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the National Newspaper for Prisoners A ‘not for profit’ publication /60,000 copies distributed monthly / ISSN 1743-7342 / Issue No. 143 / May 2011
‘Freezers will be cleared’ Sources close to Inside Time have warned that crime scene samples could be lost or destroyed as storage freezers are cleared in the planned closure of the Forensic Science Service
municate their plans to the scientific community and existing police storage facilities.
he Government-owned laboratories which employ 1600 people, conduct 60% of all police forensic work, and are making a loss of £2million every month, are set for closure in 2012. There has been widespread criticism of the unexpected Home Office announcement among legal and scientific communities from around the world. An online petition, nearing 30,000 signatories from across Europe, Australia and America and beyond, warns that justice may suffer at the loss of the service. But Inside Time understands there is unease amongst police forces as they wait to hear whether they will be forced to assume responsibility for storing extensive crime scene samples at a time when they are facing budget cuts of 20%. A Transition Task Force, dubbed Operation Slingshot, has been established to oversee the demise of the FSS but has so far failed to com-
Dr Peter Bull, a forensic scientist based at the University of Oxford, told Inside Time: “the worrying thing is that we have heard nothing regarding the safeguarding of the fate of the biological samples, or indeed of any other exhibits in store. The preservation of the integrity of the exhibits is not a reversible situation. Once lost they are gone forever... indeed once the chain of evidence is lost they are useless. So what assurances are there in planning or in place for the preservation of vital evidence which is, by and large, the only vestige of hope for those wishing to appeal?” Solicitors with experience of miscarriage of justice cases advise that prisoners who are protesting their innocence, who hope to commission new forensic tests to challenge their conviction, should act now to establish the whereabouts of the samples before they are lost in this period of closure. Inside Justice page 29 The role of the internet in fighting miscarriages of justice page 21
Jeremy Moore represented Barry George in his successful appeal proceedings and subsequent re-trial where he was acquitted.
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Legal freedoms lost
Governor open to legal challenge
Terry Leggatt - HMP Littlehey
J.S. Watkins - HMP Frankland
the national newspaper for prisoners published by Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The New Bridge Foundation, founded in 1956 to create links between the offender and the community.
Prisoners up and down the country are now feeling the full effects of the legal-aid cut-backs imposed by the government. Under the new system prisoners are applying to solicitors, as advertised in Inside Time, only to be told that due to cut-backs, representation cannot be given because their prison address is outside the solicitor’s ‘catchment area’. Prior to this, prisoners could be represented by a solicitor of their choice anywhere in the country. For example; a man in Dartmoor could find a London solicitor advertised in Inside Time, who suited his needs, and retain his or her services.
I write in answer to Ross Gleave’s question posed in your March issue regarding whether it is valid to deny prisoners food when they refuse to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to server staff at HMP Hull.
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The legal right of choice has now been stripped away by a system which is serving to deprive prisoners of a fair hearing by forcing them to use a selected group of firms of the State’s choosing, i.e. within the catchment area of the prison they are being held in. A life sentence prisoner can retain a solicitor outside of the legal catchment area, but cannot hire a new solicitor of his choice, which means he could argue that he is being denied a fair hearing. I believe these cut-backs are now infringing on our Human Rights under Article 6. As a life sentence prisoner now into my 33rd year, and having spent the last 12 years contesting a label of DSPD, I have used four different law firms in order to get that label removed. Now I need to find a solicitor to deal with prison law issues, I am being told that I cannot have the solicitor of my choice. This smacks of an abuse of power by the state over the wishes of the individual. The legal freedom to defend myself with a legal team of my own choice no longer appears to exist. These matters need to be looked at more closely as they affect a lot of people. Surely all prisoners should have the right to decide who defends them – it should be the choice of the individual and not of the State.
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Not only is this intimidatory local policy reprehensible, but also unlawful based on the High Court ruling in R v Governor of Frankland prison, ex parte Russell (2001) 1 WLR 2027 – which concerned the legality of prisoners in the segregation unit being denied meals because they refused to wear prison clothing. The judge in the case was scathing of the governor, pointing out that ‘the overriding obligation of the governor was to care for those in his custody who have no means to obtain food or clothing (the necessities of life) save from him’. Moreover, the judge set out a series of principles governing the provision of food in prison: (1)There is an obligation for the governor to provide adequate food, and to make food immediately available to prisoners who want to eat it. Prisoners should be allowed free access to the place where it is to be collected or eaten. If the governor lays down conditions for such access (e.g. wearing prison clothes or saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’) and prisoners do not comply with such conditions it will be considered by the court that free access has been denied. (2)The rights of a prisoner to the provision of adequate food cannot be withdrawn or limited as a punishment or sanction or a method of coercion. (3) Subject to his obligation to provide prisoners with adequate food, the governor in the exercise of his powers of management is free to decide the times and places where food is to be made available. (4) The governor can lay down conditions which regulate access to the place where food is to be made available, but neither the imposition of such conditions nor the failure of a prisoner to comply with them (or with an order requiring compliance) can excuse the governor from performance of the obligation to provide food to that prisoner or can detract from the fundamental right of the prisoner to adequate food. Thus, as can be clearly established by this case law, the governor at HMP Hull (or more likely the screws on the hotplate) is acting unlawfully. I would suggest that Mr Gleave cut out this reply and affix it to a complaint form addressed to the governor, because in flouting his legal obligation the governor exposes himself to court action for compensation.
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A different view
..................................................... Name withheld - HMP Hull I had to write to inform you that a letter published in your March issue ‘Please and thank you or no food’ by Ross Gleave is utter nonsense. I have been a resident here at Hull for 20 months now, and in all that time I have never been ordered to use my manners when collecting meals. Nor have I heard of any other
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prisoners having to do so. And Mr Gleave was
Ranjit Kaur - Solicitor, Harrison Bundey
on my wing! As for the food here being
A bugbear of mine (and I’m sure many other solicitors will agree, especially in this age of austerity) is clients who ring / write to a few solicitors all at once and then go with the first one that gets back to them. This may cause not only endless problems with funding if those inmates have contacted and returned forms to more than one firm, but also wasted time and resources which could be better spent elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, prison lawyers are not in it for the money. They are passionate about the type of work they do. They usually work very hard for little reward and with minimum internal support.
also disagree. I think the food here is of a high
The message is therefore think carefully about who you choose to contact from the onset. Do your research. Inform a solicitor you contact that at this stage you wish to just sound them out, if you still remain unsure. We are all here to help you and to provide the best service we can.
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improperly cooked and foul tasting, I must standard, considering that most prison budgets are being stretched.
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Star Letter of the Month Congratulations to Jason Smith - HMP Winson Green who wins the £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter
Dangerous cell-mates .................................................. Jason Smith - HMP Winson Green I would like to relate an incident of the type that has become far too common in our prisons, where the mentally ill are now dumped. On Friday 8th of April a prisoner, who had just arrived on the wing, made his way to a cell on the fours landing. The man who this newcomer was to be celled-up with politely asked him if he’d mind going to another cell as he wanted to get his friend in to share the cell. I was standing on the landing opposite and was shocked to see the newcomer launch a blow at the polite man’s face. Obviously shocked himself, the polite man beat a hasty retreat, but the newcomer continued to rain blows on him. I knew the polite man slightly and thought of him as quite harmless so I got involved and ordered the aggressor to stop and calm down. With wild eyes the aggressor backed up and stood where I directed him to. The polite man now had blood dripping from his cheek and what I had first thought of as a punch was actually a stabbing as the aggressor had a sharpened spoon-handle in his fist, which punctured the polite man’s cheek. The aggressor was clearly in an agitated state so I used a calming skill and approached him with my hand out and asked him to tell me his name and what was wrong with him. After a while he calmed down and told me he was a schizophrenic and was hearing voices. He said he could not handle the wing and just wanted to go to the block where it would be quiet. I asked what healthcare was doing to help him and was surprised to hear that he had received no help whatsoever. I told him to go and tell staff that he wanted to go into solitary. Eventually the mentally ill man was taken from the wing, though I have no idea where they took him to or even whether he received any treatment. Now every time I see his victim I am reminded of the attack. On that Friday I looked directly into the face of madness and despair and now I feel less hope or optimism for those who are mentally ill in the prison system. With all the cuts, privatisation, overcrowding and the ‘sod-them’ mentality that seems prevalent in the prison system, prison is becoming more dangerous every day and we should all fear for our futures, both inside and out, because society doesn’t seem to give a toss about prisoners or the mentally ill.
The problem is responsibility ......................................................................................................... Michael Boyle - HMP Kilmarnock
Contents Mailbag ......................... pages 2-9
I read with interest the article by former prisoner Ian Charley in your March issue ‘What’s Your Problem?’ He advocates prisoners putting their personal responsibilities above their rights. When he uses the term ‘rights’ I assume he means human rights. I agree with the principle of personal responsibility and that it should apply as much to prisoners as the rest of society but I do take issue with a lot of his views stated in the article. Early in the piece he states that 72% of prisoners suffer from 2 or more identifiable mental illnesses. I would put that figure higher as many are never diagnosed or treated. There are also prisoners with special needs, learning difficulties and very low IQs. Many prisoners begin their criminality whilst being screwed by the care system and have never learned about personal responsibility or any other positive aspect of an inclusive society. In my view most prisoners are excluded from society before they reach the age where personal responsibility is an issue. Mr Charley speaks about an equality based UK. Since when has this society been based on any realistic notion of equality?
Newsround .............. pages 10-15 Diary ........................... pages 16-17 Resettlement Q&A .......... page 18 PRT Writing Competition page 19 Comment ................... pages 20-33
Without this ‘charade of bizarre entitlements and dogmatic EU based human rights’ as he puts it, the mentally ill, the most vulnerable people who populate our prisons, would be left with no protection. I don’t believe the right to a fair trial or the right to use a toilet is ‘bizarre’, and nor is the right to vote. Most of Britain’s prisoners are victims themselves of a non equality based society. They are not capable of personal responsibility or they have never experienced the concept. It has never been part of their world. You do not teach people about personal responsibility through abuse and neglect, nor denial of their human rights. I expect that there are individuals within the prison system that do have a choice but show 2 fingers to society, but they are not the majority. If our prisons were less about warehousing and punishment and more about education, treatment and preparation for release into a less exclusive and excluding society, then that would be progress towards the real concept of personal responsibility. If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (concise and clearly marked) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. 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.
Celebrating Bob Marley page 20 Thoughts for the Day ....... page 34 PSI Updates ...................... page 35 Family Welfare ......... pages 36-37 News from the House .................................. pages 38-39 Legal Comment .. pages 40-42
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Father’s Day 22nd June Send your message (20 words max.) to Inside Time and we will publish as many as possible in a special Father’s Day section in the June issue. All messages received will appear on our website. Include the name and address of your dad and he will receive a copy of the newspaper. Entries must be sent to Inside Time ‘Father’s Day’ Botley Mills, Botley, Hampshire SO30 2GB. Closing date 23rd May and don’t forget to include your full details too.
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If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Book & DVD Reviews pages 50-51 Jailbreak ................... pages 52-56 Nationwide Service
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Do I have to squat?
Prison governors raking it in from Cat A prisoners
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Joel Petty - HMP Winchester
Steven Clearly - HMP Full Sutton
Can someone please tell me if it is lawful for prison officers to order me to squat during an ‘information received’ cell spin and strip-search? I was in Bullingdon in 2007 and refused to squat for one particular smirking officer, even though I had nothing to hide I refused to comply. I was bent up and escorted to the block, where I was again ordered to squat and I again refused. Again I was ‘restrained’. I wasn’t kicking off and there was no real reason for them to C&R me, I was simply refusing to be humiliated by squatting half-naked for 4 grown men. In the end I was physically held down and an officer positioned himself so he could look up my rear. It was a nasty humiliating experience. That evening I was put on a bus to HMP Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight. So my question is – do we have to squat during a strip search?
I am a category B prisoner and have been at Full Sutton since 2006 and I have been studying the way this establishment reviews category A prisoners. I have noticed that the prison only ever recommends an average of 4 to 6 prisoners to be downgraded to category B per year. There are only 120 category A prisoners here, less than 25% of the prison population. Every category A prisoner has a yearly review of their security classification, which is done by a psychologist, 6 senior governors and the offender manager. I read something written by the then Prisons Minister (Hansard 11th of March 2008) in which he confirmed that the annual cost per place for a standard category A prisoner was £47,613 per year, and for category B prisoners it was £22,707. So I think it should be obvious why the majority of category A prisoners are not having their security category reduced, because each one of them is worth an extra £25,000 in budget to the governor.
Editorial note: According to PSI 48/2010 - Men can be asked to squat, but under no circumstances must women be asked to squat. It is good practice to keep a record of when male prisoners are asked to squat. Those authorised to carry out a search of a prisoner may use reasonable force to do so, in accordance with Prison Rule 47/YOI Rule 43, which states that: An officer in dealing with a prisoner shall not use force unnecessarily and, when the application of force to a prisoner is necessary, no more force than is necessary shall be used. No officer shall act deliberately in a manner calculated to provoke a prisoner.
Why the discrepancy?
IPCC a joke
Robert Owen - HMP Hull
TJ Hockley - HMP Bure
..................................................... I am writing concerning the ‘discharge grant’ given to most prisoners on release from prison. In the outside world, Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) is £64, which the law says is enough to live on for a week. Yet the discharge grant remains at £46! Therefore, if you do not have a job to start immediately on release (and who does?) prisoners must apply for a ‘crisis loan’ because it takes 10-14 days to process a JSA claim (if you’re very lucky!). So prisoners are being put into debt right from the moment of release. So when will there be a change that will allow newly released prisoners to at least start out on an even footing without a debt hanging around their necks? It’s no wonder so many ex-prisoners reoffend so quickly.
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In reference to your mailbag ‘Police a law unto themselves’ (April issue) I would like to say that they will remain so just as long as they have their whitewash group the ‘Independent’ Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to cover up their injustices. It is time the IPCC were disbanded. The job of investigating police wrongdoing could go to the universities, who could employ retired judges and barristers, etc for guidance, instead of what is basically the police investigating themselves. Surely this would be a fairer system. This would also give the universities some much needed income.
As stated recently in Inside Time, there are around 950 category A prisoners in this country, many of whom have been on this level for decades, some with disabilities and long term mental health problems, and some are even bed-bound because of age and illness! Therefore I have come to the conclusion that trainee psychologists and governors are working together with the Director of High Security Prisons to milk the taxpayer by only downgrading a few prisoners per year. Prison governors also get several millions of pounds per year in order to carry out security category reviews which justifies the need for 20 trainee psychologists and 20 senior governors to sit on Local Advisory Panels (LAP). LAP should be abolished and recategorisation be left up to Offender Managers, and this would save millions of pounds per year. Editorial note: According to the latest IMB Annual Report on Full Sutton (released April 13 2011) there are 13 trainers to 3 Chartered or Registered psychologists at the Prison. The total population at the time the report was written was 596 and more than a quarter of the number were category A prisoners.
Putting the record straight
The media should get off our backs
Ian Hutchison - HMP The Mount
Ashley Colville - HMP & YOI Swinfen Hall
..................................................... I would like to respond to both my letter (Mailbags March issue) and also to a couple of responses in the April issue. Firstly I would like to say to the lady, Lorraine, who responded to my letter about Charles Bronson that I wrote that letter purely tongue-in-cheek, and I was glad that she, at least, saw the humour in it. I didn’t write it to insult Mr Bronson or to highlight his misdemeanours. Anyway, if I upset anyone, please accept my apology. I do not offer an apology to Michael ‘Wally’ Mallinson. I have to say, after reading his letter (April issue) it’s no wonder this country is in such a state with people like him in it! An obvious wannabe plastic gangster. He goes on to ask how many books I have written and had published from inside a cage? Well, I don’t live in a cage, but if I did I would have to truthfully answer – none. But, in my own defence I am an award-winning poet and a prize-winning writer, and I am currently writing a book.
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I have never written in before, although I read the paper every month, but I feel compelled to say something about how the media portrays us. The media are always going on about how we have TVs and PlayStations, but they never mention the fact that we pay every week out of our meagre wages for the privilege of having a TV, and to get a PlayStation you have to earn Enhanced status and then be allowed to buy one yourself out of your own money. They somehow always forget to mention those little facts when they’re spouting their rhetoric to the public. It also annoys me when the media kick up a fuss about prisoners having access to education and working for degrees. Don’t they care or understand that education is part of the rehabilitation process? Isn’t it proper that we should come out of prison better educated than when we came in? Otherwise, what is the point of talking about ‘rehabilitation’? The media should find another punchbag and get off prisoners’ backs for a while.
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cat prisoners to fight in war zones around the world in order to replace brave professional soldiers who are due to be made redundant by this government…why not extend the policy to include A and B cat prisoners who are violent and dangerous anyway, and would no doubt relish the opportunity to run amok with home-made weapons…
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Inhumane and deeply disturbing Emma - HMP Low Newton In last month’s issue (April) we featured a couple of spoof articles for April Fool’s day. The first was on our front page and was titled ‘Disney in bid to run British prisons’. The second was on page 13 and was titled ‘Call up for category C and D prisoners’. Though nobody seems to have been fooled by the Disney article, it would appear that the item on page 13 worked a little too well and quite a number of people actually believed they were to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to stamp about looking for IEDs! Below is a selection of extracts from the letters we received on the subject. Surnames have been withheld in order to spare the blushes.
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HMP a ‘Micky Mouse’ firm anyway Ian Kennedy - HMP Wakefield Your front page article ‘Disney in bid to run British jails’ (April issue) was first class! I have no doubt that there were some people that totally believed it until the penny finally dropped that it was April 1st. But on a serious note though, could a real ‘Micky Mouse’ organisation run our jails better than the current MoJ/NOMS cowboy outfit? Come to think of it, couldn’t the Disney organisation do a better job of running the country rather than the current bunch of comedians?
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Why not use cat A and B prisoners? Richard - HMP The Verne I write to register my strong objections to the new government policy of calling up C and D
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Mailbag
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…Cameron aired the view that cat C & D prisoners should be used as ‘expendable’ implements in a war that most right-minded Britons refused to support…this is a breach of every human right and law known to man and it is also inhumane and deeply disturbing… these ‘fat cats’ want to use us as human sacrifices…let’s kick Cameron’s ignorant, insidious arse!
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Cameron and Clarke’s ‘Death Walkers’ Craig - HMP Garth I am feeling intense outrage and disgust after reading of the call-up for cat C and D prisoners…this article has brought to the attention of many prisoners David Cameron’s so-called ‘Big Society’ policy…the idea is that because we are prisoners we can be sent to war and be used as decoys and made to basically commit suicide by going ahead of our armed forces for the purpose of triggering of Improvised Explosive Devices!!! We would be nothing but death walkers…this kind of prejudice is exactly why some prisoners are the way they are…
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What a liberty! Jimmy - HMP Wandsworth I think it’s a dire liberty of this government for suggesting that prisoners who have managed to work their way to C and D cat should be used to set off bombs in Afghanistan…who do these people think they are?...and they had the front to moan at Saddam Hussein for mistreating his prisoners and using civilians as a human shield…liberty!
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..................................................... Stephen Marsh - HMP Swaleside Could you please clarify the prison service policy on the purchase of Premium Bonds by convicted prisoners? For the past two years I have purchased them through the prison, using my spends account, without any issues at all. However, the last time I tried to buy them I was told the new Governor had withdrawn this ‘privilege’. In PSO 4465 it does indeed state that the Governor of each establishment has the discretion to allow these purchases, but it only says this applies to applications to buy them from your private cash accounts. Surely in these harsh economic times it would be more beneficial to the prisoner and the country to encourage these saving schemes rather than ban them? If only half the prisoners in the country invested the minimum £100 that it costs then that would raise £4 million pounds. Some may say that is a drop in the ocean compared to the debt the country is in but surely it is better to save these small drops rather than let them leak away. No prisoner wants to become a burden to society if released, so allowing us to save these small amounts, and possibly even win a prize or two, would help us with our self esteem and the public from further costs. I can only see a win win situation in allowing us this ‘privilege’. Are we allowed to purchase Premium Bonds using our spends account without it being subject to a Governor’s decision?
Writes The current policy guidance on the purchasing of Premium Bonds is set out at Paragraph 2.17 of PSO 4465, Prisoners Personal Financial Affairs, this states: ‘At the Governor’s discretion a prisoner may send money from their Private Cash, for the prisoner or a family member / friend to purchase premium bonds on their behalf, provided the establishment’s published Private Cash spend limit is not exceeded in a 12-month period.’ Your correspondent has also written about this matter to Crispin Blunt, the Prisons Minister, and a response, similar to the one above, has been recently sent to him from the Minister.
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Visits hall should be partitioned ..................................................... James Stabler - HMP Woodhill I am a prisoner at HMP Woodhill and would like to voice my and other prisoners’ concerns about the situation in the visits hall here. The problem is that down one side of the hall there are a row of tables for VPs. This row contains sex offenders whose crimes include offences against women and children. I believe there should be a partition between us and them, and I have voiced my concerns to several members of staff. These people should not be in the same room as us, where they can stare at our families and children. In the visitors waiting room my partner and son were waiting to be let in when somebody pointed out a man nearby and said that anyone with children should watch him carefully as he is a paedophile. My partner, understandably, did not want to be in his presence so moved to the other side of the room. Shortly afterwards she watched as this man approached a young girl and asked her name. It turns out that this man was a definite paedophile and had not long been released from Woodhill. By talking to the child he breached his license and was arrested. I find it incredible that this was allowed to happen because the prison knew he was coming to visit somebody who was also in for offences against children. It sickens me that people who have been convicted of such crimes are put in the same vicinity as our children and families – both in the waiting room and the visits hall itself. The people in question are a danger to women and children and I believe Woodhill owes our families a duty of care. These people should be put in a separate room or have the visits hall partitioned, and this should be done as soon as possible. I don’t want these people anywhere near my child or partner, and neither should I have to worry about such things. There are prisoners here who will not have their children on a visit because of this situation. And this cannot be right.
For your information, the policy on premium bonds is to be reviewed by the NOMS financial policy lead as part of the prisoners’ financial specification work to be undertaken later in 2011; which may result in a change of approach.
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.
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Sometimes we should make time to listen Here’s a challenge ... .................................................................................................................... N Sahodree - name of prison not supplied
Xbox 360 ..................................................... Jay Webster - HMP Gartree I would like to know the situation regarding Xbox 360 consoles in the prison system. Here at Gartree the facilities committee have stated that there is a national policy regarding the consoles, basically they are not allowed. I find this situation strange as I am informed that other prisons have them on their facilities list and they are advertised by GEMA records in Inside Time. What is the situation regarding the security over the consoles. I have been informed that they pose no greater threat than the old Xbox model, regarding internet access, and the only difference between them and the arcade version 360 is the laser and graphics.
Writes The restrictions imposed on games consoles are to prevent prisoners having access to any Wi-Fi enabled equipment that would enable them to connect to mobile broadband. The Prison Service has a responsibility to protect the public by having arrangements in place that control a prisoner’s communications. In support of this, preventing unauthorised access to the internet helps to guard against the potential for prisoners to engage in criminal activity and/or download material that is offensive, inappropriate, or otherwise a risk to security. Games consoles that allow access to the internet, such as the Xbox 360, are accordingly not generally permitted.
I read Tony Coughtrey’s letter regarding the suicide of Adam Rickward (April Star Letter) with keen interest. There was a lot of passion, anger, frustration and self-guilt in it. And I know how he feels. Recently one of our own colleagues, Colin Varley, decided to take his own life. His death upset a lot of inmates and staff. The whole wing resounded with the words ‘I wish I had listened to him’ or ‘I wish I’d made more time for him’. On Wednesday the 6th of April Reverend Sheila Lucas held a beautiful service here in the prison chapel for Colin. It was called ‘Thanksgiving for the life of Colin Varley’ and the chapel was packed with inmates, visitors and staff. Even the governor was there. We all got involved in singing hymns and praying and there was a lot of emotion. There were heart wrenching eulogies from his cell-mate Richard, and his friend Dean, and a poem from Paul Denton which was very touching. The main gist of Reverend Lucas’ message was that we should take more time to listen to the next person, no matter how busy or involved in our own lives we may be.
can you beat our record? ....................................................... Nicky Pearson - Director of Mountain Child In January 2011, a group of eight men at HMP Highpoint set out to run 1,500 miles on treadmills, as a fundraising event for Mountain Child, a charity which brings humanitarian aid to children living in the Himalayas. The aim was to provide urgent medical supplies in remote villages where half the children die before they reach the age of eight (mainly due to unclean water).
Colin, we shall remember you and our deepest sympathy goes out to all of your loved ones.
Mind your own business ..................................................... Martyn Dance - HMP Channings Wood I would like to comment on the letter in your April issue by Dean C (Rehabilitation not medication). Firstly, the writer clearly has no idea about what he is commenting on because our medicating is the first step of many on our road to rehabilitation. Methadone prescribing can be as long a process as you want it to be, everyone detoxes in their own way, we are all different. As for people on methadone ‘jumping on the first bit of tackle that comes on the wing’, speak for yourself. The writer states that he ‘and others’ don’t think its right that addicts are allowed to do their whole sentence on prescription medication – is he jealous or something? I’m clean and off the gear and that’s the main thing. And since when has it been anyone’s business when I or any others for that matter come off our scripts and end our detox? This is my problem and I’m dealing with it in my own way. You may not have a drug problem, or just not want to sort it out, that’s up to you. But what I read in that letter was a clear case of discrimination and he’s tarring us
all with the same brush. He needs to get on with his own life and stop worrying about other people’s.
....................................................... Paul Eaton - HMP Lewes n I write in response to the letter entitled ‘Rehabilitation not medication’ by Dean C of HMP Lincoln (April issue). So he and ‘many others’ don’t think it’s right that addicts are allowed to do their whole sentence on prescription medication? Well I’m sorry about that but who exactly is he? And what gives him the right to spew this jealous bile anyway? He believes prisoners should be made to get clean and stay clean, and that’s his expert medical opinion, is it? Well I’ve been on methadone maintenance for 30 years and where I am located is irrelevant - in prison or outside - as I have been diagnosed by professionals in the field who feel that the best thing for my health is management and harm-reduction via controlled medication. As for wanting addicts to rehabilitate and not medicate – I know addicts who have not used a street drug for over 20 years, and who work and have their own homes and happy family lives. They haven’t offended for many years; they don’t need to as they are on methadone maintenance. He should try to learn about the nature of addiction before he next opens his big mouth about it.
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Participants in the Mountain Child UK charity run at Highpoint. By the end of March 2011, the participants had totalled over 2,600 running miles and raised over £1,000 and were fitter for it, one man having lost two stone in weight. So not only will the lives of many be improved by this fundraising venture but some lives will be saved and it has provided an opportunity for all those involved, to give for the benefit of others. Mountain Child staff extend their gratitude to all those who participated in and contributed to the fundraising and would encourage other establishments to take up the challenge. Your prison could host a similar event, it just needs a few volunteers and the support of gym staff. For more details contact HMP Highpoint Officers Kevin Lloyd or Ian Blatchford.
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Mailbag
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The perils of a cross-border transfer
Staff should lead by example
Abolish the IPP
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Ross Ryan - HMP Frankland
Name withheld - HMP Maidstone
Gary Graham - HMP Kilmarnock
I am currently on Basic because I dared to voice my opinion about some of the staff in this prison. When I did the Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS) course we were told that there are 3 types of people – Aggressive, Assertive and Passive. The aim of the course is to turn us from aggressive and passive and to be assertive instead and to stand our ground when correct, to voice our opinions and not be a pushover. But all that seems to go against you in this place. It seems they want all inmates to be passive and do as they say, I refuse to be one of those prisoners. If an officer shows me respect then he/she will get respect in return. Unfortunately this place is like the Wild West and is run by POA cowboys with many stupid and pointless rules. The landing staff strut about trying to look like the Terminator, just looking for any excuse to jump us, it seems that putting the uniform on gives them a rush of power and they are not shy about abusing it. This seems to be the creed of HMP Frankland – no matter how many offending behaviour courses you do or what they tell you about how to act, the staff, on the whole, do little to lead by example. The Inspector Calls page 10
I have the unhappy honour to warn all future Scottish inmates who are currently in the process, or thinking about a transfer from the English system to the Scottish one of the consequences they will face if and when they move. I was transferred last January, moving on the National Draft (a journey of 5 days) arriving at HMP Kilmarnock. The main reason for my transfer was to receive visits from family and friends (maintaining the family ties that the Prison Service harps on about!). Everything was going well until my progression date, I was told it was early this year but as I got close it was moved by 8 months! And the reason? It seems the Scottish system on transfers take your conviction date as the starting point of your sentence, not like in England where they take your first remand into custody as the starting point. Basically, by coming to a Scottish prison I have lost out on 8 months in an open prison – that’s 8 home leaves I will miss with my family. If I had stayed in the English system I could (in theory) have a full 2 years in a category D prison, as is stated in PSO 6300 (your ROR eligibility is 2 years from your release date – though I really wonder how true that statement actually is?) So, if you are thinking about transferring up the road, think hard. Do the pros outweigh the cons, because if I had known that I would be serving longer in closed conditions I may not have bothered moving. When I asked about the disparity in the 2 systems I was told – ‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’. A great reply to a serious question. Editorial note: Tell them you come from Libya
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Negative comments
..................................................... Gary - HMP Forest Bank I recently applied to be upgraded from Standard to Enhanced on the IEP. I’m new to prison and followed the rules of going ‘8 weeks without any IEP warnings or adjudications’. But then my personal officer told me that I could not be enhanced because another member of staff had made some ‘negative comments’ in my wing file. I do not know what these ‘comments’ in my file are, and nobody informed me that my behaviour warranted any comments. How can I change whatever behaviour is being commented on if I do not know what it is that I’m doing wrong. And can it be the case that officers, without informing me, can put negative comments in my file every single day that affect my IEP status? Without even telling me? How can I get to see my wing file? Editorial note: Simply make an application to see it. If not successful, a general app apply for all your records (wing file included) under the Data Protection Act 1998.
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Frankland VP unit a den of iniquity ..................................................... Steve Hodgeson - HMP Frankland Can I start this letter by telling you and the readers that I am in no way, shape or form homophobic or a gay-hater. But I am becoming increasingly frustrated and angry (along with many others) about the blatant disregard of prison rules and lack of respect shown to fellow inmates by some of the gay and bi-sexual prisoners here. It is no wonder that VPs get called derogatory names by prisoners on the main wings when they show a complete lack of self-control on a daily basis. You cannot walk past an open cell or use the communal showers without being exposed to two or more of these prisoners being caught in compromising sexual positions. It is like they don’t care, because they are on a VP wing they think they’ve got a license to do whatever. It’s absolutely disgusting. I believe that, unfortunately, the prison has added fuel, and, maybe unwittingly, a sign of acceptance to this kind of behaviour by allowing two people on another wing to be ‘married-blessed’ and remain not only in the same prison but on the same wing and landing, living as a normal married couple outside would! And if they are allowed it then why can’t heterosexuals have conjugal visits? All we are asking for is that they stop this and show a bit of regard for those of us who don’t want to witness it. If they can’t control their sexual urges then I suggest they register for the SOTP course ASAP.
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....................................................... I contacted NOMS in order to obtain statistics relating to IPP prisoners, which I think your readers will find interesting. The following figures are as of the 17th of November 2010, the last date from which figures are available. l Total IPP population 6,380 l Number of IPPs in open conditions 260 l Number of IPPs who have been released 190 (this figure includes those released and subsequently recalled but does not include those who have been deported)
l Number of male adult IPPs in prison whose offence was sexual 1,594 l Number of male adult IPPs whose index offence was sexual who have been released 21 I also asked for the number of male adult sex offender IPPs who are currently held in open conditions but this figure could not be supplied because the total figure amounts to 5 people or fewer and could potentially lead to the identification of individuals. IPPs are mainly violent or sexual offenders, but from the above figures we can see the dramatic differences between the violent and the sexual offenders in the release rates and number of each in open conditions. Some people may be surprised that only 21 IPP sex offenders have been released in the 6 years that IPP has been in force. The recent Green Paper on Sentencing & Rehabilitation gave the impression that the government might be thinking about abolishing the IPP sentence or at least making retrospective changes, but when it was published there was no mention of abolishing IPPs. It seems that the MoJ decided that the easiest solution to the IPP problem is to keep IPPs locked up, because there are cuts to the Probation Service and they barely coping now with people on license, let alone if a couple of thousand IPPs were to be released. Many IPPs will be required to live in approved premises (hostels) when released and there are not enough spaces available now. So ‘warehousing’ IPPs must seem to be the easiest option to the MoJ. I am an IPP with a 2 year tariff but I have now served 5 years, I have played the game, obeyed all the rules and been a model prisoner, but, despite 2 oral hearings my chances of progressing to open conditions or being released are still zero. I am stable, mentally strong and I can cope well so I realise that I must now put all thoughts of progression or release out of my mind and try to make a life for myself in prison. I can only hope that one day the government will come to its senses and abolish the IPP, and make it retrospective. But I fear this is a forlorn hope.
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Mailbag
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
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An open letter to David Cameron & Kenneth Clarke Spurious recall ....................................................................................................................
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Housing Benefit rights
Mr McKay - HMP Frankland
D Phillips - HMP Elmley
Andrew Hamilton - Welfare Benefit Specialist
collected and the same goal met by allowing people to fill in the census anonymously. This would eliminate any fear, whether rightly or wrongly held, of persecution based on the answers given.
I opted not to fill in my census form, and did so in the full awareness of the facts of the legal requirements and the possible consequences. Now I will tell you why. Whilst I admit that some time ago I showed little regard for the law and actually broke it, I have since taken responsibility for my actions and resolved to maintain certain moral standards without exception. This would usually equate to following the law in its entirety, but I have come to believe that the importance attached to following laws lie in the morality of those laws and the positive effect they may have on society as a whole. However, the legal obligation to participate in the National Census is not a law which I am so satisfied has a positive effect on society. In fact, I believe such a law to be dictatorial and oppressive. I therefore regard it as immoral and negative in effect. Whilst I understand the position you hold, that the census is necessary as it is used to help plan and fund community services, I vehemently disagree. I disagree firstly because I do not regard this as a good enough reason to make it any more of a legal requirement than voting in a General Election, and secondly because the same information could be
You may believe that such persecution is very unlikely, and I would agree, but let us not forget that prior to the Second World War the Dutch government called a census in order to establish the religious affiliations of its citizens – to ensure that everyone was given the appropriate funeral rites. However, after the Nazi invasion this information was used to identify, isolate and massacre the Jews and others. In the minds of some people this sort of thing is a very real fear, and it is not helped by Members of Parliament (and there have been many) declaring in the media that contrary to rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights the minority in this country have to learn that the majority rules. The Convention on Human Rights was introduced, at the end of WWII, precisely because while the majority usually get their rights, minorities sometimes do not. I believe that there is a direct relationship between rights and responsibilities, and civil rights and civil responsibilities. Whether you believe prisoners deserve the right to vote or not it is unrealistic to suspend that civil right and at the same time expect prisoners to embrace civil responsibility such as completing a census form. The two are intertwined and inseparable. Either they are both present or neither is. Therefore I could not, in good conscience, participate in the National Census. And since I hope to be believed on such major issues as my own rehabilitation, I refuse to lie about such minor issues as to whether or not I am truly a Jedi warrior. I therefore regret to inform you that I could not participate.
