insidetime the National Monthly Newspaper for Prisoners

Circulation 40,000

Inspire Inside Page .................... 16

Crystal ball sentencing Disability discrimination Can protest music in open prisons influence social change? Page .................... 17 Page .................... 19 Page .................... 26

ISSN 1743-7342

Issue No. 99 September 2007

High Court Judge orders immediate release The High Court has ordered the release of Brett James, a prisoner at HMP Doncaster convicted of GBH and given an Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP). John Roberts reports

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rica Restall (pictured) of Switalski’s Solicitors, acting for Brett James, told Inside Time: “The problem for our client is that he is unlikely to satisfy the Parole Board when it meets in September to hear his application that he has met the criteria for release. Brett James therefore faces the prospect of being detained indefinitely, despite having served the punitive part of his sentence, as the result of factors which are entirely outside of his control and irrespective of his willingness to comply with what is required of him”. As the mandatory part of his tariff was completed, and he had not been given an opportunity to undergo relevant courses or assessments at his prison, Mr Justice

Collins in his judgement acknowledged that Brett James' detention was unlawful and ordered his release, however release was stayed pending an appeal by the Secretary of State to the Court of Appeal. This High Court decision comes only 21 days after the Wells and Walker case, when the court said that keeping IPP sentenced prisoners beyond their tariff date without access to the means of reducing the risk they pose was 'arbitrary, unreasonable and unlawful'. However the case of Brett James adds an entirely new dimension to current proceedings because in the case of Walker he is still serving the mandatory part of his tariff, whereas Brett James' tariff expired in July. Erica Restall said: “This crisis will undoubtedly cause a substantial public backlash for the Government and also potentially expose it to numerous compensation claims”.

Reduced level of service … more wrongful convictions From December 1st 2007, any cases granted Legal Aid which end up in the Crown Court will be paid according to a new reduced fee structure leading, according to solicitor Mary Monson, to fears that changes to the legal aid system will inevitably mean a seriously reduced level of service for clients, and possibly more wrongful convictions. For certain Crown Court cases, lawyers will be paid between 10 and 20% of what is actually required to prepare the case properly. For murder trials, it is estimated that over 1,500 hours preparation is needed, and the government now want to pay criminal lawyers £3 an hour. See page 23 A Government’s Shame ...

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Kelly goes behind bars in Chicago Kelly Osbourne, the 22 year-old daughter of heavy rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, will appear in the West End from September in the hit musical drama Chicago. She will play prison matron Mama Morton in Cook County Jail where man-killers Roxie Heart and Velma Kelly are imprisoned. New promotional pictures have many wondering if Osbourne had lost her numerous tattoos and considerable weight or simply had them seriously airbrushed. Either that or her corset is very tight. We’ll know when she hits the stage.

CM

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insidetime a voice for prisoners since 1990 the national newspaper for prisoners published by Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of New Bridge, a charity founded in 1956 to create links between the offender and the community. Registered Office: 27a Medway Street, London SW1P 2BD

INSIDE TIME - BOARD OF DIRECTORS Trevor Grove - Former Editor Sunday Telegraph, Journalist, Writer and serving Magistrate. Eric McGraw - Former Director of New Bridge (1986 - 2002) and started Inside Time in 1990. Tony Pearson CBE - Former Deputy Director General of the Prison Service. John D Roberts - Former Company Chairman and Managing Director employing ex-offenders. Alistair H.E.Smith B.Sc F.C.A. - Chartered Accountant, Trustee and Treasurer of the New Bridge Foundation. Chris Thomas - Chief Executive, New Bridge Foundation

The Editorial Team

Rachel Billington Novelist and Journalist

John Bowers Writer and former prisoner

Lost solidarity Never having written any such letter before during my five years incarceration, you can imagine how disappointed I feel at having to resort to such measures. At present, I am resident on the DSPD Unit in Frankland where until recently we received five minutes association time less than the main prison, which was no big deal and something we accepted. However all this changed on 30 July when our association was cut by a further twenty-five minutes. Our PCC rep took our concerns about the matter to the governor of the unit at their next meeting. His reply was that the reduction had been made due to a budget cut and change in staff rotas, and nothing could be done to change this situation. Our rep’s next move was to approach the PCC representatives of the main prison and ask if this matter could be brought forward at their next meeting, as their meeting is chaired by the number one governor. You can’t even begin to imagine my disappointment and anger when they basically replied: “F*** you Jack, we’re alright – plus we’ve been guaranteed that no such thing will happen in the main prison”. Now is it just me, but has all the solidarity that once existed among prisoners all but disappeared in the modern age? Have the powers-that-be succeeded in the dividing and conquering of us all? Do the prisoners of today not realize that unless we stick together, once they implement any rules on a section of us then it might be your turn next? No matter what guarantees are promised. Stephen Soans-Wade – Westgate Unit 4, HMP Frankland

