Partners, 97 White Lion St., London N1 9PL (and mark the letter for Robert Banks).
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Book Reviews
Screw It, Let's Do It - Lessons in Life
SPONSORS OF INSIDE TIME’S BOOK REVIEW SECTION
by Richard Branson Jane Andrews finds herself warming to a man she considers has richly deserved all he has achieved in life `The beginning is the most important part of any work...' This may have been said by the Greek philosopher, Plato, but the saying could well have first originated from entrepreneur Richard Branson himself! I was in fact reading another book at the time I saw the title above, and it may have had something to do with my mindset at the time that made me say, ‘That's just what I need to read!'. So here I am, having put my original book to one side, to let you know what my views are on this ‘quick read'… and what a quick read it is; one hundred and six pages to be exact. I have to say over the years I have come across many different opinions of Richard Branson; some good, some bad, and now, having read this book, I am of the opinion that for those who only have a defamatory word to say about him, this could be none other than the ‘green eyed monster’ syndrome, otherwise known as jealousy! This is a man who has made something quite incredible of his life, but not from the lack of hard work, and sadly in the world we live in this usually puts people's backs up, simply because they want what someone else has. Never do they stop to think ‘maybe I could achieve that as well’? The book is divided into nine small chapters with uplifting titles, but begins with a very uplifting introduction where Branson tells his philosophy in life is to, ‘Work hard, and play hard'. However he does state quite honestly that he never followed these rules at every step in his life, and he certainly wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, let alone a canteen of cutlery so to speak! In a sense, he has let us in on his secrets to success, but at closer glance there are no big surprises, just lots of common sense, and in many ways being in the right place at the right time. One section that left a ‘mark’ on me was in chapter six, ‘Live The Moment' which starts by saying ... `Love Life and Live It To The Full. Enjoy the Moment. Reflect on Your Life. Make Every Second Count. Don't Have Regrets’' So
easy to say I know, but it is beautifully summed up with an analogy from none other than the twentieth century Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali.
MORE TEACHERS URGENTLY NEEDED The Shannon Trust’s reading programme ‘Toe by Toe’reaches prisoners that the educational system cannot engage, and 4000 prisoners a year learn to read through this unique programme.The principle of using prisoners to teach other prisoners how to read has several advantages, not least of which is they are a huge resource to help the tens of thousands of prisoners who cannot read.
Could you help by becoming a teacher and in turn help others to enjoy reading? Dali would go for walks in his cliff-top garden, pick a peach, and admire its golden skin. He would let the delicate fragrance fill his senses before taking a single bite, allowing his mouth to fill with the fresh juice and savour the moment, before spitting out the mouthful and throwing the remaining peach down into the sea below. He said it was the perfect moment and he gained more from that than eating a basket of peaches. Richard Branson believes that regrets are like wanting the peach that was thrown to the rocks below. ‘It's gone, and you are full of remorse, wishing you hadn't thrown it away, but he believes the one thing that helps you capture the moment is to have no regrets. Regrets weigh you down. They hold you back in the past when you should move on’. I found this book very inspirational, a true eyeopener to the real Sir Richard Branson, (he was awarded a knighthood in 2000). Not just the name behind the `Virgin Group', but a man who had his first challenge at the tender age of four, when his aunt bet him ten shillings to learn to swim by the end of the family holiday. Of course he took on this bet, even though it meant pulling the car over on the way home to allow him to fearlessly jump into a stream, sink to the bottom, come up gasping for air, but having the sheer determination to succeed; he swam to safety! He believes in goals, so maybe you too should set yourself a goal this week and read this book, because you too might say to yourself ‘Screw it, let's do it.' Screw It, Let’s Do It - Lessons in Life by Richard Branson is available in all good bookshops * Jane Andrews is currently resident in HMP Send
(British parents were asked to name whom they would like their children to look up to most. Richard Branson came second, while Jesus of Nazareth came third. So a man who fed the 5000 with a loaf and a few fish came second to a man who charges three quid for a BLT. Ed)
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New guide ‘self-important’ England England is a nation of "overweight, alcopop-swilling, sex and celebrityobsessed TV addicts", according to a new tourist guide book. The latest edition of the Rough Guide to England says no other country is as "insular, self-important and irritating". But in turn none is more "fascinating, beautiful and culturally diverse", with such "an unparalleled range of historic buildings, monuments and landscapes". Oxford is "superb", Bath "unmissable" and Newcastle "vibrant", it adds.