I have recently been recalled to serve the remaining 6 months of my sentence. This was due to a single missed appointment with my Probation Officer. The background to this was that I had no fixed abode so the Probation Officer had nowhere to send the formal warning letter. Consequently I found out I was to be recalled out of the blue! Now I find myself back in prison at great expense to the taxpayer, and this at a time when the government knows that prisons are overcrowded and that we should be considering all other options before committing people to serve long sentences. My original offence does not warrant this additional, excessive harsh treatment as I have already served 6 months. Interestingly, judges are now to hand out Community Punishment Orders for drug dealers who are caught with large amounts of drugs. Any additional time now served by me in my local jail will just be counterproductive. I would be interested to hear other reader’s experiences of the Probation Service and their seeming lack of concern coupled with a willingness to send people back to prison for the most spurious of reasons.
Never give up hope
..................................................... Lisa-Marie Savage - HMP Send I would just like to thank everyone who has written to me with their support and encouragement after reading my piece in the April issue. I really appreciate everyone’s letters, although it was very sad to read how many other automatic 2-strike lifers are in the same situation as me, years over tariff. My message to you all is to try and stay strong, positive and focussed. Never give up hope because freedom will eventually come to us all. I know it’s a long hard road and that it seems like automatic lifers have definitely drawn the short straws but keep going forward, never give up hope. I am sorry that I am unable to reply to everyone personally but I wish you all the very best.
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I am writing in response to the answer given to AC at HMP Bronzefield in the ‘Information Q&A’ section of Inside Time January 2011 about entitlement to Housing Benefit. In your answer you state “when sentenced, prisoners can only claim housing benefit for 13 weeks (including the period they spent on remand)”. This seems to be a common view among prisoners. Housing Benefit is not automatically paid for 13 weeks to sentenced prisoners. Housing Benefit is only paid to sentenced prisoners if the period of absence from home, meaning the time in prison, is unlikely to exceed 13 weeks. If a person enters prison on sentence and knows they will be in prison for more than 13 weeks, Housing Benefit will stop from the date they enter prison as the absence from home will exceed 13 weeks. Having said this I know from experience that some Local Authorities get it wrong and will pay for the first 13 weeks of sentence no matter how long the person is going to be in prison. Despite being nice for the prisoners who get it, this is incorrect and is part of the reason there is confusion on the issue. A prisoner on remand can continue to receive Housing Benefit as long as they expect to be in prison on remand for less than 52 weeks. In reality, unless a prisoner has a complex charge which will take a long time to get to trial, a prisoner on remand should automatically retain Housing Benefit entitlement. If they are subsequently sentenced then this is a change in circumstances and so from the date of sentence they can no longer rely on regulation 7(16) and (17), regulation 7(13) and (14) must be then be looked at. If the sentence means they are going to be in prison and absent from home for more than 13 weeks, this 13 weeks includes any time already spent on remand, Housing Benefit should cease from the date of sentence. Andrew Hamilton is a Welfare Benefit Specialist and gives money advice to prisoners at HMP Peterborough.
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Don’t mess with the mail ..................................................... Kerry - A Prisoner’s partner Is it just me or do prisons think they can do whatever they want? My partner is currently serving a life sentence at HMP Parkhurst, and has been there for over a year. Just lately I have discovered that prison staff do what they want with the mail. Every time I send a recorded letter my partner gets it 2 weeks later! I understand there is a procedure for checking and censoring inmate’s mail, but this delay is absolutely ridiculous. I have sent important documents first class recorded yet still there is the long delay in actually reaching him. I have complained to the prison but I’m told my partner has to use the internal complaints system, which he has, on many occasions but gets no real answer and the problem continues. I thought prisons were supposed to place importance on family ties, yet mail is a good part of that and they are messing it about. Please stop.
And still staff do not understand Rule 39!
..................................................... James Rimmer - HMP Stocken I know it has been highlighted many times in your pages but there are STILL prison staff who don’t understand the regulations governing the sending and receiving of Rule 39 legal mail! Here at Stocken we have to show staff the letter (though they do not actually read it) before we can put it into an envelope, which is then sealed and signed by the member of staff. From my understanding this should not be happening as we are entitled to seal our own legal mail out of the view of staff. Can you please print the relevant passage of the PSI on Rule 39 mail so that they can see it?
Inside Time writes: PSI2011-006, Annex A, Paragraph 5 “Prisoners should be informed that correspondence addressed to their legal advisers, or to any Court including the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice can be handed in sealed for despatch, provided that the words “Prison Rule 39” or “YOI Rule 17” and the prisoner’s name are written on the back of the envelope. Non-legal letters addressed to bodies/ individuals to which prisoners can write confidentially should be marked “Confidential Access”.
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Warning to prisoners
....................................................... Shek Ahmed - HMP Bure I would like to thank Kevin Willis (February issue) for responding to my letter about psychometric tests, which confirms that this is a widespread problem. But did you know that statistically there is a significant chance of increasing the rate of reoffending and, worst of all, causing psychological damage to many in group therapy? (Source: Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2003) The psychobabes never tell you this when they are bullying you into taking courses. The funny thing is that they tell Ministers and the public that these courses are all ‘voluntary’, when we all know that the IEP/ red-entry threat is used to blackmail you onto the courses. They use phrases like ‘in denial’ and try to brainwash you into thinking you’re guilty when you’re not. The pseudo-psychologists everywhere (but especially in HMP Bure) know all about the dangers they are putting you in, but they never tell you. The other thing they don’t tell you about is the Data Protection Act 1998 and your right to have incorrect information struck from your record under PSO 9020, sections 8.3.2 and 8.3.3. You also have a right to damages if they cause you any harm such as stress and anxiety resulting from these poorly constructed treatment programmes. This is a warning – do not let psychology manipulate you or your test results.
Proof of efficacy
..................................................... Huw Green - Psychological Assistant HMYOI Isis David Baker suggests the Hare Psychopathy Checklist is “drivel” because some of its items seem to describe various world political and religious leaders. However, rather than see this as a limitation, we should take it as proof of its efficacy.
Apology
..................................................... Sergio Lapa - HMP Norwich In reference to the poem ‘In Bed’ which was published in the March issue of Inside Time I would like to say this – At the time I sent the poem in I was unaware that we couldn’t send copies of poems. I had no intention of plagiarising other people’s work. Now I am aware and would like to apologise to your readers. VäzenskéPrávo TrestnéPrávo ÚrazyaNehody RodinnéPrávo
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Article: Is it a step too far Comment by Zoe
Reading an article in my local paper (Bristol) Bottles of Vodka are amongst some of the things smuggled into the prison. It’s certainly a tricky step to walk through a pat down search and up two flights of CCTV monitored stairs whilst smuggling a bottle of Vodka.
........................................................ Article: Suddenly you’re 60 Comment by Ian
Well put John, it’s only on hindsight that we realize . . . and also what a waste of time it all was. Rather than storing up bad memories at least you’ve got the good ones as well.
Odvolaniaprotidűžketrestu/rozsudku @udskéPráva PredēasnéPrespustenia(HDC) VäzenskéKonaniaaPísomnéŽiadosti Premiestneniadoinýchväzenskýchútvarov Akékoűvekproblémyapredmetysporu
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the Judge tells the jury they can ignore the evidence they don’t believe and find guilty on the evidence they do! So what happened to the law of perjury?
.......................................................
Article: Food wasted as people starve Comment by Darby
I was sacked from the Scrub’s kitchen for refusing to pick up a tray of sliced corned beef that had ended up all over the floor after an accident. I was expected to put it back on the trolley - ready to be sent out to the unsuspecting cons on the wings.
.......................................................
Article: Just passing through
Article: Miscarriage of Justice Unit
Comment by John
Comment by Jon
People need to take responsibility for their bad behaviour. Murder is not a learned behaviour, everyone wants to do what they want to do but most have control and abide by the law, the ones who don’t use excuses for refusing to abide to the norm.
I know 100% that my step-father is innocent of any and all charges and even though I am the father of the girl who has made these allegations I also fully understand why she has made them, the facts are based simply upon financial gain, nothing more and nothing less.
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.......................................................
Article: The dilemma of maintaining innocence
Article: Dying inside
........................................................
Comment by Jean
Comment by Jean
There is now NO presumption of innocence for those accused of historical sexual abuse. All that is needed to convict a father/uncle/ grandfather is an allegation; Nothing more. No evidence or facts beyond what the ‘victim’ says happened. Even when they are clearly lying,
I know of elderly prisoners who are ignored by the prison staff if they try to tell them they are ill. I know of people who have had heart attacks in prison and received no medical attention or late medical attention which makes their condition much more serious … What kind of society are we?
Inside Time website by numbers > for the first 3 months of 2011 Unique visitors 150,855 Number of visits to site 234,682 Number of ‘Hits’* 4,819,264 Number of pages viewed 555,976 Average Hits* per day 53,570 Website Comments Posted 875 Most popular sections Address Finder, Regimes, Visiting, Articles, Mailbag, Poems
People from 119 countries have accessed the website: (There are 195 recognised countries so people from 62% of all countries have visited the Inside Time website.)
* Hits: This is the number of different parts of the website that were visited (some people will look at more than one item).
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The Inspector calls ... Nick Hardwick - HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Inside Time highlights areas of good and bad practice, along with a summary of prisoner survey responses, at HMP Frankland, HMP Bronzefield and HMP Doncaster. Extracts are taken from the most recent reports published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons were abrupt and some failed to answer the issue raised. Quality assurance procedures had failed to identify these deficiencies. Prisoners were not happy with the canteen and after problems with DHL in ordering from catalogues the prison was taking over that process.
HMP Frankland
High security category A/B dispersal prison with potentially category A remands. Unannounced full follow-up inspection: 9-19 Nov 2010 Report date: Jan 2011/ Published: Mar 2011
Improving but still many problems
7% English is not their first language; 10% have developed a drugs problem since arriving at Frankland; 17% of prisoners are IPP; 26% have been in prison more than 5 times; 27% lost property arriving at Frankland; 33% have been victimised by staff; 54% have felt unsafe at Frankland; 56% said staff opened legal letters; 59% said the food was bad or very bad; 61% say it is difficult to see the dentist.
ditions in which she was held seemed likely to lead to further psychological deterioration and were completely unacceptable.’ The prison was, however, described as having a good physical environment with good relationships between staff and prisoners although inspectors commented that the majority of staff were male. Contact with families was promoted and the Mother and Baby Unit was particularly praised with excellent commitment by staff including a full time Family Support Worker. Healthcare, however, was described as ‘shockingly poor. Inspectors said; ‘Administration was chaotic. The appointment system was unnecessarily complicated. There were no female GPs. Communication between health care staff was poor. Pharmacy services were tortuous and inconsistent. A new dentist had not been inducted into the prison. A notice in the dentist’s surgery stated that treatment would only be offered if a woman had been ‘in pain for at least three days’. 19% are gay or bisexual; 27% are on remand; 30% are foreign nationals; 42% have mental health issues; 43% had been there less than 6 months; 47% said food was bad or very bad; 68% say it is difficult to see the dentist.
Inspectors were concerned at the level of violence and commented; “… more needed to be done to reduce violence: not only were certain groups of prisoners more fearful than others, but we were concerned that some staff appeared to regard unacceptable bullying behaviour as almost inevitable, when they should have been working to eradicate it.” The Segregation unit had been improved but although the regime had been improved there was still not daily access to the telephone; they also commented; “In many cases, prisoners appeared to have been placed in protective clothing without proper justification and it is was not always apparent from the records that prisoners were removed quickly from special accommodation when its use was no longer necessary. Workshops, education and the gym were praised and whilst, in theory, most prisoners should have been actively employed the inspectors found too many lock in cells during the core day (30% at one check). The inspectors noted that the claimed 8.8 hours of time out of cell was inaccurate and unachievable because of many factors including late unlocking. Inspectors were not happy with how complaints were handled, the said; “The quality of replies to complaints was poor. Few were addressed directly to the prisoner, many
Resettlement work was generally good and Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said that Doncaster’s work with families was amongst the best he had seen. There was only employment for about half of the prisoners and those who were not working were only unlocked for 5 hours a day. Provision for Vulnerable prisoners was especially poor; the inspectors said, “Vulnerable prisoners had a poor regime. They were held on one wing adjacent to young adult units. Relationships with staff were reasonable but there was very little meaningful activity for them and most were locked in their cells for most of the core day. When they were out of their cells in the exercise yards, they were the subject of abuse from the adjacent young adults and they also felt threatened when they were in other parts of the prison, such as health care. Staff did too little to prevent this.” “Prison capacity is not simply a matter of how many prisoners can be crammed into the cells – it is also a matter of whether the prison has the resources and space to do anything useful with them.” 32% don’t know who the IMB are; 32% say it is easy to get drugs; 33% had legal letters opened by staff; 33% say the IEP system in unfair; 38% had been in prison more than 5 times; 44% say food is bad or very bad; 54% had been there less than three months; 63% say it’s difficult to see the dentist; 72% say staff treat them with respect; 72% were treated well or very well in Reception.
Chief Inspector of Prisons inspection schedule 2011 9 May Kirklevington Grange 16 May Chelmsford
HMP Bronzefield
A local closed women’s prison holding restricted status, remand and short-term convicted prisoners. Full announced inspection: 13-22 Oct 2010 Report date: Jan 2011/ Published: Mar 2011
With the exception of health care, Bronzefield did a very difficult job well. Inspectors describe; ‘a shocking level of selfharm’ with 2,771 self-harm incidents in one year; six out of 10 involving tying ligatures. Just over half of the women involved had harmed themselves more than once. One woman had harmed herself 93 times in one month.’ The inspectors describe one woman who had effectively been held in the segregation unit for three years with very little human contact or activity to occupy her. They said; ‘The con-
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HMP Doncaster
A category B local prison accommodating both young and adult prisoners managed by Serco. Unannounced inspection: 2-12 Nov 2010 Report date: Feb 2011 / Published: Apr 2011
“Prison capacity is not simply a matter of how many prisoners can be crammed into the cells” The inspectors found a very busy prison with 2,000 arrivals a month. Although very crowded with many prisoners doubled up in single cells they thought there was a successful balance between security and respect. The IEP scheme was criticised because more prisoners were on ‘Basic’ and less on ‘Enhanced’ than at comparable prisons, the inspectors said it needed to made fairer and more consistent.
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Newsround
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Prison is a waste of money, says Kenneth Clarke The Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, has warned that the rate of prison sentencing is a waste of money and the costs cannot possibly be sustained. Mr. Clarke is preparing to publish a Bill next month intended to reduce the number of offenders being imprisoned and reduce reoffending. His proposals include bigger discounts for early pleas, limiting the number of people remaining in custody as well as diverting the mentally ill to healthcare rather than imprisonment. Under the plans outlined to The Times newspaper, the prison population in England and Wales is forecast to fall by 3,500 by 2015 from the present level of 85, 361.
Soft Justice
Despite the fact that recorded crime has declined in recent years, the public blame the lack of deterrent as the main reason for their fears over crime.
Asked what the single biggest move would be to reduce crime in Britain, the biggest number, 40 per cent, called for harsher punishment against 17 per cent wanting more police officers. Only 10 per cent said that the best move would be to scrap the Human Rights Act and 16 per cent wanted more emphasis to be put on rehabilitating offenders.
‘Prisons are not hotels, they are not comfortable, they are overcrowded, they are noisy. Anyone who visits a prison soon realises the prevailing atmosphere is one of stupefying boredom on the part of inmates’, he said. __________ Mr. Clarke said that it was pointless to continue with a policy that simply warehouses thousands of people without trying to draw them away from a life of crime. Although prison is the correct punishment for serious offenders, who, he said, should be jailed for long periods, it is not necessarily the best way to deal with people who might stop reoffending if their drug and alcohol abuse problems were tackled. ‘Too many prisoners sit around their cells doing nothing when they should be doing something useful with their time’, he added. More private firms are to be encouraged to work in prisons and help to provide prisoners with the discipline of work and skills which will make them employable when they leave.
The Populus poll interviewed a random sample of 1,509 adults aged 18+ by telephone in the period March 4th and 6th, 2011. It wasn’t clear how many of those questioned (out of an adult population of 45 million) based their responses on what they had read in a tabloid.
© prisonimage.org
Judges are out of touch and politicians should make sure they do not let criminals off too lightly
Agree 85% Disagree 15% The Government should not increase the number of prison places because it would mean further cuts to public services elsewhere or more borrowing.
Agree 45% Disagree 55% Which one would have the single biggest impact on cutting crime in Britain? Making punishments harsher to deter Scrapping the Human Rights Act
10%
Putting more emphasis on rehabilitating offenders to reduce the likelihood of reoffending
16% 17%
Giving more powers to the police
17%
From The Times, Tuesday 12th April 2011
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During the debate in the House of Commons on 10 February, 234 MPs voted for a motion to continue with the blanket ban on voting for prisoners, contrary to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. Only 22 MPs voted against the motion. The overwhelming majority of MPs – 394 – didn’t vote at all!
.................................................... “Turkey is a founder member of NATO”
Former Foreign Secretary (2001-06) Jack Straw writing in The Times on March 28. He wrote that Turkey was a crucial NATO ally and should not be ignored when discussing the crisis in Libya. Actually Turkey was not a founder member of NATO. It joined in 1952. Jack Straw later became Justice Secretary!
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Recruiting more police officers
Failed asylum seekers and foreign prisoners face restrictions on their ability to challenge decisions to deport them under plans announced on April 27 to rein in the powers of the European Court of Human Rights (The Times writes). The court should be prepared to intervene only in the “most exceptional circumstances”, according to a declaration issued after a Council of Europe meeting in Turkey. Ministers are also looking at charging a fee for appealing to the Strasboug court in a measure intended to cut the number of people applying to overturn British court decisions. Britain joined the council’s 46 other countries in signing a declaration intended to curb the court. The direction, which the court is unlikely to ignore, follows growing concern at Westminster over a series of human rights rulings and the frequency and number of appeals to Strasbourg.
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Dominic Raab, a Conservative MP writing in The Sunday Times on April 17.
Human rights court will be reined in over deportation
simon bethel
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“Britain’s elected lawmakers have debated it – and rejected prisoner voting by a majority of 10 to 1”
The findings come at the time when Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke is planning to unveil his plans next month to overhaul sentencing and cut the number of people sent to prison.
The Justice Secretary told The Times that he blames the media and campaign groups for helping to fuel the public’s view that life in prison is soft.
The Times, 16th April 2011
The things people say…
A Populus poll in The Times newspaper found the public worried that sentences imposed by the courts are too short and prison life does not provide a deterrent.
Eighty-three per cent said they believed that sentencing was too lenient, 85 per cent said that judges are out of touch.
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“His speech on immigration is very unwise ... it’s not part of the coalition agreement, it is Tory Party policy only” Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable responding to the Prime Minister on the dangers of uncontrolled immigration. However, the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Lib Dems clearly states that ‘immigration must be controlled so that people have confidence in the system’. Today there are 2.2 million more migrants in Britain – equivalent to more than eight cities the size of Southampton – than there were when Labour came into office in 1997.
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Newsround
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Conflicting crime figures suggest lack of confidence in the police The number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales fell by 6% in the year to end of December 2010. All types of recorded crime fell, except sexual offences and some types of theft, up by 3% and 1% respectively. Violence recorded by police fell 6%. But there were contradictory figures on whether the number of home burglaries had risen or gone down.
break-ins. Police figures also showed a 1% fall in robberies.
According to the figures for the 12 months to the end of December, the British Crime Survey (BCS) found that overall crime fell by 3% compared with the previous year. The BCS found no significant change in the rate of violence.
The BCS recorded a 12% rise in bicycle thefts and an 8% rise in other household theft. Police also recorded a 7% fall in firearms offences.
Figures recorded by the police showed 3% rise in recorded sexual offences - up from 53,091 crimes to 54,602. The most serious sexual offences were up 6% to 44,693, compared with 42,187 in 2009. Police recorded a 17% fall in criminal damage and a 12% fall in vehicle crime, typically car
What the public told the BCS
Percentage change based on interviews in year to December 2010 compared with the previous year Burglary
14
Vehicle related theft
-9 12
Bicycle theft
8
Other household theft Theft from the person Other theft of personal property
-5
-12 -5
All violence All BCS crime
-3
16 per cent respectively. In 2009, state school students made up a total of 59 per cent of Cambridge University’s intake and 54 per cent of Oxford’s.
However, the two official measures came up with different figures for home burglaries. Police forces recorded a 7% fall in domestic burglaries over the 12 months - but the British Crime Survey said that they had gone up by 14%.
Marion FitzGerald, Visiting Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent, said: “It would suggest that burglary is going up as a result of the recession but that this is not being reflected in burglaries being reported to the police,”
“If you look at Oxford and Cambridge – the percentage of pupils from state schools going to those universities has actually gone down over the last 20 years … Only one black person went to Oxford last year. I think that’s disgraceful.”
Throughout the late 1980s and early 1900s the proportion of the University’s intake drawn from the state sector was in the range of 44-50 per cent. In 1989, Oxford says it admitted 44.5 per cent of students from state schools. And turning to ethnicity, there’s no denying that the black student community at Oxford is over-shadowed by a white majority, though it’s not quite as bad as David Cameron suggested. In total, only 41 British students of black origin were admitted to Oxford last year out of a total of around 3,000.
One reason that police figures showed a fall was because people thought the police would not be bothered about it if they reported it.
David Cameron MP, speaking to a group of people on April 11, 2011
What the police actually recorded
David Cameron says Oxford and Cambridge are more exclusive than around the time he graduated in 1988.
More than 80 per cent of Oxbridge candidates were white, and in 2009, 29,000 white students got the AAA grades required – compared to just 452 black students.
But both universities strongly dispute the Prime Minister’s claims. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) says that between 1997/8 and 2009/10 the number of state school students at Oxford and Cambridge has risen by 9 per cent and
Oxford says that subject choice is a major reason for black students’ lower success rate. “44 per cent of all black applicants apply for Oxford’s three most oversubscribed subjects – compared to just 17 per cent of all white applicants,”.
Percentage change in numbers of crimes recorded by police in same period Domestic burglary
-7 -17
Criminal damage
-5
Vandalism
The things people say…
-7
Other burglary Offences against vehicle
-12 1
Other theft offences Robbery
David Cameron joins the row over the use of gagging orders to protect the sex lives of celebrities.
-1
Violence against the person
-6 3
Sexual offences Drug offences
-1
Fraud and forgery Total recorded crime
-2 -6
‘Parliament, not the courts, should decide the balance between freedom of the press and rights to privacy’
David Cameron is absolutely wrong when he says that judges are creating their own privacy law. Their function is not to make new law, but to interpret and apply existing law. And that is exactly what they are doing. For more than ten years, the European Convention on Human Rights has been directly applicable in English law under the Human Rights Act 1998, passed by Parliament. The judges are interpreting and applying, among other articles, Article 8, which not only provides a right to privacy and family life to celebrities, but also applies to ordinary citizens.
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Newsround
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Jails to be built by prisoners Radio made by prisoners, for prisoners
National Prison Radio needs your help! National Prison Radio is the world’s first national radio service for prisoners. It is now available in 51 prisons and is being made available to prisoners across England and Wales. If your prison is able to receive National Prison Radio now, you’ll have a schedule and a questionnaire in the centre of this paper. National Prison Radio are asking for your feedback about their programmes, so they can plan for the future and help make sure you get the programmes you want. So why not take a few minutes to complete the form – you could win the opportunity to create a Request Show of your very own, playing all your favourite songs.
Prisoners are to be allowed to build their own jails under proposals to save money and provide training (a proposal featured several times in Inside Time). The prison service is drawing up plans to ask construction companies to train inmates in trades such as bricklaying, plumbing and electrical work while they build secure accommodation for themselves. They would also be employed as labourers to build extra wings on overcrowded jails and to construct new prisons. The government is planning talks with construction firms in the next few months. Prisoners would be supervised by builders and earn qualifications. A government source told The Sunday Times: “Ministers want to end the culture of enforced idleness and introduce a regime of hard work instead. Jail shouldn’t be seen as a place to have a lie-down. “Construction combines strenuous work with training so that offenders leave prison with a trade, therefore less likely to return to crime. The goal is simple - we want to turn more prisoners into taxpayers.”
Punishments through fixed penalty tickets and conditional cautions, issued by police officers and Crown Prosecution Service employees, had no judicial oversight and could lead to further serious offending, the 680-strong Council of Circuit Judges said.
EU ultimatum to give prisoners right to vote The Prime Minister has been given a six-month deadline to produce legislation to end the blanket ban on votes for convicted prisoners. He was given an ultimatum by the European Court of Human Rights in a decision which will enrage Tory backbenchers, who are opposed to giving prisoners the vote and deeply hostile to the court. The court dismissed a government request for an appeal hearing and said the verdict on ending the blanket ban was final.
Christopher Morgan died on April 14th 2011. He wrote “The Invisible Crying Tree” – a record of his correspondence with a prisoner called Tom Shannon. From his correspondence with Tom he became aware that over half the residents of British prisons are unable to read. He was shocked by this and it came to him in the bath that the other half could potentially work with them towards fixing this problem in their lives.
›› Faster than 1st class post ›› Cheaper than a 2nd class stamp ›› No cost to HMPS Christopher Morgan and The Shannon Trust won the Longford Prize in 2004 presented by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Christopher Morgan leaves an outstanding legacy - an award-winning peer mentoring programme that will serve prisoners in Britain for decades to come.
›› Solicitors and organisations registered can provide clients with a fast and efficient service and keep them fully updated with progress. Note: Not suitable for Rule 39 correspondence.
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At the signing of the new Italian-US trade agreement, President Obama makes one more concession than he would have wished.
Prostitute Helen Wood has been issued with a gagging order to stop her speaking about her alleged sexual encounters with a married TV actor. She said that ‘gagging orders were an occupational hazard.’
By 1999 he had a wing at HMP Wandsworth packed with people learning to read. Over the next decade the Shannon Trust taught over 9000 people to read. The Trust says that so far around 50,000 people have been helped by the Toe by Toe Reading Plan.
Email a Prisoner
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Charles and Camilla arrive early at the Royal Wedding after they advised William not to get too close to the first one.
In 2009, 450,000 cases were dealt with by such means, double the number five years earlier.
March 1927 - April 2011
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News in Brief
Judges have warned that offenders are increasingly being punished “behind closed doors” in an “alternative system of justice controlled by the State”.
Christopher Morgan MBE
Plus, the prison that sends back the most forms will be featured in a special one-off programme to be broadcast later this year, so if you want to be represented on-air, encourage other people on your wing to take part.
›› Anyone in establishments using the service can receive emails from their family and friends, solicitors and other organisations registered.
Judges warn of justice ‘behind closed doors’
13
And attempts to change the regime in Libya are starting to affect William Hague.
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Newsround
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
The killer we know too little about Bowel cancer is second only to lung cancer in terms of the number of people it kills – yet more than half of us cannot name even one of its main symptoms. These include a change in bowel routine; bleeding from the rectum or blood in stools; extreme tiredness and/or weight loss; and a pain or lump in the abdomen. Overall, bowel cancer kills 16,250 men and women a year, and more women are diagnosed with the disease than with cervical and breast cancer combined. The last two cancers, however, have a much higher profile, not least because there is a general reluctance to talk about bowel cancer openly, noted Deborah Alsina, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK.
Prostate cancer tests won’t save lives The pain of unrequited love Love really can hurt: research has found that breaking up with a lover causes the same kind of activity in the brain as physical pain. For the study, researchers at the University of Michigan in the US selected 40 women volunteers who had broken up with a partner within the past six months and who said they were left with feelings of intense rejection. The volunteers all underwent MRI brain scans, while looking at pictures of their ex and thinking about how they felt when they split up, and while looking at pictures of a friend of the same sex with whom they had shared positive experiences; then, they were scanned while their arms were heated with a probe, once to a mildly painful temperature, and once to a gentle one. The scans revealed that when the volunteers were exposed to both kinds of pain – emotional and physical – the same parts of their brains lit up.
Prostate cancer kills 10,000 people a year in the UK – but routine screening for the disease would not save any lives, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. For the research, scientists in Sweden selected at random 1,500 men who were in their 50s and 60s in 1987, and screened them every three years until 1996. The first two tests were rectal examinations but in subsequent screenings this was combined with the Prostate Specific Antigen test (PSA). The researchers concluded: “After 20 years of follow-up, the rate of death from prostate cancer did not differ significantly between men in the screening group and those in the control group.” According to prostate cancer charities, the PSA test is more reliable than the rectal exam. However, about 15% of men with normal PSA levels have prostate cancer and two-thirds of men with high levels of PSA do not have the disease.
Funny Facts u If you yelled non-stop for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)
u The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off. (Honey, I’m home . What the...?)
u If you suffered from flatulence non-stop for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas would be produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that’s more like it!)
u The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes. Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
u The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)
u The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Fasting for your Heart
u Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life.)
Starving yourself isn’t healthy, but periodic fasts may actually be good for your ticker.
u Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)
Researchers in Utah show that a 24-hour fast can lead to favourable changes in cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, which suggests that supervised fasting may help combat heartdisease risk. But even the authors aren’t ready to endorse it just yet – at least not until further work reveals whether there is a safe way to skip calories. Not eating triggers the stress response, so repeated episodes of fasting may end up straining and damaging the heart.
u The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm...)
There is a 67% greater risk of heart disease in people who regularly work more than 11 hours a day compared with those who work standard seven or eight hour days, according to an 11-year study of 7,095 British workers.
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u Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (Okay, so that would be a good thing.)
u A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.) u A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I’m still not over the pig.) u Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Don’t try this at home)
u An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.) u Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that, too.) u Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig? Do the dolphins know about the pig?)
Coffee may be good for you … We tend to think of coffee as a guilty pleasure, but there’s a growing body of evidence that regular consumption is probably good for us. Previous research has indicated that coffee helps prevent mental decline, improves cardiac health and reduces the risk of liver cancer. Now a new study has found that drinking two cups a day may also reduce the risk of a stroke. Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute tracked 35,000 women aged 49 to 83 over ten years; by the end, those who drank between one and five cups of coffee a day were 22% to 25% less likely to have suffered a stroke during the period than those who drank less than one. “Coffee drinkers should rejoice,” Dr Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, told the Associated Press. “If you’re drinking coffee now, you may be doing some good, and you are likely not doing harm.”
… and tea isn’t bad either Tea is not only as effective in hydrating the body as water, according to a recent industry-backed study – it can also help you lose weight. But you will have to drink it black, reports The Daily Telegraph. New research in India has found that high levels of the compounds theaflavins and thearubigins in tea lowered cholesterol and reduced the level of acids in rats. Unfortunately, however, fatty proteins in cows’ milk neutralise this fat fighting ability. The findings could explain why people in Britain appear not to benefit from tea’s healthy effects, despite being among the world’s most avid tea drinkers.
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Newsround
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
m Do you know...?
• Gloucester Police have been accused of squandering resources after sending a helicopter, two vans, three patrol cars and two dog units to arrest two people taking rubbish with a scrap value of 47p from a tip. Officers were dispatched after Owen Gray and Angela Cubitt were seen salvaging a broken power drill and games console from their local recycling centre. The operation cost an estimated £20,000. • Having two daughters is the key to a happy family life. According to research, daughters get along well with their parents – until they become too many. Parents with four daughters were the least happy: they reported breaking up four fights a day, on average. • 39% of women under 50 talk to their mothers every day. 14% see them daily, and 33% see them at least once or twice a week.
of women and 63% of men use the internet to screen potential lovers. 65% of people have been asked out by text, and 49% through a Facebook message. When a phone call or text message interrupts sex, 5% glance to see who is calling; only 1% stop to answer.
• The Gateshead Millennium Bridge linking Gateshead and Newcastle across the River Tyne is the world’s first and only tilting bridge; it is so energy efficient it only uses £3.60 worth of electricity every time it opens and closes.
• Five serving cabinet ministers have fathers who were MPs, while two more married the daughters of Tory cabinet ministers.
• Mahatma Gandhi was the fourth son of his father’s fourth wife. He was married at 13, had his first child at 18 and took a vow of celibacy aged 37.
• Foreign diplomats in London owe £50m in unpaid congestion charges and fines. The US owes the most - $4.9m on 44,000 penalty notices since the charge was introduced in 2003. The embassies argue that the charge is a direct tax from which they are exempt. • Victoria Road in Kensington, London, once home to poets TS Eliot and Robert Browning, was named as the most expensive for property in England and Wales – the average property on the street has an estimated value of £6.4m.
• Michael Jackson’s estate has earned £191m made from his music and memorabilia since the pop star’s death in June 2009. • King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is the world’s richest leader with a fortune estimated at $30bn, King Abdullah bin Abul Aziz of Saudi Arabia is next with $21bn, followed by Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei with $20bn.
15
News in Brief
Paul Gascoigne is complaining that his telephone conversations were listened into by The News of the World but the ‘screws paper’ said that they had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
It’ll be nice to leave the kids behind.
• India is now home to 17% of the world’s population. According to the country’s latest census, there are 1.21 billion people living in India, 181 million more than a decade ago.
But I’ll miss Cleggy
• Pet owners who summon the emergency services to rescue their animals are costing the taxpayer £3.5m a year. On average, crews receive two calls a day to help cats stuck in trees or on roofs.
A French TV station shows the danger of wearing a Burka to read the weather forecast when the outlook is actually bright and sunny.
• Police in Yorkshire are being trained to categorise members of the public into four social groups, based on the television celebrities they most resemble. Staff are told to think of individuals as either a Lorraine Kelly (amiable), a Jeremy Paxman (analytical), a Madonna (driven), or a Lenny Henry (loves to be one of the gang). • One in five women aged 45 remains childless, the highest proportion since the cohort born in 1920. But the number of women over 40 giving birth has doubled in the past ten years. • Before consummating a relationship, 70%
£152
... is the cost of Ryanair flights taken by David and Samantha Cameron to show they are budgeting like the rest of us.
£680
... is the cost of the bill to trim wisteria and mend the conservatory originally charged to expenses by David Cameron to be paid by the rest of us.
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16
Diary
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Month by Month by Rachel Billington
Rachel is bowled over by photographs from prisons in California, Portsmouth and Guantanamo. Then she admires some brave women writers.