Eric McGraw Author and Managing Editor

John Roberts Operations Director and Company Secretary

all correspondence to: Inside Time P.O.Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ Tel: 01489 795945 Fax: 01489 786495 Email [email protected] www.insidetime.org If you wish to reproduce or publish any of the content from any issue of Inside Time, you should first contact us and obtain our written permission. Full terms & conditions can be found on www.insidetime.org Inside Time is distributed free of charge throughout the UK prison estate. It is available to other readers via a postal subscription service. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES £25.00 (inc vat) Companies, organisations and individuals with taxable earnings. £15.00 (inc vat) Registered Charities, volunteers and individuals without taxable earnings. For postal addresses outside of the UK please add £10 to the appropriate subscription rate to cover the additional postage costs. To subscribe call us or go to www.insidetime.org, pay by cheque/postal order or credit card over the telephone.

Healthcare needs

The Relaunch Project

Inside Time reports on a groundbreaking initiative designed at transforming the lives of ex-offenders by way of a marine-based project

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elaunch is an entirely new Project, designed to reintegrate the exoffender back into the society left behind, possibly many years previously, by providing the necessary help and support structure to step from inmate to a normal and fulfilling life in the community. The Project has at their disposal two seagoing ships; the Baltic Warrior (pictured above left), a large ocean-going icebreaking salvage tug, fully ready for sea and currently berthed in S.E. England, with comfortable accommodation in 6 twin-berth cabins , and Kalimera S (pictured above right), which has 32 berths currently arranged in various individual cabins and one bunkroom containing 20 berths. Unlike the Baltic Warrior however, this ship requires a major refit before being ready for sea. Joint Project Director Mike Saward told Inside Time: “It is the project’s aim to provide berths and re-training for a small number of ex-offenders tired of living ‘on the edge’, and at a point in life where they recognise that just one more prison sentence might

leaving prison at either sentence end or, with luck, on parole licence, and the dole office weekly giro and short term transient accommodation, to coming out to a decent berth onboard one of the Relaunch vessels whilst undergoing the proposed 6 month re-training period; where old skills like being treated as equal human beings are rekindled, where important decisions made on a constant daily basis are made, and where respect is earned once more; all whilst being an important team member and player.

specialist marine centres where, upon successful completion, they will be awarded the relevant certification. Above all, ex-offenders will be reintroduced into working in a small close-knit team where the past was yesterday, and it is the future that is now important. Our objectivity is not to make sailors or crewmen of them, unless this happens to be their chosen direction, but to provide a variety of both work-based and life skills, so vital in many social and employment opportunities both on board and on shore.

“We hope to provide ex-offenders who are determined to lead an honest, productive and crime free future with the skills vital in achieving this. Not only will this be work-based but of equal importance to social skills. The programme will include light engineering based on shipboard repair and maintenance, crewing and safety. They will also learn welding, electrical fault-finding and repair, painting, corrosion prevention, navigation, watch keeping, cooking, first-aid at sea, radio transmission, sea survival, ship handling, fast rescue

“Towards the conclusion of their time with the Relaunch Project, after approximately 5 months, they will go to sea around the UK coastline for a month’s teambuilding. During this time, our dedicated onshore employment team will endeavour to obtain the employment most suitable to their particular skills in readiness for their departure and the relaunch of their lives. “Our clients will be male or female ex-offenders, either at sentence end or

task will be to bring this out and capitalise on it. Due to the nature of the Project we must exclude sex offenders and those convicted of arson. It is anticipated that selection to the places available will come initially by way of referral from the wider community, Probation Officers or those involved in offender management, though we will consider self-referral depending on the response. Applications will take approximately 3 months to process, so please allow sufficient time between applying and release. A strict zero tolerance will be applied to illegal substances, violence or excessive drinking - for obvious reasons. Likewise those looking for a 'free-ride', because to succeed in this programme it will require total dedication and hard work.” * The Project is asking for feedback, with constructive suggestions and thoughts based on a projected start date of around May 2008. Whether you are a serving inmate or a member of the Probation Service, or concerned in Offender Management, your comments will be most valuable. Please respond either by il l h j @ h k

Valuable feedback Can we thank Inside Time for including details of our Relaunch Project in your July 2007 issue. The response was excellent, coming from all parts of the UK and from inmates, Prison Service staff and Probation Service; with many requesting further information about the project. May we again utilise your columns in order to express our gratitude to those who have, or intend to contact us in the future, and for providing us with much valuable feedback - keep it coming! Unfortunately, due to the volume of responses we are unable to reply personally to all who wrote, and here we would ask for your continued patience whilst the website is being set up; where we shall hopefully answer all or most of your questions. Those of you who have contacted us are now on our database with the original letters on file. To the many who asked about how to join the project - applications will start in January 2008 in readiness for our proposed starting date of May 2008, so please 'watch this space'. Write to: c/o SHIPSHAPE, 3 Military Road, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9LG. E-mail: [email protected] www.relaunch-project.org Mike Saward - Director, Relaunch Project