Certain towns and cities are recommended to visitors, such as Bath which has "graceful, honey-toned terrace, beautifully preserved Roman baths and a vivacious cultural scene". The Lake District, South Downs and Royal Tunbridge Wells also all find favour. But many other places are criticised. Plymouth has "a bland and modern face", Derby is "unexciting" and Essex is "an unappetising commuter strip".
The Rough Guide produces travel manuals for more than 200 destinations worldwide.
When it comes to England's people the guide gives with one hand - kindly describing them as "animal-loving, tea-drinking, charity donors" whose "warmth is in the humour". Back-handed compliments abound in the book, which was produced by four British travel writers. "It's a nation that prides itself on patriotism - yet has a Scottish prime minister, Italian football coach and a Greek royal consort," it says. England "isn't just one place, but a perpetual collision of culture, class and race". On the one hand, "a genuine haven for refugees" with immigrants from more than 100 ethnic backgrounds, but on the other, "a deeply conservative place". In some ways the country is losing its diversity, the guide claims, "where the hearts of many towns - and increasingly their outskirts - consist of identikit retail zones". "Yet it's also a country where individuality and creativity flourish, fuelling a thriving pop culture and producing one of the most dynamic fashion, music and arts scenes to be found anywhere."
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But it takes away with the other hand, saying: "The English have become obedient consumers rather than active citizens, with brand loyalty the nearest thing to religious/spiritual belief." All in all, the Rough Guide concludes: "The only certainty for visitors is that however long you spend in England, and however much you see, it still won't be enough to understand the place." A spokesman for the company said he believed would-be visitors would recognise that the comments were "tongue-in-cheek". "Our sense of humour is one of the many reasons, along with heritage and culture, that people come here," he said.
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Book Reviews
35
Urban Smuggler by Andrew Pritchard with Norman Parker Lucy Charman uncovers some fascinating facts about the life of the man allegedly behind Britain’s largest cocaine smuggling operation It is always difficult to read and review a book that you have not picked up and chosen yourself. It was therefore with some trepidation that I began to read Urban Smuggler. Suffice to say I got so engrossed that I nearly missed my stop on a train back from London! Andrew Pritchard is notorious for having been held responsible by HM Customs and Excise for being the ‘mastermind’ behind Britain's largest cocaine smuggling operation. This book would have you believe differently! Urban Smuggler sets out to tell Pritchard's life story, culminating in an alleged drug heist. It is clear from the beginning that he has always sailed very close to the wind and one is left wondering which of Her Majesty's establishments he would now be languishing in if he had been picked up at the start of his somewhat shady existence. Whatever you feel about his wheeling and dealing – and let’s face it, as readers of Inside Time we may not be the best people to cast an opinion – you cannot help but admire the hard work he put in; seeing an opening in the market, so to speak, and going for it. His entrepreneurial way of life started by selling weed at parties; he then moved on to running sell-out warehouse raves at the height of the acid-house era; not always within the letter of the law but all the same very successful ventures. For reggae fans he was the inspiration and driving force behind bringing back the Reggae Sunsplash event to Tower Hamlets; no mean feat when you consider he was up against the likes of Harvey Goldsmith in the music event promotional game. The book describes his trips to Jamaica and his roots. Although of mixed race (apologies if I haven't used the PC terminology, but it is how the author describes himself), Pritchard considers he has a stronger pull to the Caribbean than south London. He very quickly made the right contacts to learn the trade of producing and shipping top quality product. He wasn't short of ideas himself, particularly in coming up with ways of fooling HM Customs with some
unique shipping methods! He then returned to England but his new 'job' as a smuggler was short lived. Finally, with a friend, he makes what could be considered an ill-fated trip to Jamaica where he flies onto Cuba for a holiday. Despite having promised his girlfriend Amber that he would not smuggle again, he was fairly easily lured into the prospect of smuggling cigars – not a crime that would immediately perturb the drug squad but causes much heartache to HM Customs and Excise in the shape of the VAT man. Pritchard's final adventure in Urban Smuggler was the subject of a documentary made by Donal Macintyre, the investigative journalist renowned for going 'undercover' and joining various gangs and other such criminal elements. The title of the documentary is Cocaine and Coconuts and the book is being considered for the subject of a film – I suspect the genre will be a mixture of comedy and fast moving thriller, but without any really nasty violence. However much you may disapprove of Pritchard's way of life, the book is highly entertaining; one story, about 'The Bat', an inmate in Wandsworth, had me crying with laughter – slightly embarrassing since I was in a packed hospital waiting room, but who cares! It is well written with Norman Parker, and one of the best descriptive biographies I have read. You could almost feel the heat of Jamaica, hear the beat of the acid house parties and visualise Andrew Pritchard swanning round London with his crew. The final chapters of the book left me wanting to cheer the outcome but also provided food for thought about the authorities paid to uphold the law – read it and you will know exactly what I mean! There is a sequel to this book: Behind Every Empire Lies a Crime and I simply can't wait to read it. If Andrew Pritchard were to put his entrepreneurial skills to legitimate business, and he may well have since writing this book, he would undoubtedly be up there with the likes of Alan Sugar and Richard Branson.