S
ome photographs blow your mind – not the family snaps sort. I was at the Host gallery in East London last month to see the launch of a truly mind-blowing exhibition. Robert Gumpert, an American photographer from San Francisco, began taking photographs documenting the US criminal justice system in 1994, recording convicts, cops and courthouses. Then in 2000 the sheriff called him and gave him an extraordinary challenge: would he like to document the closing of the oldest prison in California? Gumpert writes: ‘”Old Bruno” was built in 1934 as an example of progressive incarceration, but it had become a toxic dump of a place where deputies and prisoners were expelled. Over the years the courts had ordered its closure and finally in August of 2006 everyone moved to the adjacent New Bruno.’ Following this project, Gumpert, who must have extraordinary powers of persuasion, although he seemed quite laid back and laconic at his launch, was given permission to carry on photographing men in the New Bruno. He was also given the key to six other county jails. He is still doing his own sort of time up to the present day.
© Robert Gumpert/NB Pictures
gallery I googled his project and listened to a few of the men speaking to him, very simply, about themselves. At the launch, Gumpert explained that he didn’t set any rules, just asked the men to speak about whatever they liked. For example, a young man who clearly spends a lot of time in the gym, talks in great detail about the food he eats in prison – chillies being the most important component of any meal. On the other hand, another older man who has been inside for eleven years talks about his family’s criminal record, making it clear he didn’t have much chance of another profession. ‘A lot of my folks been shot and killed…My mum used to smoke a lot of dope – she was a prostitute… I was a crack baby… So he killed his mum – they put her in the oven – she was like a mum to me and they put her in an oven…’
© Robert Gumpert/NB Pictures
The results line the walls of the Host gallery, rows of men staring out at the camera, unselfconscious, stern, stoic, sometimes sad, and never smiling. They come from all ethnic backgrounds and if you look long enough they seem to be telling the story of their lives: never good news. But there is also pride there and, sometimes, beauty. After a while Gumpert was not satisfied with this surface art, remarkable as it is, and wanted more. So he told his subjects: ‘I take the picture, you tell the story.’ When I got back from the
© Robert Gumpert/NB Pictures
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© Robert Gumpert/NB Pictures
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Diary
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org A lot of the stories are shocking and never looking for sympathy. By recording these prisoners both in picture and in sound, Gumpert has created for them a life outside the prison walls. It is surprising how much dignity it lends them.
17
For most people the idea of picking up a knife and slicing into your flesh or tearing your skin with your fingernails or any kind of self mutilation is horrific and incomprehensible. Up till recently, it was a shameful secret which only revealed itself when scars were not very well hidden or in special conditions. Sadly, but not surprisingly, self-harm is prevalent in womens’ prisons. 5% of prisoners in this country are female but women account for almost 50% of reported cases. Leah Thorn worked as a writer in residence at HMP Bronzefield for two years; she is also a spoken word poet. Now she has compiled a very moving testimony to the thoughts and stories of those who have self-harmed. It is in book form, called Release, beautifully produced, with prose and poetry from fifteen contributors. Here is one short poem, called Shut:
© Edmund Clark
I learnt to slice to cut to help my minds thoughts shut.
Nature Notes A monthly feature for Inside Time by James Crosby
© Edmund Clark
The launch included a panel talk with Gumpert himself, Edmund Clark, another photographer, who also specialises in prison photographs, and Erwin James. Clark’s two principle projects have been very different: one in Guantanamo Bay and the other in E Wing of Kingston Prison, Portsmouth where twenty five men ranging in age from fifty nine to eighty four, lived. At Kingston, he wanted to discover how the men dealt with long term incarceration but he does it not with faces but objects: a coffee jar with false teeth inside, a cell with a walking stick by the bed, a table with a week’s worth of pills, or just the simple disorder of ageing. The photographs are prison still-lives which say a great deal about the owners. They’re published in a book called ‘Still Life: Killing Time.’
But the book is more than a mournful document because Leah believes that through writing, women can be helped. Leah says, ‘Writing can be a good way to explore, and show what’s going on inside of you. AnneMarie, one of the poets in this book told me, “Writing helps make sense of my emotions, helps me understand how I feel. It helps me communicate and offload.” As Anne Frank, the thirteen year-old who hid from the Nazis for two years during which she kept a diary, noted, ‘Paper is more patient than people’. The piece of paper you write your thoughts on won’t tell you that you’re ‘stupid’, ‘wrong’, or ‘crazy’ and it won’t say ‘That didn’t happen’ or ‘You didn’t see that.’ With this aim there is an excellent section on Writing Tips and another on Self-harm Myths and Truths. Eighty free copies of Release (published by Bar None Books) will be sent out to every womens’ prison in May so anyone interested should check with their librarian. All copies should be in place by the end of the month. Open prisons will have a more limited supply.
At Guantanamo Clark uses the same technique but spreads it to the guards’ areas. The photos range from a Catholic shrine to a tube used for forced feeding, from an arrow painted on the floor in the direction of Mecca to a pile of shackles. Contradictorily, the absence of people points strongly to their presence.
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“Now came still evening on, and twilight grey, Had in her sober liv’ry all things clad.” Milton
A
fter a day of sagging clouds and warm air, the twilight sky over the prison was gentle with the steady movement of elegant swallows – questing the spring breeze and whispering of how they have repossessed the English firmament after a winter in sub-equatorial Africa. And as I watched them, I was, perhaps swept beyond the bounds of common sense by delight; a small bat with a fluttering flight was, with careless grace, inexhaustibly sweeping the airy space above the Education Garden. It was, conceivably, a Pipistrelle, the smallest and most commonest of British bats, however, without the use of a bat detector to aid correct identification I could not be absolute in my observation; for another species of bat with a similar high, fluttering flight has also been recorded in the prison – the Whiskered bat. The latest record concerns a small female, found by prison staff, which was dehydrated and malnourished and was unfortunately, euthanased by a local vet. It has an abundance of fur around the eyes and muzzle, and like the
Pipistrelle, it is a widespread species but much rarer; by way of further comparison, it has narrow pointed wings with small feet and a dull brown dorsal coat. Both species emit perceptible squeaks in flight, however, they also produce a high-pitched sound – the Pipistrelle at an inaudible 45kHz and the Whiskered at 60kHz, a hand-held heterodyne detector transforms the bats imperceptible calls into a series of clicks we can hear when tuned to the correct frequency – which is reflected from objects in the bats flight path. This radar-like echolocation enables the bat to navigate and seize prey in mid air – their prey being moths, lacewings, beetles and other night-flying insects – the reflected echoes are interpreted so accurately that even in complete darkness they are still able to capture their prey. Whichever species it was that found favour in the twilight above the Education Garden, it nevertheless provided me with a moment of unalloyed happiness – as man changes the environment, particularly with the ongoing construction work here at Stocken, where previously there had been grass and trees, now submerged under brick and mortar, it is comforting to know that nature has the ability to overcome the most unpromising of man-made habitats. James Crosby is currently resident at HMP Stocken
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18
Resettlement Q&A
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Inside Time
Resettlement Q&A If you have a question about resettlement, we have experts on hand to provide you with the answer. Everyone will receive a prompt response and a selection of the letters will be published each month. Names will not be published but please include full details for your reply. Please send questions to Inside Time ‘Resettlement Q&A’ Botley Mills, Botley Southampton Hampshire SO30 2GB
Q
I’m 3 months from release after serving nearly all of my 4 year sentence and I have nowhere to go to when I get out. I know that going back to the area that I lived in before I was arrested will almost certainly mean that I will get involved with the same group of people that I was involved with at my time of offending and I really don’t want that. I have family in other areas and don’t really mind living on my own, but how can I go about finding a place to get released to ?
A
Firstly we need to establish a few points. Upon release will there be any areas/boroughs from which you will be restricted to enter? Your local connections are key as this will determine which boroughs you will be eligible to live in. local connections can be made up of family members, siblings, children, partners and even as far as jobs or training available to you in the given area. Priority need is also a key factor. If you have drug issues, alcohol, mental health or physical disabilities this places you into a bracket of priority need. Depending on the severity of your priority, the local authority have a duty of care towards individuals with needs and this in turn will contribute to you being placed into temporary accommodation until they have had sufficient time in which to access your case. Your previous living arrangements/addresses will need to be accessed. If you have been given tenancies in the past which have ended unsuccessful then this may have an effect on future applications. Housing organizations will also want to look closely as to where you have resided in the past, trying to identify patterns in addresses etc. Local authorities will try to find ways in which to direct you to friends or family but this is not always feasible or the right options for the individual. If you have aspirations to work in a given area it
will also aid your chances of moving into that area/borough even if there are no established links to that area/borough. Remember also that if you have resided in any area/borough for the past 3 years out of 6 then you still are still considered to have a local connection to that area.
benefit you may be entitled to and information regarding that benefit. The majority of prison leavers claim Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) which is a benefit designed to help people of working age who are out of work or work less than 16 hours a week with financial assistance. To claim JSA you must be; • available for, capable and actively seeking work • aged 18 or over but below State Pension age (65) • working less than 16 hours per week on average • in Great Britain Prior to your release you can contact the Jobcentre (0800 055 6688) and arrange an appointment at your local Jobcentre for when you are released. Alternatively you can speak to a resettlement worker within the prison or your personal officer on the wing who can either go through the information with you or signpost you to someone who can. Information sourced from Alex Melnyk (Resettlement Broker at St Giles Trust)
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If you are of a medium to high MAPPA level then your probation officers or offender managers within the establishment you are in should be looking to place you into supported housing or probation hostels. This is something you will need to discuss with your offender manager. To conclude, I think that there are several options available to you upon release. Supported housing networks, local authority, hostels and private rented accommodation are all accessible and I’m sure that with the right help and support and advice you will find suitable housing. One very important piece of advice would be to be very patient as it can be a lengthy process. Information sourced from Ahsan Hulkorey (Resettlement Broker at St Giles Trust)
........................................................ Q
I’ve never drawn any benefit at all but everyone tells me that I’d be crazy to not take all that I can get when I get out. There are plenty of prison experts and loads of conflicting information from prisoners and probation, but how do I decide what I should try to claim, what I’m entitled to and where to start ? I have an address to go to after I get out, and a friend of one of my uncles says he’ll give me a job, but that’s not until September apparently and I will probably get out in May! I mean, what do I do first to start getting benefits and where do I go ?
A There are several sources available so that you can try and establish what benefit you qualify for; these are www.direct.gov.uk and the Jobcentre Plus helpline on 0800 055 6688 and speak to a trained adviser regarding what
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A The simple answer is, you don’t have to have one but it is much better if you do. The Job Centre will expect you to have one if you are serious about finding work. It is true that nowadays most employers will ask you to fill in a job application form but some will expect to see a CV if they are interested in you. Some will only refer to the application form when short-listing for interviews however, the process of writing your CV is also helpful. When writing it you will be thinking about yourself and need to list the details of your educational background, previous employment and dates, useful experience, qualifications and any training courses completed, including those done in prison. You will need to have all of these details handy when completing job application forms. The personal statement, which normally goes at the top of a CV, will also help you focus on what you have to offer and what type of work interests you. Not only will all of this information be useful when completing an application form it will help you prepare for any interviews and speak confidently about your background and suitability for the job. Most people naturally find their self esteem very low when they have been unemployed for a long period they can become less confident in their ability to find a job and feel they will be of no interest to employers. It is often the case that, when writing a CV, people begin to realise that they have more to offer than they first thought.
Q When I get out I am obviously hoping to get a job and I am sure I will. The Resettlement Unit here is telling me I need to have a CV but I’ve never had trouble finding a job before prison and never had to have a CV for the sort of manual work I do. Do I really need one now?
It may be helpful to talk to somebody who knows you well and discuss with them the type of jobs you are looking for. They will probably see a different side to you and recognise strengths that you didn’t realise you had. They may also be able to jog your memory about experience and qualities you have that might make you realise just how many different types of work you would be good at and enjoy. Information sourced by Inside Time.
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PRT Writing Competition
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
The write stuff Prison Reform Trust announces the winning entry to its 2010 Writing Competition and launches this year’s contest
ollowing its successful re-launch two years ago, the Prison Reform Trust Writing Competition has given prisoners and their families and friends the opportunity to explore their talent.
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Around 250 entries in total were submitted to the three competition categories of the Comment Prize, the Andrew Groves Short Story Prize, and the Lyric/Rap Prize. The judges praised the high standard of entries across all three categories.
The scheme has attracted a very high standard of new writing and also provided a valuable creative outlet for those within and affected by the criminal justice system.
The winning entry by T.Q. Muu of the Lyric/Rap prize is published opposite. Details of the other winners are available on the Prison Reform Trust website.
The 2010 Writing Competition judges included the MOBOaward winning hip-hop artist Akala; British actor and grime artist Femi Oyeniran; award-winning journalist, author, playwright and prison writer in residence Beatrix Campbell; Guardian columnist and Prison Reform Trust trustee Erwin James; Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger; and the best-selling novelist and historian Stella Tillyard.
We are delighted that the best-selling author Martina Cole has agreed to join the panel of judges for the 2011 Writing Competition. The closing date is 1st August 2011 and winners in each category will receive a 1st prize of £200, a 2nd prize of £100 or a 3rd prize of £75.
d by e t r o p sup Trust Kindly Band
short story
comment
Short stories should be 1,000 words maximum. The theme is:
Entries for the ‘Comment’ prize should be non-fiction and 500 words maximum. The theme is:
Prison Works?
Prizes in each category of:
1st prize £200
1 1 0 2 lyric/rap
Lyrics/raps 400 words maximum. The theme is:
Rehab Revolution
Judging panel includes bestselling author Martina Cole
2nd prize £100 3rd prize £75
ALL competitions are open to all prisoners, prisoners’ families and friends and former prisoners The closing date for the competitions is: Monday, 1st August 2011
For a copy of the full rules please contact your education/learning and skills department, library or: Michele Byam, Prison Reform Trust, FREEPOST ND6125, London EC1B 1PN. email:
[email protected]
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The Re-Offender By T.Q. Muu Quiet cold of stainless steel Churns in my mind a mental wheel A light upon the window shines Through thickened frost in this cell of mine. And though the dark does empty me It brings a life forbidden be These cruel sins that are not mine But are of ours, but are of time. And hidden in my gentle rhyme Trapped in this verse of these scarce lines Moves me in shadow long and dark Fused pity shaded strong and stark Hue-faded victory, vengeful pride To chase the hate I feel inside. Gradually my eyes’ despise Throws back the clock that tempts the sun to rise That tricks souls schooled through fretful fray Restless, fooled to preemptive play A promise breaks on a redemptive day That pounds and wakes and screams away These sighs that cold, cold creep upon Endeavours born and never done Battles fought but never won. So with my free hand and this weakened grip This raised-up head, this pushed-out lip I reach and stretch and forever slip. Strength wills the prisoner, please, to cease Begs ‘Be quiet!’ before my new release. The shadow for a moment relents It says look to peace and you will not thrive Seduced by greed, disguised intent Reduced to begged life, borrowed, on rent Tied to waiting crooked and bent Like a slave: Chained to vain aim, self-forsaking lies. Somewhere in my soul I dream Scenes penned of serenity and gain I kneel and pray this does not mean Rising on the other side the same. Pale my guilt near patient grace Lace innocence through this wasteful face Glass my past in a bottle, cast it to sail Forgive me when I try and fail. Let me sing joy of feelings felt Let me join in lawful blend Let me win with my hand dealt To last: Let me melt and merge and mend. Defend my name with blameless shields Protect the chance to fight and try Enhance each day the dream fate yields Never let it pass me by. Stainless steel wraps, distorts the mind Warps steps to take with blackened prints behind. Head loose, confused, feet slow to find The truth: To toe or leap beyond the line. In this reverie I do clearly see An answer I cannot shy or hide: Belonging for me is being inside. United in uniform, blighted, the same Severed, serving, fools fidget in vain Twisting, curling, constant unease Starved in halved paths and stunted beliefs Saved from pain, self-defying gain. I am not stained, I am in equal scarred Inside or out, I am a prisoner, tortured, tarred.
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
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obert Nesta Marley was born in February 1945, son of a middleaged white father and teenaged black mother. Leaving home at the tender age of 14, ‘Bob’ moved to Kingston to pursue a music career as the pupil of local singer and devout Rastafarian Joe Higgs. In 1963 Marley teamed with fellow singers Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingston, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso, and Cherry Smith to form the vocal group the Teenagers. They would eventually – after a few tweaks to the name – become simply the Wailers, with Marley on lead vocals. They topped the Jamaican charts with only their second single, ‘Simmer Down’ and went on to work with such leading lights of ska and reggae production as Coxsone Dodd and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. In 1972, the Wailers signed to Island Records and a year later released their first album outside of Jamaica, Catch a Fire. It’s a record full of politically charged lyrics, stripped-back instrumentation and vocals at their most harmonious. It was an immediate international success and catapulted reggae into the spotlight. The follow-up, ‘Burnin’ was released only six months later and included the track ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ (which became a Top Ten hit for Eric Clapton in 1974) and ‘Small Axe’ which reggae luminaries like David Rodigan and Ali Campbell have told National Prison Radio is their favourite Marley track. It was their 1975 album Natty Dread which really broke through to the mainstream though, scoring Marley and the Wailers (now minus Livingstone and Tosh and with new members including Marley’s wife Rita) their first UK Top 40 hit with the classic ‘No Woman, No Cry.’ Marley had become an undisputed international star, selling out tours in the UK and USA. At home in Jamaica he was idolised as a poet and prophet for the whole nation.
The albums Exodus and Kaya continued Marley’s success, blending western sounds with Jamaican imagery and Rastafari traditions and spawning the hit singles ‘Jamming’, ‘One Love/People Get Ready’ and ‘Is This Love’. But in 1980, beginning a US tour, Marley collapsed while jogging and was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his brain, lungs and liver. His demise was cruel and swift, and Uprising was his final album. Marley died on 11 May 1981, aged just 36. Marley’s musical legacy lives on not just through his family. His wife Rita scored a string of solo hits in the early 80s and his children David (better known as Ziggy), Damian, Julian, and Ky-Mani all pursued careers in music as well. More significantly, his recognition and stature as a pioneer of reggae continued to grow after his death. Even three decades on, he remains fundamentally connected with reggae music
insidepoetry Copies are available at a special discount price of £7.50 for Inside Time readers, family and friends. Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB Tel: 0844 335 6483
find myself here in prison listening to his tunes for inspiration, to grow strength. His music gives you a thinking process of cool meditation.
Celebrating Bob Marley Wednesday 11 May this year marks 30 years since the untimely death of legendary reggae musician Bob Marley. As the first Jamaican artist to achieve international superstardom, Marley introduced the music of his native island nation to distant shores. And his popularity endures today. National Prison Radio looks at the musical icon and his legacy ... and responsible for its worldwide popularity. So why is Marley still such an iconic and inspiring figure to so many? For one, Marley will forever be associated with the Rastafari faith, to which he converted in the early 1960s. The Rastafari way of life became a fundamental part of Marley’s music and philosophy until his death and he became perhaps the most famous ambassador across the globe for the movement. Moreover, his passionate and at times politically-motivated lyrics gave a voice to the Jamaican experience, not only painting a vivid picture of the country’s poverty and struggle but also uplifting the soul, strength and spirituality of the nation. At the celebrated One Love Peace Concert in 1978, Marley joined the hands of political rivals Michael Manley of the People’s National Party and Edward Seaga of the Jamaican Labour Party – a symbolic act in the midst of a bitter political civil war. As a voice for the oppressed, Bob was one of music’s most eloquent and graceful advocates
National Prison Radio’s Bob Marley Day is on Wednesday 11 May. There will be special features in Porridge, Behind Bars, The Album Show and The Request Show, as well as your favourite Marley tracks played throughout the day and exclusive interviews with Damian Marley and legendary reggae DJ David Rodigan. What Bob Marley means to me, by Richard, HMP Brixton - National Prison Radio’s reggae expert For me, Bob Marley is a musical Messiah. Inspirational, uplifting – he’s a prophet, in a musical form. He wrote songs in the 70s, but his lyrics relate to happenings today. I’ve grown up listening to Bob Marley as a child and there’s not a track that I don’t like. I
What does Bob Marley mean to YOU? Write to us at National Prison Radio, HMP Brixton, London SW2 5XF.
David Rodigan on Bob Marley Reggae soundmaster David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan came in to the National Prison Radio studio to discuss life and music, and told us about the time he met Bob Marley... You famously interviewed Bob Marley on Capital Radio. What was it like? It was amazing. Why? Because it was sheer chance. I was walking up the stairs at Island Records in Hammersmith on Friday afternoon, and coming down the stairs was Bob Marley, I couldn’t believe it. He had one or two brethren with him, and someone from management, and I seized my opportunity and introduced myself. I popped the question without going through any procedure: ‘Bob, please, can you come on my radio show tomorrow?’ ... Bob then said to me: ‘Do you wanna listen to a new song I’ve just made?’ Do I wanna listen to a new song you just made? Um, yeah, I’d love to! What’s your favourite Bob Marley track and why? ‘Small Axe’. The reason I love this song, and Bob wrote many, but one of the reasons I particularly love this song ... is that this song speaks volumes for the people of this world who are oppressed; who are in a situation where they’re down-pressed; where there is a power that fights them, that gives them a hard time when they don’t deserve it. And that’s the joy and the beauty and the liberty of this song. When he sings ‘If you’re the big tree, / Then we are the small axe’ – and a small axe can cut down a big tree. When I first heard that in 1969-70 on the Soul Rebel album, I was blown away.
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of revolution. Marley even gave songwriter credit for ‘No Woman, No Cry’ to his friend, Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston where Marley grew up. The royalties Ford received guaranteed the survival of the soup kitchen. Perhaps Marley’s greatest legacy then, is his political consciousness and human empathy, as well as his personal generosity.
Richard’s Top Bob Marley Tracks: One Love - no matter what colour, class, creed, love is something we should have in us. Love is the key, love is the answer, love is in everything. Redemption Song - more of a historical track, it’s educational - with lyrics taken from a speech by the activist Marcus Garvey. Bad Card - it’s a track for when you come across obstacles in your life. You should never give up, you’ve got to keep on going. Exodus - the story of the strength and movement of the people relates to me in prison and to many other people in this position. Caution - it’s very rare, maybe not a lot of people know it, but it’s saying be careful of the steps you take in life, have caution in what you’re doing - believe you me, in prison you’ll relate to it.
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The role of the internet in fighting a miscarriage of justice True crime author and justice campaigner S C Lomax looks at how the internet can help free the innocent
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he leading defence barrister Michael Mansfield QC believes that justice responds in some part to public opinion and public pressure. In his book ‘Presumed Guilty’ (published in 1993) he wrote: ‘These cases [the Birmingham Six, Maguire Seven, Guildford Four and Tottenham Three, all of which had their convictions quashed] were not proof that the appeals system works but that public pressure works.’ Mansfield mentions how supporters in the above cases would campaign up and down the country and raise awareness of the plight of the innocents in prison, which helped build up momentum towards a successful appeal. If he were to rewrite the book he would doubtless refer to the increasing use of the Internet as a means of fighting against a wrongful conviction. Anyone who is viewing this article will have a good understanding of how the Internet enables information to be accessed like never before. According to one researcher there are more than a staggering 267 million websites on the Internet and the number is growing every day. In a sense it is an evil, with much false and misleading information, and users often require the patience of a Saint to work their way through the results of a search engine to find anything meaningful or remotely useful, but there is no questioning its value. For several victims of a miscarriage of justice the Internet has been an essential tool in identifying experts who can offer their professional experience in establishing the correct interpretations of evidence which the prosecution incorrectly used at their trial. Take, for example, the cases of those convicted in the 1980s. If only the Internet had been around then, when even the ZX Spectrum was a novelty to many. Back in those days an
expert would be identified through professional journals, registers and recommendations. Without the internet the world was a larger place and so often it would not be possible to know of an expert in a foreign land whose expertise and knowledge could far outweigh that of our home grown scientists. It is not only experts who are the key to gaining new evidence to overturn a wrongful conviction. Members of the public can often provide information they were unwilling or unable to share at the time a crime was committed or at the time of a trial. A common theme in miscarriage of justice cases is the issue of non-disclosure, where the police and Crown Prosecution Service deliberately withhold key documents from the defence. By keeping secrets form the defence the jury can never learn the full facts and so their verdict cannot be a reflection of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the case of Jeremy Bamber there are 340,000 documents being withheld from his defence team (how many secrets are contained within them?). With so many secrets there needs to be a means by which anyone with information who has a true desire to uphold justice can offer information for the benefit of those wrongly convicted. An internet presence is useful for that reason. For the past ten years prisoners have used the internet to communicate with the outside world in a way they can control, albeit through a supporter. Many individuals have websites set up on their behalf and there are organisations such as Miscarriages of Justice United Kingdom (MOJUK) who offer prisoners a free web page on their site, an offer which has been taken up by dozens of prisoners over the years largely by those who do not have the support of more high profile campaigns. In 2001 the MP John Whittingdale asked a
question in the House of Commons regarding whether a prisoner should be allowed to exist at all. He was informed that prisoners are allowed to have a website, provided that it is set up and maintained by a person outside of prison, that a prisoner cannot receive any payment relating to contents he or she writes, the prisoner cannot provide details of their crime ‘except where it consists of serious representations about a conviction or sentence’ and does not refer to prison staff or other prisoners in a way in which they can be identified.
videos on YouTube and blogs are often used to help raise awareness. Since 2010 it has been legal for prisoners to have input into social networking sites for their campaign provided they adhere to prison policies. It is a far cry from the times when a prisoner’s only hope of raising public awareness was through petitions, public speeches by a campaigner at small events, occasional demonstrations and, if one was lucky, the lent ear of a sympathetic journalist, documentary maker or respected Human Rights campaigner.
Other concerns have often been raised such as that allowing a prisoner to have the means of communicating on a mass scale could cause offence to law abiding citizens and immeasurable distress to friends and relatives of the prisoner’s victims. Whilst I have some sympathy for these views it is morally justifiable that a prisoner who has grounds to maintain their innocence should be allowed to do so. If, as Mansfield is right, the justice system responds to public opinion then how is the victim of a miscarriage of justice in a high profile case supposed to successfully reach the court of appeal if he or she cannot argue against media sensationalism and flawed public perceptions?
However, a word of warning: social networking and forums can be a double edged sword. They can promote well informed debate but even if you put together a large number of people who share the same basic beliefs, there is bound to be arguments and misunderstandings. People might not be able to articulate their views well or accurately. Information might be discussed which is not entirely true or which is subject to change over time as our understanding of evidence in a case alters. This information might then go on to be referred to in the media or on other websites, facebook groups and such like and they are viewed by a global audience.
With the creation of a website, a prisoner has a platform to not only air their views but they also have a means to receive the views of others. This can be bad in that abusive messages are inevitably sent, insulting and threatening the prisoner and often deriding their campaign, but it is not all bad. Even a few words from a person who wishes true justice to prevail can be a source of hope and support. A friendly message can make all the difference. In the past few years the Internet has offered further tools in the campaigns to overturn a wrongful conviction. Facebook, twitter, tumblr,
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Conversations can develop so quickly through social networking sites and they cannot be always monitored and responded to. This means that an incorrect opinion may go unchallenged and as far as many people are concerned an unchallenged opinion, or one which is not responded to with the full facts, often becomes more accepted as fact. These are challenges that must be dealt with in the ever evolving world of online communications if prisoners are to continue to use the internet for the means of raising awareness and public pressure in the hope that ultimately their wrongful convictions will be overturned.
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Poor Little Rich Boys! Barrister Stanley Best suggests the recipe for the ills of today Stanley Best
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gather that Will Hutton, the economist, in his report to Government, has spoken against capping the salaries of all public servants so that none shall receive in earnings/bonus more than twenty times what is earned by those in the lowest paid jobs in the Civil Service, local government, NHS and so on. I have long thought that anyone in public service, industry or commerce who is unable to make do on say £125,000 pa must be living in a make-believe world which encourages greed, the most serious affliction of our times. I decided more than a year ago to restrict my income as a barrister from fees to the sum which allows me not to charge any VAT as Counsel to public (i.e. legally aided) or privately funded clients. This means that I do not have to act as a tax collector for government of any political complexion and the lay client/Legal Services Commission avoid paying an extra 20% on top of fees in each case. There is no virtue in this and I claim none. It simply makes good sense. At a luncheon party the other day I heard sympathy expressed for X who was ‘down to his last three-hundred thou’! I felt unable to shed a tear, never having had three-hundred thousand pounds at any one time, and I wondered how X would get on as a legal aid lawyer, for example, now suffering at least 50% cuts in already modest earnings? Crying his eyes out no doubt! This government and those former ones
presided over by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown do not set a shining example to any of us and I draw the line at those who say that Judges’ salaries are too low and that they gave up much higher earnings as practising barristers or solicitors to be appointed to the Bench. If they did, it should have been because they were proud to serve the interests of justice at the level of income offered to judicial appointees. Most, I think, are. Those who moan should resign. Years ago, whilst at breakfast, I was telephoned by a court clerk and asked to sit, some miles away, as a deputy in a county court to what we now call a District Judge who was ill. I had never done it before and had no training. I confess that on my first day in that capacity I ended with a thumping headache, but no one found fault with my judgements, not even the solicitor whom I reminded of the ‘best evidence rule’ and directed to go back to his office some distance away to collect original documents in place of the copies he had brought and which are now all the rage. I sat in this role on a number of further occasions without ever being appealed to a higher court and, as was the custom in those days, without being paid. We who deputised in whatever court were honoured to do so and never thought of payment, but it did me personally no good ultimately for the powers that be passed me over for a full time appointment. As I had never expected promotion, I was not disappointed. I cannot say that I am now sorry, for life as a practising barrister is full of interest and unusual challenges day by day and the thought of having to sum up to jurors after a long trial does not appeal. It is perfectly possible for a judge to be firm, but courteous, as most are, and I was surprised to read in a piece by David Pannick QC, in The
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Everything is relative. If prisoners are to be deprived of food for not saying ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ at the kitchen server, one is entitled to expect that Judges will, as they virtually always do, behave rather better. I recall a case where my client had come to the High Court seeking alimony from her estranged husband whom she claimed to be a CIA agent from the USA! Disliking what the High Court Judge said, she shouted out (before the articled clerk with me had clapped her hand over the woman’s mouth) ‘You fucking old shit’ and stormed off alone to take her woes to the Court of Appeal. The Judge, with commendable good sense, pretended not to have heard and the Court of Appeal told her that until judgement was given she had nothing to appeal against. Collapse of stout party! There is no doubt but that in many quarters standards are falling, although sometimes we expect too much from others. In an article in The Times on March 15, Wilfred EmmanuelJones, a black farmer on the Devon /Cornwall border and a failed Conservative Parliamentary Candidate in Wiltshire, claims that in rural areas there are still places ‘where people are proud not to know a black person’. I think this is nonsense. The problem which Emmanuel-Jones identifies – if it exists at all in rural England – is down to the demand from Westminster for ‘diversity’.
There are within prisons a hardcore of those who richly deserve to be there, but many more who could, without risk to the public, be released on license. The former Chairman of the Parole Board said so recently to The Guardian, explaining that too many Parole Board members are frightened to let anyone out for fear of making a mistaken decision. All this talk of diversity and so-called equality of opportunity is meaningless and stokes the fires of suspicion in the public mind. Let us put an end to it, as also a society which countenances bonus payments to individuals running into millions of pounds. We live in an unhealthy and greedy society and things will not improve whilst all that many teenagers aspire to is wealth and the latest electronic toy. Until we create a society in which justice and mercy prevail, our prisons will remain full for today we encourage envy and malice. Now is the time for all of us to turn over a new leaf and as well as expecting good from others, ask if we too could not do better. Instead of demanding that prisoners say please and thank you at kitchen serveries, why not ordain that staff and prisoners alike, wherever possible, should be courteous at all times to each other? The walls of the prison will not collapse and who knows but that we might all become better people. In The New Machiavelli by HG Wells (a socialist), the hero of the story speaks of Rudyard Kipling and the ‘desire for discipline and devotion and organised effort…’ not a bad recipe, I suggest, for the ills of today.
Stanley Best is a practising barrister and a mediator at Barnstable Chambers, EX19 8ED and Chairman of the British Legal Association Tel/Fax: 01837 83763.
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Times, of a woman Crown Court Judge behaving, it was said, rather less than perfectly when answering a summons concerning her allegedly badly behaved dog. Will she be allowed by the Lord Chancellor to remain a Judge? If the facts were correctly reported, one hopes not but, of course, the full facts have as yet not emerged so it is too soon to pass judgement.
For many, many years, for example, it has been possible for anyone of requisite ability to become a barrister or solicitor whatever his race, colour or creed. Can one really ask for more than equality of opportunity? If I emigrated to, say, Italy or India, should I expect them to change their customs so as to have English Judges? Plainly and understandably not.
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Ben’s Blog Lifer Ben Gunn’s Prison Blog … the only blog by a serving British prisoner which ‘looks stupidity and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate’. Miserable Git April 6 Listening to other people’s music has always bugged the hell out of me. Thumping, ignorant noise is probably the largest cause of inter-prisoner violence across the estate. Sitting, dumbly, in my cell I was interrupted by loud music. Unusally, it was classical rather than drum-n-bass, but an intrusion nonetheless. I opened my door and followed my ears... To find myself standing in the yard, faced with a classical concert party. They beavered away at their strings, gazed upon by prisoners, four wicker deer and a six foot high stone seahorse. I forgave them.
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tin, it has kept me company and shared many, many experiences. They may be the only artifacts of prison that I take home on release. The Editor is not impressed!
company, they make millions in profit, based on the work done by prisoners who are paid around £15 a week. You can see the moral objection...?
Notices to Prisoners April 12
Yet I not only volunteered for the opportunity, I had to pass an interview and selection process. It was a position I had to fight for. At that time, I didn’t know squat about the Internet.
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Who, in fairness, are broadly indifferent to any missive that issue from management... Despite this, paperwork plasters prisons. On my small spur alone, a cul-de-sac landing compromising a mere nine cells, the corridor holds no fewer than thirty notices and signs. My theory is that prison management confuse the issuing of a notice with actually taking action of some sort.
The Fragility of Relationships April 14 Moving a chair can rarely lead to a major shift in relationships, at least not in the outside world. But in prison... Our visits room is small, maybe 15 tables at most. It was one of the most relaxed visits rooms in the closed estate. It allowed men and their partners, children, families, to huddle together and share that physical affection that is so sustaining and yet whose absence is the very essence of imprisonment. Now, our chairs have been moved. Each table - a low coffee-type, circa 1976 - has three chairs. One now has a shabby white cover affixed to the back and must be occupied by the prisoner. His visitors must sit, barely within reach, on the other side of the table. What was once a sustaining experience is transformed, thoughtlessly, into a torment.