I am 73 years of age and 5 years into a life sentence. Following a series of heart attacks, I am currently resident on the healthcare wing of Category B Gartree prison, as it is considered I require 24-hour access to healthcare services. My query is: what happens when I am recategorised, as there does not seem to be a Category C prison with level 3 (24 hour) healthcare? Gartree have indicated that, upon recategorisation, I would have to be moved this despite the fact that there are two other long-term residents on healthcare here who have been Category C for some time. Obviously it would be unfair if I were to be denied progress through the system simply on the basis of healthcare needs. John Allen – HMP Gartree * The Prison Service writes: Mr Allen is concerned that in the event he is recategorised from B to C he will remain in Gartree, which is a category B prison, due to his healthcare needs. Prisoners are categorised objectively according to the likelihood that they will seek to escape and the risk that they would pose should they do so. Factors such as ability to mix with other prisoners, educational, training or medical needs, and the availability of vacancies at suitable establishments must not be taken into account during the categorisation process. They are for consideration during allocation, which may immediately follow, but will be distinct from security categorisation. Those prisoners who achieve category C status at Gartree are transferred to suitable category C establishments as soon as spaces allow. In the case of prisoners who have medical needs, the healthcare team is consulted prior to any transfer taking place. Mr Allen advises that there are two prisoners in the Healthcare unit who are category C and have been at Gartree for some time. I am unable to disclose information relating to other prisoners, without their express consent. I would advise Mr Allen that contacting staff at a local level would be his best option initially, in order to gain information specifically about him. Richard Martin - Briefing & Casework Unit

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Civil prisoners

Star Letter of the Month

Can Inside Time clarify the situation regarding the treatment of civil prisoners and whether the Prison Rules apply to me, as a civil prisoner, in the same manner as they do to convicted prisoners?

Congratulations to Carlene Williams-Tucker who wins our £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter. father figure. I for one grew up with my Granny and God bless her she did a damn good job.

Stop looking for scapegoats As a black woman currently serving time on the young offender wing at HMP Peterborough, I would like to comment on the pieces I read in your July issue about young black people and crime, and about helping young black boys who grow up without a father figure. It’s true what youth and community worker Shaun Bailey says about ‘not being able to administer a hug from Westminster’, however there are plenty of people out there, regardless of race or background, that have grown up without any parents at all, never mind a

I am sick of the media and government trying to find excuses for the manner in which some of us black people behave. At the end of the day it’s down to choice. We chose to behave like this ... not our parents. Life is what you make of it, so to all you black readers of Inside Time out there, it’s us who have given the rest of our race a bad reputation and made them an easy target for the narrowminded to attack time and time again. So when our younger siblings are being stopped and searched in the streets we’ve only got ourselves to blame. And I’m certainly not saying it’s acceptable for black people to be bullied or victimised in society just because we are black – I’m merely pointing out that we should stop looking for scapegoats for our behaviour and look at ourselves as individuals. It’s down to us to make changes. Carlene Williams-Tucker – HMP Peterborough See page 12 Gang crime

Advisory radius Can Inside Time tell me what rules there are on how far prisoners released on town visits can travel from their prison? I have been told that for ‘Standard’ prisoners it is 30 miles and for ‘Enhanced’ 50 miles but no one is totally sure and men are worried that if they go too far they will break their licence conditions. Derek Sewell – HMP Hollesley Bay * The Prison Service writes: Town visits or Community visits have been replaced by Resettlement Day Release (RDR). All activities for which temporary resettlement release is granted must be directly linked to the sentence planning process both for developing work and life skills and for maintaining, or re-establishing, family and community ties. RDRs must be granted for a specific purpose and this is usually linked to a specific location that is stated on the licence. Some prisons have an advisory radius for prisoners applying for RDR. This is usually to allow comfortable outward and return travel, within a day, based on local transport conditions. This radius should not be confused as describing an area within which prisoners are free to roam as they wish. Mr Sewell’s prison, Hollesley Bay, has an advisory radius of 30 miles. However, each application for RDR is judged on its individual merits. If a reasonable case for travelling a greater distance is made, it might be allowed if it is considered appropriate.