VILE PERVERT usical
The M
Bob Woffinden reviews an unusual film about the case of former pop mogul Jonathan King t’s still possible that the British legal authorities will come to rue the day that they convicted and imprisoned Jonathan King for ever since, he has continued to fight to show that he was wrongly convicted. He is now counter-attacking in two ways: on the legal front, by taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights; and on the popular front, by making a full-length film about his case.
I
Vile Pervert - The Musical is a film calculated to offend almost everyone. It probably will. It is an often hugely funny account of how his case developed, how the media works in conjunction with the prosecutors, and how he was ensnared by the system. King has written, produced and directed the film, and plays most of the characters himself; egomania always was something to which he would have to plead emphatically guilty! The cast of characters includes God; Flame Mitchell, the red-haired editor of the country’s most scurrilous tabloid (wonder who that could be?); and a police officer involved in the case, DCS Littledick. King also impersonates a complainant, and those leading him astray his wife and a top public relations adviser, both of whom understand that the “better” the story, the greater the financial reward.
Musically, the film accommodates the old and the new. ‘It’s Good News Week’, King’s fondly-remembered song from the ’60s casting an ironic eye over the doomsday scenarios in vogue back then (Barry Maguire’s Eve of Destruction being a prime example) finds a fitting niche here to accompany newsreel of 9/11 - King’s trial having started the day before, on 10 September. For one of the new songs, King has been the first to appreciate not only that the Director of Liberty richly deserves to have a song written in tribute to her; but that a name like Shami Chakrabarti need not preclude perfectlyscanned lyrics. The occasional, gloriously Monty Pythonesque moments ultimately lead to the heart of the legal matter: that King’s conviction followed the changing of the indictment, after all the evidence had been given, at a time when the defence QC and solicitor were not in court. So King was convicted on new charges to which he was not allowed to present a defence. That was bad enough. The fact that he has subsequently been able to show that, when an “offence” of which he was convicted was supposedly committed in London, he was actually in New York - well, that merely confirmed that a judicial system like this merited a Pythonesque treatment. Offbeat authored documentaries as popularised by, among others, Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, have lately been winning plaudits and audiences, even if they are not as offbeat as this. I have often thought that several contentious cases are ideally suited to being developed as cinema documentaries; so if this film starts a trend, it will be an enormously welcome one. Meanwhile King, who has always considered himself a pioneer, has devised a different distribution system. He is making his film freely available over the Internet, either to watch online or to download. It will be interesting to see just how big an audience he ultimately succeeds in reaching.
Urban Smuggler by Andrew Pritchard with Norman Parker (Mainstream Publishing) ISBN 978-1-84596-310-1 price £9.99. www.urbansmuggler.com
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Jailbreak P HIP HO JAZZ
Gema Music Quiz
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1.Who had the original hit with 'we are the champions' ? (a) Beatles (b) U2 (c) Queen (d) Bon Jovi 2.Who organised Live 8? (a) George Bush (b) Bob Geldorf (c) Oxfam (d) Hannah Parvaz 3.Which band was Robbie Williams once a member of ? (a) Boyzone (b) Backstreet Boys (c) Westlife (d) Take That 4.Who sings Penny Lane (original) ? (a) U2 (b) Queen (c) Beatles (d) Oasis 5.How many members are in Girls Aloud? (a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 4 (d) 5 6.What band was Paul Weller in? (a) The Undertones (b) Sex Pistols (c) The Jam (d) Simple Minds 7. In which film did Eminem appear? (a) Green Mile (b) Get Rich or Die Tryin (c) Fear of a black hat (d) 8 Mile
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Blast - Tony even warned me about Bush’s stupid super glue prank and I still fell for it!!
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LAST MONTH’S INSIDE KNOWLEDGE WINNERS
8.What year was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody first released? (a) 1976 (b) 1973 (c) 1974 (d) 1975
?