The Jug April 10 If I’m known for anything amongst my fellow prisoners it’s for being absurdly opinionated - and for my jug. Or, The Jug. For reasons that remain a medical mystery, I dehydrate extremely quickly. To stave off this dry mouth, decades ago I discovered that drinking a constant supply of tea and coffee was the only sensible way forward. And I mean, constantly. To such a degree that a mere cup, or mug, is but a toy. I drink out of a one litre water jug, at the rate of around ten litres a day. My coffee bill is eye-watering! And in the way of connoisseurs, I hold that scrubbing the jug clean has the same detrimental effect as scrubbing the inside of a teapot. Valuable tannins are lost, the flavour badly effected. This leads to The Jug...unscrubbed for about 6 years, its inner surface is dark brown. It really does look disgusting. So wedded am I to my jug that I take it on transfers, to avoid the problems that may accrue if that prison doesn’t issue these water jugs. It has served me well. Along with my tobacco
The argument made for this change is “security” - the mantra which is the first refuge of any idiot manager. Obviously, there is a duty to prevent contraband being smuggled on visits. But this is Shepton; fewer than 200 men and what appears to be a proficient network of informers. Any serious smuggling enterprise is inherently doomed. There is also a duty to help us maintain our relationships, and to reduce re-offending. Prison visits have become a disgusting, miserable experience across the whole system in recent years, with the concomitant collapse of relationships. Has anyone in management ever considered the balance between contraband and our relationships? I see no evidence of it. Their mantra could easily be “stop the spliff, kill the marriage”. Job done, and they pat themselves on the back.
...................................................... Summit Media April 18
Summit is an E-Commerce company that operates in The Wolds prison, having previously been run in HMP Rye Hill - where I was one of their first employees about a decade ago. Summit sharply divides opinion. As a private
The work environment was interesting, in that Summit provides a specialist service and the expectations upon our professionalism were correspondingly high. Being treated like a capable human being is a novelty in prison. However...Summit wished to pretend that it wasn’t operating within prison, whilst relying on that very fact for its existence. If we were absent from work for exercise, visits, medical appointments - the detritus of daily prison life - then they used to bitch about it. The largest objection to Summit is the argument it offers for paying such low pay while raking in such gargantuan profits. Summit argues that the training it provides would be hideously expensive for us to gain in the outside world, and that the skills Summit endows would lead to good prospects upon release. Well, yes - and no. Summit prefers to employ Lifers and long-termers. Assuming a normal course through the sentence, a man may leave Summit and not reach the outside world for 4 or more years. The relevance of the skills in such a fast moving field after that length of time away from the Internet is questionable. Summit also declines to say just what percentage of its employees leave prison and find work in the field. That raises loud alarm bells for me. And as a matter of equity, any company who can make millions in profits should at least pay minimum wage to its workers. Cut through the sophistry, and it comes down to fairness and decency. Summit stinks. An interesting footnote, though. The prison service refuses to allow us Internet access on “security grounds”. How then, does Summit manage to operate within prisons? Perhaps the income it generates may help answer that question? Or are we just uncovering yet another piece of stinking hypocrisy on the part of our keepers?
...................................................... The Mountain comes to Mohammed April 20
There are odd occasions when the improbable happens in prison, and having the new governing Governor turn up at my door was one of them. The mighty rarely descend in such a way, short of dire and career threatening emergencies. Off we wandered to an empty room and began to talk. I daresay he was trying to size me up as I was him, attempting to divine motives and intent.
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The part of our conversation that remains with me is his question regarding my writing for the ‘net. “Just what” he asked, “do you believe that you have permission to do…?” I gave him a short rundown of the events surrounding the birth of the blog and the brief attempt to shut me down. The Governor is now hunting for some paperwork to establish my assertions. I’m assuming that if he fails to find a written permission, then an attempt may be made to shut me down again. Watch this space. And like many staff who speak to me, he doubtless wondered whether, and in what manner, he would feature on the blog. I told him that the title would be the one above and he grinned, “I’ve been called worse!”
...................................................... Result! April 24
A note popped under my door from Healthcare. “This is to advise you that one or more of your prescribed medicines are known to cause an increased sensitivity to sunlight. This may lead to sunburn when exposed to direct sunlight. Accordingly, you are eligible to receive a bottle of sunscreen lotion from the Healthcare department to use as an aid to prevent sunburn. You are eligible to one bottle per year”. Whoopee, a freebie from the system! I’d jump higher, but on attempt to collect this bonus, they had run out on the first day...
...................................................... Cells April 25
We may not want to live in them, but for long termers they are essentially our home. They do not belong to us, we may only occupy individual cells briefly and at the whim of our masters, but nonetheless they are home. Not home in the essentially comforting sense; home as a synonym for security. Cells offer neither. But they are home in the sense of being the closest we have to personal space or a semblance of privacy. These are very significant psychological crutches, all the more so for helping to endure the strains of a lengthy sentence. And like all personal space, prisoners share what may be an innate need to make an attempt to organise that space into the shape that is most comforting, most comfortable, and which somehow afford a small sense of mental ease. If you entered a room containing a table and chair and were left to your own devices, would you not arrange these two items in the way which best suited you? A cell is no different. Each of us lives in a slightly different way, has a different routine and different needs. And each of us attempts arrange our cell in a way which best suits us as individuals. This is why the recent drive to remove ‘’excess’’ furniture riles us so much. And it illustrates the depth of the lack of understanding on the part of our keepers as to what it is like to serve a long sentence. What was a useful psychological crutch has been removed on an unexplained whim, and until and unless our keepers gain some appreciation of our lives then the prospects for change are slim.
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
When panic shapes policy: The unfortunate legacy of New Labour by Andrew Henley
I
t is a well-known legal adage that hard cases make bad law. The term ‘moral panic’ was introduced by renowned sociologist Stanley Cohen following the extreme public reactions to outbreaks of youth violence amongst the ‘Mods and Rockers’ in the 1960s. Whilst the majority of the offences related to abusive or threatening behaviour, low-level violence or criminal damage, it was clear that these groups were subsequently defined as a threat to the social order that needed to be kept in check with tough punishments. Cohen proposed that social responses to these incidents were inherently disproportionate, since the scale of the threat from the young people involved was exaggerated due to the mass media casting them as ‘folk devils’. He described the process of a moral panic thus: “A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved (or often more) resorted to; the condition then
disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible.” (Cohen, ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’, 1972) Whilst in opposition, Tony Blair stole a march on his Conservative opponents by promising that New Labour would be “tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime”. This played well with the media, and allowed Blair to dislodge the Tories as the party of law and order in the run up to his landslide general election victory in 1997. Unfortunately, this blatant courting of the tabloids meant that Labour had to keep up appearances and was bound to react strongly to any criminal justice issues that ended up on the media radar for fear of being branded soft on crime. The susceptibility of the Labour government to respond with knee-jerk reactions to mediafuelled moral panics was the Achilles heel of its criminal justice policy. New Labour hadn’t even come to power before events provided them with the opportunity to demonstrate their toughness. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton perpetrated the ‘Dunblane Massacre’ when he killed 16 young children, a teacher and himself with handguns. The event led to widespread calls for handguns to be banned in the UK and the subsequent Snowdrop Petition gained 705,000 signatures. The Home Affairs Select Committee concluded in 1996 that a ban on all handguns would be
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“panic legislation” and would do little to prevent a repeat of the incident. However, a wide-ranging ban on handguns was enacted by the Labour government through an amendment to previous Conservative legislation shortly after the 1997 General Election. In 2000, the kidnap and murder of 8-year-old Sarah Payne by a man who had a previous conviction for the abduction and sexual assault of a young girl, sparked a ‘name and shame’ campaign by the News of the World (itself a fine bastion of morality and adherence to the law). The campaign revealed the whereabouts of convicted sexual offenders and called for ‘Sarah’s Law’ to grant public access to information on the UK sex offenders register. This was abandoned after it sparked a series of riots, notably on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, yet it was later revealed that prior to their crusade the newspaper had commissioned market research suggesting that ”a strong campaign on the issues of paedophiles would play well among its four million readers” (Silverman and Wilson, 2002). This led some to comment that the ‘For Sarah’ campaign might have been more accurately described as the ‘Using Sarah’ campaign. Despite the controversy, a number of the demands from the newspaper campaign were eventually granted by the Labour government. These included changes to the notification requirements for those convicted of sexual offences and the eventual introduction of the IPP sentence in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act. Dan Gardner, in his excellent book ‘Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear’, calculates the chances of children being kidnapped by strangers in the UK: “The numbers vary from country to country, but everywhere the likelihood of a child being snatched by a stranger is almost indescribably tiny. In the United Kingdom, a Home Office report states, ‘There were 59 cases involving a stranger successfully abducting a child or children, resulting in 68 victims.’ With 11.4 million children under 16, that works out to a risk of 1 in 167,647.” These statistics gave only an indication of the likelihood of a child being abducted, not abducted and then murdered or not returned
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as in the terrible case of Sarah Payne. Citing statistics from the United States a further calculation estimated that “the annual risk of a teen or child being abducted by a stranger and killed or not returned is 0.00007 per cent, or one in 1.4 million” (Gardner, 2008). Yet Labour’s response had been to introduce tough legislation on the back of this event and to acquiesce almost completely to the News of the World’s demands. The murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 by a local school caretaker had equally profound consequences and prompted a wide ranging enquiry into the vetting of people who worked with children and vulnerable adults. The Soham murders ultimately led to the 2006 Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, which critics argued would have led to as many as 9.3 million employees or volunteers in the UK being forced to register with the newly created Independent Safeguarding Authority. The scale of this Vetting and Barring Scheme is currently under review by the Coalition Government. What these incidents demonstrated is that politicians are particularly susceptible to bad decision making when under media pressure and in the aftermath of extreme and, thankfully, very rare cases. Whilst David Cameron has shown himself to be quite happy to pander to the tabloids on issues such as prisoner voting, his Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, has at least committed his department to a root and branch reform of the penal system. Long overdue reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, effective diversion of offenders with mental health problems and a greater emphasis on training and education in prisons are all to be welcomed. Yet the acid test will be how the proposed reforms stand up against the media coverage of the next horrific case that will inevitably hit the newspaper stands at some stage. With the News of the World desperate to distance itself from the phone hacking scandal in which it is currently engulfed, who would bet against another populist campaign calling for tougher approaches to law and order? Andrew Henley is a post-graduate student in social science with the Open University
Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Elements of Forensic Science
Low copy number DNA
Keith Rose checks on the accuracy of DNA evidence and wonders what future there is for it
As part of the pilot study, the police decided to swab the stopcock for DNA. It was felt that a rarely used stopcock might be free from crosscontamination. In the event, a DNA sample from the stopcock was matched to one of the records on the national DNA database (NDNAD). A suspect was arrested, found guilty and received a substantial prison sentence. All happy? Perhaps not!
O
peration Liberal in the late 1990s was a West Midlands police operation involving multiple forces targeting doorstep crime, particularly aimed at fake official callers preying on the elderly. At this time, Staffordshire police were piloting the use of Low Copy Number DNA, (LCN DNA), which was emerging as a scientific technique. One of the cases dealt with by Operation Liberal concerned that of an old lady who had money stolen whilst being distracted by a fake Water Company official. The conman stated there was a problem with
DNA profiling has revolutionised the use of science in criminal cases. In the UK, the standard profile is obtained using a system known as AmpFISTR®SGMPlus™, I kid you not, or SGMPlus. Without making the process overly complicated, DNA is separated from a sample, repeatedly copied (amplified) by a process known as a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), then analysed using gel electrophoresis (that is the simple explanation). DNA profiles obtained from manufactured kits such as SGMPlus or Identifiler are routinely used as probative evidence in criminal cases. Blood, semen, hair with roots, sweat, nasal mucus (snot) are good sources for DNA sampling. Skin cells, dandruff, urine & faeces are usually a poor source of nuclear DNA. To enhance the chances of a DNA match in tiny or poor quality samples of source DNA, the Forensic Science Service (FSS) came up with a controversial solution that uses 34-cycles of amplification instead of the customary 28-cycle process recommended by manufacturers of the kits above. In the simplest terms possible, a tiny sample (template) of DNA is bulked up (amplified) by repeated cycles until a sufficient
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The controversy surrounding LOW Copy DNA is due to the microscopic amount of a DNA sample required to obtain a profile. Theoretically, a full DNA profile can be built from a single cell, but usually a sample of 0.5-2.5 of a nanogram is required for amplification of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method. A nanogram is one thousand millionth of a gram (0.000000001g or 1x 10-9g) about 150 cells. LCN DNA has been specifically designed to analyse amounts of DNA below 100 picograms. A pico-gram is one million, millionth of a gram (0.000000000001g or 1 x 10-12g). With such very low numbers of template DNA molecules, the amplification process may fail, leading to problems when interpreting a profile. Furthermore, sample cross contamination is a common, ever-present problem. Shake hands with someone and your DNA is transferred to their hand. If they then open a door, your DNA is now on the doorknob. Brush past someone in a pub, and your DNA is transferred to their clothing and vice versa. If that person is then the victim of a mugging, explain how your DNA came to be on their clothing. The FSS has enthusiastically praised the claimed benefits of LCN DNA, but the process has significantly failed to be internationally accepted. Currently, Britain, Australia and the Netherlands are the only countries to consent to it being used as courtroom evidence. Professor Dan Krane from the USA and professor Jamieson from an independent consultancy, the Forensic Institute, summarised the position as follows. ‘In scientific analyses it is essential that we can assess how much we can trust any
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result. This trust is based on knowledge of how often a technique gives the correct (i.e. true) value when used to measure something. The error rate for the LCN DNA method is unknown, but the lack of consistency in results is demonstrably high enough to cause serious concerns as to the reliability of this method’. Professor Jamieson then went on to suggest a method of checking for error rates, by diluting a sample of a known profile in ever-smaller amounts over 1,000 test samples. To then run the LCN DNA system, and chart the results. Repeat the process with different samples until a statistical error rate is obtained. The FSS initially claimed in high profile criminal cases such as the Omagh bomb trial that such dilution tests were unnecessary. Subsequently, the Forensic Institute discovered that the FSS had conducted dilution tests in secret, and requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act. The FSS would only release the data under strict confidentiality agreements preventing any publication or illustration of their results. You have to wonder why, if there are no significant errors in the process? Professor Jamieson, together with other eminent international experts, concluded that the 28-cycle SGMPlus PCR procedure is validated satisfactorily. However, the extension 34-cycle LCN technique has not undergone any essential scientific testing and scrutiny to enable it to be considered a reliable evidential-quality process. So what does this all mean? In essence, LCN DNA evidence given in court may not be as bulletproof as claimed. Can someone have an identical DNA profile (genotype) as you? Yes, if you have a twin. In criminal cases, all DNA profiles given as evidence are based on only 10 loci (points) of a genotype, with an additional sex-identifying locus, a protein, Amelogenin, giving a male XX or female XY indication. Yet, there are billions of loci in a full genotype. It is the immense quality of loci in a full human genotype that is repeatedly referred to in courtroom evidence in terms of odds of many billions to one. With a routine DNA profile based on a very limited number of loci, quoting enormous numbers is simply disingenuous.
Keith Rose is currently resident at HMP Whitemoor
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Birmingham privatisation - not all it seems? Paul Sullivan looks at the background to the first public prison to be privatised maximise its profit? Where does all this leave the prisoner - the commodity in all this? Commenting on the privatisations Kenneth Clarke said, ‘Public protection is not just about how we manage prisons in order to punish people. It is also about how we achieve genuine and long-lasting reductions in crime, by cutting reoffending.’
Paul Sullivan
A
fter a bidding contest which included private companies, and an ‘internal bid’, which cost £2,000,000 to finance (that’s 72 prison officers’ wages for a year), Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has decided to give HMP Birmingham to G4S to run on a 14 year contract to start from October. HMP Birmingham is a Victorian local prison built in 1849, crammed into a residential area North West of Birmingham city centre and serves a large number of local Crown and Magistrates’ courts, processing over 9,000 prisoners a year. In 2002 the prison underwent a multi-million pound investment programme: 450 additional prisoner places were added together with new workshops, educational facilities, a new healthcare centre and gymnasium, as well as extensions and improvements to existing facilities. Shortly after this was completed, Jack Straw announced that it was to be ‘market tested’. The Prison Governors’ Association are ‘uneasy’ about Phil Wheatley acting as a paid consultant for G4S so soon after resigning as Director General of NOMS, and the POA are seeking a judicial review. Wheatley was critical of privatised prisons when he was prisons’ boss. Other unions including NAPO, the probation officers’ union, have joined criticism of the privatisation. Steven Gillan, General Secretary of the POA, called the privatisation a ‘disgraceful decision’ and said that prisons should not be run for the benefit of shareholders or for profit. He said, ‘The state has a duty to those imprisoned by the criminal justice system and this coalition government has betrayed loyal public sector workers’. Staff at Birmingham, many whom may lose their jobs, walked out soon after the announcement and the POA are discussing industrial action. Kenneth Clarke appears so certain of industrial action that he has 3,000 troops ready to move into prisons. They have already been trained in ‘control and restraint’ and ‘prisoncraft’, which is, apparently, how to lock and unlock doors. The last mass walkout by prison staff was in 2007, when, during a lightening strike, they abandoned those in their care for 12 hours.
* Budget and population figures supplied by the Ministry of Justice
Paul Sullivan is an editorial assistant at Inside Time Kenneth Clarke
HMP Birmingham
Visits and hospital appointments were cancelled and management had to cook and serve food. Prisoners may not, therefore, have much sympathy for redundant staff.
Prison staff have, over twenty years, seen their pay inflated but have not delivered the professional service that was required Looking deeper at the reasons for the privatisation of Birmingham: is it a shot across the bows and wake-up call to the POA who have for a long time considered that it runs the prisons and continually blocked and obstructed modernisation and improvement of conditions for prisoners and changes to work patterns to improve efficient use of staff? Is he planning to trigger industrial action and hopes, with the help of the army, to show the POA who’s boss? As always it will be prisoners and their families who will bear the brunt of the suffering of this unhappy conflict. Prison staff have, over twenty years, seen their
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pay inflated but have not delivered the professional service that was required. They earn more than firemen, nurses and most in the armed forces yet deliver failing prisons and high reconviction rates year on year because they are under qualified, under trained and continually underperforming, with sick rates that are among the worst in the public sector. This is an incentive for privatisation. Birmingham’s budget for 2010/11 was £29,600,000 which equates to about £20,000 per prisoner (this excludes education and healthcare). Out of 124 public sector prisons it was 95th in order of cost per prisoner so Mr Clarke couldn’t claim that it was excessively expensive. Manchester, a similar prison, for example, has fewer prisoners (1268 as opposed to 1450) yet has a cost per prisoner nearly 50% greater (£28,628), and a budget of £36,300,000.* According to the MoJ, Birmingham was chosen because it was ‘performing badly’. Recent HMCIP reports have highlighted the problems Birmingham has, many intrinsic in its design and location, but has recognised on-going improvements. The IMB reports problems with the UKBA and IPP prisoners being sent to Birmingham which it describes as ‘unsuitable’; so many of the problems are not of Birmingham’s making and will, surely, cause similar problems for G4S - unless G4S have been promised sweeping changes. Birmingham has a Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) of 1,112 yet in February it had 1,451 prisoners and was 133% overcrowded*. Could Birmingham perform better if it was not forced to function at that level? Will G4S not seek to cram in even more prisoners to
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Steven Gillan, General Secretary POA “The real issue is playing politics. It is not anything about better value for money for the taxpayer, because all the evidence, and it’s independent evidence not just from the union, is that the private sector doesn’t save the taxpayer a bean, it is a fact. What this is doing, in actual fact, is putting taxpayer’s money into the back pockets of the share holders and prisons being run for a profit. Now we do not believe fundamentally that this should be the case. But the real thing behind this isn’t whether Birmingham was a successful prison or a failure, it was politically driven and Kenneth Clarke was playing, I think, games with the Labour opposition because it was the Labour opposition that announced this competition policy involving Birmingham and the reason Birmingham was chosen was because we had rejected work force modernisation under Jack Straw at the time and it was seen as a punishment. This is the real reason, unfortunately Kenneth Clarke has taken it a stage further and determined that G4S still run it for a profit. I don’t see how this can benefit prisoners, I don’t see how it can benefit prison officers and I don’t see how it benefits the general public.”
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Jonathan King writes ...
A
t the end of March 2005 I was released from HMP Maidstone. It was Easter and the system decided that, since I was due freedom on Good Friday, the lack of staff meant I should be held over the weekend, including the Monday Bank Holiday, and let out on the Tuesday. My lawyers were furious and said the authorities were chortling and chuckling at making me spend four extra days locked away. It didn’t matter to me. I had a chicken to cook and packing to do as well as many friends to bid farewell. Six years ago! It feels like yesterday. I had a wonderful time in prison. Many think I am mad (probably including the entire staff of Inside Time) but I’ve never been one to allow circumstances beyond my control to get me down. Yes, there were bad things about being locked up. No “freedom”. Less time with friends and family. Limited quality of food (I tried to get avocado pears allowed on canteen but was told they were poofy luxury items). But I determined to make the most of it and enjoy the positive aspects. Many interesting people – it didn’t take long to understand that the media depiction of human beings as caricatures is not true; even those with some very bad character traits also had very good qualities. Fascinating situations and challenges. How to use loopholes in the rules – sorry, Ben Gunn, I was the first inmate “blogger”, online every day, posting thoughts and opinions by phone calls to boardkeepers on a daily basis from 2001. I enjoyed winding up tabloid editors by getting online supporters to phone their private lines the day after the false stories were printed, complaining. Numbers were changed and I was given the new ones by friends on the papers within minutes. Much hilarity. It was
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amazing when I walked out of the gates with my plastic bags. The hacks and paparazzi behaved precisely as expected and sales of my old records soared thanks to all the publicity. No traffic. No tax problems. Generally decent staff, from officers and governors to healthcare and chaplains. The odd bad apple was swiftly sorted out by intelligent, if sometimes subversive, action. Inside Time quickly became my monthly friend. I always got the feeling that the paper was on my side, whilst being allowed by the Establishment and treading that careful line. I vowed to continue contributing after my release as long as they – and you – wanted me to. I still get many letters a week from prisoners and try to reply or at least pass on correspondence to people who may be able to help solve problems. I learned a lot about the law – my own appeal process still continues – and have been able to suggest routes for some of those innocents wrongly convicted. I was often asked how I coped with being “monstered” by the media but it never bothered me at all; having been inflated as a pop star, celebrity and sex symbol for nearly 40 years, and always having regarded that as complete bollocks, I had no difficulty in being able to consider becoming described as a ‘Vile Pervert’ equally idiotic and unimportant. But I found my secret for surviving with happiness was in trying to make every day happier for other people. I know that might sound ghastly – like weedy Fotherington Thomas from the Molesworth books who ran around shouting Hello Sky! Hello Trees! Hello Grass! (I wouldn’t have survived long with that last one – as any fule kno). But it was a genuine way to enjoy my time inside. There were always other inmates far worse off than me - depressed, sad, suicidal, and unhappy. Many could not read or write. And there were also members of staff with problems that needed solving. I tried to make others laugh and found that it did me a world of good. That’s what I’ve tried to do, since being released, with this column. Even if all you do after reading it is smile and say “silly old queen”. Result!
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Steering by the stars Rod Harper Rod Harper works as a consultant, writer, and teacher of astrology. Aries The Ram 21st March to 20th April
May opens with a burst of energy, and with the planets of communication and connection both in your sign, you’re in a positive frame of mind. The focus shifts onto money matters as the month moves on and the Full Moon of the 17th brings with it a time of reckoning and debts to be settled. Taurus the Bull 21st April to 20th May
The month of May is the time of the year for you to fully express yourself, Taurus, although the first few days of the month don’t look so merry. Don’t despair, your vitality returns, and by mid-month life begins to take an altogether quicker pace – if there is such a thing for a Taurus. Gemini the Twins 21st May to 21st June
May is a month of two halves: as the month kicks off, you’re feeling at the top of your game with plenty of opportunities for socialising, however it may be a good idea to play your cards close to your chest after the 15th when those normally razorsharp antennae may not be picking everything up. With the Sun’s move into your own sign on the 21st, you should feel a new surge of energy. Cancer the Crab 22nd June to 23rd July
This is no time for retreating inside your shell, in fact the more involved you become the better, really, especially when it comes to group activities. Use the time around the 11th of the month to seek favour from someone in a position of authority and by the full Moon on the 17th you could find that you are actually enjoying yourself. Leo the Lion 24th July to 23rd August
The focus this month is on who you are and what you’re about and there could be a few fun times ahead with the Sun moving in on your sociable 11th House. Watch out for confusion over money owed around the 22nd – and there may be a pleasant surprise in store on the 25th involving someone with foreign connections. Virgo the Virgin 24th August to 23rd September
Let your hair down Virgo and put your worries aside
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as your ruling planet Mercury is dancing along with Venus the planet of love and joy. You could find yourself being serenaded now, or at least involved in some kind of affectionate communication, possibly with someone in faraway lands. Libra the Scales 24th September to 23rd October
Recent weeks may not have been a whole lot of fun, but Saturn has been keeping you on track, sometimes against strong opposition from some quarters. Those tensions should start to ease now, and the Full Moon on the 17th may bring with it a positive resolution to a longstanding financial issue. Scorpio the Scorpion 24th October to 22nd November
The emphasis is now shifting onto your close relationships and it’s not a good time to be going it alone. Instead, think more in terms of partnerships, working alongside others and listening to what they have to say. Positive agreements could be made around the 20th as your two ruling planets make a favourable aspect. Sagittarius the Archer 23rd November to 21st December
May begins with a burst of energy – you’re a real powerhouse of creativity and there could be a few opportunities for socialising, too, around the first half of the month. May’s Full Moon on the 17th may shine a light onto something that’s been hidden up to now. Capricorn the Goat 22nd December to 20th January
You may have to tread carefully around certain family members at the start of the month, just remember your harsh criticisms can sometimes hurt those you love. This month’s emphasis is on your creativity so why not loosen up a bit and just enjoy the creative process without aiming to get anything particular out of it? Aquarius the Water Carrier 21st January to 19th February
If you’ve been involved in a course of study recently, it may have been feeling like a long, hard slog but hang in there – there’s light at the end of the tunnel and the result will be well worthwhile. The Sun’s move into like-minded Gemini on the 21st will bring with it a positive new outlook – and there could be a lucky break around the 25th. Pisces the Fish 20th February to 20th March
Be active in the realm of communication this month Pisces or you may find yourself feeling isolated and washed up on a desert island. Make the most of fortunate aspects on the 11th. Opportunities around money and communications could be about to present themselves to you, so stay open and connected.
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Church of the poison mind A former prisoner explains his rejection by the church because of his offences
chose to sit a little bit away from me and we waited initially in an awkward silence for the Minister to arrive. The only conversation, between two of the church officials, was awkward and stilted, buoyed up by forced gaiety. They were clearly embarrassed at having me in their midst not knowing quite what to do. Eventually the Minister arrived clutching his briefcase like a comfort blanket. He was a small man with a grey beard and eyes that never quite met yours. Throughout the meeting he had a decidedly uncomfortable look about him. The meeting was opened by the Minister with a prayer. It was a sort of general purpose prayer unrelated to the reason we were all there. There followed no discussion. The ‘contract’ was handed to me as an ultimatum, take it or leave it, sign and we’ll tolerate you, don’t sign and we’ll breathe a sigh of relief! It constituted the only conditions under which they were prepared to allow me to attend the 6.30pm service, but nothing else. I was to be given a permit under very strict conditions to attend a service, but certainly not to become a member of the church, certainly not to meet in fellowship with the Body of Christ. It was made abundantly clear by the Minister that I was not welcome in his church. The Methodist child protection officer, a woman whose face wore what might be best described as a ‘disapproving expression’, felt obliged to remind me that I was a sex offender. I pointed out to her in as gentle a way as I could that this was not something that had slipped my mind, having lived with that knowledge for most of my life. I felt her comment was as unnecessary as it was hurtful.
I
think of all the difficulties I have faced on leaving prison, putting to one side my divorce and ostracism by my eldest son, trying to attend church has been one of the most intractable. The probation service and MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements), the authorities who oversee those on the sex offenders register, view attending church as a very questionable occupation for someone like me. It is assumed that it is a cover to ‘groom’ children. Also a history of child sexual abuse by the clergy has, I think, caused church officials to somewhat over-react and throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is pretty widely accepted that most abuse is carried out by family members and close friends. One child is killed approximately every 7 days by either a parent or carer, ‘stranger danger’ is a much over used concept. The church, whilst needing to take appropriate steps to safeguard its congregation, also needs to remember that it exists for sinners, not only
for good men. Such conditions in the contract that people like me are required to sign; like not using the church toilet, only coming in by a certain door, moving to another seat if a child should sit close to you, serve only to alienate and destroy any self confidence or self value that you may have salvaged from prison. What follows is an account of my first meeting at my local Methodist Church after having asked if I may attend their church. I wrote it almost immediately following that meeting in July 2008. I arrived promptly; in fact I was the first to arrive. I did not know with whom I would be meeting. I expected the Minister and whoever had responsibility for child protection in the church. I was therefore somewhat dismayed to find that I was eventually displayed in front of a group of 11 people! I was quite unprepared to disclose to so large a group. Slowly people arrived and came into the vestry. They
Throughout the whole of the meeting no one asked me about my offending, in fact no one asked me about myself at all! Perhaps to have done so would mean that they would have to acknowledge me as a person, made in the image of God, which may have called into question their pre-conceived notion of a sex offender. Not once was I addressed by my Christian name, probably because they did not know it and did not care to ask. When I asked the Minister the direct question “am I welcome in your Church?” he was unable either to look me in the eye or make a reply and merely directed me to the contract. His silence spoke volumes. All that they knew about me was contained in a briefing document given them by the Methodist Child Protection Officer. No one cared enough to find out that I had been attending church for around 30 years, had been a Church Warden, ran a charity providing money for a Romanian orphanage, served on the PCC and the mission committee, been the chairman of the group which raised sufficient money in a single weekend to completely build
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I felt about as welcome as Gene Robinson at Lambeth Palace. I seemed destined not to get on well with this Minister. I phoned to ask his permission to attend the Christmas Day morning service – it being the only service that day. I hoped he would see this as an opportunity to relax some of the more stringent clauses in the contract. My hopes were soon to be dashed. After a moments consideration he replied that I could attend providing of course I did not hang about after the service (to wish anyone a happy Christmas) or go into the church room (for coffee and a time of fellowship). I was just to say ‘thank you’ and go! As an afterthought he thanked me for asking his permission. I think in another age the Minister would have gleefully cast people like me into the fiery furnace. I persevered in my attendance of this church even though I gained very little from it. I was never allowed to go for coffee after the evening service despite the fact that the congregation consisted wholly of old people. The Minister made no pastoral visits or showed any concern whatsoever for my spiritual welfare, in fact he would seldom even acknowledge me even when walking right past me in the church. When I arrived at this church I was ready to make almost any concession to be able to join in fellowship with a worshipping community. I wanted to feel welcome. Eventually, however, I decided that to attend this church any longer would actually be counter-productive. I was finding myself becoming more and more alienated from the idea of actually attending a church, any church. I felt humiliated and worthless and not even able to enjoy a cup of coffee with the other old folks during the week as the Minister had banned me from the building. Perhaps I expected too much. Perhaps I lack the wisdom to see myself as they see me, perhaps I should not expect to be made welcome in any church, and after all I’m not the traditional prodigal son! In any event the Methodists had won! I would leave them in peace, just as they had always wanted. For a while I did not go to church. A good friend however, quietly and doggedly, continued to make suggestions of how I might attend a church where I would be welcomed and be able to eventually make some contribution to the life of that church. I did pluck up the courage to visit two more churches, but was faced with more or less the same attitude and finally, and reluctantly, came to the conclusion that my church attending days are over.
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a balcony in our church, and that children in the church or in Romania never featured in my offending in any way whatsoever. To the folk of this wonderful Methodist Church I was just someone they would sooner not know.
Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
29
Inside Justice Mind the Gap Louise Shorter’s monthly column shines the light on miscarriages of justice
Louise Shorter
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any will remember Sean Hodgson from the various wings he inhabited during his 27 year stay at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Confessing, when first questioned, to the murder of Theresa De Simone in 1979, he pleaded not guilty during his trial in 1982 with his defence team pointing to a history of pathological lying. But Sean Hodgson was convicted. A year later another man, David Lace, confessed to the crime while he was living in Devon, but was not believed. He took his own life five years later in 1988. Sean Hodgson remained in prison. A decade later, Sean Hodgson’s legal team applied to the Forensic Science Service to locate crucial exhibits for re-testing but were told they’d been destroyed. Another ten years passed before the FSS discovered their mistake, found the lost exhibits, and retested them to discover Sean Hodgson was innocent as claimed. He was freed in 2009 in a storm of publicity and spoke, not only of his incarceration for 27 years, but specifically of the last 10 years when the exhibits had been lost while in ‘secure storage’ at the FSS. Sadly, his experience of lost or destroyed exhibits is far from isolated. Every innocent prisoner knows scientific advances are the 21st century solution to getting a case back to the Court of Appeal. But the difficulties involved in identifying that new work can be just the beginning of the struggle. Maslen Merchant, from Hadgkiss, Hughes and Beale, is a lawyer who deals exclusively with miscarriage of justice cases. He says “very often the CPS and the police simply ignore your correspondence and requests for access to exhibits. The CPS is very often far from helpful. In order to instruct a ballistics expert, I once asked the CPS the question “Would you please confirm
the location of the exhibit?” I was told “In a secure store”. One fingerprint expert I instructed travelled over 100 miles to attend an appointment to view some fingerprint lifts. When he got there he was told that, in fact, the force concerned did not have the lifts in question and that he did not have the necessary permission to view them anyway. When he produced the letter of authority I had been sent by the CPS he was told to “complain” or to “do a judicial review”. Correna Platt, partner at Stephensons Solicitors LLP and member of the Inside Justice Advisory Panel agrees the system of needing information and permission to re-test from the very people who’ve got their collar: the exhibits officer from the original police investigation team and the CPS leads to a certain “lack of urgency.” Even once the location of an exhibit has been established and permission finally granted the pace of progress is more akin to Walking with Dinosaurs than Waking the Dead. “There are further delays with the FSS liaising with our expert” Correna Platt explains “and significant administrative costs are encountered even at this stage. The costs are further increased if reexamination of exhibits is required as the prosecution expert will insist on being present; the costs are therefore effectively doubled.” Reviewing the trial papers of a violent sexual attack last year, I discovered a key exhibit had never been forensically tested. This was inexplicable as the prosecution had needed to rely on a rather weak, partial DNA match to secure the conviction at trial. Once I’d spotted the police oversight, the prisoner’s solicitor swung into action and has successfully secured legal aid and a laboratory is on standby to do the tests which could secure his freedom. It took two weeks to spot the original police oversight and, so far, six months and counting to be allowed access to the exhibit. Delays such as this are frustratingly common and one which could get a whole lot worse if lethargy and a lack of urgency are joined by chaos and indecisiveness from the clearout at the FSS.
I’m delighted to report that another case Inside Justice has been investigating is progressing well and we’re embarking on making a television programme with the BBC about this wrongful conviction. Sadly this means I’ll be unable to bring you news of the unit’s work over the next couple of months as we concentrate all our efforts on helping this prisoner but we should be back in the summer with further news.
The government’s plans to change the social fund won’t help people leaving prison, says Francesca Cooney of the Prison Reform Trust.