Jebar Khaliq - HMP Leeds

The right to die In response to the letter in your July issue from Allien-Dewi David, in which he advocates the introduction of voluntary euthanasia for lifers, I applaud his bravery and honesty in voicing such views, and support his proposal not only with a personal pledge but a suggestion of my own. The right to life and indeed the right to be free from inhumane or tortuous treatment co-exist in apparent harmony under the Human Rights Act. However, since a prisoner’s previously accessible methods of pain-free suicide are removed by HMPS in fulfilling their duty of care to protect the aforementioned right to life, any prisoner seriously wishing an end to the long dark tunnel of a life sentence is paralysed between self-torture and meaningless life. Mr David’s suggestion of voluntary euthanasia for those lifers such as myself, who admit guilt and don’t wish to burden ourselves or society with our continued life support, should become a campaign for freedom from the inhumane prolonging of life which those living them have no need or will to follow through. My own suggestion, as a mandatory lifer, is that those of us in the UK who feel the same way unite and have our wishes and sentiments heard, and as a starting point I request that any other lifer supporting voluntary euthanasia writes to me with their details. We may then be able to persuade a solicitor to fight our corner and others to campaign on our behalf. Inhumane treatment is a matter of perception and experience; it has no absolutes. Freedom from this experience and from such treatment are more in harmony for many of us than any perverse notion of an assumed and expected right to life. I requested such a right to die within a confidential access complaint in December 2006 – no response was ever given. Write to: Tom Clark HH6984, Westgate Unit 4, HMP Frankland, Brasside, Durham DH1 5YD.

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• He/she may have a registered medical practitioner or dentist attend them if they so choose and agree to pay any expenses incurred. There must be reasonable grounds for the request and the prison doctor must be consulted (unless the Secretary of State directs otherwise). PR 20(5) • He/she may wear their own clothes unless there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a serious risk of an attempt to escape and that if they did so, they would be highly dangerous to the public, the police or the security of the State. PR 23 (1) • He/she does not have to work unless they wish to do so. Those working outside the prison must wear prison clothing and those working in their cell may do so with the door unlocked. Civil prisoners committed for contempt of court may not be employed outside the prison. PR 35(1) • He/she can have as many visits and send as many letters as they wish, subject to practical limitations. PR 31(5) Information on sentence calculation, payment of fines etc. for prisoners committed for a civil offence or in default of a fine can be found in the Sentence Calculation Manual, chapters 16 and 17. As Civil Prisoners are treated as convicted they should be categorised unless their sentence is of so short a duration as to make this unnecessary. Nina Revell - PSHQ

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Sentence management leaflet Following my contribution in your August issue (Kept in the dark), when I highlighted having to find out for myself all the information available relating to how the ISPP sentence is managed, I mentioned producing a leaflet about the ISPP sentence, what it means, and what is expected of prisoners serving this sentence; basically a guide on how to get through the sentence. Prisoners seeking a copy of the leaflet were advised to send a SAE to me in HMP Durham, however unfortunately the governor here does not permit SAEs therefore prisoners are now advised to write for a copy of the leaflet and postage will be paid by the prison. Write to: William McNally PG6122, HMP Durham, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HU.

Proud of our work I am writing in response to the article ‘Parole Madness’ by lifer Ben Gunn in the August issue of Inside Time.

Removed from reality There is a supposed ‘comedy’ series on BBC Three called 'The Visit', which attempts to portray prison visiting. I suspect the vast majority of those viewers laughing out loud have never been a visitor to a prison. Television audiences have been fed a totally false picture of prison visiting by scriptwriters who have failed to conduct proper research into the issue. When was the last time anyone could smoke in a prison visiting room? Move around from table to table? Yell across the room - not to mention take your handbag in? And how did a sheep get past all the security and into the visiting hall? Yet a recent episode screened events like this. Were any prisoners, visitors, prison staff, MP's, Prison Inspectors or Government personnel doing a double-take wondering where on earth the BBC had gleaned their material from? How does the BBC switch from making harsh factual documentaries on prison, and families affected by prison, to projecting a 'comedy' series that is so removed from reality? The BBC, under its breath, may say that the reality of prison visiting today doesn't lend itself to gaining comedy material in the context they are seeking. On that score we may agree with them, although that's not to say there are no weirdly comical and factual incidents related to prison visiting. Most would agree there are hundreds of jaw-dropping, gob-smacking stories 'you just couldn't make up' that could be provided by those ‘real visits'. The BBC has passed up a golden opportunity to produce something far more realistic and, as a result, far more comical and dry humour based. My guess is that anyone genuinely touched by prison could make a better job of writing such a comedy series. I hope this letter helps to challenge the prison myths that incarceration is somehow jolly. I'm sure the families who serve the sentence too and the invisible sufferers will appreciate it. In July, during the rainy period, I was on a visit watching the rain drip through the ceiling in the visits hall in two places, and I was sat between one drip and another, watching officers position buckets to catch the water - it was hard to ignore, and especially hard not to smile! Prison visitor - name and address supplied