9.Which duet released a version of Dancing in the Streets? (a) The Everly Brothers (b) Mick Jagger & David Bowie (c) Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder (d) Justin Timberlake & Britney Spears
Horace Greaves HMP Rye Hill
10.What was Leona Lewis's debut single? (a) Bleeding Love (b) A moment like this (c) Evergreen (d) Better in Time
Phil Dent HMP Swaleside
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See below for details of how to enter. The first three names to be drawn GEMA MUSIC QUIZ WINNERS with all correct answers + UCHER Ivor Turner £15 VO logue (or nearest) will each receive a ta a free c HMP Blakenhurst £15 Gema Record Voucher Robert Moore and a free catalogue.
What do you think is being said or thought here?
Cherie Blair who has recently caused a stir with the revelations in her recently released autobiography ‘Speaking for Myself’. In it she insists that she takes no pleasure from Mr Brown’s current difficulties even though “Gordon’s impatience” to take over from Mr Blair was a problem that her husband could have done without.
£5 Consolation prize WINNERS Ross Dixon HMP Dartmoor
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ANOTHER £25 PRIZE IS ON OFFER FOR THE BEST CAPTION TO THIS MONTH’S PICTURE.
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The answers to last month’s quiz are on the back page
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Cast your mind back and see if you can recall:
CAPTION C OMPETITION
COUN
Paul Jewitt HMP Hull
Inside I nside K nowledge The p rize q uiz w here w e g ive y ou t he Q uestions a nd t he A nswers ! A ll t he a nswers a re w ithin this issue o f I nside T ime - a ll y ou h ave t o d o i s f ind t hem ! ! 1. Not one ethnic officer was on duty in which establishment? 10. Whose Category 'D' Parole Board recommendation was endorsed by the Home Secretary in February 2008? 2. Who considers the Parole Board should be made a proper court? 11. Which word is not in the HMPS vocabulary? 3. How many family members call the Prisoners' Families Helpline each month?
? ? ? ?
4. Who claimed that prisoners have a 'cushy life with drugs, booze and prostitutes breaking into jail'?
? ?
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12. Those seeking advice will be reassured by the existence of which impartial and recognised Association?
5. Out of Charles Bronson's 34 years in prison, how many have been spent in solitary 13. Who remarked: 'You cannot train me for freedom in conditions of captivity'? confinement? 14. Who had chosen Colin from the adoption agency's photograph book of 'available children'? 6. Who is described as 'God's Rottweiler'? 15. Which Director richly deserves to have a song written in tribute to her? 7. On average, how many minutes a day in 2006-07 were spent on vocational Answers to Last Month’s Inside Knowledge Prize Quiz training for prisoners? 8. According to published Prison Service figures, how many inmates have absconded from open prisons in England, Wales & Scotland in the last ten years? 9. About which prison did a report state that staff 'appeared reluctant to challenge inappropriate behaviour'?
1. Muhammad 2. Yunus Bhad 3. 1,000 4. Parole Board
5. 6. 7. 8.
2,289 33,150 Lowdham Grange None
9. Jamie Bauld 10. 30 11. Church of Offender Management 12. Computer Games
13. Neona 14. Colin 15. Darfur
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Jailbreak WORLD FAITHS WORDSEARCH
TWENTY QUESTIONS TO TO TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
C Z H S N E R H T E R B H T U O M Y L P
1. In which month does the UK move from British Summer Time to GMT?
U O K E D M O R M O N J Y B V Y V R N J
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2. Which famous British heavy metal band is named after a medieval torture device?
E R L V C N M S
3. In skin products, what does the abbreviation SPF stand for?
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H O A E X T A D U
O A T R Y G K O F E D I
P A M O S M Y H N M
S A T N D O P L N O S A L S A P O A M E
4. What was the surname of the 1980s pop duo Mel and Kim?
N S S T R O D
5. Which sport is most closely associated with the Queen's Club in London?
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A T O H U M S O A O T T C A A G
6. Which Elizabethan playwright is credited with inventing such common words as 'bump', 'eventful' and 'lonely'?
7. In 1997, which UK-born entertainer was made an honorary US veteran for his decades of entertaining troops in war zones?
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9. What type of shop was traditionally marked in the street by three golden balls?
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8. First run in 1779, which Classic horserace for three-year-old fillies is run at Epsom every year?
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10. Which theatre company is often known as the RSC?