PRISON REFORM TRUST
A
t the moment, people leaving prison with no savings can apply for crisis loans if they are waiting for benefits and have no money to live on. They might also be able to get a community care grant for help with buying essentials for a new home. Crisis loans and community care grants are part of the Social Fund, which is run by the Benefit Agency. The government is looking at changing the welfare benefit system so local councils will give out any support in emergencies or when leaving prison, instead of the Benefit Agency. Although this would not happen until 2014, the Prison Reform Trust is concerned about the impact that the proposed changes will have on people leaving prison and resettling in to the community. The majority (81%) of the 66,000 people who leave prison every year will claim benefits. The Ministry of Justice has identified debt as reasons for reoffending through the OASys reports. Assessments in 2007 found that over 23,000 people in prison had financial problems linked to their offending. The first three months of moving in to the community are a key time for resettlement and the time when most reoffending happens. Although the discharge grant was introduced to cover the benefit gap, it doesn’t. The discharge grant is £46 (for people over 25) and £37 (for those between 18 and 24). The rates were set in 1995. There is widespread agreement that benefits should be available from the day of release. The discharge grant can force people leaving prison into debt and reliance on the crisis loan system. Additionally, Job Seekers Allowance claims create problems because
Mang & Co Solicitors CRIMINAL DEFENCE AND PRISON LAW SPECIALISTS FOR THE MIDLANDS AND WORCESTERSHIRE AREA We represent prisoners in all aspects of prison law including: ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾
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people will not get payment for 17 days at the earliest. The Department for Work and Pensions should look into new systems which ensure that the application process for benefits is completed while the person is inside. Living without any money is difficult for anyone. For people leaving prison, who may not have social networks they can call on for personal loans, and are highly unlikely to be able to source credit, they are in a very difficult position. In Unlock and PRT’s recent research report, Time is Money we found that one in four prisoners interviewed owed money for a crisis loan. There has been criticism regarding using crisis loans to bridge the benefits gap as they are difficult to access and immediately place the person into debt. The reality is that without a fixed duty being placed on local council’s emergency assistance will not be provided. Also, rather than local councils deciding how much they will put aside to help people, the money should be allocated centrally and ring fenced. Currently, many people returning to their home area from prison, or moving to a new area for resettlement reasons, run into difficulties under the ‘local connection’ rules. We know that people have problems getting accommodation and social service support despite their legal right to this. This is because budget strapped local authorities will sometimes do all in their power to offload someone on to another council. This situation is likely to get worse if councils are receiving emergency requests for assistance from people who have recently left prison. We have asked the government to look into a system of payment on account. The Welfare Reform Act (passed in November 2009) gave the government powers to offer an advance on a first benefit payment when necessary.
The Prison Reform Trust has written a response to the governments’ plans. If you would like a copy, or have any questions, you can contact us on the free phone number on 0808 808 0060, Mondays, Tuesdays Thursdays 3.30-5.30. You can also call during office hours on 0207 251 5070. You can also write to us at Prison Reform Trust, Freepost, ND6125 London EC1B 1PN.
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Hungry for release Campaigner Victoria Tasker highlights the plight of one victim of IPP
I
n 2007 Mr Mark Foley was given an IPP sentence -an Indeterminate Public Protection Sentence for committing a robbery. An IPP prison sentence means that he has no definite release date and is effectively a life sentence for those who receive it, without anyone having to be killed. Thus public protection sentences were introduced on April 4 2005 by section 225 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. They are essentially a new form of mandatory life sentence that can be imposed on conviction of any one of 153 specified categories of violent or sexual offences. Under this legislation robbery is deemed as a violent offence and if the court thinks there is a significant risk of serious harm to the public by the commission of further specified offences are able to punish an individual with an IPP sentence. However the number of IPP prisoners sentenced within the prison system has rapidly swamped it with increasing numbers of life sentence prisoners who have comparatively short tariffs. This has taken the Ministry of Justice National Offender Management Service (NOMS) by surprise. Thus in order to get released from an IPP sentence an individual has to complete certain courses that are only run within specific prisons. These courses are the means by which an inmate is said to reduce the level of risk he or she is deemed to pose to the public, before their release will even be considered by the parole board. Currently these courses are oversubscribed and the Prison Service are not equipped to deal with the vast quantity of IPP prisoners who have been given specific sentence targets: especially those with relatively short tariffs such as Mr Foley. Mr Foley was moved from HMP Gartree for what has been termed by the prison service as “passive indiscipline”. The prison service alleges
resources available, particularly with regard to short tariff prisoners, to undertake the required assessments and prepare sentence plans to identify the relevant risk factors and how to address them. Or for that matter to provide the relevant courses. The prison system has also failed to move prisoners from local prisons to training prisons where the appropriate courses are undertaken, thus setting them up to fail. Consequently, prisoners are unable to demonstrate their safety for release, let alone treat and correct their offending behaviour. Thus when an IPP prisoner’s tariff has expired, assuming that they had then been safe to release, those individuals remain unable to demonstrate this and remain deemed as unsafe. All because NOMS and the Prison Service have not given them the opportunity to undergo courses designed to eliminate or reduce the risk that they pose.
Mr Foley organised a food strike after complaining about the food prisoners were being served. Now an inmate at HMP Lincoln, Mr Foley is a couple of weeks from his tariff date and only has one target on his sentence plan left to complete - a course he is now unable to access following being transferred out of Gartree. HMP Gartree is one of only a small number of prison establishments that run the CSCP course. However following Mr Foley’s complaint about the food, what has later been termed by the prison service as “passive indiscipline” he is being effectively dis-barred from accessing it. The plight of Mr Foley is by no means uncommon within our prison system as the prison service struggles to deal with the large number of IPP prisoners who have tariffs of 4 or 5 years. This very fact has been commented on in the House of Lords in May 2009 in Regina (James) v Secretary of State for Justice (Parole Board intervening), Regina (Lee) v Same and Regina (Wells) v Same.
Mr Mark Foley commenced his hunger strike on the 7th February as a result of being unable to complete his sentence plan as the only way he saw to draw attention to his plight. During this time he has been denied his arthritis medication by prison staff. He has suffered significant weight loss and now walks with a walking stick. His plight in HMP Lincoln continues.
“Although the Secretary of State for Justice had failed in his public duty to provide such treatment courses for prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection as would enable them to demonstrate to the Parole Board that it was safe to release them, their post-tariff detention was not unlawful.”
UPDATE - April 2011 After sending a copy of the article to Inside Time, I sent one to the governor - needless to say all of a sudden Mark got a lot of medical attention, they promised him accumulated visits and a move onwards to get him to eat again - however nothing happened, it was just empty words. They effectively conned him. At this stage Mark had lost 2 stone and was depressed so decided to eat before he did some permanent damage to himself. Although, this is not the end.
However despite it not being seen as unlawful by the law lords, the House of Lords did recognise that the National Offender Management Service have demonstrated they are unable to give effect to the secretary of state’s published policy in Prison Service Order 4700 to give all life sentence prisoners every opportunity to demonstrate their safety for release at tariff expiry. Put bluntly there is neither the systems nor the
Quote of the Month Council letter that makes me despair by Tom Utley Daily Mail April 2011 I got a letter last week, that summed up why the UK is doomed to slip ever further behind China and India. It contained documents relating to a proposed traffic-calming scheme in my area. These included: a glossy, patronising leaflet about road safety (also available in large print, Braille, audiotape, and in every language from Portuguese and Yoruba to Twi); a brochure about speed bumps; and a questionnaire inquiring after my religion, race and sexual tastes – as if these might somehow influence my views on traffic calming. The sheer, idiotic waste involved in producing these forms and collating the answers makes you despair, particularly since the council will ignore the results of the “consultation’ anyway. ‘Here, in microcosm, is the blight affecting the entire country.” As the national debt nudges £1trn, our officials are still squandering taxpayers’ money with abandon. Do they think Britain can survive for ever like this, frittering away money to ensure “that Twi speakers are kept fully informed about plans for speed lozenges in the Lambeth area”?
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org readers. We support prison magazines and help get NUJ courses up and running. We work in Education, the Library, Chapel, Segregation, on the wings, in people’s workplaces, with detainees, in Healthcare and in Visits. We work with young offenders, foreign nationals, OAPs, people with learning difficulties, people with mental health problems. If the Arts Council wants to tick boxes it need only look at the population profile of any prison. I have never met so many culturally disadvantaged people in all my life.
© prisonimage.org
Climbing ladders
Pat Winslow, HMP Long Lartin’s Writer in Residence on the decision by the Arts Council England to cut funding for the Writers in Prison Network
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rts Council England, having an obligation to implement the cuts imposed by this government, has chosen to remove funding from the Writers in Prison Network. The day the announcement was made, Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, was quoted on the BBC’s news website as saying – “Public protection is not just about how we manage prisons in order to punish people. It is also about how we achieve genuine and longlasting reductions in crime, by cutting reoffending.” I agree. It costs a fortune to keep someone in prison. Anything that helps reduce reoffending is surely to be welcomed. Whilst I cannot say my input alone will help someone turn their life around, I do see some
quite profound and positive developments in people. ACE should see the work we do. They should meet the people we work with and hear their stories. If you’ve been told since you were a kid that you’re thick or daft, if ADHD is another word for naughty, if you’ve been fighting addiction all your life and have low self esteem, if your life has spiralled completely out of control and you’ve done the unthinkable, then you’ve got nowhere to go but down and down and down. The Writers in Prison Network provides ladders up. Writers in Residence typically offer writing workshops, reading groups, 1-2-1 sessions, professional critiques, scriptwriting, drama, radio, film-making, storytelling, Stories Connect programmes, Storybook Dads, family learning courses and projects for emerging
Writers are uniquely placed. We don’t come with hoops to jump and we have novel ways of working. I’ve been doing 1-2-1s with someone who’s dyslexic and finds the formality of traditional education intimidating and distracting. However, he’s joined the writing group. This is a talented visual poet. He has great performance skills. He’s found a way of combining art with the spoken word. Who knows what may happen now he’s started climbing the ladder?
Writers in Prison Network by numbers
0 number of organisations doing the same work as WIPN
16 number of Writers in Residence currently working in English prisons
19 number of years WIPN has been going
10,598
I’ve seen a lot climbing in my four years at Long Lartin. Emerging readers have won poetry competitions, prisoners have had fiction and poetry collections published, our Listeners wrote and acted in their first ever film, people who’ve never read Shakespeare before are now adept at discussing the moral compass of some of his characters.
number of offenders WIPN worked with last year
£20,000 annual cost of keeping one Writer in Residence in post
Did I mention the moral compass? Here are a couple of questions for the ‘hanging’s too good for ’em’ brigade. Do you want people to emerge from prison as better or worse individuals? Do you want people capable of empathy and sensitivity or do you want a hardened, embittered old con who doesn’t give a damn anymore? Writing demands the ability to listen and reflect. Writers learn to make sense of their own experiences as well as other people’s. For some people it’s a way of dealing with anger, for others it’s a way of coming to terms with the past and dealing with their crime. WIPN runs a residential course once a year for ex-offenders. I was one of the tutors this year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people travel so far in such a short space of time. Some of those attending were considering writing as a career. It’s a real option if you have talent and are prepared to work at it. WIPN has strong NUJ contacts and can offer an NUJ approved course. Erwin James, the Guardian journalist, worked with one of WIPN’s writers at HMP Nottingham when he was inside. Writing is a way of staying crime and drug free. The needle or the pen? The bottle or the laptop? The funders and the cutters need to think about how their decisions are going to affect the future of this country. They need to get their arithmetic right.
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£47,000 average cost of keeping a person in prison for a year
£130,912 sum WIPN requested for next year
Tell them how you feel about WIPN’s cut - tell them why it matters Writers in Prison Network, PO Box 71, Welshpool, SY21 0WB Arts Council England, 14 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 3NQ Write to your MP at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA asking her or him to table a question to Kenneth Clarke: ‘Can the Minister please tell me, given that funding to the Writers in Prison Network has been completely axed by Arts Council England, who will now be providing this invaluable service as part of the rehabilitation revolution?’
CLARKE KIERNAN
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Late parole reports;
incompetence or negligence? Charles Hanson questions the immediate future of the Parole Board complete data for the parole system. “Incomplete and late information makes it harder for the board’s members to make their decisions, posing a greater risk that the wrong decision may be made,” the report said.
Charles Hanson
I
n May 2000, the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office published his report into The Parole Board of England and Wales. The report detailed the Board’s shortcomings and its failures to ensure that parole applications were considered in ‘a proper and timely manner’. What stood out was the utter chaos resulting from the failures of the prison authorities and psychology and probation staff in completing their reports on time, so that those prisoners who were eligible to be considered for parole were not kept in prison beyond the date when they might be safely released on licence. The failures are, arguably, not entirely the fault of the Parole Board when probation officers and prison psychology departments, the two main culprits, adopt such a cavalier approach to carrying out risk assessments, interviews, home circumstances reports and other statutory requirements requested by the Board. This means that offenders and, in particular, those serving indeterminate sentences, are often detained in closed conditions beyond the time when they might have been transferred to open conditions or indeed released. Following that report, Members of Parliament, the Independent Monitoring Board and organisations representing prisoners, all criticised the delays in processing parole applications. They
Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office said: “If the Parole Board is to make decisions about the release of prisoners which are both fair and minimise the risk of harm to the public, for the board to do its job properly it must have access to complete information. Currently, that is not always happening.”
The Parole Board at work were right to be concerned when it was revealed that in 1998-99 only around 50 per cent of completed dossiers (reports) were received by the Parole Board by the due date, which was only a slight improvement on about 40 per cent in 1996-97. With an estimated cost to the Prison Service of £2 million, one might have thought that lessons had been learnt. By March 2008, the National Audit Office (NAO), was reporting that although the Parole Board had performance targets for each of the main types of case it considers, only 32 per cent of oral hearings for indeterminate
sentences (lifers, IPPS, HMPs) were being held on time and two thirds of oral hearing cases examined by the audit office had been deferred, at least once, including 45 per cent deferred on the day of the hearing. The report, ‘Protecting the Public: The Work of the Parole Board’, said only 65 per cent of the cases deferred are recorded on the board’s database and although the board was working hard to improve its performance, it was not able to handle its own workload, and is “heavily constrained” by the failure of the Ministry of Justice, the Prison Service and the Probation Service in providing timely and
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The NAO found that failures to release on time and the cost of the administrative delays at the Parole Board were resulting in an additional cost of nearly £3m in the nine months to 1st June 2007. Furthermore, this is happening at a time when the government is looking for ways to reduce the prison population. The National Audit Office went on to say that ‘the work of the Parole Board was ‘hampered by the lack of timely information from other parts of the criminal justice system. Prisoners who may be eligible for parole are having their case hearings delayed because of poor information handling by the criminal justice system. One of the most common reasons for delay is that the Parole Board does not receive the information required to make a decision’. In 2009, the National Audit Office invited the Parole Board to respond to some of its findings and here the Board departed somewhat from the terms of reference in that it called for the Parole Board to remain an independent body but that its responsibility should be transferred to HM Courts Service. It was argued that this
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Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org change would put the independence of the Parole Board from the executive on a firmer footing, as required by the Court of Appeal, and at the same time enhance its ability to secure sufficient judicial resources from Court Service to hear prisoners’ cases on time. It would of course mean that it would become an official judicial body, thus enabling it to direct report writers with more legal clout to prepare and submit reports on time as a judge might direct a probation officer to prepare a pre-sentence report before passing sentence. Although, in my experience, there are times when probation officers have effectively defied those directions as if they are above the law in the same way as prison probation officers and psychologists drag their heels when the Parole Board directs that reports must be completed and submitted by a specific date. The Board also called for its recommendations on moving prisoners to open prison conditions to be made binding upon the Secretary of State and to be given the power to review the cases of prisoners who have been moved back from open to closed conditions by the Prison Service. It also went on to express a wish to be given additional powers to enforce the attendance of witnesses and the provision of reports and other written material and to make ‘wasted costs orders’ for anyone failing to comply with such directions. Which seems to me to be entirely reasonable where it would hit the pockets of report writers who failed to prepare and submit their reports on a specified date. In May 2010, having received the Parole Board responses, The National Audit Office released a further report detailing its concerns into the delays of the Board in compiling the necessary reports so that it could make informed and proper decisions about parole applicants. It is unlikely that there will be any improvement so long as report writers in the area of probation and psychology continue to believe that they are above the law or, as the case may be, to find ways to delay the progress of those prisoners deemed by them not so much for being high risk or dangerous but as a nuisance in demanding their rights and thus a thorn in their side. One prisoner, at HMP Highpoint, has complained that it has taken some three months from a deferred parole hearing in January 2011 for the psychology and probation departments to make an appointment to see him following the Board’s directions at that hearing to submit reports. And it will be at least another 2 weeks before those reports are available to the Board and his legal advisors, thus potentially meaning that from the date that the Parole Board ordered these reports to them being available will be in the region of 4 months. This is entirely unacceptable. In another but not entirely unconnected matter, the prison was required by the courts to file a defence in a matter where the same prisoner is in the advanced process of judicial proceedings against the prison and the Ministry of Justice. The required details were to include details of the periods that this prisoner was an in-patient at a local hospital. The prison Governor’s response to that was that the notes were missing and ‘couldn’t be found’. Does this suggest that the prison has no knowledge of when the prisoner is in or out the prison? Might it be that the management have no idea where any prisoner is? This is such an example of incompetence and negligence that it should come as no surprise that there is such a cavalier approach in preparing and submitting reports on time when it might be that those reports might themselves go missing. Few lessons have been learned from one important judicial decision concerning the problems of late reporting when in the case of Regina (Johnson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Another (May 2007) it was held that the failure by the Parole Board to
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In my view there are remedies available and one might be to give the Parole Board the same status as any court, as was suggested in 2008-2009, which would place it in a position to legally enforce report writers to meet deadlines and penalise those who failed to deliver. Alternatively to take prison psychology departments out of HM Prison Service placing it on the same footing as any independent consultant psychologist with the same independent status which would be allow for claims to be made against those who did not comply with the directions and orders of the court or Parole Board. This should also include dispensing with amateurs like the ‘gravy train’ psychology assistants and trainees.
Image courtesy BBC
If the Parole Board is to make decisions about the release of prisoners which are both fair and minimise the risk of harm to the public, for the board to do its job properly it must have access to complete information. Currently, that is not always happening Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office consider ‘speedily’ the entitlement of a long-term prisoner to parole made his continued detention after eligibility for parole arbitrary, unjustified and therefore unlawful. The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Waller, Lord Justice Buxton and Lord Justice Lloyd) so stated on May 9, 2007 when allowing the appeal of Mr Derrick Johnson, a former prisoner, from the dismissal by Mr Andrew Nichol, QC, sitting as a deputy Queen’s Bench Division judge ([2006] EWHC 1772 (Admin)) of his claim that the delay in putting his case before the board was a breach of article 5.4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Lord Justice Waller said that, “Whilst it was a statutory requirement for a life prisoner to be referred to the board and an established practice of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to refer the case of a long-term prisoner on a determinate sentence, as far as article 5.4 was concerned there was unlikely to be a distinction. In the present case, there was an unjustified and arbitrary delay of eight and a half months. If Mr Johnson could demonstrate that at an earlier consideration by the board he would have been released, it followed that his detention for some period was arbitrary, unjustified and therefore unlawful. The appeal would be allowed and remitted for consideration of compensation due under article 5.4”. This judgement had wide implications for both the Parole Board and Prison Service in respect of compensation that the solicitor acting for the prisoner went on to say that, “Other prison lawyers are pleased that the Parole Board and Prison Service are going to have to account for missing deadlines. It is a matter that has been concerning us for a number of years. We believe there are many other people in a similar position,” going on to suggest that, “The broad rule of thumb for compensation was £1,000 for the first month and £500 for each subsequent month that an offender was held beyond his or
her parole date. The judgment means that the Prison Service could face claims for compensation for wrongful imprisonment if the first early release deadline is missed and the offender released after a subsequent parole hearing.”
Of course, prison psychologists are not independent and many rely on the Prison Service to sustain them through their university degree courses and have only their paymasters to answer to and in the process have the protection of that service when it falters as in the case of late report writing. I would go even further and whilst I do not entirely support the private sector in the management of prisons, I believe that there is merit in the market testing of the Probation Service so that we bring in those private bodies and charities who are equally as capable of managing offenders and do not see their status as state protected and a job for life. Then and only then with such a shakeup might we see a competent and an efficient service that provides for the public, value for money and in the process a service that is committed to the needs of offenders and their progress. Editorial Note: The Parole Board told Inside Time that the backlog of oral hearing cases was down to 1491 at the end of February. This is a drop over the course of the past 12 months and is at a rate of around 100 cases per month. Charles Hanson is a lifer formerly at HMP Blantyre House
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Thoughts for the day
34
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
From over the wall Terry Waite writes his monthly column for Inside Time
Terry Waite CBE writes from New Zealand
K
enneth Clarke MP has been taking a bit of stick recently for what I consider to be the most intelligent proposals made about prisons and prisoners for a long time. He has pointed out what is obvious to anyone who has served time or has some knowledge of UK prisons that, generally speaking, they do not equip individuals for life on the outside. Any sentence under twelve months is virtually useless when it comes to rehabilitation. He further said that prison is no place for those suffering from various forms of mental illness and prison officers cannot be expected to provide adequate care for such people. Again, anyone who has the slightest knowledge of prison life will know that a fairly high proportion of prisoners do have mental health issues and need special treatment. A real problem he has to get over is the attitude of the public toward our penal system. For many reasons there is widespread ignorance about life inside and this ignorance is fuelled by certain sections of the tabloid press who continue to promote the ‘throw the key away’ philosophy. Well, it is understandable that the public do get fed up with crime. Having just been subject to credit card fraud, I am very fed up with the inconvenience that has been caused me. My son and his wife both had their cars stolen and finally, to add insult to injury, my son’s bike was pinched. Well, there are far more serious crimes and they are committed for a wide variety of reasons
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but when one is the victim of crime then an angry reaction is to be expected. In more serious cases, individuals are destroyed and the pain and grief caused is beyond measure. Clarke is so right when he puts the emphasis on Community Service Orders for crimes which should not warrant a prison sentence. But, and it’s a big ‘but’, such schemes must be properly disciplined and well run. Far too many at the moment are lax and the public have little faith in their effectiveness. All sentences ought to be a mixture of punishment and rehabilitation and alas, the second part of this formula is so often absent. I am pretty sure that most prisoners would agree with me that crime cannot be allowed to go unpunished but also that when an individual is required to serve a term in prison that good opportunities must be provided to enable that individual to get back into mainstream life on discharge and become a useful member of society. There is nothing more soul destroying and boring than sitting for week after week banged up with nothing to look forward to apart from the harsh reality of life on the outside. Cynics will say of course that the proposals made by Kenneth Clarke are being made simply to save money. That may be right but it does not in any way invalidate the suggestions themselves. If you have views about the proposals and especially if you have ideas about non-custodial sentences do write in to Inside Time. It’s not only in your interest that we get this right but it’s in the interest of the whole of Society.
Terry Waite was a successful hostage negotiator before he himself was held captive in Beirut between 1987 and 1991. He was held captive for 1763 days; the first four years of which were spent in solitary confinement.
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The Book of Uncommon Prayer Jane Bidder former writer in residence of HMP Grendon/Springhill
P
rison is all about routine. You do the same things at the same time, day in and day out. If you’re lucky, something happens to vary that routine like a Visit (I’ve put that in capitals because it’s important) or a Family Day on the wing. Even a walk out through the wing doors and along the corridor to Health can be a welcome break from a day which seems to merge with the next. Prayer can be like that too. Some of us say the same prayer every night , year in and year out. There’s a comforting rhythm and familiarity to that. But it can eventually become dry and boring and turn you off prayer altogether. Alternatively, you might find that you’ve long fallen out of the routine of prayer so that it’s hard to do it all over again, from scratch. What should you say to someone you’ve never seen? Not easy , is it. If you’re not religious, you might find that sayings or mantras work. But again, they can do with a spring-clean every now and then. So why not try a new one? When I was a journalist on a national newspaper, I was sent to interview various celebrities on sayings that got them through the ups and downs of life. Agony aunt Clare Rayner’s contribution was this: ‘All things must pass’.
That’s true isn’t it? You may be in a bad place at the moment, mentally but it won’t last for ever. Not unless you allow it to. Below is a prayer by a former student of mine at HMS Grendon, called Paul. He wasn’t sure if he could write it at first. But then suddenly the words began to flow out of nowhere. I think it says it all in an honest, down to earth manner.
Every day, I say a prayer. I know you’re listening; I know you’re there. Life isn’t pretty; life isn’t fair But with you, all things I can bear. I’m hanging on here by the skin of my teeth Because of my past life as a thief. I feel kinda numb; I’d like time to fly. I want peace of mind; I want to know why. I pray that my tariff will come to an end And I can go home to family and friends. I want to accept the person I am. I want to be able to feel that ‘I can’. Paul’s prayer and others (including non-religious sayings) are in The Book of Uncommon Prayer which is a collection of spiritual thoughts by prisoners and staff from HMP Grendon. If you would like to order a copy, please send a cheque for £6.98, payable to Friends of Grendon to Kim Leonard, HMP Grendon, Grendon Underwood, Bucks HP18 OTL
PSI Updates
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Amends PSI 2010-048 This is a short PSI which covers the requirement to search prisoners’ stored property at Reception during prison moves. It basically says that, unless a risk assessment flags a problem, outside the High Security Estate there is no requirement to search stored property at receiving prisons if the security seals are intact.
PSI
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updates In August 2009 the old system of Prison Service Orders (PSOs) was abandoned and all new rules and regulations are issued as PSIs (Prison Service Instructions). The old PSOs remain in force until replaced with a PSI; which has a fixed starting and finishing date. Each month Paul Sullivan reviews some of the latest PSIs and explains their relevance to prisoners and what each contains. Copies of all PSIs are available in prison libraries.
Paul Sullivan
Licences for DVD/Video Films, Music and TV in Prisons
Issue Date: 24 March 2011, Effective Date: 28 March 2011, Expiry Date: 27 March 2015 This Instruction cancels PSI 1/2010 and amends the arrangements for showing films on DVD or video to groups of prisoners. There are no changes to the arrangements for TV and music licensing. Following various consultation, prisons will not continue to buy the licences from MPLC and Filmbank that allows for the ‘public performance’ of films in communal areas or via in cell television systems. The practice of showing films for entertainment on association or via the in-cell network ended on 27 March 2011 where there is no licence. The result of this is that there will be no more DVD films shown in public prisons.
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PSI 2011-012
Prisoners’ Property
Issue Date: 1 April 2011, Effective Date: 1 April 2011, Expiry Date: 31 March 2015 Replaces PSO1250, Prisoners’ Property. This PSI outlines the procedures for the searching, recording and allocation (or storage) of prisoners’ property, including valuable property. It also covers property (including valuable property) that is received into, or needs to be sent out of, an establishment and requirements that arise in connection with cell clearance. The handling
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Issue Date: 1 April 2011, Effective Date: 1 April 2011, Expiry Date: 1st April 2015
This PSI replaces parts of PSO 1000 and will form part of a new ‘Visits Function’. PSO 3610 - Measures to Deal with visitors and prisoners who smuggle drugs through visits and PSI 40/2008 - Guidance on closed visits have been cancelled. The PSI covers the whole area of visiting including who may visit, identification and searching of visitors, searching and room surveillance. The issue of visitors accused of smuggling is also covered.
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The policy on the frequency of conducting accommodation fabric checks (Bars and Bolts) has been reviewed and it was decided that outside of the High Security Estate there should no longer be a requirement to conduct these checks on a daily basis and have local arrangements instead. Cell call bells must still be checked daily. For prisoners who have argued about what should and should not be checked - eg. doing searching whilst prisoners are elsewhere under the guise of ‘Bars and Bolts’ can find a full description of the fabric check and what it consists of within this PSI.
ly n O 25 £ &P +P
PSI 2011-016
Providing Visits and Services to Visitors
Issue Date: 1 April 2011, Effective Date: 1 April 2011, Expiry Date: 31st March 2015 Replaces PSO4410 and PSI2007-041 Legal Visits Good Practice Guide. This PSI covers areas within visiting such as the booking system and facilities for visitors. It covers both social and legal visits. The booking of visits is often problematic and this PSI states; ‘The service to visitors must be of a high standard throughout the booking process, and respond to individual needs, including the method of booking. Visitors should receive a prompt and courteous response. Booking lines should be open at times when visitors are able to call, and staffed according to demand, for example, outside normal working hours and including weekends.’ This is quite a long and detailed instruction and prisoners who receive visits may find it useful to read the whole document in their library.
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PSI 2011-015
Amends PSI 2010-049 Cell, Area and Vehicle Checking
Including The Hardman Trust Prisoner Funder Directory
2011
A comprehensive ‘not for profit’ 972 page guidebook, designed and compiled by former prisoners! insideinformation is published by Inside Time, the National Newspaper for Prisoners. Additional copies can be purchased from Inside Time PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ.
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Replaces PSO1250, Prisoners’ Property.
PSI 2011-023
We are here to fight for your rights throughout your time in custody
It covers what items a prisoner may have in possession and procedures for searching and safe storage of surplus items. Also covered are methods by which prisoners may acquire property and the handling and disposal of stored property.
Accommodation Fabric Checks
Issue Date: 1 April 2011, Effective Date: 1 April 2011, Expiry Date: 1st April 2015
the Comprehensive Guide to Prisons & Prison Related Services
Issue Date: 1 April 2011, Effective Date: 1 April 2011, Expiry Date: 1st April 2015
PSI 2011-028
waldrons.co.uk
Published by insidetime - the National Newspaper for Prisoners www.insidetime.org
Searching of Prisoners’ Stored Property
of prisoners’ property that are being discharged to court is covered by PSI2011-025.
insideinformation
PSI 2011-019
35
Have children? Know your rights
Stephanie Brownlees
01922 426232
38 Lichfield St,, Walsall,, WS1 1UP
• Lifer panels • Category A reviews • Re-categorisation • Parole board hearings • Adjudications • Human rights & Judicial reviews • Licence recalls • Understanding and dealing with dealing with IPP and IPP and Extended Sentences Extended Sentences Contact the Prison Law team on:
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36
Family Welfare
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Coping the creative way Creativity amongst prisoners and their families should be encouraged and funded
by Diane Curry OBE Director, POPS
T
here are many ways in which an individual may creatively engage with their experience and that of those around them. One family member, Alice, chose to put pen to paper writing a book about her experiences of having a partner in prison. Like many budding authors, Alice has no idea if she will ever have the opportunity to publish her work but writing has helped her to make sense out of what can often feel like a senseless experience. Going it alone is not always easy. One wife of a life-sentenced prisoner described it like so, “the silence of my own world can be lonelier than any prison wing”. As part of our work at POPS we actively encourage families to creatively voice their experiences together, with one group of family members becoming both the creative inspiration and core contributors to our 2010 Annual Review. Families were given the opportunity to write and perform a dialogue based drama with the help of local theatre company Fink On which was a great success and has since been performed in a variety of settings. The creative process in constructing the performance introduced the families to new ways of engaging with and communicating their experiences as well as establishing new friendships and support
‘creativity takes courage’ Henri Matisse
networks. Through such opportunities, families and offenders alike can break the silence around their experiences and help to break down the stereotypes and perceptions that surround them. Creativity of expression manifests itself in great variety. The now integral role of the internet in daily life has leant itself readily to providing a platform for self-expression amongst offenders’ families. One such forum, the Prisoners’ Families Voices blog (next page), was established a mere 18 months ago but now has a readership of over 5000. The blog gives visitors a place to express their frustrations, but is also a place of reflection and much amusement, not least due to the contributions of the Prison Widow. A writer of poetry and humorous contemplations, she creatively utilises her own experience to engage and entertain whilst also communicating the challenges of
PROBLEMS WITH THE PRISON? YOU NEED
what it is like to have a partner in prison. Those with an eye on budgets might question the benefits of creative interventions weighed against their cost, but the financial impact of such projects should not be underestimated. Indeed, frustrations in the sector are running high in the wake of cuts passed on by the Arts Council as 50% of arts organisations working in the Criminal Justice System lost their funding despite the cost effectiveness of the interventions they deliver. Writers in Prison Network (page 31) is one such organisation. Writing on their website their director, Clive Hopwood, summed up his bewilderment, ‘a writer’s residency in prison costs £20,000 per year. The average cost of keeping someone in prison for a year is £47,000. If one of my writers turns round just one offender that’s £47,000 a year saved for every year of their not reoffending. And we currently have 16 writers in
residence. How does withdrawing funding to Writers in Prison match up to the LibDems policy of payment by results?’ Thinking creatively around family engagement could indeed be one of the keys to unlocking the mystery of ‘promoting family ties’. Using drama to educate prisoners and young people at risk of reoffending, ‘Safe Ground’ does exactly this. Their 7 week Family Man course looking at family relationships is not simply a creative reflection exercise. Instead it works to actively address issues that arise by engaging a nominated family member in the progression of the offender, encouraging better communication between the prisoner and their family and promoting new ways of thinking. As part of a qualification in Creative Expressive Therapy one family member took the opportunity to use their past experiences to inform a drama-based project delivered in the prison to staff and prisoners alike. The students involved chose the setting for their project and developed material around the topic set, in this case, by the prison governor. Based around the ‘seven strands of equality’ the resulting piece encouraged the audience to engage with and contribute to the resolution of issues portrayed in three scenarios covering disability, race and gender discrimination. Using their past experience the family member involved was well-placed to guide and inform their fellow students and provide a unique take on the issues and context. The painter Henri Matisse is quoted as saying ‘creativity takes courage’ but I’m more inclined to think that creativity ‘leads to’ courage. Creativity is the key to unlocking so much potential in all of us, and not simply the potential to cope, but the potential to take hold of and transform our own lives and the lives of those around us. Offenders’ Families Helpline 0808 808 2003 Mon-Fri 9am-8pm, 10am-3pm Sat and Sun Partners of Prisoners 0161 702 1000 www.partnersofprisoners.co.uk Prison Chat UK on-line support service run by and for prisoners’s families www.prisonchatuk
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
by a Prison Widow
I
’ve had a wonderful week! The Easter holidays have been full on! Not only have I had to put up with the kids committing GBH on their Barbie dolls outside, but I’ve had the pleasure of grandma too – oh, and the Police – twice! It started on Good Friday when the ice-cream van arrived on the street. Grandma is 88. So when she said to the ice-cream man, “how much do you charge for a 69 please and have you got a big Rocket?” You’re not telling me that he didn’t realise she’d got somewhat slightly confused? And surely there was no need to ring the Police on an 88 year old woman who evidently meant a 99 cornet and a lolly! What’s the world coming to! My argument with the Police was, if there was an ice-cream woman and a man asked her for a Knickerbocker Glory, would they pursue any complaints? They soon shifted from my door! Maybe the ice-cream industry should choose more suitable names for their products? Talking of which, I wonder if any prison officers begrudge asking the ice-cream man for a Screwball? Prison had to come in to it somewhere along the line didn’t it? There’s no getting away from it when you’re a prison widow! Well let’s face it, even one of the most famous ice-cream manufacturers is called, WALL’S! It really is true though, everything on the outside is connected to prison one way or the other. It’s as though prisoner’s families can’t escape it. The situation is practically with us all the time! Confused? OK, let me explain. Its simple things like putting a picture up in the front room or assembling a piece of furniture - We need Screws. I went to a destitute animal shelter to get my children a kitten over
MACKESYS
the Easter holidays and the kennel girl pointed to two small kitties in a cage and said, “We’ve only got these that one’s Cat A, the other is Cat B and if you choose to buy one, we’ll TAG it for you for free.” Even my kids made a prison reference to me the other night shouting aloud, “Mum! You’ve got a lot of Cellulite!” But my response back was prison related too, “Stop being cheeky or I’ll give you both a Winger!” But it was only the other day that I truly realised how much a woman and prison have in common when going for a ‘lady’ check up down in the old nether region department. We check in at reception – like a prisoner. Then we are asked to remove our bottom half clothing – like a prisoner. We are then searched – like a prisoner. And the possibility is, we could have abnormal cells – pretty much like some prisoners have in the UK with the overcrowding situation! Talking of abnormalities, and without being cruel of course, it seems my granddad is getting worse, bless his heart. Not only did I have to fight grandma’s corner with the Police over the Easter weekend, I had to fight granddads too. He decided to stay at home as he wasn’t fit enough to spend Easter with us. No doubt he enjoyed the peace and quiet of grandma being at mine though. But on the bank holiday weekend, I received a call at 2.00am from a very distraught granddad. He was upset and furious that someone was camping out in his street, keeping him awake, and that they were walking up and down the street in fancy dress outfits. He said he’d informed the Police of the little beggars. I told him he’d done the right thing and to phone me back after the Police had moved the disrespectful campers on. Only seconds later, the Police rang me to tell me that if he wastes Police time again, they would charge him. I thought that was bang out of order considering it was a valid complaint, especially from a pensioner. That’s until the sergeant got on the phone and asked me whether I’d heard of any Argos’s that sold white tents which came with a pack of forensic suits. Naturally I was full of apologies. It’s not his fault I suppose. I remember one time he rang Crimewatch to complain that my husband’s picture never featured on it and that if he sent a card in, would they read it out for him on their programme. He must have thought Crimewatch was like some kind of, Blue Peter, for criminals. Wish me luck, because I am now lumbered with both grandparents for the Royal Wedding celebrations.