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Mr Gunn makes a number of worthwhile points in his article. He rightly raises the issue of the independence of the Parole Board, although he is wrong to say that the courts accept this. In fact we are currently awaiting the judgement in a case before the courts that challenges whether the Board is indeed sufficiently independent of the Secretary of State. He is also right to question the quality and current accuracy of some of the reports that go to make up a parole dossier. The Board is also very concerned at this and we are currently introducing new case management processes to ensure that the best and most recent information is available to a parole or lifer panel when making their decisions. The quality of those decisions is of course dependent upon the quality of information available to panel members. We are trying very hard to make sure that all of the relevant information is available before a panel proceeds. Although this can be frustrating for a prisoner if it means that their case is deferred, it is in everyone's best interests that the information on the dossier is both full and accurate. Mr Gunn is also right to speculate that the release rate has fallen recently. We will shortly be publishing our annual report for 2006/07 and this will show a significant fall in the release rate for both lifers and DCR prisoners. Part of this is certainly a response by panel members to adopt a more rigorous approach to cases before them. I do not apologise for this. Neither do I apologise for the fact that I work for the Parole Board. I am proud of the work that all of our members and staff do, and the dedication and integrity that they show in making those difficult and complex decisions that are so important to prisoners but are also very important to the public that we are protecting. Christine Glenn – Chief Executive, Parole Board

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Institutionalised ineffectiveness The article by Independent Monitoring Board member Jaime Eastham in your July issue provides further evidence or proof of what prisoners have long suspected; namely the IMB does not fully meet prisoners’ needs and I consider to be institutionalised into ineffectiveness. Ms Eastham says she was ‘shocked by the brevity of the training conducted within the prison, particularly on security’. In other words, the training was short, brief and lacking – as that is what brevity means. She said nothing, but afterwards ‘realised I should have raised my concerns with the board, rather than stay silent’, and goes on to admit that such standards are inadequate to meet prisoners’ needs …‘without adequate checks on what is taught in the in-house training, I feel it is difficult to achieve a consistent level of training that meets everyone’s needs’. Since the POA meets the needs of prison officers, it is only prisoners whose needs are not being met. Then when Ms Eastham and another IMB member were doing their duty under Prison Rule 1999 S77 (1), which is to ‘satisfy themselves as to the state of the prison premises, the administration of the prison and the treatment of prisoners’ by discussion with some prisoners on the wing they were interrupted by an officer ‘who suggested that we leave as we were proving to be a distraction’. The IMB ‘ordered to leave’ - shamefully evicted from the wing while doing their duty. What is unforgivable is that she (IMB) appeared not to know the rules, i.e. Prison Rule 79(2) ’a member of the Board shall have access at any time to every part of the prison and to every prisoner, and may interview any prisoner out of the sight and hearing of officers’. If prison officers can obstruct the IMB whilst performing their duty, thus denying prisoners their services, it must be admitted that a fair and effective system is nonexistent. All that we ask of the IMB is that they be robust and effective in their duty and that they follow the lawful rules. Michael Wyatt – HMP Wakefield

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Mailbag Inside Time is well respected and consistently offers a platform prisoners wouldn’t get elsewhere, and I personally look forward to the next issue ... I just hope it doesn’t get hijacked by radicals who try to whip up dissent with their outrageous views. Russell Fury – HMP Manchester

Hijacked by radicals I question the decision by Inside Time to give a full page in your August issue to the inane ramblings of Shah Mohammed Haque (Journalistic Pornography) in which he attacks the BBC’s reporting of certain recent alleged terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow. With the current climate already tense enough in prisons regarding the activities of terrorists, Muslim or otherwise, I cannot understand why you felt it appropriate to offer Mr Haque an opportunity from which to spout his anti-BBC, anti-British ramblings. He is entitled to a view on recent events in London and Glasgow, however one wouldn’t expect you to publish an anti-Muslim letter from a prisoner with strong right-wing views, such as a person who supports the British National Party. If you wish to have a debate about the supposed bias either for or against Muslim prisoners held in British jails then so be it. A regular feature where everyone could express a view would be one thing, however the one-sided arguments of what can only be described as a ‘crackpot’ will surely lead to further alienation of Muslims in prison.