A M D E
11. In 1985,which British prime minister was refused an honorary degree by Oxford University?
T A N N S B S U Y S B C M S Z R B U M Y
12. Which US investigative organization has the motto 'Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity'?
S U T T V S H C A N D O M B L E G L H A I
13. In world geography, is Madagascar an island or a peninsula?
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14. In the 2006 New Year Honours, John Whiteley was awarded an MBE for services to which sport? 15. In 1969, which British rock band had a UK number one hit with the single 'Honky Tonk Women'?
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FIND THE 34 HIDDEN NAMES OF FAITHS AROUND THE WORLD
16. Of which small principality in the Alps did Prince Hans Adam II become the head of state in 1989? 17. Which German song, about a soldier's girlfriend, became popular with allied troops during the Second World War? 18. In the 1980 film comedy Gregory's Girl, which Scottish actor played the gawky schoolboy, Gregory? 19. Which actress played the character Cathy Gale in the 1960s TV series, The Avengers? 20. In 2004, which former Bond star was the voice of Santa in the UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me?
ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE PAGE
AMISH - ATHEISM - BAHAI - BAPTIST - BUDDHISM - CANDOMBLE CHRISTADELPHIANS - CHURCH OF ENGLAND - CHURCH OF SCOTLAND DRUIDS - GREEK ORTHODOX - HINDUISM - ISLAM - JAINISM JEHOVAHS WITNESSES - JUDAISM - METHODIST - MORMON - PAGANS PENTECOSTAL - PLYMOUTH BRETHREN - QUAKERS - RASTAFARI ROMAN CATHOLICS -RUSSIAN ORTHODOX - SALVATION ARMY - SANTERIA - SCIENTOLOGY - SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS - SHINTO - SIKHISM TAOISM - UNITARIAN - ZOROASTRIANISM CHECK FORWARD, BACKWARD AND DIAGONALLY, THEY ARE ALL THERE! Compiled by Lucy Charman, formerly HMP’s Morton Hall and Peterborough.
MW HMP DOVEGATE
Questions at the Pearly Gates Three guys die and end up at the gates of heaven, talking to St. Peter. "So," Peter asks the first guy, "how many times did you cheat on your wife?" "None. I had a perfect marriage." "Great," says Peter. "You get to cruise around heaven in a Mercedes. And you, how many times did you cheat on your wife?" "Only twice, I think," says the second guy. "Okay. You get to cruise around heaven in a Cadillac. And you, how many times did you cheat on your wife?" "12 times. Maybe 13," says the third guy. "Okay," says Peter. "You get a rusty Ford." Later that day, the guy in the Cadillac sees the guy in the Mercedes crying. "What's wrong?" "I just saw my wife and she was riding a skateboard."
For a free assessment, contact contact SCOMO’s SCOMO’s Personal Injury Lawyers
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HAVE YOU BEEN INJURED? At work? Slipping or tripping? In a road traffic accident?
NO WIN, NO FEE We offer:
Free prison visits No fees to pay, win or lose Keep all of your compensation including loss of earnings and other expenses A NATIONAL NATIONAL FIRM WITH LOCAL KNOWLEDGE Scott Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair Solicitors OFFICE 7, 19 GREENWOOD PLACE, KENTISH TOWN LONDON NW5 1LB
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MICHAEL PURDON Solicitor Ward's Building, 31-39, High Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 1EW
Tel: 0191 2321006 Fax: 0191 2320445 Irrespective of where you are in your life sentence you will experience delay in your progression. We can help. We advise on sentence planning, risk assessment and career progression of life sentence prisoners. We also specialise in mandatory lifer panels, discretionary lifer panels, IPP cases, recalls, CCRC applications and judicial reviews.
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LIKE TV’s ‘Catchphrase’
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ENTURY
Just say What you see!