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Prisoners Families Voices prisonersfamiliesvoices. blogspot.com/ My Daughter Refuses To Visit Her Dad In Prison - By L Anonymous, 13 April My daughter refuses point blank to visit her dad in prison. She’s 13 and although she keeps telling me she hates him because he has been sent to prison, I have found letters to him in her bedroom cupboard. I’m not sure how to go about this, because she would go mad if she found out I’d been snooping. But this clearly tells me that she misses him dearly and doesn’t hate him at all. I know this has hurt her and I am having to make excuses for her to her dad as to why she won’t visit him. The last thing I want to to do is pressure her in to going seeing him, but on the other hand, I feel very much under pressure myself having to lie to her dad. The impact this has had on our family is like that of death, loosing someone and not being able to talk to them. My daughter will be 19 when her dad is released from prison. It’s easy for the professionals to talk about maintaining family bonds, but how about children in this situation who are finding it so hard to come to terms with imprisonment? It’s not easy for every child to go to prison and visit a loved one/parent.
....................................................... My Wife Is In Prison Anonymous, 13 April
Hi, this is quite difficult to write, but I was wondering if there is any support groups for men who have a wife or partner in prison, as I haven’t come across many posts from men in this situation. My wife is in prison for fraud and I am finding the whole situation extremely stressful. Our children are distraught and I am at a loss. Our family and friends have found out about my wife going to prison, and are supportive, but they don’t understand the full impact this has had on myself and our children. I find prison
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visiting totally alien and it kills me inside to leave her there after a visit. Our youngest daughter is absolutely inconsolable. She’s 9 years of age. I know my wife has done very wrong, and this is not her first time committing fraud, this is why she got a custodial sentence, but we know, as does her doctor, that there are some mental health issues, that really should have been addressed some time ago concerning OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) Will my wife be treated in prison? And will she receive the help she needs as we as a family want her to come home in the best of health and to have come to terms with her demons.
....................................................... Prison isn’t one of those things Anonymous, 20 April
Hi, I would like to respond to the lady whose son has been convicted of a serious offence. ( Above link ) I have been through this, I have been through the anger, embarrassment, bitterness and a court trial. My son was convicted of murder in 2007. I was devastated for the victims family, and the knock on effect it had on my family was horrendous. I didn’t even go out to the shops for a month because I couldn’t face anyone. I went to the doctors in order to cope and you name it. In fact I don’t even know how I got through it, but eventually I had to come to terms with it. I have never got over it knowing that I gave birth to someone who took a life. It took me 18 months, maybe a little longer before I could go and visit my son in prison. This is by no means a ‘woe is me’ story, I wouldn’t dream of expecting anyone to feel sorry for me as the real victims are the victims family members. I can’t offer any advice for prisoners families who have a loved one in prison for murder or serious offences. You have to deal with it in your own individual way, and any support that is offered your way, take it, because support for prisoners families is very limited. So all I can say is, I wish you well and stay strong
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News from the House
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Parliamentary Questions Highlights from the House of Commons Prisoners: Voting Rights
The Labour peer Baroness Uddin (pictured) has been ‘invited’ to repay £125,000 for claiming expenses for her main home – an empty unfurnished flat in Kent – when she was actually living in London. The question is: why has she not been prosecuted, as other parliamentarians have been?
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many cases in relation to UK prisoner voting are pending before the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Harper: I understand that as at the beginning of February 2011 the European Court of Human Rights has received approximately 3,500 claims from UK prisoners unable to vote in elections. It has suspended consideration of those claims pending the Government’s implementation of the Hirst and Greens and MT judgments.
Meanwhile, £1.4 million is the amount repaid by MP’s following the expenses scandal ahead of the 2010 General Election.
Thomas Docherty: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received from Scottish Ministers on the implementation of prisoners’ voting rights; and if he will publish each item of correspondence between him and Scottish Ministers on the issue. Mr Harper: Neither I nor the Deputy Prime Minister have received any representations from Scottish Ministers in relation to prisoners voting rights.
Prisoners: Gender Recognition Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for what plans he has for the implementation of Prison Service Instruction 07/2011 on the care and management of transsexual prisoners, including associated training for staff; and what timetable he has set for implementation. Mr Blunt: Prison Service Instruction 07/2011 on the care and management of transsexual prisoners was issued on 2 March 2011. Establishments must comply with the instruction from 14 March 2011. The instruction is intended to be self-explanatory and there will be no specific training about it for staff. The relevant policy teams at National Offender Management Service headquarters are available to provide advice. Establishments may identify a need for more general training about gender reassignment and the prevention of transphobia for staff working with transsexual prisoners and this will be provided by the relevant policy teams or sourced from external providers as necessary.
And £10.4 million is the amount paid in resettlement grants and pensions to MPs who stepped down before the General Election, many as a result of the expenses scandal.
Daily Cost of food Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was allocated to the daily cost of food for a prisoner. Mr Blunt: The information is as follows: For prisoners in prison cells: Responsibility for determining prison establishment food budgets lies with the governing Governor who will set aside a realistic sum that will meet the dietary needs of the population of the establishment. Menu requirements vary between establishments and are based on the prisoner population, local regimes and seasonal availability. Prisons provide breakfast, lunch and dinner together with all condiments and beverages. The average daily food expenditure (ADFE) per prisoner for each of the last five years is as follows. Y/E 31 March 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
Estimated average daily food expenditure per prisoner (£) 2.20 2.31 2.12 1.97 1.93
Costs shown in the table exclude prisons operated and managed by the contracted sector. Editorial Note: At the three prisons featured in the latest reports by the Chief Inspector of Prisons (Page 10) roughly half of all prisoners surveyed said the food at their prison was bad or very bad. It is hardly surprising if the average daily food expenditure per prisoner is £2.20. At Tesco’s you can buy a loaf of bread, half a pint of milk, two bananas and 1lt of orange juice for £2.20.
Prison Accommodation John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders held in a cell designed for one inmate shared it with (a) one other inmate and (b) two other inmates in the last 12 months for which figures are available. Mr Blunt: The number of offenders held in a cell designed for one inmate who shared with one other inmate in the 12 months from April 2009 to March 2010 is set out in the following table in the column headed “doubling”. Trebling refers to cells designed for two which are occupied by three. Figures for
trebling are available for each of the 12 months from April 2009 to March 2010 and are shown in the following table. Doubling 2009 April 18,702 18,760 May June 18,914 July 19,275 August 19,725 September 19,082 October 19,404 November 19,470 December 18,602
Trebling
2010 January 18,718 February 18,872 March 19,466 Total 228,990
993 1,076 1,154 1,076 1,198 1,147 1,131 1,041 952 861 894 871 12,394
Prisons: Mobile Phones Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison officers received a (a) caution and (b) reprimand for providing prisoners with mobile telephones in (a) 2007, (b) 2008, (c) 2009 and (d) 2010. Mr Blunt: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only by contacting individual prison establishments and by reviewing individual employee personal files at a disproportionate cost. Editorial Note: In 2009 there were 151 disciplinary cases and 170 dismissals of prison officers in publicly run prisons. There is no requirement for privately managed prisons to notify NOMS of any disciplinary action taken against their employees. Presumably if NOMS can report that 170 prison officers were dismissed in 2009 from the Prison Service they would, surely, know for what they were dismissed.
Young Offenders: Reoffenders Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many persistent young offenders are registered; and how many and what proportion of total offences were attributable to
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News from the House
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org persistent young offenders in each police force area in England and Wales in each year since 1997. Mr Blunt: There is no register of persistent young offenders and centrally available data does not provide the information requested.
Prison Service: Training Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the budget for staff training in each prison was in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. Mr Blunt: The table details the budgets allocated on the National Offender Management Service’ (NOMS) central accounting system for staff training in each prison for financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11. The training budgets cover externally provided staff training courses and further education courses, and also include the purchase of associated training course materials and training equipment. The budgets do not include training delivered to staff internally within NOMS, or that training that may occur within the normal working environment in the form of on the job learning and development. This information is not held centrally on the NOMS accounting system. Summarised by Inside Time
Prisons listed: 125 Total Budget for staff training: 2009-10 £3,102,901
2010-11 £2,780,140
Editorial Note: According to NOMS Annual Report 2009-2010, the number of “whole time equivalent persons” (including senior management) employed during the year on the prison “programme” in England and Wales (excluding administration) was 68,023. Divide £3,102,901 by 68,023 staff members and you get £45. Not much of an annual training budget for one employee!
Prisoners
Reoffenders
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) ethnic background and (b) gender was of those serving custodial sentences in each year from 1997 to 2010.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of the offenders recalled and returned to custody in the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 September 2010 were recalled to serve (a) their full sentence and (b) a shorter sentence.
Mr Blunt: Available information on the ethnic and gender breakdown of the sentenced custodial population in England and Wales from 1997 to 2009 (latest available). Summarised by Inside Time Table A: Population in prison establishments (1) under an immediate custodial sentence by ethnic group (2) and sex, as at 30 June 1997 compared to June 2009 June 1997 Males Females Total 46,611 2,063 White 38,611 1,542 Minority Ethnic 8000 521 Prisoners
Total 48,674 40,153 8521
June 2009 Males Females Total 64,993 3,382 White 48,657 2,469 Minority Ethnic 16270 914 Prisoners
Total 68,375 51,126 17 183
Editorial Note: More than a doubling of Minority Ethnic Prisoners in 12 years. This figure does not include Foreign National Prisoners (non-UK Passport holders) currently around 11,000.
Imprisonment: Public Protection Karen Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection have completed their tariffs. Mr Blunt: On 17 November 2010, there were 6,375 prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection or Detention for Public Protection in prisons or secure hospitals. 3,173 of those prisoners are held beyond their tariff expiry date, excluding offenders who have been recalled to custody following release. CCRC Advert Portrait
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Mr Blunt: Of the 4,163 offenders recalled between 1 July and 30 September 2010, 4,050 were returned to custody by 31 December 2010. Offenders recalled to custody are given review hearings by the Parole Board to determine whether to uphold the recall or re-release offenders. Written outcomes of these hearings are recorded centrally but are not collated. Collating data would exceed cost limits. Editorial Note: More than 4,000 people recalled to prison in three months. If the Government are keen to reduce the prison population and save taxpayers money they need urgently to look at the reasons given by the Probation Service as to why they return people to prison. At the last count only a quarter were recalled to prison to face further criminal charges.
Homicide Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders there have been for which there has been no conviction in each of the last 30 years. James Brokenshire: Available data are collected by the Home Office from police forces in England and Wales, and have been extracted from the Homicide Index. The following table shows the number of offences recorded as homicide-murder, manslaughter, infanticide -between 1980 and 2009-10 for which no one has been convicted. It is not possible to separately identify those offences recorded as murder. Data are as at 28 September 2010 and subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available. This is particularly the case for offences recorded during 2008-09 and 2009-10 given the time it can take to bring suspects to trial. The data include cases for which: the principal suspect committed suicide or died before proceedings could be initiated or
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before proceedings could be concluded; the suspect was found to be insane; all suspects were acquitted and police investigations are continuing; and, no suspects have been charged. Summarised by Inside Time Offences currently recorded by the police as homicide, not resulting in conviction. England and Wales, 1980 to 2009-10 (4) 1980- Total Offences Proportion 2009/10 offences with no (%) conviction(3) 19,596 5,348 26%
Prisons: Standards Mr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what comparative analysis he has undertaken of the reports on standards in (a) private sector and (b) public sector prisons undertaken by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in the last five years; and if he will make a statement. Mr Blunt: No comparative analysis of the reports of HM chief inspector of prisons has been undertaken specifically on standards in private and public sector prisons. Since 2009-10, the prison rating system (PRS) has been the single framework for assessing the performance of both public and contracted prisons in England and Wales; the results from HM inspectorate of prison’s healthy prisons tests form part of the framework. Once the ratings have been finalised, they are published on the Ministry’s website. Editorial Note: The Minister should be advised that a Thematic Review 2009 published by the Prisons Inspectorate compared performances between publicly and privately managed prisons. The Report said that “Public prisons were 5.26 times more likely to perform well than private prisons in relation to safety.” The Prisons Inspectorate has told Inside Time that Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology is currently conducting research on performance differences between public and privately managed prisons.
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Legal Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Breaking the cycle Solicitor Naomi De Silva responds to the Government’s Green Paper
T
he 4th of March 2011 saw the end of the consultation process by the Ministry of Justice with respect to the reforms which sets out “fundamental changes to the criminal justice system”. The Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, plans more help to deal with inmates’ drug and alcohol addiction problems and mental illness. However, in direct contradiction to this is the fact that Kenneth Clarke also wishes to cut prison funding by £4 billion; with prisons struggling to maintain psychology staff and run rehabilitative courses it is difficult to see how the “cycle” will be broken, it is more likely that offenders will leave determinate sentences without addressing the triggers to their offending behaviour. Rather than being an effective means of reducing crime, evidence suggests that prison generates crime as it causes social and economic harm to individuals, families and communities. Communities which suffer high imprisonment rates experience social breakdown, which diminishes the protective bonds that are key to preventing crime and disorder. There is greater emphasis on rehabilitation within the community within the Green Paper but, with predicted funding cuts affecting the probation service (who would be responsible for the supervision of offenders on community sentences) it is unlikely that those serving sentences within the community would be monitored
sufficiently or that the “tougher community punishment” could be properly enforced without the staff to impose the conditions of community punishment. It is to be expected that pressures upon the probation service, already understaffed, would mean that more offenders are likely to be recalled to custody upon a slight elevation of risk and this would mean an increase in the amount of prisoners recalled to custody and/or related parole reviews. Additionally, the premise that recalls should only be initiated for very serious breaches is a feature of the current guidelines for recall but, it is not strictly adhered to so it would be unlikely that there will be any radical change to the number of people in custody. That is not to say that care and more intensive rehabilitative work does not work but mostly it works when implemented by a charity focused on care or a conscientious probation officer. There is a recommendation that the voluntary sector should also have a greater involvement with rehabilitation in the community however, this simply seems to be an exercise in saving expenditure on criminals. Further, in the current financial climate and when the cuts to charitable organisations are being publicly severed then it is likely that the number of bodies able to complete significant rehabilitative care in the community will be depleted. There is a suggested pilot scheme of Integrated Diversion and Offender Manage-
ment teams. This entails getting the police, probation and other agencies, such as drug treatment bodies, to work in the same office. The same people doing the same job they have always done - but in a cohesive manner which is purported to make a difference. This type of liaison is already in place in the form of MAPPA review panels. The evidence from these MAPPA panels is that rehabilitation is more onerous when a person is dependent upon a body of people getting together to direct how a person progresses. The MAPPA Board consisting of the agencies deemed requisite to supervision will only meet on a monthly basis and have no contact with the person in question, and it is questionable as to how much consideration is given to one case when several people are considered in one sitting. There are obvious flaws with this arrangement. The majority of proposals in the Green Paper already exist in some form and those that work have difficulty in maintaining success without sufficient funding. The suggestion that indeterminate sentences would be reduced would have to balance against the severity of the offence and the public perception on offences. It is naïve to believe that a softer approach to offenders would address the issue of sentences. The majority of offenders would still be handed a custodial sentence. The recommendations for credit for an early guilty plea do not take into account the existing procedure concerning the way in which a
case is progressed. Frequently, an individual is presented with very little information at the police station and even the Magistrates’ Court so a legal representative may advise against entering a plea until the full facts of the case are presented. This type of suggestion is again financially focused; an early guilty plea is essentially a mechanical process and has nothing to do with rehabilitation or “breaking the cycle of offending”. The report states, ‘half of all crime is committed by previous offenders’, which is fair however the Green Paper has very little regard to the rehabilitation of indeterminate sentenced prisoners or offenders with no history of offending. A lot of indeterminate offences are committed uniquely and there are a number of common-place determinate sentences such as not paying tax, committing an insurance fraud or using illegal substances; these are some of the offences that are unpredicted (with no prior/similar offending). The predictions for changes in the justice system show a steady reduction however, it does not have any regard for the unsettled lifestyle of the average offender or the impact that outside sources have such as the ability to find gainful employment or accommodation. People will continue to threaten and assault, without ever having received any form of rehabilitation and children may still witness and suffer abuse and go on to offend. Social statistics currently suggest that there will be an increase in poverty and whilst there is significant class divide the crimes will continue – e.g. drugs taken as a means to escape reality, robberies/burglaries for financial gain. Solutions to reducing crime and promoting public safety lie outside the prison estate and beyond the criminal justice agencies.
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Legal Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org The answers are to be found in improved mental health services, drug treatment and alcohol services. Social development initiatives that address exclusion and disadvantage by providing effective support for communities would, in the long run, be more effective than relying on punishment to stop crime. This again is dependent on the amount of capital invested in social development schemes; we should not forget that it was a Conservative Government that made cuts in the number of psychiatric and psychological services available to the public, and proposed cuts within the NHS will undoubtedly affect the number of psychiatrists available to assist those with mental illness. If these solutions prove to be effective then it will assist in applications before the Parole Board and the Ministry of Justice for release as there would be a more supportive release plan; improving the turnaround of cases and success at reviews.
“
There is no question of releasing any IPP offender into the community without some clear assessment of risk and this was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice during the consultation process. The Parole Board would still refuse to release offenders where it is clear that this was necessary to keep the public safe
”
The Justice Secretary has also recommended that the minimum terms currently applicable to murder sentences should be abolished which will assist with parole applications in the sense that risk reduction may be better addressed upon reflection of the minimum term set in the case. The discretionary aspect of the minimum term in murder cases may more appropriately reflect the circumstances of the offence – it is unjust that someone who committed a sadistic murder may receive the same minimum term as someone who has committed murder following years suffering violence and abuse. However, discretion also gives rise to discrepancy in setting the minimum term. Discretion may be compromised by emotion, political favour, racism and other prejudices. Discrepancies may be safeguarded through transparency in decisions being exercised
in public and subject to appeal; Judges should be able to reflect variation in their decisions. Whatever, process is executed in applying the discretionary minimum term, there will undoubtedly be a need to denounce the offence of murder and for the punishment to be seen as a deterrent to taking another’s life. The strongest proposition made within the Green Paper is the case against IPPs. The paper accepts that IPPs are bound to continue in some form, and the proposals for applying them to the most serious violent or sexual offences, the range of crimes for which IPPs are awarded, and giving more realistic guidance to parole boards to “focus indefinite imprisonment on those who clearly pose a very serious risk of future harm” are extremely welcome. The use of IPPs confused the sentencing framework, and undermines public confidence as there is no way to determine how long an individual spell in custody is likely to end. It is positive that the Government propose to explore a new test for those who have served their punishment would focus indefinite imprisonment on those who clearly pose a very serious risk of future harm. There is no question of releasing any IPP offender into the community without some clear assessment of risk and this was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice during the consultation process. The Parole Board would still refuse to release offenders where it is clear that this was necessary to keep the public safe. The IPP sentence created a lot of problems with respect to parole reviews and access to courses which were detrimental to the rehabilitation of offenders serving other sentences. A review was very much required. As a practitioner, it will assist with processing cases more effectively and a more consistent approach to the factors affecting release applications. Ultimately, without addressing the need for proportionality in sentencing and moving towards the notion that rehabilitation can be used as a crime reduction tool through proper funding and addressing the sources of offending, it is difficult to see the Green Paper as anything other than a rebranding and cost-cutting exercise. Of course prisons should seek to assist and support offenders, but they are ultimately places of punishment, not a social service, and so will never be an effective crime reduction tool. * Breaking the Cycle: effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders MOJ consultation Naomi De Silva, Solicitor for Cartwright King Solicitors
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Any chance of bail? Solicitor Advocate Julian Young explains the new law on bail applications
Julian Young
‘W
e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’. The above quotation from the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 will resonate with inmates since most seek liberty from custody. The Administrative Court has recently tiptoed into the murky waters of bail applications and has moved the goal posts, in my opinion, to the benefit of suspected offenders who have lost their liberty and wish to make more than two bail applications. As all readers should be aware, there is a general presumption in favour of bail being granted, from police station though the Youth Court or Magistrate’s Court to the Crown Court. There are some exceptions; in homicide cases where any application for bail must be made in the Crown Court, and in any case of homicide or rape where the suspect has relevant previous convictions. For a number of years the Youth Court and Magistrate’s Court took the view that only two applications for bail could be made after which there had to be a change of circumstances. This was based upon the case of R v Nottingham Justices exhibit parte Davies [1981] 1 QB 38. For nearly 30 years that has been the accepted position and this was not challenged. However, in The Queen on the application of B v Brent Youth Court [2010] EWHC 1893 the Administrative Court had a long look at the law, not only in relation to young offenders, but also in relation to repeated bail applications generally. Of course, due to legislation and the age of a young person appearing before the Youth Court there are different
considerations. Section 44 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 provides that every Court, when dealing with a young person, shall have regard to the welfare of the young person. This would appear to permit numerous applications for bail and proper consideration of bail on each occasion the young person is brought [from custody] before a Youth Court or a Crown Court dealing with him or her. However, the Brent Youth Court case goes a long way further and widens the scope for repeated applications for bail in a Magistrate’s Court or Crown Court. Mr Justice Wilkie, who considered the case, reviewed the ‘old’ case law and concluded that the proper approach to a third or subsequent application for bail should not be whether there had been a change in circumstances, but in the following terms, “... are there any new considerations which were not before the Court when the accused was last remanded in custody?” Thus a new address away from the area of the offence, a new surety or security, or any other relevant consideration, not before the Court when the last or a previous bail application was made, may now be considered by a Court and the defence advocate should bear this in mind. Frequently, the Defendant or his/ her family can arrange a new address after some discussions with others and this may take time. Now, the Court can bear this in mind when considering a fresh application for bail. This is a welcome expansion of the law in relation to repeated bail applications; too many people are in custody for far too long in circumstances when an application for bail with new conditions might be successful. Make sure that your Solicitor and/or Counsel is aware of this new case if and when an application for bail is being made; proper planning prevents poor performance.
NOBLE NEWS
On Friday 1st April 2011 Bedfordshire based law firm Noble Solicitors merged with London firm Tank Jowett to create one of the largest publicly funded criminal defence firms in the country.
Noble Solicitors was first established in 1996 by Paul Millan and David Noble, the first office to open was in Shefford, Bedfordshire and followed by a second branch in Luton. Since then the firm has grown organically around its local communities and has opened further offices in Welwyn Garden City, Wellingborough and Northampton with new additional offices now in Wembley & Watford. Although the firm has traditionally practiced Criminal and Family law, there has been a demand to offer services in other areas of law which they now cover, these include Mental Health, Debt, Housing, Social Welfare Benefits, Prison Law, Appeals and Civil Actions. Paul Millan Managing director of Noble comments “As we are all aware the government has proposed many cuts across the board one of them being legal aid. Many people in the community are worried about how the level of service and access to justice will change.” He continued “The foundation of Noble Solicitors has been built on the reputation we have within the communities we serve and we want to maintain the high level of service we offer to all our clients, and this merger with Tank Jowett will allow us to do so in the troubled times ahead”
For immediate advice & representation call:- Noble Solicitors, 26 -28 Stuart Street, Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 2SW - 01582 544370 All Aspects of Prison Law including:- Adjudications - Licence Recall - Parole - Appeals Against Sentence & Conviction plus Family Law & Childcare Issues - Housing, Debt & Benefits Problems
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Legal Comment
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
HDC with a sentence of 4 years or more? Shannon Michael Haynes explains the essential ingredient: exceptional circumstances
I
f you are a prisoner serving in excess of 4 years you should not expect to benefit from early release under the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme. But read on.
My article on ‘HDC and the presumption of unsuitability’ appeared in the January 2011 issue of the Inside Time and in it I addressed the apparent confusion between the presumption of unsuitability and automatic exclusion in HDC law. I have been inundated with enquiries from prisoners who are serving 4 years or more and I would like to take the opportunity to clarify their eligibility for HDC. You are only statutorily excluded from consideration for HDC if your sentence is governed by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA 2003) and any of the provisions of section 246(4) apply. That section covers extended sentences, prisoners recalled during the currency of their current sentence, prisoners on the Sex Offenders Register, prisoners liable to deportation, a sentence that has been imposed for the breach of a curfew condition, prisoners detained under the Mental Health Act, a sentence returning the prisoner to custody, and where almost the entirety of the sentence has been served on remand or on bail and less that 14 days remain before release. Thus, there is no relationship between the length of a prisoner’s sentence and eligibility for HDC under the provisions of CJA 2003. However, the Prison Service has decided as a matter of policy that a prisoner serving a sentence of 4 years or more will be
presumed unsuitable unless there are exceptional circumstances. The guidance issued to Governors in PSI 31/2006 suggests that exceptional circumstances could be established where the prisoner presents virtually no risk of re-offending, has no previous convictions, and is physically infirm. That guidance is in no way conclusive of the matter. It could very well be the case that you cannot tick all three boxes but that you can establish exceptional circumstances for very different reasons. The rule of thumb, as PSI 31/2003 correctly states, is simply that the case must “stand out”. Unfortunately, most of the cases that I have been asked to look over recently are missing that essential ingredient: ‘exceptional circumstances’. Having said that, however, I would suggest that the policy of the Prison Service is so restrictive that it has become impossible for any case to ever overcome the threshold. The practice that results often confuses the distinction between eligibility and suitability whereby prisoners in the presumed unsuitable category are actually being told that they are ineligible. I have reviewed the prison discharge figures published by the Ministry of Justice for 2007 and 2008. My table shows the unfortunate reality for prisoners serving over 4 years. Even though early release was granted to almost a thousand prisoners per month, not even one case involved a sentence exceeding 4 years. The 2009 figures were only available for the first half of the year when the Caseload
Statistics Report was published on 22 July 2010. Again, every single one of the 5,666 prisoners released on HDC during that six-month period had been serving a sentence of less than 4 years.
more. However, such prisoners must, as a matter of policy, be presumed unsuitable for release on HDC unless exceptional circumstances exist but must be provided with their HDC eligibility date.”
The most recent figures are available for the second and third quarters of 2010 through the Quarterly Statistics Bulletin produced by NOMS. None of the 6,186 prisoners that were granted early release during the six months from April to September 2010 had been sentenced to over 4 years.
Paragraph 11 offered the prediction that “only a very few prisoners” serving sentences of 4 years or more will be released on HDC. The practice that has emerged, however, results in absolutely no prisoners in that category qualifying for early release. The fact that HDC Departments have on occasion wrongly informed prisoners in the presumed unsuitable category that they are ineligible could help to explain why they are never released on a HDC licence.
The clear trend is that a blanket ban remains in operation even though the new HDC provisions under CJA 2003 created the possibility for prisoners serving a sentence of 4 years or more to qualify for early release.
HDC releases by sentence length
2007
2008
Less than 12 months 4,545 Between 12 months & 4 years 6,883 Over 4 years 0
4,326 7,395 0
I would remind prisoners to be realistic about the practical significance of being presumed unsuitable as the test is extremely difficult to satisfy. However, if you have a case of exceptional circumstances I would encourage you to address a letter to the Governor of your establishment that fully sets out the reasons why you should be considered.
PSI 31/2006 sought to offer guidance to Governors on the impact of CJA 2003 on the HDC scheme. Paragraph 11 very clearly stated that:
I would also respectfully remind Governors that each application calls for the exercise of discretion and grounds of judicial review will arise if a rigid policy is adopted that has the effect of ensuring that applications will invariably be refused. In other words, Governors must avoid the fettering of discretion and consider the merits of each case on its individual circumstances.
“Unlike CJA 1991 prisoners, CJA 2003 prisoners are not statutorily ineligible for HDC if they are serving a determinate sentence of 4 years or
Shannon Michael Haynes is a prison law advisor with Criminal Defence Milton Keynes (Solicitors)
Total
11,428 11,721
Source: Ministry of Justice, Offender Management Caseload Statistics.
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Judicial Review..... Appeals of conviction and sentence..... CCRC applications Michael Purdon Solicitors Ward's Building 31-39, High Bridge Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 1EW
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FRAUD ACT 2006 four years on Aziz Rahman, Solicitor and Jonathan Lennon, Barrister FRAUD UNDER THE FRAUD ACT 2006 The Fraud Act 2006 came into force on 15/1/07. It changed the landscape of fraud. From a Defendant’s perspective it makes the offence much simpler to understand and, from the Crown’s perspective, much easier to prosecute. Much of the ‘old’ law on fraud was to be found in the Theft Acts of 1968 and 1978 as well as some common-law offences (i.e. developed in case-law rather than by Parliament). Many of the statutory provisions led to technical arguments and difficulties in practical application. It was clear that the law on fraud needed updating and the Law Commission produced a report on the topic in 2002. That report led to the Fraud Act 2006. Its provisions apply to conduct committed on or after 15/1/07. The Act widened and simplified the law of fraud, though Parliament has still kept in place some of the common-law offences such as conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to cheat the revenue. We cannot in this short article hope to give a detailed account of all the ‘new’ offences created by the Act. However, the centre piece of the Act is undoubtedly the creation in section 1 of a new single offence of fraud – a single offence that can be committed in one of three different ways. Fraud by False Representation: a person is in breach of this section if he dishonestly makes a false representation with intent to gain or cause loss to another, or to expose another to risk of loss. This offence carries no requirement for actual loss or even the risk of loss and in fact no requirement of even causing an alleged victim to believe the false representations. For a ‘representation’ to be ‘false’ the maker of the statement must “know that it is or might be, untrue or misleading”. This latter part is designed to catch representations such as the promotion of a scheme involving “high yield investments”. In such a case it would be difficult to prove that a defendant knew in advance that this representation was in fact untrue, but easier to show that he was aware that it might be misleading. This offence can be used to prosecute so-called ‘boiler room’ frauds. More commonly though, and especially in the current climate – this is the offence used to prosecute alleged mortgage fraud. However, the new law does cause the prosecution some difficulties. For example, if you are facing this as a substantive charge (rather than a conspiracy to misrepresent) then the Act is worded in such a way that the prosecution really have to draft each single representation as a separate count where the allegation is that each representation was made for separate gain/loss. This is because each occasion constitutes a different offence whereas under the old law there could easily
be one single offence of obtaining by deception under s15 of the 1968 Act. Fraud by Failure to Disclose: a person is in breach if this section if he “dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose and he intends thereby to make a gain for himself or cause a loss, or risk of loss, to another”. This offence requires the Crown to first of all establish that the Defendant was under a duty to make some kind of disclosure. The Crown will try to establish this by evidence of the relationship between the Defendant and the alleged victim, e.g. a legal duty to disclose can arise as a result of a contract between two parties or because of the existence of a particular type of professional relationship between them; for example, a solicitor/client relationship. The intention behind the nondisclosure must be to make a gain or cause loss, or risk of loss to another. Thus this offence is complete as soon as the defendant fails to disclose information that he was under a legal duty to disclose, together with the requisite dishonest intent. It does not matter whether or not any one is deceived or any property is actually gained or lost.
as it still exists and will continue to exist despite the Fraud Act and we still have fraudulent trading, false accounting, tax and Cheating the Revenue, (MTEC frauds and the like). EVIDENCE & EXPERTS Broadly speaking, defenders in financial allegation cases will look at patterns of behaviour of the Defendant and of his business practices. ‘Honesty’ will usually be the central issue – one “dodgy” invoice might be a mistake but several may be deliberate. It may be that an accountant, or auditor with a particular knowledge of some business area, can help explain to the jury that what appears odd, or commercially risky, may be acceptable in a particular line of business. ‘ In the case of forensic accountants it is worthwhile for solicitor and counsel to appreciate at an early stage what the issues are for the accountant to concentrate on. The temptation may be to simply instruct an accountant and pass him the prosecution Case Summary along with the papers and a vague outline of the defence case and ask him or her to ‘have a look’. That is not the right approach. The lawyers, must understand what the accountant is being asked to do and why. The expert’s evidence may be critical and he or she should have his energies focussed on the right (and identified) areas. It maybe, for example, that a man who appears to be trying to split monies between a number of bank accountants before withdrawing it can demonstrate, through the accountant witness, that in fact historically he is behaving more or less has he has done
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in the past when his behaviour was not in question – thus taking the sting out of the allegation of dishonesty. Audit trails may be poor, but armed with the right banking records and purchase invoices etc an accountant may be able to help present a case that, for example, a particular business venture was, or could have been, commercially successful and was by no means the obvious scam the prosecution make out. CONCLUSION There is simply no room in this article to go through all the offences created by the Act. However it will be appreciated that the Act may clarify and simplify the law in many ways but it also creates problems. The Court of Appeal has been largely untroubled by the Fraud Act up to now, but even after 4 years challenges can still be expected. As always the motto has to be early preparation maximises performance. Jonathan Lennon is a Barrister specialising in serious and complex criminal defence cases at 23 Essex Street Chambers in London. He is a contributing author to Covert Human Intelligence Sources, (2008 Waterside Press) and has extensive experience in all aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. 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.