…. Although I appreciate that a minority of nonMuslims believe all Muslims are in some way associated to terrorism, or glorify attacks caused by Muslim extremists, I found it hard to understand why Mr Haque feels the public need to ‘understand for themselves’ the devastation intended by these would-be bombers. Interviewing them live on TV (as he suggests) would do nothing but glorify their intended goal of demolition and mayhem and horrific loss of life, when it is already abundantly evident that their intent is to wreak havoc on innocent people, buildings, and the economy of the so-called ‘enemy’ state. It is not a case of: “By the way, why did you want to blow us up?” It’s a matter of Muslim, Catholic, Jewish and other religions entwining to stop the madness of extremists of all religions causing death and destruction to our civilisation.

to TV but I do read the paper every day and what I read and saw through illustrations led me to believe, without a shadow of doubt, that they were genuine terrorist attacks. The media took them very seriously and, unlike Mr Haque’s rather distorted view, they did actually investigate thoroughly with the help of all concerned, including numerous eye-witnesses. People in this country just want to be able to live peaceful lives without the constant threat of being blown up on a bus, train or plane by Muslim extremists. Heaven forbid that any such attack should happen again, however the world being the place it now is, when or if it does, no doubt news programmes, newspapers and radio stations will comment on events as they unfold. Do you know why Mr Haque? Because not only is it their job but being residents of this great country of ours, we have a right to know. So the only ‘journalistic pornography’ I’ve read lately from my cell in solitary is the article by you published in the August issue of Inside Time. Michael Fowell – HMP Altcourse


… Mr Haque seems to think that a great injustice has been done to him and the rest of the Muslim community by the BBC’s reporting of events in London and Glasgow. That it’s anti-Muslim propaganda of galactic proportions … that ‘racist’ would be too light a word to describe the BBC’s reporting. He also states that it had been ‘several days of constant news updates without any hard evidence of them being genuine terrorist attacks’.


…. Who else but a terrorist would load up a car with petrol and gas canisters connected to a crude detonator and then abandon it in a London street? If there was a truly innocent explanation behind the abandonment of the car, as Mr Haque suggests there might be, why did the driver rapidly flee the scene? Who other than terrorists would drive a blazing vehicle, loaded like the car in London, into a crowded airport terminal? Who would remain in a blazing vehicle fighting off rescuers? Face facts Mr Haque, however uncomfortably they sit, these were terrorist acts intended to cause serious loss of life and there were no ‘innocent explanations’.

As a solitary confinement prisoner, I don’t have access

Ian Kennedy – HMP Wakefield

James Lake - HMP The Mount

Thought control

Comparing prices

Having read Charles Hanson's contribution in your August issue entitled ‘The Changing Face of Probation’, basically he seems to think the probation service has a very dim view of a prisoner's beliefs, even when they are not substantiated by any following offending behaviour, nor when they are clearly a manifestation of one's opinions and therefore protected under the Human Rights Act (for European Citizens the European Convention of Human Rights).

I have recently been placed on my wing consultative committee and one of the issues we have been examining very closely are the prices charged by prison canteen suppliers Aramark. Can Inside Time readers throughout the prison estate, male and female, send me copies of their canteen sheets so that we might compare prices? Write to: Stuart Cody XD5634, HMP Manchester, Southall Street, Manchester M60 9AH.

When I was an unwilling resident of HMP Acklington for a crime of which I was persuaded to plead guilty but of which I was in fact innocent, I had a similar exchange with some Big Kahuna of the probation service whose name I can't remember; however I do distinctly recall that at some stage I asked him: "So you attempt to control the prisoner's thoughts and beliefs. You infer judgements on the basis of opinions clearly protected by Human Rights. This surely is thought control?" His answer was: "Yes it is. You are free to go to the Strasbourg Court but it will take you years, and anyway we are not expected to abide by their decisions because Britain didn't sign Article 1 of the ECHR (the article whereby the signatory country is statutorily expected to abide by Strasbourg Court decisions). So suit yourself”. In other words Mr Hanson, yes it is indeed thought control and a violation of your human rights. It is illegal. And they don't give a damn. And if Britain leave the EU (and most EU countries would be damn happy if they did) it would become even worse. Incidentally, I am now living in a different country from the UK, where the UK has no powers whatsoever on my work, personal or public life, and I am soon to seek compensation for a number of illegal behaviours from the Police, the Probation Service and the Immigration Department. Name & address supplied

SOMERS & BLAKE -SOLICITORS49B Boston Road Hanwell London W7 3SH About to start your Parole process and in need of some help? Just had a knockback? Been recalled to Prison? About to appear before an independant adjudicator and facing added days? Have you just failed to get the catagory you wanted?