I T SUDOKU
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7 6
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DDDWESTDDD
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Hell 2 - 1 Heaven
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T A H W
M U S T
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JOANB
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9 8 5 4 3 9 7
6 3 5 8
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9 5 8 1
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ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE
ANOTHER ANOTHER ANOTHER ANOTHER ANOTHER ANOTHER
1. Unsuitably (7) 2. Except if (6) 3. Go downhill fast! (3) 4. Coarse tea-towel (4-5) 5. Laundry worker (6) 6. Joins up (7) 10. Young people (9)
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SAS
A N S W E R S O N T H E E D G E O F T H I S PA G E > > > > > > > >
Edward Leonards Solicitors Immediate Visit, Proactive and dedicated Clear advise and effective representation In all aspects of prison law • Adjudications: Advice and Representation • Licence Revocation and Recall to Custody (Urgent intervention and Review) • Parole Board Hearing • HDC Conditions and Breaches • Re-categorisation & Cat A Review • Allocation and Transfer Issues • Criminal Cases & Confiscation Proceedings • Appeals & CCRC (Assistance with application) • Complaints about Maltreatment • Tariff Setting & Written Representations • Appeals • Human Rights • Immigration and Deportation For Immediate help and assistance, please contact
Mr. Edward Obioha 245 Walworth Road, London SE17 1WT
Tel:
020 7252 7676
Criminal Defence Service
Fax: 020 7252 5800 Legal Protection for Prisoners’ Rights
S
hepherds olicitors
Specialists in Prison Law and Criminal Defence Work We can assist you with : • • • • • •
All criminal court proceedings Adjudications Parole Applications Re categorisation and transfers HDC refusals Licence recalls
or any other prison law matter For a guaranteed prompt response c o n t a c t R a c h e l B a l d w i n at Shepherds Solicitors,Kendray Business Centre Thorton Road Kendray Barnsley S70 3NA
•0114 201 4566•
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ANSWERS TO
SUDOKU AND THE CROSSWORD
14 Unveils (7) 16. Popular caged pet (7) 17. Laud (6) 18. Girl in distress? (6) 23. The alphabet (abbrev) (3)
Serving prisons in the Midlands and the North of England
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Clues Down 6
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1. Publications (6) 4. Removed frost from (2-4) 7. Applauds (8) 8. A Scandinavian Capital (4) 9. Baths (4) 11. Allay (4) 12. Oarsman (7) 13. Hankering (3) 15. Lesley___, Men Behaving Badly actress(3) 17. Interlaced (7) 19. Impel, urge (4) 20. Unit of Matter (4) 21. Fizzy wine (4) 22. Becomes public knowledge (5,3) 24. Attendants (6) 25. Bingo-hall worker (6)
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PRAIRIE
Clues Across
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house
General Knowledge Crossword
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DISC DISC DISC DISC
T O W N
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R ROADS A D S
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step pets pets
3 8 4 4 2 1 5 3 1 6 4 9 8 6 5 3 4 6 1 9 8 2 4 7 7 2
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ARE ON THE BACK PA G E
3. One Step Forwards 4. Glance Backwards 5. A Small House On The Prairie 6.Six Of One & Half A Dozen Of Another 7. Long Time No See 8. Paradise Lost 9. Gross Injustice 10. Three Blind Mice 11. Jack In The Box 12. Put On Weight 13. Assassinate 14. Overwhelming Odds 15. Crossroads 16. Slipped Disc 17. Downtown 18. Scrambled Eggs 19. An Inside Job 20. Split Second Timing
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Jailbreak
Catchphrase answers...Catchphrase answers...Catchphrase answers... Catchphrase answers...1. West Indies 2. What Goes Up Must Come down
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W R I GH T W A Y SOLIC S IT ORS Humans Rights Judicial Reviews Immigration Cases Recall Hearings Tariff Reviews Parole Board Hearings Lifer Hearings Categorisation Complaints Adjudications Write to Appeals Norbert, Nerisa or Ekaete Transfers Parole Applications Wrightway Solicitors Licence Revocations 83 Lewisham High Street Recalls Lewisham Advocacy (assistance in London SE13 5JX
Specialist solicitors, covering all areas of prison law
disciplinary proceedings
0208 297 0044
before a Governor or
Fax: 0208 297 0060
other prison authority if
NATIONWIDE SER VICE
representation is allowed)
Poetry
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
★
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Congratulations to Andy Senior - HMP Whitemoor who wins our £25 prize for 'Star Poem of the Month'.
Lifer's Life Andy Senior - HMP Whitemoor Wake up in the morning Start yawning and stretching My breakfast needs fetching Keys jangling Doors banging Done are the days of hanging Make a cuppa tea Go to the servery Then kick back In my pad Waiting for the call Some screw bawls 'Labour and classes' No gate passes An exodus of the masses To the classes and the shops Tick tock, tick tock The clock never stops Sweat shop, cheap employment No enjoyment Silly pay Mind decay Never mind The daily grind moves on.
One hour’s exercise No ‘hellos’ or ‘goodbyes’ Dry your eyes Stop the cries And the sighs If you fall you can rise Lunch time lock up Stock up Get some fuel Energy for the afternoon duel This journey can be cruel Stay cool Don't lose it Choose it Freedom is the prize Blue skies Cool breeze Come and go as you please.