The CPS’s website suggests that the necessary “duty” is established by the Judge and not the jury. Quite why the Crown say this is not clear – it certainly does not say that in the statute and maybe a point for the Court of Appeal as this provision has not yet been tested in the appeal Courts. It is certainly not a matter we would yet concede as this offence can risk crimininalising what would have been purely civil disputes prior to the implementation of the 2006 Act. Fraud by Abuse of Position: this offence is committed by a person who occupies a post in which he or she is expected to safeguard, or not act against, the financial interests of another and then dishonestly abuses that position intending to make a gain for him or herself or to cause loss, or risk of loss, to another. Examples given by the CPS include an employee of a software company who uses his position to clone software products for his own personal gain or an employee who grants contracts/discounts etc to friends, relatives or associates. This offence would cover the corruption type cases of back-handers and bribes and will invariably boil down to the question of honesty. Other offences: The Fraud Act creates other offence such as possession of articles for use in fraud (ss7) and dishonestly obtaining services (s11). This latter offence replaces the old offence in the 1978 Act of obtaining services by ‘deception’ – it is now ‘dishonesty’ not ‘deception’. This just means the prosecution do not have to prove that any of the deceptions were operative or had any effect on the victim – it is what is in the Defendant’s mind that counts. OTHER FRAUDS We still see non Fraud Act offences being prosecuted given the implementation date of the Act and the very long investigate periods which applies in complex fraud cases. Whether old or new the principals are, by and large, the same though the precise legal tests may be different. The offence of conspiracy to conspiracy to defraud must be mentioned however
Services • Serious Crime • Serious Fraud • Covert/Human Rights • Health & Safety • Assets Forfeiture • Regulatory Crime If you feel we can assist you please do not hesitate to contact our Serious Crime Department
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SOLICITORS
Specialists in Defending Serious Crime Rahman Ravelli has built an enviable reputation as a leading criminal defence firm. Our Practice is nationwide and we have developed an expertise in handling substantial and complex cases particularly those involving difficult legal challenges, especially in the Human Rights area. We continue to successfully protect the rights of the individual in all areas of criminal law. We recognise that criminal cases today are not merely decided on eye witness testimony, but on other issues such as whether evidence can be successfully argued to be inadmissible or the prosecution made to disclose evidence helpful to the defence case. Our dedicated team of criminal lawyers are always up to date with the latest developments in the law to ensure that no stone is left unturned. The lawyers have wide ranging experience of defending cases of significant complexity and seriousness. Our reputation means that we are able to instruct the most able counsel to conduct trials. We appoint Counsel, Queen’s Counsel and Experts who have passed our vigorous vetting procedures. High Profile Cases Rahman Ravelli routinely deals with large, high profile cases and is experienced in dealing with criminal matters all the way to the House of Lords. RIPA Our speciality is defending cases involving large scale police operations where authorities have been granted under the Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA); i.e. The use of Informants / Covert Surveillance (including Covert Listening devices) / Undercover Offices; and Material which demands an expertise in disclosure & PII concerns
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Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Legal Q&A stop the clock on your sentence for that period and your SED would be extended by 3 months.
so should contact a solicitor. There is a strict 3 month time limit for this however.
In practice this is very rare and is reserved for cases in which an appeal has no merit. You should bear in mind that just because you have been advised to appeal by counsel or your solicitor you are not protected from the court exercising this power.
This is unlikely to amount to the common law criminal offence of misfeasance in public office as the elements of the offence are when: A public officer wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder without reasonable excuse or justification.
................................................ MF - HMP Risley Q I do not believe my conviction is safe because
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: ABM Solicitors; Chivers Solicitors; de Maids; Frank Brazell & Partners; Henry Hyams; Hine & Associates; Levys Solicitors; Morgans; Noble Solicitors; Oliver & Co; Parlby Calder; Petherbridge Bassara Solicitors; Stephensons Solicitors LLP; Stevens Solicitors; Switalskis Solicitors and WBW Solicitors - see individual advertisements for full details. Send your legal queries (concise and clearly marked ‘legal’) to our editorial assistant Lucy Forde at Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. 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.
Anon - HMP Hollesley Bay Q If a prisoner appeals his conviction and/or
sentence can the courts give the prisoner a longer sentence?
A In the Crown Court on appeal from the Magis-
trates the court will decide what sentence it felt would have been appropriate and so there is a danger the sentence could be harsher. The Court of Appeal is not able to make a person’s sentence worse or more onerous in any way. It does however have the power to order that time spent as an appellant does not count toward sentence. For example, if you spent 3 months appealing they could effectively
a juror who was discharged before my trial (as she knew prosecution witnesses) had sat on other cases with the jurors that remained and so will have told them about it. I have exhausted all of my options to appeal. What can I do?
A
Your only option to appeal is to try to persuade the CCRC to refer your case. In order for them to do so you need to convince them there is a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will decide your conviction is unsafe. Your difficulty is that the CCRC will not find your argument about the juror is strong enough without evidence and you will be prevented from finding evidence yourself as you cannot ask the jurors about it. You have two choices, try to find a solicitor who will deal with this (we cannot recommend anyone specific but you could try contacting one of the firms that advertise in Inside Time). Alternatively you will need to wait for any fresh evidence to come to light in the form of one of the remaining jurors saying they had concerns. The second option seems unlikely if it has not happened already. A solicitor on the other hand may find that there are other reasons you could appeal.
................................................ DJ - HMP Parc Q In an adjudication
the Governor did not allow me to refer to a PSO and told me that it did not say what I believed it said. He refused to adjourn for legal advice and I was booked to go back to closed conditions before the adjudication even happened. Is this misfeasance in public office, what can I do? Also, if the adjudication is overturned will I be automatically returned to open conditions?
A The Governor should have heard what you
had to say about the PSO and you do, of course, have a right to legal advice. There are two ways of appealing the adjudication. The first is to appeal to Prison Service headquarters on blue form ADJ1. If this is upheld you can appeal further to the Ombudsman within 14 days. You can get legal advice to help you do this under legal aid. The second way would be judicial review, you should also be able to get legal aid for this and
A-Z LAW SOLICITORS Criminal Defence, Appeals and Prison Law Specialists All Prison issues including: • Licence & Parole Hearings • Categorisation & Transfer • Recall to Custody • Ajudications • Tariff & Judicial Review For an Immediate Response contact: Duncan Smith
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If the governor’s decision is overturned then, assuming the prison you are in do not decide there are other reasons not to re-categorise you or you are serving an IPP/Life sentence then you should be returned to open conditions.
................................................ HW - HMP Woodhill Q My query is twofold regarding letters. The first is about special letters or postage: The prison service are refusing to supply me special letters or postage when these special letters are all to do with legal procedings or appeals. I quote contents in PSO4411 and Prison Rule 39 but still I’m refused paper, envelopes and postage costs. My second point is that a prisoner is allowed one statutory letter/envelope and postage paid per week. Since coming into custody I have not had one! Is there anyway I can claim, retrospectively, the statutory letters I have not received since I came into prison.
A This query relates to 2 issues both concerning a prisoner’s right to letters whilst in custody. It appears that this correspondent is being denied access to special letters as well as statutory letters and as such, enquires about his entitlement and how to claim back letters not received. In answering his letter it is important to consider the contents of Prison Service Order 4411 which relates to prisoners’ communications, namely correspondence. It specifically states within PSO 4411 that convicted prisoners may send:2.2 (a) One statutory letter per week, the first letter to be issued immediately on reception; (b) As many priveleged letters as they wish, except at establishments where routine reading is enforced; (c) Special letters, in the circumstances set out further in the PSO. Therefore, it is clear from the PSO that a convicted prisoner is entitled to a least one statutory letter per week and it will also be important to note that statutory letters must be sent at public expense.
In regard to special letters, those considered to be special letters include any letters in connection with legal proceedings (2.4(d)). Furthermore, PSO 4411 states that letters at public expense will be sent first class by airmail if they are in connection with an appeal. He informs us that his letters are in relation to legal proceedings and appeals, a decision to deny him 2 special letters is in breach of PSO 4411 and as such appropriate action should be taken in order to address this. As per usual, with any prison complaint it will be necessary for him to file a COMP Form1 and await a response to his request. Upon receipt of a response, if the content is not satisfactory, he should appeal this decision in line with the internal prison procedures. In this case I certainly feel that the best course of action would be to address the issue by way of the internal complaints procedure and I would expect that once it had been highlighted by him to the prison establishment that the problem would not remain ongoing as the prisons do not have a discretion in this respect. Therefore, the prison must act in accordance with PSO 4411and provide him with his appropriate entitlement.
................................................ Name Supplied Q I have been recalled after 10 days and the prison say I am not entitled to a discharge grant, is this right?
A Yes, PSI 2005-003 specifically excludes any person recalled after less than 14 days on licence from being given a discharge grant.
................................................ LG - HMP Littlehey Q I am writing to seek clarification if possible which sentencing rules under the CJA take precedent when you are imprisoned under two different Acts. I was charged for allegation under the 1991 Criminal Justice Act and the 2003 Act. The Prison in its sentence calculation worked out my release dates under the 1991 Act, I have no problems with the calculation and fully understand that I have a nine month license, however, I have heard that the Prison was wrong to work out my sentencing dates under the 1991 Act. Has the Judge made no direction on this matter?
A It is very difficult to provide advice on this case without seeing the case papers (RDNS and the sentencing remarks of the judge etc). You should consult a solicitor. Advice on sentence calculation is still possible under the new Legal Services Commission’s rules.
Prison Law Update
Tooks Chambers, in collaboration with the Association of Prison Lawyers (APL), present the 3rd in a series of seminars providing updates on Prison law
‘Includes a session on the Parole Board Hub Pilot’ (Parole Hub Pilot starts on the 1st June)
Speakers
Hugh Southey QC, Felicity Williams, Adam Straw, Jude Bunting & Andrew Sperling (APL)
Wednesday 25th May 2011
Tooks Chambers - Chambers of Michael Mansfield QC & Patrick Roche 81 Farringdon Strreet London EC4A 4BL Registration 6:00pm - Start 6:15pm - Finish 7:45pm Followed by refreshments
BSB & SRA CPD 1.5 point’s accreditation applied for F o r f u r t h e r d e t a i l s p l e a s e c o n t a c t Yvonne Esson on 020 7842 7575
[email protected] w w w. a s s o c i a t i o n o f p r i s o n l a w y e r s . c o . u k
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Legal Q&A
Banks on Sentence Answers by Robert Banks, the barrister who writes Banks on Sentence (now with an extra volume for the law on the orders and procedure). The book is used by judges for sentencing more than any other.
www.banksr.com Q I am a 21 year-old single mother and I was convicted of possession of heroin with intent to supply. I got 5 years and my co-defendant received 7 years. My child was taken into foster care. I immediately told my barrister I wanted to appeal and he said he would write up my paperwork. After the deadline, he sent paperwork advising against an appeal. I expressed my anger and my solicitor said my barrister would visit me. To date he has ignored me. Was my sentence right and is it possible to appeal out of time? A It is possible to appeal out of time but it is important that the paperwork goes in as soon as possible and you set out why the appeal was served late.
You ask if your sentence was right and regretfully I know too little about the facts of the case and your mitigation to give you any advice. You may like some information about the position of your child. You say you are 21 so I assume your child is very young. The Court of Appeal in a civil case has considered the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights article 8 (Right to family life) and the separation of mothers from their very young children in prison. The Court applied the rule for local authority care and separation as laid down in another case. That imposed
C
the test of whether the seriousness of the offence justified the separation of the mother and child. The Court of Appeal also stressed the need for the court to have the fullest possible information. The Court condemned any rigid application of the prison rules about separation. Your case is slightly different because your case deals with the imposition of the sentence rather than whether separation should take place during a sentence. The JSB guide for judges says that, ‘Lone parents are over-represented among those at risk of social exclusion. Custodial sentences for this group are likely to have significant adverse impacts on the children, whatever alternative arrangements are made for their care’. On your facts judges are likely to slightly reduce your sentence but the indications are your judge may have done that already. I am sorry I can’t be more helpful.
Q I am serving a 4 year sentence for supply.
I was drinking alcohol in my cell on my birthday with my two cell mates. Prison officers walked in and asked me if I had anything other than alcohol. I showed them roughly 1.5 grams of cocaine. Two days later we three pleaded guilty and we said we had purchased the cocaine with the alcohol. The governor sentenced us for being drunk and referred the drugs to the
carringtons solicitors
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police. One cellmate then absconded. The police came and only arrested me. In interview I gave a full explanation. I pleaded guilty and was committed to the Crown Court where I received 18 months consecutive. The cellmate who absconded surrendered and received only 2 weeks for absconding. If the drugs matter had been dealt with within the prison I would not have received more than a few weeks. Thousands of cases are dealt with within the prison. Why was I charged and was the 18 months excessive?
A It is hard to know why prosecutors act in a
particular way unless you know all that they know. Often they select a few offenders to prosecute to make an example of them because they do not have the resources to prosecute everyone. That is hardly fair but hardly surprising. The reason you were prosecuted through the courts might be that the police had the verbal admission from you when they may not have had for the others. Equally it might be because you had a serious drug conviction and the others didn’t. I simply don’t know. The fact they weren’t charged or others were not charged is no mitigation. The courts
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sentence on the facts of the individual cases before them not on the facts of cases not before them. In a recent case someone was prosecuted and sentenced both by the prison authorities and the courts. He lost seven days of privileges through the prison system and to reflect this the Court of Appeal deducted seven days from his sentence. It is to be expected that the judge would make the new offence consecutive. However the judge is obliged to make sure the total sentence is not excessive. So back to whether the 18 months was excessive. There is only one case in recent years for possession of cocaine in prison. That might reflect how few prisoners are prosecuted and how unlucky you were to be prosecuted. The prisoner received 18 months for significantly more drugs that you. He was seen to receive the drugs on a visit from his wife. The case is in my book and maybe the judge looked it up and gave you the same. The judge was unlikely to give you less because since the case was reported the courts have emphasized the ‘corrosive effects’ of drugs in prison and how it is used as an unofficial currency. Consequently I cannot see the Court of Appeal considering your sentence was remotely excessive.
If prisoners leave out key matters such as relevant and serious previous convictions or that the Court of Appeal has already rejected an appeal, the answers given may be incomplete or wrong. Please make sure questions concern sentences and not conviction or release. Unless you say you don’t want your question and answer published it will be assumed you don’t have an objection to publication. No-one will have their identity revealed. Facts which indicate who you are will not be printed. Letters without an address cannot be answered. 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 not possible. The column is designed for simple questions and answers. Please address your questions to Inside Time, Botley Mill, Botley, SO30 2GB (and mark the letter for Robert Banks). Letters sent direct cannot be answered as all correspondence has to go through a solicitor.
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Health
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Providing this valuable service are Dr Jonathon Tomlinson and Dr Shabana Rauf, both GPs practising in East London. Dr Rauf is particularly interested in women’s health.
Q Well over ten years ago I broke my ankle
A
I wonder whether those x-rays changes have been there for many years and that the recent pain is due to weakness in the ankle joint which is quite common after an ankle injury even if it was 10 years ago! Although Tramadol is a good painkiller, it can also be quite addictive which is why it is often given as a short course and not a long term treatment. It may be worth asking your doctor whether they could refer you to a physiotherapist to strengthen your ankle joint and reduce your pain.
Q
I am 18 and have been in prison for 19 months. I’ve suffered from quite severe acne since I came in; I’ve tried many different creams but nothing seems to help, is there any medication you could recommend? Also, any tips on what food and drink might help or should be avoided.
Laser treatment is not yet available on the NHS, because it doesn’t appear to work well enough to recommend it. Having said that, there are some doctors and patients who have found laser-resurfacing treatment to be very effective for treating scarring.
A There are such good treatments for acne nowadays that no-one, not even someone in prison, should have to suffer from poorly treated acne. Acne is caused by a mixture of factors including skin structure, natural oil (sebum) production, hormones, infection and inflammation. Diet doesn’t appear to have any effect, though smoking may make it worse. Treatments range from lotions, creams or gels that are applied to the skin, antibiotics which are taken by mouth for several months at a time, the oral contraceptive pill for women, vitamin A derivative creams, gels or tablets and occasionally laser treatment. Mild acne may be managed by using antibiotic or antiinflammatory gels, creams or lotions on the skin. For moderate acne you should be prescribed a course of oral antibiotics for 3-6 months in combination with a cream, gel or lotion applied to your skin. Women may benefit from the oral contraceptive pill, in particular one called Dianette, though in practice other
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As I said earlier, with the range of effective treatments, no-one should have to suffer with acne for long these days. I hope you can get the right treatment soon.
Q I have been diagnosed as having a personality disorder (severe) which I am told is untreatable. I have also been assessed as having no mental health problems.
Could you please advise me on what, if any, medication can help with this condition? I suffer from insomnia, raging internal temper and frustration – due to no-one helping me with a problem which I don’t have full control of. I also suffer from aggression towards authority figures and people I see as being awkward or that mess me about. I don’t relax easily and find it very difficult to see funny pranks that people play and say they’re just joking around or that they’re having a laugh – not me, I’m raging inside and make myself quite ill holding down my temper.
Please can you shed some light on this for me, I’m at my wits end with it all.
A There are many different types of personal-
ity disorders, diagnosed according to the types and patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking that people with personality disorders have. The diagnosis is usually made by a GP or psychiatrist and may combine interviewing a patient with reading their medical records, observing them in hospital, and interviewing other professionals or people close to them. Often the diagnosis is clear just from talking to you, because most people are able to give a good description of the problems they have had, often traumatic, starting in childhood with difficult relationships, sometimes with drug or alcohol problems and leading to self-harm or other violent behaviour. Treatment tends to be supportive rather than curative and usually involves psychotherapy and social support including, in severe cases, therapeutic communities. Almost all people with personality disorders benefit from developing a long-term relationship with a professional such as a GP, who they trust. Medication is not used to treat a personality disorder but it may be used to treat secondary or associated problems such as depression or panic attacks.
If you have a question relating to your own health, write a brief letter to Inside Time (Health) Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. Everyone will receive a reply, however only a selection will be published each month and no names will be disclosed.
These and many more symptoms cause me severe difficulties forming friendships/relationships and generally getting along with
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I am told that this condition is not recognised as a disability or illness – even though it causes me severe difficulties in most everything I try to do. I’m seen in the eyes of probation as not quite right or some sort of freak! I do not tend to keep friends for long and prefer to be alone in my life such are my fears of being abused again or betrayed. I have difficulty trusting and reading people.
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and had it set in a cast. The cast came off but my ankle still hurt a bit but I got used to it. However, I am now suffering quite a lot of discomfort and pain. I went to Weymouth Hospital where it was x-rayed. They said that it hadn’t been set properly and that there was a small fragment of bone loose. The doctor put me on Tramadol 50s a few times a day. Perfect, no pain. My outside doctor continued the prescription but now I am in custody and although my GP is the prison doctor I am unable to have Tramadol. He has given me a number of other analgesics but they are not working. Should I still be able to have Tramadol as prisons are under the NHS now. Duff painkillers and ankle support just don’t work, have you any suggestions?
people which includes every aspect of my living, contact with others and even explaining myself properly, coping with life etc etc.
Including The Hardman Trust Prisoner Funder Directory
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Inside Health ...
combined oral contraceptive pills are effective. If one antibiotic has not had any effect after about 8 weeks it may be appropriate to try another one, but if the acne is severe and painful with scarring you should be referred to a dermatologist for a treatment that is available on the NHS and is suitable for someone with severe acne with scarring. It’s called Roaccutane. This is a vitamin A derivative which can have serious side effects including severe drying, peeling and redness of your skin during treatment, muscle aches and pains and a worsening of depression. However, the evidence for its effectiveness is, at the moment, much clearer than that for laser treatment. Most patients find that they can manage the soreness and dryness of their skin with regular use of moisturisers, and they are usually very pleased with the results afterwards.
insideinformation
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2011
n Inside Time is £2 ly proud to publish +P 5 &P the new, updated version of the most comprehensive guide to prisons and prison related services. Supplied free of charge to every UK prison it’s even bigger and better!
Over 970 pages covering every UK prison with Legal Fact Sheets for England & Wales plus a full range for Scotland. Hundreds of Help Organisations and courtesy of the Hardman Trust, details of Grants and Funding to help prisoners and their families. Legal help throughout the UK and 1000’s of useful addresses - often very difficult to find, especially for prisoners. insideinformation is published by Inside Time, the National Newspaper for Prisoners. Additional copies can be purchased from Inside Time PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ at the reduced price of £25 + £5 p&p.
Health
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
What is Breast cancer?
....................................................................... Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers. Around one in nine women develop breast cancer at some stage in their life. About 45,500 cases occur in the UK each year. Most develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can also develop in men, although this is rare. Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
Breast Cancer
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver, chest X-ray, a bone scan or other types of scan.
What is the treatment for Breast cancer?
....................................................................... Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used. The treatments used depend on:
What causes Breast cancer?
.......................................................................
What are the symptoms of Breast cancer?
....................................................................... The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast. Note: most breast lumps are not cancerous. Most breast lumps are fluid filled cysts or fibroadenomas (a clumping of glandular tissue) which are benign. However, you should always see a doctor if a lump develops as the breast lump may be cancerous. Other symptoms which may be noticed include: ›› Changes in the size or shape of a breast. ›› Dimpling or thickening of some of the skin on a part of a breast. ›› The nipple becomes inverted (turns in). ›› Rarely, a discharge from a nipple occurs (which may be bloodstained). ›› A rare type of breast cancer causes a rash around the nipple which can look similar to a small patch of eczema. ›› Rarely, pain in a breast. Note: pain is not a usual early symptom. Many women develop painful breasts (mastalgia) and this is not usually caused by cancer. ›› The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes (glands) in the armpit (axilla). If this occurs you may develop a swelling or lump in an armpit. If the cancer spreads to other parts of the body then various other symptoms can develop.
Criminal Defence Milton Keynes Specialists in Criminal & Prison Law
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01908 379 225 www .cdmk.co.uk
doctor may be guided as to where to insert the needle with the help of a mammogram or ultrasound scan. Sometimes a small operation is needed to obtain a biopsy sample. The biopsy sample can confirm or rule out breast cancer. Also the cells from a tumour can be assessed and tested to determine their grade and receptor status
There are some ‘sub-types’ of breast cancer which are important to know as the treatment and prognosis vary depending on the exact type of the cancer.
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
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Cancer is a disease of the cells in the body. There are many different types of cell in the body, and many different types of cancer which arise from different types of cell. What all types of cancer have in common is that the cancer cells are abnormal and multiply out of control. Some cancers are more serious than others, some are more easily treated than others (particularly if diagnosed at an early stage), some have a better outlook (prognosis) than others. So, cancer is not just one condition. In each case it is important to know exactly what type of cancer has developed, how large it has become, whether it has spread, and how well it usually responds to treatment.
How is Breast cancer diagnosed and assessed?
....................................................................... If you develop a lump or symptoms which may be breast cancer, a doctor will usually examine your breasts and armpits (axillae) to look for any lumps or other changes. You will normally be referred to a specialist. Sometimes a biopsy of an obvious lump (see below) is arranged, but other tests may be done first such as: ›› Mammogram. This is a special X-ray of the breast tissue which can detect changes in the density of breast tissue which may indicate a tumour. ›› Ultrasound scan of the breast. ›› MRI scan of the breast. This is more commonly performed on younger women, especially those with a strong family history of breast cancer. A specialist may take a biopsy with a needle which is inserted into the lump and some cells are withdrawn. Sometimes the
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›› The cancer itself - its size and stage (whether it has spread), the grade of the cancer cells, and whether it is hormone responsive or contains HER2 receptors, AND ›› The woman with the cancer - your age, whether or not you have had your menopause, your general health and personal preferences for treatment. You should have a full discussion with a specialist who knows your case. They will be able to give the pros and cons, likely success rate, possible side-effects and other details about the various possible treatment options for your type of cancer.
What is the prognosis?
....................................................................... The outlook has much improved in recent years. Deaths from breast cancer are now at the lowest ever in 40 years. This is mainly due to the improvements in the treatment of breast cancer. The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. More breast cancers are also now being diagnosed and treated at an early stage. In general, the more advanced the cancer (the more it has spread) then the less chance that treatment will be curative. The treatment of cancer is a developing area of medicine. New treatments continue to be developed and the information on outlook above is very general. The specialist who knows your case can give more accurate information about your particular outlook, and how well your type and stage of cancer is likely to respond to treatment. Information kindly supplied by Patient UK - Comprehensive health information as provided by GPs and nurses to patients during consultations. www.patient.co.uk
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Wellbeing
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Leading you to a healthy lifestyle ‘A lifestyle worth living’ by PE Instructor Matt Vanstone Are you new to exercise, not sure what to do or looking for a different training approach? This month I will be showing you different ways to use the pieces of cardiovascular (CV) equipment you may find in your gym or CV suite and also how to use your time on the exercise yard wisely. Each piece of equipment will feature a different workout with different intensities and training effects which will be explained.
From here, place you heels on the footplate and drive with your legs until they are straight, then lean back and then pull your arms in to your ribs. Relax going forward and repeat. The session: With a partner, set the machine to 40 second intervals with a 30 second rest. You each take it in turns to do an interval, so you each get 1 minute and 40 seconds rest in between each interval. Complete 8 intervals each. Then set the intervals to 30 seconds with a 30 second rest. Complete 8 intervals each and then set the intervals to 20 seconds with a 30 second rest and complete 8 each. Each time the intervals get less; your speed should increase for your average pace. At the end of the session, write down your average paces and total distance, so the next time you do the session you can aim to go further.
20/20/20
From left to right: Chris Doughty, Ian Cornish, Meten Mustapha, Shane Perry, Matt
Mixing up your CV training The terms aerobic and anaerobic training are often used when reading about training programs. Aerobic training is the ability of the heart, lungs and other systems to cope with the exercise demand being performed and utilize oxygen to assist generate energy. Some examples of this form of exercise are fast walking, jogging, and steady swimming and can be maintained for long periods. Anaerobic training is short bursts of intense exercise. Because of this, the body can’t process oxygen quick enough, so you get a build up of lactic acid which is a burning sensation and ultimately leads to muscle failure. Some examples are weightlifting, 100m and 200m sprints. For the purpose of these training sessions, a ‘hard’ session would incorporate anaerobic training, but easy to moderate is purely aerobic.
40/30/20’s CV Equipment: Rowing machine Intensity: Hard Coaching points: Set the damper setting to 7 or a drag factor of 150. From the start position, have your arms straight, your back slightly leaning forward, legs bent so your shins point towards the ceiling and heels off the footplate.
CV Equipment: cross trainer, exercise bike and versa climber Intensity: Easy Coaching points: For the bike, set the seat to approximately hip height. Ensure the foot straps secure your feet to the pedals. On the cross trainer, when in a forward motion allow your heels to naturally come on and off the foot plate. Keep your knees, hips and spine aligned forward. For the versa climber, set the handles so your arms can fully extend. Ensure your feet are fully on the footplate and keep your body aligned forward. The session: On each piece of equipment, hit the quick start button and just go for 20 minutes. Set the resistance to an intensity you can cope with comfortably. Throughout the session, you should be able to have a short conversation with people, and not feel out of breath or out of your ‘comfort zone.’
with kind permission from Billy Bragg
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Your time on the yard Now the summer months are approaching, I know that there will be an increase in people taking the opportunity for wing based exercise. This is a perfect opportunity to participate in light exercise, which many studies have shown is the optimum way to burn body fat. I appreciate most prisons have health and safety assessments to follow, so you may only be able to power walk. But what you can do is ask your PE department or healthcare if they have a pedometer you can borrow so you can monitor how many steps you take. Another option is to liaise with the PE department or health trainers to see if they can measure out the distance of the yard, so you know how many miles you can cover within your allocated time. Remember, anything you do is better than doing nothing at all, which is all part of your total ‘healthy lifestyle.’
Keep motivated You will have days where you don’t feel like training, or you have other things on your mind. We all have ‘off’ days which can affect the results of our exercise session. We are all only human! But within an exercise routine, boredom can be prevented. You don’t need to start the same session doing the same routine. Use different equipment or even try a completely new workout. Exercise should be fun and make you feel good about yourself. Or why not get your friends and family involved and exercise with them. I personally find my biggest motivation to keep up my exercise routine is to set myself goals and ambitions. Every time when performing any exercise routine, it is recommended to warm up, cool down and stretch. Also, take time to consider your diet to ensure it meets your exercise demands. If you have any questions or would like to know more about these routines, feel free to send your letter to Inside Time who will forward it on to me. Next month I will cover another new workout and some tips about linking exercise goals with Diet and Nutrition.
Gym Orderlies tip of the month: Sport specific training By Ian Cornish
“Locked in here all day; you don’t turn criminals into citizens by treating them this way” We have a dedicated and specialist team. We offer nothing but honest and professional advice. We aim to deal with your case speedily and efficiently. We aim to provide a quick response to all initial contacts. We regularly attend prisons throughout Northern England but do offer nationwide service in particular: Disability Discrimination Categorisation / Progression Parole & Licence Issues Lifer & IPP cases Adjudications Appeals / CCRC cases Recall HDC Judicial Review www.chiverssolicitors.co.uk
for a minute. Then lower it back to incline 2. Repeat this 10 times through and finish with a ten minute power walk with the incline at level 15.
1 up/1 down CV Equipment: treadmill Intensity: medium Coaching points: on the treadmill, when running, maintain a heel to toe action, knees, hips and spine aligned forward and allow your arms to move freely. The session: set the treadmill to your comfortable running pace which you could hold for around 30 minutes at an incline level 2. After one minute, raise the incline to 10-15 and run
Using these machines will target specific muscle groups as well as the cardiovascular system. One example is the rowing machine, which will develop legs, upper back and arms, whilst cycling will mainly develop legs. In time, this means you may be a world champion rower, but only an average cyclist due to your sport specific training requirements. So you can use CV equipment to train sports specific or have a ‘cross transfer’ of fitness.
PE Instructor Matt Vanstone - HMP Erlestoke 2011 English Indoor Rowing champion
Wellbeing
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Comfort Yoga:
better than a cuppa
49
the ground. They probably won’t go all the way to the floor unless you’re very flexible, but that’s okay – tuck a couple of jumpers or pillows under your knees. Either stay like this (like the man in the picture) or, if you want to, it can feel even nicer if you keep your legs where they are and carefully lean back until your back is flat on the floor. Let your legs relax down to the ground and let all the tension go from your back. Both versions of this pose are brilliant for bad period pains (or any lower back pain) because if allows all the little muscles in the pelvis to relax, and when they relax, they won’t hurt you as much. Stay like this for as long as you like – at least 10 breaths, but up to 15 minutes if you find it very comfortable.
This gentle yoga routine is soothing for period pains and any kind of tense or painful lower back. It is a calming routine, and should help if you feel upset or nervous about anything. If you have trouble sleeping, this is great to do before bed
B
efore you begin, stand up and bring your attention to how you’re breathing. Count ten slow breaths, and just notice how you are feeling and how the air feels going in and out of your lungs. While you’re doing yoga, try to keep your breathing slow and steady, and keep your attention on it. Most movements are done in time to the breathing. This makes the practice more relaxing and helps you feel more connected to yourself. It may sound funny, but when you’re in pain or upset, this is even more important. If you feel more connected, you will be more able to listen to your body and give it what it needs to feel better. Stand up with your feet apart, as wide as they comfortably go. Then bend over forwards. Hold each elbow with the opposite hand, nod your head a couple of times to relax your neck and just hang there. The point isn’t to get down low, it’s to give all the muscles in your back a chance to relax, because they can get painful if they’re tense. Stay like this for 10 slow, steady breaths.
Next, get onto your hands and knees. As you breath in, let your belly drop down and stick your bum out. As you breath out, let you head drop and tilt your pelvis the other way, so your back arches up, like an angry cat. Carry on moving in time with your breathing like this for another 10 breaths.
From hands and knees, spread your knees apart and bring your feet together so the big toes touch. Sit back onto your heels with your arms stretched up over your head This is a good position to rest in if you ever feel upset or overwhelmed. If you stay like this and count 20 deep breaths, you should feel calmer. If there isn’t enough space to do it like this, you can put your arms by your sides instead.
To finish, find a wall and sit next to it as close as you can. Bring your hands behind you and wiggle round until your bum is flat against the wall and your legs are stretching up, resting on the wall. This is great for relaxing after a hard day, especially if you’ve been on your feet a lot. As you lie like this, breathe in through your nose and feel the air going into your lungs. Notice how deeply into you the air goes – it should lift up your belly a bit too. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your belly, and feel the air flowing in and out. Try and make the air lift up the belly hand more than the chest hand as much as you can. Lie like this for a few minutes before you get up.
When you feel ready, sit up slowly. Bring the soles of your feet together in front of you, and relax your knees down towards
If you want a free book and CD to help you set up a regular yoga and meditation practice write to The Prison Phoenix Trust, PO Box 328, Oxford OX2 7HF. The Prison Phoenix Trust supports prisoners and prison officers in their spiritual lives through meditation, yoga, silence and the breath. The Trust works with people of any religion or none.
Bishop & Light
SOLICITORS Criminal defence and mental health solicitors specialising in fraud, motoring offences and serious crime Appeals against sentence/conviction • CCRC • Murder General Criminal Offences • Drug Offences • Theft Money Laundering • Sex Offences • Assault • Burglary Contact Kevin Light at Bishop and Light Solicitors Ltd Cambridge House Cambridge Grove, Hove BN3 3ED
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THE PRISON PHOENIX TRUST Head doing you in? Stressed out? Can’t sleep? Simple yoga and meditation practice, working with silence and the breath, might just transform your life in more ways than you think...
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Write to The Prison Phoenix Trust P.O.Box 328, Oxford, OX2 7HF We’d love to hear from you anytime and have several free books, which could help you build and maintain a daily practice.
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Book Reviews
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Reading group round up Image courtesy of Matthew Meadows
‘A
t last, a book we’re all agreed about!’ was the comment halfway into our discussion of Beauty by Raphael Selbourne. The reading group at HMP Send has been going for twelve years now, and we’ve had our great moments, but also some challenges. Beauty, our book last month, was one of our successes. Winner of the 2009 Costa First Novel Award, it was published in 2009. Beauty is a twenty-year-old Bangladeshi, living in the midlands. She has managed to resist an arranged marriage with a much older man, and is under pressure for disgracing her family. They subject her to physical and mental abuse. So she runs away, and we follow her through the streets of Wolverhampton as she heads towards some potentially explosive culture clashes.