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‘Arbitrary, unreasonable and unlawful’

Really that worthless? Are prisoners so worthless that health and safety issues don’t apply to them? When I was moved to HMP Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight I found the journey a terrifying experience. I don’t travel well anyway but having travelled for well over an hour before the prison van boarded the ferry, anyone would be feeling quite stressed. As well as stressed I was feeling claustrophobic and a bit travel sick as it was a hot day and with our bottles to use as toilets, the smell was making all of us feel sick. Once on board the officers left the vehicle, yet we had to stay locked in the van on the vehicle deck. Remember, this is an area that passengers, for safety reasons, have to leave. For all other human beings it is considered too dangerous to remain on during the crossing – for us even more dangerous as we are locked up and in the case of an emergency, unable to save ourselves. Let’s face it, if there was a sudden state of emergency on board is our van driver and officers going to be rushing back to get us out? I wouldn’t put money on it! Can somebody explain to me why the health and safety rules that are there to protect all human beings on board a ferry can be waived for prisoners? I appreciate there is a potential risk of an escape attempt but surely that just means extra security is needed for us as foot passengers. Alternatively, just use the Isle of Wight prisons for low risk prisoners and let everyone be safely transported. Or are we really that worthless? R Williams (formerly HMP Camp Hill)

Doubtless like numerous prisoners in a similar situation, I seek clarification regarding IPP sentences. I am currently serving such a sentence and, as highlighted in recent issues of Inside Time, this indeterminate sentence has been heavily criticised and actually described as unlawful due to the fact that many IPP inmates, particularly those with relatively short tariffs, are languishing in local prisons unable to undertake necessary offending behaviour courses – a case of demand exceeding supply. Due to this lack of courses and opportunities to progress through the system, prisoners are not given the chance to demonstrate that they no longer represent a danger to the public and can be considered for release. Many IPP prisoners have been forced to accept that they will serve at least 12-18 months over their tariff before being considered for release. Name supplied – HMP Manchester * Inside Time writes: The High Court ruled (31 July 2007) that hundreds of prisoners jailed under

Labour's indeterminate sentences policy are being held on ‘arbitrary, unreasonable and unlawful’ grounds. The ruling came in a case brought by two inmates serving indeterminate sentences, who appeared to be caught in a Catch 22. They can only be freed after proving they are no longer a threat to the public – but the courses they must complete to be considered for parole are not available. The prison service might now be forced to provide sufficient training courses for all of the inmates serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences. The ruling comes as the Government is battling to control the UK’s prison overcrowding problem. Campaigners claim that IPPs are further contributing to the jail population crisis, with more than 3,000 offenders given indeterminate sentences in just two years. The judges granted a declaration that Justice Secretary Jack Straw “has acted unlawfully by failing to provide for measures to enable prisoners serving IPP sentences to demonstrate to the Parole Board, by the end of their minimum term, that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public for them to be confined”.

Distorted values I note Matthew Robson’s undisguised loathing of VPU inmates in his contribution (Too Close for Comfort) featured in your August issue, where he expresses his bigotry and ignorance at being forced to have a visit in Dartmoor with his young son surrounded by ‘sex offenders’, a view that doubtless will have got nods of approval in most quarters. Mr Robson implies that sex offenders are segregated because they are so deviant and distorted they cannot reside with ‘normal’ criminals. In fact their segregation is to protect them from the mindless, moronic, vicious thugs whose value for human life and limb is far less evident than of those they claim to detest. I was astounded at Mr Robson’s frenzied description of being surrounded by sex offenders as though besieged by a pack of snarling, snapping, boy-hungry animals all desperate to get at his five year-old son. Does his twisted logic really allow him to believe that those prisoners, albeit sex offenders, would be more interested in his son, an anonymous child, than their visitors; loved ones they desperately miss and who they have looked forward to spending precious visiting time with? It appeared to me that Mr Robson had less interest in his own son than he did exercising his frustrated and irrational antipathy.


… can I draw Inside Time‘s attention to a situation I find very disturbing, namely being transferred from HMP Birmingham in a ‘meat wagon’ when I hit my head and hurt my neck when the van braked suddenly. These injuries were caused by no seat belts being provided, and I have since sought a written explanation regarding why no seat belts are provided in prisoner escort transport, and whether this is not only a possible breach of health and safety regulations but actually legal.

What exactly did he feel he was exposing his son to? No doubt all the boy saw was men engaged exclusively in conversation with their nearest and dearest, and perhaps he may have wondered why daddy failed to be as interested in him. How ironic.

Other prisoners who have suffered in the same manner might care to do the same.

On a final note, would Mr Robson resent sitting in close proximity to gay inmates because they might turn his son gay? Or AIDS sufferers because they might transmit their disease?

Tucker Lynch - HMP Ranby

Ed Annan - HMP Littlehey

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The reality is that sex offenders are made up of the unlucky, the mistake-makers, the inadvertent and the plain stupid. Consequently a sex offender could be anyone in the population, making every one of us just one error or one malicious accusation away from such a conviction, more so than we are likely to be erroneously in a bank holding up a terrified cashier with a sawn-off shotgun, or clambering through the basement window of someone else’s property.