Day dreamers Dreams are for believers This is a lifer's jail No leavers Just re-cats C Cats and step backs Maybe a sideways move You wouldn't wanna be in my shoes No date for release The pressure doesn't cease Offending behaviour courses Lack of resources Less marriage More divorces Bad choices Hearing voices Voices scream As I dream My dream of freedom Will come One day …..
This is the life of lifers Life in a day Day in a life This is the lifer's life.
This is the life of lifers Life in a day Day in a life This is the lifer's life.
This is the life of lifers Life in a day Day in a life This is the lifer's life.
JOSEPH MYNAH & CO SOLICITORS
Specialist in all aspects of Prison Law • Parole • Criminal Cases • Adjudications & Prison Discipline • Categorisation • Licence and Recall • Appeals • Human Rights & Miscarriage of Justice • Lifer issues Please contact Jennifer or Cosmas at: JOSEPH MYNAH & CO SOLICITORS Unit 54 Grove Business Centre, 560-568 High Road, London N17 9TA
0208 365 9940 24Hours : 07985 555 447
NIKOLICH & CAR TER •
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Assistance with all Prison Law issues, in particular CCRC Applications, Adjudications and Parole Board Hearings Specialists in all aspects of Criminal Law with particular expertise in Serious Crime and Fraud Cases and Confiscation Proceedings
For a prompt service please contact
Gareth Martin or Sarah Bull 19 Ralli Courts West Riverside Manchester M3 5FT 0161 831 5535
approved member of the Serious Fraud Panel
HiAce Solicitors The Legal Rights Bureau For proactive and dedicated advice and assistance in all aspects of prison law and Criminal matters including:• Licence Recall • Categorisation and Transfer • Parole Board Hearings • Adjudications • Tariff Representation • ALP/DLP/HDC/MDT/VDT/ROTL • Complaints about Maltreatment • Human Rights • Appeals • Criminal Cases Review • Judicial Review • Immigration including Deportations Contact Herbert Anyiam at HiAce Solicitors 24 Barclay Road, Croydon CR0 1JN
020 8686 3777
Prison Officer
Lisa Marie Davies - HMP Send Why do you talk to me Like I'm dirt on your shoe I am a human being too Your harshness cuts me like a knife I can't take much more of this life Why treat me like I'm someone you hate You have a job to do, this I appreciate But can't we just try to get along Is what I'm asking really so wrong We're not so different you and me You could be on this side of the fence too I know I've committed a dreadful crime But please leave me alone to do my time Stop trying to bully me to leave your mark Even though you say your bite’s far Worse than your bark Your words really hurt me, it's no lie They make me want to curl up and die
Have you ever served in the Armed Forces? Do you or your partner need help? If the answer is yes, you may be entitled to assistance from The Royal British Legion and SSAFA Forces Help - two charities assisting the Service and ex-Service community, working together to reach all those eligible for assistance. Whether you are still serving your sentence or are due for release, we may be able to provide financial support to you and your family. · · · · · · · · ·
Household goods Clothing Rent deposits Education and training courses, including distance learning Equipment and/or Work Tools Relocation Costs Advice and Guidance on getting a job or learning a trade Advice and Guidance on applying for a war pension Assistance for your partner and family
Regretfully we cannot make cash grants. Nor can we offer legal or appeals advice. If you would like further information, or a visit from one of our caseworkers to discuss assistance please write to: TRBL / SSAFA Forces Help (Ref Inside Time) Freepost SW1345, 48 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JY
Or tell your partner to telephone Legionline on 08457 725 725 or SSAFA Forces Help on 020 7403 8773 or they can log on to w w w. b r i t i s h l e g i o n . o r g . u k o r w w w. s s a f a . o r g . u k
Poetry
Insidetime June 2008 www.insidetime.org
Handing Basket - Seeds of Hope
Application Procedure
Sol, Wayne, Mark, Jahbi, Sed
Steve Twigg - HMP Hull
Vibrant life exploding into colour; Lavender bordering on white, nearly summer Scarlet red, cornflower blues Primrose yellow, all kinds of hues The smell of life, the smell of peace The smell of hope that comes with release Warmth of colour, coolness of touch Such amazing beauty is almost too much Though the soil in the basket gets into my nails The hope of the future will always prevail.
Nine months ago I made an ‘app’ For a pencil set, nothing crap Still I wait one app per month Two formal complaints and nothing back. I'm in art education you see And ‘rules are rules’ 'No art materials to be removed'. So just a pencil set to help me out When in my pad with no way out. Drawing pads, erasers too Can be had on canteen But pencils no, they can't be seen!
Cockroach in my pad
Windows and Bars
In the end I'd had enough The apps weren't getting through, Formal complaint number one came back 'No order seen, make out an app'. Formal complaint number two came back 'No trace of apps we need to know What apps you've made before you have a go'.
At night I watch through my windows and bars I can't see any passing cars There aren’t any people walking on the path I can't hear any person laugh Just looking up at an isolated place With a sad smile plastered upon my face No stars to look at in the night sky Listening only to the wind blow by Watching the leaves falling from the trees Feeling the coolness of the breeze
Nine copies made and sent in At last the money's gone, it won’t be long Three weeks on but no pencils yet! Guess what? I have to make an app!
We will award a prize of £25 to the entry selected as our 'Star Poem of the Month'. To qualify for a prize, poems should not have won a prize in any other competition or been published previously. Send entries to: Inside Time ‘Poetry' PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ.
Basic pencil set first requested 07.08.07 from Argos … finally received 13.4.08!
ANSWERS TO TO THIS MONTH’S TWENTY QUESTIONS TO TO TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 1. October 2. Iron Maiden 3. Sun protection factor 4. Appleby 5. Tennis 6. William Shakespeare 7. Bob Hope 8. The Oaks 9. Pawnbroker's 10.Royal Shakespeare Company
11. Margaret Thatcher 12. FBI 13. Island 14. Rugby League 15. Rolling Stones 16. Leichtenstein 17. Lilli Marlene 18. John Gordon Sinclair 19. Honor Blackman 20. Roger Moore
ANSWERS TO TO LAST MONTH’S GEMA PRIZE MUSIC QUIZ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Mya Kool Mo Dee Jojo Mariah Carey Don Henley Peabo Bryson
7. Bobby Brown 8. Dr Dre 9. Mase 10. Michael Jackson 11. Puff Daddy 12. Janet Jackson
SUDOKU 9 2 4 5 7 8 3 1 6
5 1 7 3 6 2 4 8 9
8 6 3 9 4 1 7 2 5
7 5 8 1 2 9 6 4 3
6 9 2 4 3 7 1 5 8
4 3 1 8 5 6 2 9 7
1 8 6 2 9 3 5 7 4
3 4 9 7 1 5 8 6 2
2 7 5 6 8 4 9 3 1
2 5 6 7 8 4 3 1 9
4 8 7 9 1 3 2 6 5
1 9 3 2 6 5 7 4 8
9 7 1 6 3 8 5 2 4
5 6 2 1 4 7 9 8 3
8 3 4 5 9 2 6 7 1
6 1 5 4 7 9 8 3 2
3 4 9 8 2 6 1 5 7
7 2 8 3 5 1 4 9 6
General Knowledge Crossword
I found a little cockroach in my pad, He was dancing round and round like mad, I said e‘ asy roachy, what’s the score?’ He said ‘yes now Youngy, I've got some draw’. I soon found out he was not joking So we started some serious smoking! I didn't go to sleep till just gone eleven And didn't wake up till way past seven, When I woke up he was still sat there Sniffing lines of coke off my chair! I said ‘hey little cockroach, sort us a snorter’ He said o‘ k Youngy, here’s a quarter!’ And then he said w ‘ ould I like a rave’? Because he had two Es he'd managed to save! A couple more lines to blow your mind, The finest bit of white you will ever find, So if you see roachy don't be afraid Just ask for a snorter till you get paid!
Bretherton Law SOLICIT ORS Specialising in Criminal Defence and Prison Law. In particular:-
Jailbreak
Anthony Young - HMYOI Deerbolt
Adel Burns - HMP Newhall
So I made my app; catalogue order too Nothing happens! So made another … And another … and another.
> NEXT ISSUE Week commencing 30th June 2008
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Parole Hearings Licence Recalls Adjudications Re-categorisation Requests/Complaints Contact: Costa Cantaris or Ozlem Erbil Bretherton Law Alban Row 27-31 Verulam Road St Albans Hertfordshire AL3 4DG
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Across 1. Issues, 4. De-iced, 7. Acclaims, 8. Oslo, 9. Tubs, 11. Ease, 12. Sculler, 13. Yen, 15. Ash, 17. Pleated, 19. Spur, 20. Atom, 21. Asti, 22. Leaks out, 24. Ushers, 25. Caller. Down 1. Inaptly, 2. Unless, 3. Ski, 4. Dish cloth, 5. Ironer, 6. Enlists, 10. Juveniles, 14. Exposes, 16. Hamster, 17. Praise, 18. Damsel 23. ABC