News and views from prison reading groups across the country. Professor Jenny Hartley reports said. The expectations on the daughter of the family to look after parents, sisters and brothers, and to fall in with marriage arrangements: ‘all that I could relate to’. ‘A book about the world we live in’: that was what got the group so enthusiastic. Well, not everyone. I was the sole voice of criticism, about wanting Beauty to make a life for herself away from her family. Should she go back to them or not? I won’t give away the ending; enough to say that I disagreed with the group but they did pretty much convince me. • Gripping • Topical but very disturbing • Read it in a day and a half; couldn’t wait to get back to it I tried to put myself in the position of Beauty, an intolerable situation. It’s easy to say, leave home, get away. But how can you leave with nowhere to go, no-one to support you, no money. Where would you sleep, what would you eat? The friendship struck up between Beauty and Mark, the ex-offender who breeds racism and Staffordshire Bull terriers, is the high point. Taking her to a party with his friends, teaching her to read, even cleaning up his stinking house for her: • Unlikely, but why not? • Made me laugh • Gave you some hope didn’t it? Was it worth the wait, we asked Anna at the end. ‘Yes, definitely!’
We start our hour-long session by going round the group for some quick responses, and we begin with Anna because it is ‘her’ book. She spotted it months ago and liked the look of it, but it took her about six months to persuade us to vote for it as our next read. ‘I loved it’, she
Jenny Hartley and the group at HMP Send. Names have been changed. We would like to thank the staff for supporting this group over the years. HMP Send is part of the Prison Reading Groups project (PRG), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Author Justin Rollins (centre), publisher Bryan Gibson (Waterside Press) and Inside Time’s Noel Smith at a book signing in Waterstones, Sutton
The Lost Boyz - A dark side of graffiti by Justin Rollins Review by Billy Little, HMP Bullingdon There are no two ways about it; this is simply 100% raw talent being unleashed right from the start. Justin Rollins takes you on a journey through the reality of life for Britain’s youth culture. At points throughout this book Justin gives the reader a clear and concise description of his emotional states, they also come with a social background that would keep the tabloids busy for years with headlines. How many times have you seen a bit of graffiti somewhere obscure, somewhere that seems virtually inaccessible to all but the most daring? This is what the ‘taggers’ strive to create, and the price of getting noticed amongst his peers and the other London gangs often meant that Justin had to risk his life to write his ‘tag’ or ‘bomb’ in these places. Such activities do not go unnoticed for long and soon the tagging gangs became a major problem for British Transport Police, in terms of identification and location. With this came the battle of wits, cat and mouse, capture and evasion; with the usual expected series of consequences for all involved. Think the ‘Railway Children’ on alcohol and any number and combination of drugs, hardly the literary intention posed by Edith Nesbit, but certainly a realistic appraisal of contemporary youth subculture. The book never stops in terms of its pace. There is no middle ground, no room to take a
breath. Justin Rollins has managed to use his own experience of life, his trauma, fears and humour to totally engage the reader. The honesty he displays with regards to his own faults and failings in life are admirable and a very endearing quality for a writer. There is clarity in the knowledge of who he was and who he is now. From being led into a world of satanic influence and ritual that left him suffering from depression and self-harming on a regular basis, to a man with principled virtues. There is wisdom, humility, temperance, ambition, courage, devotion and humour in the story of Justin Rollins’ journey. There is also a great deal of loss, remorse and regret. This story is pure and simple, and true. Justin sacrificed many things in his life and endured the pain that came with it. This book is a ‘must-read’ for half the prison population, academics and politicians. It delivers a concise insight into a life that almost never was. In Justin’s own words ‘From a lost boy to a found man’. From the urban youth mentality to maturity; a truly remarkable story.
The Lost Boyz - A dark side of graffiti by Justin Rollins published by Waterside Press Price: £16.50
Beauty by Raphael Selbourne, published by Tindal Street Press Ltd, price £7.99
We are dedicated in preserving prisoners rights. Are you serving your sentence in the North West area? Here at Forbes we are always at hand to offer friendly straightforward legal advice and assistance and are one of the largest criminal law firms in the area.
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We also advise in all aspects of litigation on behalf of prisoners including Actions Against Detaining Authorities that involve false imprisonment, human rights, negligence, assault, personal injuries and clinical negligence. Enquiries for Prison Law: Krystyna Kozlowski or Claire Earnshaw Tel: 01772 220022 Actions Against Detaining Authorities: David Mayor Tel: 01772 220022 Clinical Negligence: Sara Linford Tel: 01254 770500 Address: Ribchester House, Lancaster Road, Preston, PR1 2QL ›› Registered with EMAP ‹‹
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Book & DVD Reviews
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
At My Mother’s Knee ... and other low joints by Paul O’Grady Review by Inside Time’s Lucy Forde I like Paul O’Grady, his acerbic wit, anarchic attitude and who gives a monkey’s attitude, appeal to me, so when I found his autobiography on a bookstall I couldn’t resist – I haven’t regretted it for one single page. Like him or loathe him you surely can’t fail to admire his candour if you read this book. It tells of his childhood growing up in Liverpool; the baby of the family – “the last kick of a dying horse” as he says in his own words, “an unexpected bonus or a curse depending on how well disposed toward me my ma was feeling that day”. His initial exploration and possibility of being a ‘homo’, told in a humorous but touching way; his acting debut – for the record - a sheep in the nativity; his first attempt at burlesque – the unlikely setting of communion and the vision of a young O’Grady mincing about on the chancel steps had me in tears laughing. He starts off his book discussing his mother’s false teeth, and why wouldn’t you? His recollections hop about from his birth to nearly his first sexual experience in the same hospital at the age of eleven when delivering papers. From the beginning it is obvious where he got ‘Lily’ from, she is an amalgamation of his auntie Chris, their next door neighbour Rose Long, a bit of his mum, Lily’s surname is actually Paul’s mother’s maiden name and the final ingredient – scouse humour, a force to be reckoned with. Even before ‘Lily’ is mentioned you sense her jumping off the page at you with almost every chapter. His description of all the people in his life ensures that you don’t need a photo to be able
Tron Legacy The son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father’s creation turned bad and a unique ally who was born inside the digital domain of The Grid
to ‘see’ them; such is his ability to bring his friends and family to life you almost feel that should you meet them in Higher Tranmere, Birkenhead you would recognise them immediately and begin chatting as though you had known them forever. Throughout the book I found myself agreeing out loud with what he’d written, his disdain of nouvelle cuisine had me punching the air; “Why go to the bother of cutting carrots into ridiculously thin slivers, calling them ‘julienne’ and then dishing them up balanced one on top of the other so that they look like a pile of loosely stacked miniature deckchairs? Is there something shameful about a carrot that I don’t know about? Are they so socially unacceptable in smart restaurants that they have to undergo drastic surgery before they can be presented at the table?” The joy of this book is that it is written in exactly the way that Paul O’Grady talks. When reading it I felt that I was curled up the other end of the sofa to him just listening to him over a cup of tea. If another reminiscence pops into his mind, regardless of the relevance to the ongoing anecdote, he ‘tells it’ – no rhyme or reason but it works. I haven’t read anything with as much feel good factor as this book and can’t wait to get hold of ‘The devil rides out’, his next missive – not so much an autobiography in the true sense of the word, more a recollection of his life in the order that he remembers it! At My Mother’s Knee ... and other low joints by Paul O’Grady Price £7.99
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. · · · · · · · · ·
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Household goods Clothing Rent deposit guarantee 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 Ass i stan ce fo r yo u r partn er an d fami l y
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, 199 Borough High Street London SE1 1AA
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
In 1982, 29-yearold writer-director Steven Lisberger was cranking out animated adverts when he somehow convinced Disney to cough up $17m for a story about some guy who gets sucked into a parallel electronic world and has a fight with a computer’s brain. Tron isn’t a great film. Portentous acting, scruffy structure, at least half an hour too long … but it does have a thrilling sense of unshakable momentum. It’s a bright, shining big Idea, propelled by Lisberger’s prophetic confidence. The job was gigantic: craft a convincing digital world into which wise-ass programmer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) could be transposed as a virtual gladiator, crusading against the copyright theft of his successful videogame by bond-villainous corporate spook Dillinger (David Warner). What would this world look like? How could it be realised at a time when creaky animatronics and awkwardly overlaid models were the height of FX elegance? “We used hand-crafted methods to make a movie that looked like it was created by a computer,” says Lisberger. “There is more computing power in a modern cell phone than we used in making Tron.” As a movie, Tron may be flawed, but as an inspiration, it’s pretty much Movie Zero for today’s generation of mainstream creatives. And it isn’t just influential in terms of technique and technology. Most films that attempt to surf on a voguish
techno-wave often feel faddish and dated by the time they’re released: see the absurd view of ‘virtual reality’ as accelerated evolution in The Lawnmower Man; the sub-Orwellian piffle of Sandra Bullock’s The Net. Like the best sci-fi, Tron extrapolated the present into the shape of things to come: online aliases, parallel digital lives, anarchic hacker culture, networked videogaming. The base idea is solid: 20-odd years after Kevin Flynn’s disappearance, grown-up son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) follows his dad onto the Game Grid, which has been rebooted into a digital dictatorship ruled by ‘Clu’, a ruthless copy of original Flynn (Bridges’ computerised Tron-era face disturbingly imprinted onto an acrobatic actor’s body). Despite mostly likable performances – particularly from Bridges and Wilde – the real star is the look. Director/architecture professor Joseph Kosinski has re-sculpted Lisberger’s landscape to enhance the organic integrity. It now has meteorology and topography; crystalline seas and grumbling skies breathing heat and life into a cool but sterile environment. But it’s still a $170m design brief in search of a film. Tron: Legacy may be a visual delight, but Tron was a vision. Star Wars took sci-fi into outer space, while Tron was all about inner space and what was possible down here on earth; a neon-blueprint of how technology would transform science fiction into fact. While Tron now plays as a clear-sighted premonition of the present, Tron: Legacy is already receding into the past
Review by Andrew Cousins, Managing Director of Gema Records, the leading supplier of Music, Games and DVDs to UK prisons. See Jailbreak page 54 for how to order
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Jailbreak
Rock &
Pop Quiz
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
Do you remember?
7. Which of Elvis Presley’s songs has the lines “Well it took my baby, but it never will again’?
officially announces the end of the war with Germany.
8. What was the title of the Mason Williams’ instrumental hit of 1968?
May 10th 1994
Mandela becomes SA’s first black president
9. That Don’t Impress Me Much, You’ve Got A Way and From This Moment On are all tracks that appear on which album of 2000?
Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa’s first black president after more than three centuries of white rule.
May 14th 1955
Communist states sign Warsaw Pact
May 1st 1994
Race ace Senna killed in car crash
10. What was the major track on The Verve’s 1997 album Urban Hymns which caused a big copyright problem? 11. Which clean-cut singer from the 1950s recorded cooled-down versions of Little Richards’ Long Tall Sally and Tutti Frutti? 1. Released in 1955 as a single, which song by Chuck Berry told of a hot rod race and a failed love affair? 2. Whose album The Division Bell stayed at No 1 for four weeks in 1994? 3. Which American hard rock band are know as ‘The Bad Boys from Boston’?
12. Which all-female band’s 2006 ‘Accidents and accusations’ tour took them not only across North America but Europe and Australia as well? 13. A very early rock ‘n’ roll record Rocket 88, by Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats, was written by which musician, the one-time husband of an iconic black female singer?
The world-class Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna dies in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy.
May 25th 1961
May 2nd 1997
President John F Kennedy says the US will aim to put the first man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
Labour routs Tories in historic election
The Labour Party wins the general election by a landslide, leaving the Conservative Party in tatters after 18 years in power.
May 4th 1979
Election victory for Margaret Thatcher
Kennedy pledges man on Moon
May 29th 1968
Manchester Utd win European Cup
Manchester United become the first English club to win the European Cup beating Portuguese side Benfica by four goals to one.
The Conservative Party wins the general election making Margaret Thatcher Britain’s first woman prime minister.
May 5th 1981
Bobby Sands dies in prison
Hunger striker Bobby Sands dies in the Maze prison 66 days after first refusing to eat.
4. In 1980, which rock band broke up after the death of its drummer John Bonham?
14. Which singer is famous for his hits Me And Bobby McGee and Help Me Make it Through the Night?
May 6th 1966
5. Which American hard rock band is comprised of three members with the same surname, plus David Lee Roth?
15. Which band released the album 9.0 Live in 2005?
Ian Brady and his lover Myra Hindley are sentenced to life imprisonment for the so-called Moors murders.
16. Which band lost Hillel Slovak when he died in 1988?
May 8th 1945
Answers on page 55
The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
6. What was the title of the 2002 Lou Reed album inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe?
The Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies sign a defence pact in the Polish capital, Warsaw, which places all member countries under one military command.
Moors murderers jailed for life
Rejoicing at end of war in Europe
May 31st 1998
Ginger leaves the Spice Girls
Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice, leaves the phenomenally successful Spice Girls band.
IPP Hearings Can you read this? adjudication hearings parole
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HDC/License Recall sentence plan/progression Problems inside? Don’t know where to turn? Need a specialist prison lawyer?
Whether you are coming up for parole or require advice about a Judicial Review against the Prison Service, we can help. So, if you need professional, confidential legal advice, call Howells’ prison law specialists on Sheffield 0114 249 6717.
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Toe by Toe enables learners to learn to read from the beginning with one to one support. It is for anyone who wants to learn how to read whilst in prison. Toe by Toe Mentors help others learn to read. Train to be a Toe by Toe mentor and develop skills in supporting others. It is a positive and highly rewarding way to spend your time in prison. For more information write to: Shannon Trust Freepost RSCE-ZSAR-GYAX 2nd Floor, Royal London House 22-25 Finsbury Square London, EC2A 3DX
Jailbreak
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
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TWENTY QUESTIONS TO TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 11. Which Premiership football club moved to the Riverside Stadium in 1995?
2. Which US actor, star of Taxi Driver and GoodFellas, produced the musical We Will Rock You?
12. Which nationality is TV presenter and model Abi Titmuss?
3. When England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, who was their coach?
13. In June 1987, which UK prime minister was reelected for a third term?
4. The most popular names for kings in British history have been Henry and which other name?
14. In the US, on the 4th of which month does Independence Day fall?
5. Which US female singer had a UK chart hit in 1989 with ‘if I Could Turn Back Time?
15. ‘All children, except one, grow up’ is the opening line of which novel by J.M. Barrie?
6. Which English city, famous for its medicinal waters, was called Aquae Sulis by the Romans?
16. In the 1986 film Withnail Et I, which actor plays the character Withnail?
7. Traditionally, LPs, 7-inch and 12-inch singles are made out of which material?
17. In 1999, which Irish boyband had a UK number one hit with the single ‘You Needed Me’?
8. Which 1997 film featured unemployed men in the North of England who set up as strippers?
18. In the 1990s TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, which comedy actress played the part of Edina’s mother?
9. Which female TV presenter co-hosted the children’s show SM: TV Live with Ant and Dec? 10. In medicine, the prefix ‘haemo’ refers to which part of the body?
19. Twitchers is a name associated with practitioners of which hobby? 20. An igloo is a dwelling that is typically made from which substance?
1. What number completes this triangle?
2.
3.
4.
Which letter completes this puzzle?
Which letter replaces the question mark?
Following a logical sequence, can you complete this puzzle?
Submitted by Andrew Michael Cardi HMP Blundeston. Start on the left with the first number and work your way across following the instructions in each cell. See how quickly you can do each puzzle and how your times improve month by month! Answers on page 55. If you would like to submit similar puzzles we will pay £5 for any that are chosen for print. Please send in a minimum of three puzzles together with the answer!
Mind gym
It’s a Con
Challenge
Answers 1 - 3 Splitting the diagram into 3 smaller triangles one at the top and two at left and right, each containing 3 numbers, the sum of the number is always 15. 2 - Z Starting top left, and moving clockwise around the outer squares, and then the inner squares, letters advance through the alphabet, skipping 3 letters at a time. 3 - 18 Starting at the top, multiply the two digits of each number together and subtract this total, to give the next value down 4 - E In each row the sum of the numerical values of each letter is always 20.
1. Which European city was host to the second modern Olympic Games, held in 1900?
57
×2 / -72 / ×3 / -78 / 5/6 of it / +64 / 75% of it / -61 / ×8 = ???
255 20%
of it
/ -34 / Sq it / -51 / 5/7 of it / -89 / ×4 / -159 / 60% of it = ??
572 ÷4 / -278 / 60%
of it
/ +672 / 2/3 of it / -507 / ×2 / +851 / 13/25 of it = ???
MW - HMP Stocken
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54
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Gema Quiz
CAPTION COMPETITION I feel we Libyans are at a crossroads in our life
The new Gema Records catalogue is out now! (Winter 2010) For the first time, we have a DVD section with over 20,000 Films, Documentaries, TV Series etc. In addition, we have 12,000 New Releases and over 5,000 Special Offers included in the catalogue. PS2 Bundles now come with 2 free pre-owned games. We are now also offering new Xbox 360 consoles. Thousands of price reductions across the board. 1. Which Olympian played Tarzan? 2. Who is the voice of the donkey in Shrek? For your own personal copy, please send a cheque 3. Who were the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? or PO (payable to Gema Records) for £2 to Gema 4. What was the name of the estate in Gone Records, PO Box 54, Reading RG1 3SD and we will With the Wind? 5. Lara’s Theme is the theme for which immediately despatch a copy to you along with a £2 voucher to use against your first order. revolutionary film? 6. Which famous partners starred in Flying GEMA RECORDS - SUPPLIER OF THE UK’S LARGEST BACK CATALOGUE OF MUSIC down to Rio? Telephone: 01189 842 444 7. Henry Fonda won his only Oscar for a performance in which film? Gema sponsors of Jailbreak 8. In which theatre of war was Full Metal Last month’s Jacket set? winners 9. Who played Charles Bronson in the film Shane Johnson - HMP Preston Bronson? Martin Ward - HMP Whitemoor 10. Who turned down the role of George VI in M Cardi - HMP Blundeston ‘The King’s Speech’? See below for details of how to enter. The first three names to be drawn receive a £15 Gema Record Voucher & free catalogue
with all correct answers (or nearest) will each
Answers to last months quiz: 1. Greenday, 2. Leonard Cohen, 3. 3 Doors Down, 4. Garbage 5. Bright Eyes, 6. Metallica, 7. Joni Mitchell, 8. Disturbed, 9. Eva Cassidy, 10. George Michael
insideknowledge The prize quiz where we give you the Questions and the Answers!
All the answers are within this issue of Inside Time - all you have to do is find them!!
?
Last month’s winner
Peter Thirlaway HMP Wealstun
£25
prize is in the post
Another £25 prize is on offer for the best caption to this month’s picture. What do you think is being thought or said here? At last, Fernando Torres finally scores a goal after 903 minutes of playing for Chelsea!!
>> To enter
Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. You can use one envelope to enter more than one competition just mark it ‘jailbreak’. A 1st or 2nd class stamp is required on your envelope. Closing date for all is 24/05/11
Please do not cut out any of these panels. Just send your entry to one or all of these competitions on a separate sheet of paper. Make sure your name, number and prison is on all sheets. Post your entry to:
8.
What year are the Government owned laboratories set to close?
9.
Who said that ‘too many prisoners sit around their cells doing nothing when they
should be doing something useful with their time’?
10. Who sacrificed many things in their life and endured the pain that came with it? 11. Prostate Cancer kills how many people a year in the UK? 12. Who was the first inmate ‘blogger’ online everyday on a daily basis from 2001?
The first three names to be drawn with all-correct answers (or nearest) will receive a £25 cash prize. There will also be two £5 consolation prizes. The winners’ names will appear in next month’s issue.
13. Who ran away after being subject to physical and mental abuse by their family?
1.
How many hours of fasting can lead to favourable changes in cholesterol and blood
sugar levels?
15. Who regards the Census as immoral and negative?
2.
How many ‘average hits per day’ has the Inside Time website had in the first 3
months of 2011?
3.
What have prisoners been using for the past ten years to communicate with the out
side world?
4.
Who found no significant change in the rate of violence?
5.
Who noted that ‘paper is more patient than people’?
6.
How many British Students of Black origin were admitted to Oxford last year?
7.
At which prison did 72% of the population say staff treated them with respect?
JOSEPH MYNAH & CO SOLICITORS
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HENRY HYAMS
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14. On what day will the National Prison Radio play Bob Marley tracks as well as special features on Porridge, Behind Bars and The Request Show?
Answers to Last Month’s Inside Knowledge Prize Quiz 1. POPS (Partners of Prisoners & Families Support Group), 2. Ace Hacker, 3. HMP Parc, 4. The Secretary of State, 5. Dean C, 6. Printing Error, 7. A Natal Chart, 8. HMP Full Sutton, 9. 1994, 10. Ryan Donachie, 11. 81,000, 12. Devon & Cornwall Police, 13. Official Bollocks, 14. 40,000, 15. 3 Our three £25 Prize winners are: Kevin Gibson HMP Addiewell, James Barrass HMP Stocken, Adrian Spencer HMP Risley Plus our £5 Consolation prizes go to: Bill Halliwell HMP Swaleside, Stephen Crawford HMP Gartree
solicitors
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Comedy Corner listens, after paying for everything she asks him if he would like to come to her place for breakfast in the morning, they have a wonderful time. The next morning, she cooks a gourmet meal with all the trimmings. The guy is amazed, “Everything has been so incredible, you know”, he says, “you are the perfect woman, are you this nice to every guy you meet?” “No”, she replies, “you just happened to catch my eye”. Trevor Hanson - HMP Full Sutton ......................................................... Ê What’s pink and hangs out your underpants? Your mum Mutlu - HMP Elmley
Match the following quotes to the celebrity pictures, answers below
“ When asked if they would like to have sex with me, 30% of women said ‘Yes’, while the other 70% replied: ‘What, again?’ ” (A)
(B)
“ The police got carried away, putting people in jail ”
“ Women are not forgiven for ageing. Robert Redford’s lines of distinction are my old-age wrinkles ” (C)
“ Britain is the only country where people will introduce you to a friend by saying: ‘This is my mate Barry, he’s a bit of a twat’ ” (D)
(E)
“ The first time I see a jogger smile, I’ll consider it ”
1. Vladimir Putin 2. Reginald D.
Jailbreak Answers
9 4 6 2 3
4 5 7 9 2
2 1 9 5 6
3 6 8 4 1
1 9 2 3 4
6 3 5 8 7
8 7 4 1 5
2 3 1 8 7 9 5 4 6 5 6 7 1 4 2 8 9 3 4 9 8 6 3 5 7 1 2
5 9 7 6 2 4 1 8 3
2 3 6 1 8 7 4 5 9
7 2 1 4 6 8 3 9 5
8 5 9 2 1 3 7 6 4
hard
4 6 3 7 5 9 2 1 8
6 7 5 9 4 2 8 3 1
3 8 2 5 7 1 9 4 6
9 1 4 8 3 6 5 2 7
I T SUDOKU
5 2 1 7 8
1 4 8 3 9 5 6 7 2
1. 8. The Full3 Monty 6 2 15. Peter5Pan 8 7 Paris9 3 2. Robert De Niro 9. Cat Deeley 16. Richard E. Grant 3. Clive Woodward 7 2 10. 4Blood 5 4 3 17. Boyzone 1 6 4. Edward 5 4 3 11. 1Middlesbrough 18. June 9Whitfield 5 5. Cher 12. British 19. Bird-watching 8 2 1 7 5 9 1 3 4 6. Bath 13. Margaret Thatcher 20. Snow 5 8 2 5 7. Vinyl 14. July Daily Sudoku: Tue 12-Apr-2011
Daily Sudoku: Wed 13-Apr-2011
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MEMBERS OF THE LAW SOCIETY FAMILY AND CHILDREN PANEL
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0208 331 0505
07951 272375 or 07951 594827
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Contact Sola or Kate at K&S @ Law Solicitors 133 Plumstead High Street London SE18 1SE
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Whatever your situation we can help you, we have helped many people in the same position! We are specialist family lawyers who can advise you on any family matter including child access, adoption, divorce and separation.
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• Are you being denied ACCESS with your children because you are in prison? • Are your children subject to CARE PROCEEDINGS or about to be removed by the social services • Are you being denied your PARENTAL RIGHTS? • Are you not sure what your RIGHTS are?
5. Silvio Berlusconi
Quotes (A)5 (B)1 (C)4 (D)2 (E)3
7 8 3 6 9
Daily Sudoku: Tue 12-Apr-2011
medium
Clarion Advocates
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Clarion Advocates Lanson House 42 Duke Street Fornby Liverpool L37 4AT
Daily Sudoku: Wed 13-Apr-2011
Contact Tony Murphy on 01704 877 400 or email
[email protected] www.clarionadvocates.com
FAMILY LAW SPECIALISTS
Rock & Pop Quiz Twain 10. Bittersweet Symphony 11. Pat Boone. 12. The Dixie Chicks 13. Ike Turner 14. Kris Kristofferson 15. Slipknot. 16. Red Hot chilli Peppers.
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• We are passionate about getting justice, justice being our priority
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Mind Gym 1. 136, 2. 99, 3. 325
• All aspects of crime – including murder, rape/serious sexual assaults, drug related cases and serious fraud
Jane Fonda
Across: 1 Beacon, 4 Cabaret, 9 Ecumenism, 10 Riser, 11 Steps, 12 Melbourne, 13 Dungeon, 15 Tattoo, 17 Smyrna, 19 Aileron, 22 Barometer, 24 Spoke, 26 Ratel, 27 Marmalade, 28 Normans, 29 Escape. Down: 1 Blessed, 2 Azure, 3 Oversteer, 4 Camelot, 5 Burro, 6 Reservoir, 7 Tureen, 8 Kidman, 14 Numerator, 16 Talismans, 18 Artemis, 19 Aurora, 20 Nyerere, 21 Oberon, 23 Malta, 25 Osaka.
• We are nationwide specialists in shortening sentences and securing the release of the wrongly convicted
4.
General Knowledge Crossword
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This team “has real courage in the cases it takes” (Chambers UK 2009)
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General Knowledge
Do you have any jokes (printable) that you would like to share with our readers? If so, send them in to: Inside Time (Jokes), Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. If you do not want your name or prison to appear please make it clear. You will receive £5 for every one we print so don’t forget to include your details even if you don’t want them printed.
Sentence too long? Wrongly convicted?
3. Joan Rivers
Hunter
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Ê Two friends are fishing near a bridge, suddenly a hearse and the funeral cars go over the bridge. So one of them stands up, takes off his cap and bows his head. When the cars had gone, he puts his cap back on, sits back down and carries on fishing. His mate turns to him and says, “Dave that’s one of the nicest most respectful things I’ve ever seen!” Dave replies, “Well we were married for 20 years.” Terry Dunstan - HMP Whatton ......................................................... Ê A man is dining in a fancy restaurant and there is a gorgeous redhead sitting at the next table, he has been checking her out since he sat down, but lacks the nerve to talk to her. Suddenly she sneezes; and her glass eye flies out of its socket and toward the man, he reflexively reaches out, grabs it out of the air and hands it back. “Oh my, I am so sorry” the woman says as she pops her eye back in place. “Let buy your dinner to make it up to you?” she says. They enjoy a wonderful dinner together and afterwards they go to the theatre, followed by drinks, they talk, they laugh. She shares her deepest dreams and he shares his. She
“Quotes”
1. Maybelline 2. Pink Floyd 3. Aerosmith 4. Led Zeppelin 5. Van Halen 6. The Raven 7. Mystery Train 8. Classical Gas 9. Come on Over by Shania
Send in your jokes, you will receive £5 for every one we print!
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SCOTTISH PRISONERS
Has the justice system let you down? Need help getting your conviction and/or sentence reviewed? Benefit from our years of experience and get specialist advice on:• Appeals (including late appeals) • Referrals to Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) • Parole Applications (including Lifer Tribunals, Recall etc.) • Generally all aspects of prison law For an immediate response and visit to any prison in Scotland, write or telephone:
Susan Rhodes Bruce & Co 89 - 91 High Street Arbroath DD11 1DP
01241 430660
Solicitors to fight your case!
Jailbreak
Insidetime May 2011 www.insidetime.org
1 “This ____ plot, this earth, this realm, this England” (Shakespeare) (7) 2 Blue, in heraldry (5) 3 A tendency, in a motor vehicle, to turn more sharply than was intended (9) 4 The capital of King Arthur’s kingdom (7) 5 A small donkey used as a pack animal (5) 6 A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply (9) 7 Large dish with a cover, used for serving soup etc. (6) 8 Nicole ____ , actress formerly married to Tom Cruise (6) 14 The number above the line in a vulgar fraction (9) 16 Small items believed to protect the wearer from evil (9) 18 Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Diana (7) 19 ____ Borealis, the Northern Lights (6) 20 President of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985 (7) 21 King of the fairies in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (6) 23 Republic consisting of a group of small islands south of Sicily (5) 25 Japan’s third largest city, on the island of Honshu (5)
P R E M I E R S H I P C H A M P I O N S
E S I R M A T T B U S B Y T U X R L S T
T H N G R B S W N O R C S R N X R D A I
E T O E G E L M N M L E O I I G H T B A
R A T O E T O A Q P B G L H C F E R D N
S E L E D E A N L E E O M K H J L A E O
C H R U O V E S G R P N R F A K M F L R
H N A R O A B R B E S O S G I O N F L O
M O H O S R O Y I E R T S E R P A O I N
I T C P C E R L H S E H U D D S D R V A
C W Y E G N N L U T W A L S I N E D E L
H E B A E A D E V I U P O C S T S A N D
A N B N O S U G R E F X E L A R I S Y O
E L O C I D D P O E L L Y B S A L O R T
L X B U E P H C A R R I N G T O N C A R
S A B P C B I L L F O U L K E S B X G Y
J O H N C A R E Y W A Y N E R O O N E Y
Munich Air
Denis Law
Disaster
Gary Neville
Sir Matt Busby
Heathens
Bill Foulkes
Roger Byrne
Cristiano
Old Trafford
Ronaldo
Newton Heath
George Best
Wayne Rooney
Duncan
Peter
Edwards
Schmichael
John Carey
Carrington
Sir Alex
European
Ferguson
Cup
Ryan Giggs
Premiership
Bobby
Champions
Check forward, backward and diagonally, they are all there! Thanks to D Hayes - HMP Stafford for compiling this wordsearch. If you fancy compiling one for us please just send it in max 20 x 20 grid & complete with answers shown on a grid. If we use it we will send you £5 as a thank you!
4 3 7 Red Devils 6 7 1 1 Munich Air Disaster 9 3 2 Sir Matt Busby 8 7 4 8 6 3 Bill Foulkes 3 6 2 5 8 7 9 Cristiano Ronaldo George Best 5 4 7 3 1 6 Duncan Edwards 5 9 5 John Carey 7 8 2 5 9 1 3 4 Sir Alex Ferguson 5 8 5 Ryan Giggs Daily Sudoku: Tue 12-Apr-2011 Daily Sudoku: Wed 13-Apr-2011 Bobby Charlton Denis Law Gary Neville 1 5 2 7 8 4 6 3 9 2 3 1 8 7 Heathens 5 6 7 1 4 4 9 3 2 5 6 7 8 1 Roger Byrne 4 9 8 6 3 8 7 6 1 9 3 5 2 4 Old Trafford We’re3outside 7 5 9 4 2 6 1 fighting 4 2 for 7 your 9 5rights 8 inside NewtonPrison Heath Law Specialists in Wales 8 2 4 5 1 9 2 8 6 1 5 4 7 3 Dealing With: WayneAdjudications Rooney 3 1 6 7 9 5 4 7 8 3 9 2 1 6 Reviews PeterParole Schmichael Licence Recall 6 7 2 9 5 6 1 4 3 7 2 8 9 5 Carrington Categorisation Transfers7 9 8 3 2 6 8 5 9 6 1 3 4 2 European Cup Lifer Panels 1 4 5 3 8 Criminal 2Defence 3 9and Appeals 5 4 8 1 6 7 Premiership Champions
Don’t Rot On Recall!
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9
3 2 4 3 1
9 2 5 3 6 8 4 1 7
4 1 2
5 8 7 1 9 2 3 4 6
4 9 1 6 3 5 8 7 2
Daily Sudoku: Wed 13-Apr-2011 Start the rolling now - call Sarah Grace Dailyball Sudoku: Tue 12-Apr-2011 hardon:
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Specialists in Serious Crime with a track record of success Criminal Law Serious crime including murder, robbery, conspiracy, drugs cases (supply, production, conspiracy), complex and financial crime, all other Crown Court Offences. We do the work to get the results. We fight for our clients. No excuses. Just proper, professional service. 87 Chorley Road, Manchester M27 4AA 0161 794 0088 or Freephone 0808 155 4870 www.marymonson.co.uk Specjaliści Prawa Karnego Reprezentujemy klientów na terenie Anglii i Walii Oddział Polski Adwokat www.polskiadwokat.co.uk
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Our business is to provide expert, rapid
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y y ɭ We speak: Po-Polsku, ýesky, Slovensky, ɉo-Ɋɭɫɫɤɢ, Guajarati, Urdu, Hindi, Español, Français
6 3 2 8 7 4 1 5 9
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OFFICE: TheMANCHESTER Boatmans, 40 City Road, Deansgate, Manchester, M15 4QF MANCHESTER OFFICE LONDON OFFICE:Manchester, M15 4QF The 4040 City Road, Deansgate, TheBoatmans, Boatmans, City Road East, Manchester M15 4QF MANCHESTER OFFICE:
646-648 High Road Leytonstone, London, E11 3AA
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1 A radio transmitter whose signal helps fix the position of a ship or aircraft (6) 4 A floor show at a nightclub or restaurant (7) 9 Doctrine promoting cooperation and better understanding among religious denominations (9) 10 The vertical part of a stair (5) 11 “The Thirty-Nine ____ ’, a famous adventure story by John Buchan (5) 12 1956 Olympic Games venue (9) 13 A strong underground cell for prisoners (7) 15 Design made on the skin with indelible colours (6) 17 Former name of the Turkish city of Izmir (6) 19 A movable aerofoil used to control the balance of an aircraft in flight (7) 22 An instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure (9) 24 Radial member of a wheel joining the hub to the rim (5) 26 An African and Indian nocturnal mammal, also called honey badger (5) 27 A preserve of citrus fruit, usually bitter oranges (9) 28 11th century invaders of England (7) 29 “____ from Alcatraz”, 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood (6)
Down
R O B E T S O L X S G G I G N A Y R F I
Charlton
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Across
D E A N S D R A W D E N A C N U D T U R
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R E D D E V I L S E H E A T H E N S M C
Red Devils
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General Knowledge Crossword
D Hayes - HMP Stafford Manchester United Manchester United
I T SUDOKU
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LONDON OFFICE LONDON OFFICE:
646-648 High RoadLeytonstone, Leytonstone, London, E11E11 3AA 3AA 646-648 High Road London, This Firm is aThis Member THEofSPECIALIST PANEL Firm is a of Member THE SPECIALIST FRAUD FRAUD PANEL Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority