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VDT punishment Can Inside Time clarify the situation regarding voluntary drug testing and what punishment can be given for a positive test? I am a lifer on recall and since I came back to prison (March 2006) I have been on the VDT system, and had given 11 tests - all of them negative. However in April this year I had a slip-up, gave a positive test for cannabis and had it explained to me that I could lose my enhanced status or agree to frequent testing over the following couple of months. I agreed to frequent testing and since the positive have given three tests; all negative. I have always been under the impression that one cannot be punished for a voluntary positive test but can lose privileges, like enhanced status. Also can VDT results be disclosed to the Parole Board? Gerry Ming – HMP Bristol * The Prison Service writes: Guidance on the operation of voluntary drug testing programmes can be found in PSO 3620. The order describes the broad principles of drug testing and the context in which drug testing must be conducted. The PSO states that an establishment must have in place

a compact to be signed by all prisoners who agree to a voluntary testing programme. The compact must explain the prisoner’s obligations, the procedures to be followed and the consequences of failing a test. Prisoners must be clear from the outset about the consequences of testing positive. A breach of the compact will trigger a review of the prisoner’s circumstances, taking into account all aspects of the prisoner’s time at the establishment including the prisoner’s general behaviour, their commitment to any programmes and willingness to co-operate.

set out in PSO 3620.

Prisons are required to have in place a clearly auditable decision making process with the criteria for removal clearly stated. This will also be reflected in the compact that the prisoner signs when entering the voluntary drug testing programme. Prisoners have the right of appeal through the appropriate channels.

Paul Wainwright - HMP Wealstun

With regard to disclosing VDT results to the Parole Board, the results of a drug test should not be disclosed to the Parole Board in isolation. This is because far reaching decisions must not be based on indicative screening results alone, as they do not provide evidence of drug misuse or abstinence to a standard of beyond reasonable doubt. Unsubstantiated indicative testing results, both positive and negative, should not be declared to the Parole Board. However, a prisoner’s suitability to and progress on a voluntary testing programme, as well as any administrative measures that have been taken, can be reported to the Parole Board. I am given to understand that HMP Bristol has reviewed their procedures and that they now adhere to the principles

Licence recall release In your August issue you featured a most enlightening article by solicitor Elkan Abrahamson on problems facing lifers and other indeterminate sentence prisoners, in which he briefly mentions a recent government announcement that anyone in breach of licence would only be recalled for two weeks. Might Mr Abrahamson kindly provide further details on what is an extremely important issue for licence recall inmates James Smith – HMP Highdown * Elkan Abrahamson writes: Mr Smith is right that I mentioned an announcement by a member of the government about releasing someone in breach of licence after two weeks and then a further, correcting announcement. Sometimes governments float ideas to assess the reaction. I have found the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which was introduced by the former Prime Minister and Home Secretary a few weeks before they left office (at about the same time as they announced the early release of thousands of prisoners on determinate sentences). Section 16 of that Bill proposes adding a Section 254A to the Criminal Justice Act 2003. That new subsection would apply to any person recalled under Section 254 of the 2003 Act unless he was serving a sentence imposed for a specified offence or an extended sentence imposed under various sections.

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… I got a positive diluted urine test on three cups of tea in the afternoon. It’s said that you need to drink 8 pints of water to get this in two hours, so I would like to know how accurate they are. It’s got to the point where I dare not drink anything.

* The Prison Service writes: When officers performing voluntary drug tests are suspicious of the sample provided, they have available urine id tests, which indicate whether a sample has been diluted or adulterated. Under the Mandatory Drug Testing Programme, all samples are subject to accurate dilution checks at the testing laboratory. Extremely dilute samples will be deemed “not consistent with normal human urine” and will be reported as adulterated. Moderate dilution will result in a “failed” dilution test but positive or negative drug test results will also be reported. Repeated failed dilution tests may lead to further reasonable suspicion testing. All that said, normal daily intake of fluids would not lead to a sample being diluted. Martin Lee - Head of Drug Strategy Team, Interventions & Substance Abuse Unit NOMS

Under the new Section 254A, if the Secretary of State was satisfied, on recalling a prisoner to whom the new subsection applies, that the person will not present a risk of serious harm to the public if he is released at the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the date on which he is returned to prison, then that person should be told on his return to prison that he will be released under the subsection and at the end of the period he should be released. There is a further subsection (Section 254A(5)) which allows the Secretary of State to release anyone recalled under that subsection (see above) on licence at any time - in other words without it going to the Parole Board. So the Secretary of State is going to have, if the Bill is passed, a general power to release many recalled prisoners at any time and some prisoners, on being recalled, will be told that they will only be recalled for 28 days. Having said this, Inside Time readers will note that it does not apply to those convicted of "specified offences" under the 2003 Act - and there are 153 of those! Bear in mind also that this is still currently a Bill and subject to amendments. • Elkan Abrahamson is a solicitor with A S Law Solicitors in Liverpool (see page 10 for details) Views expressed in Inside Time are those of the authors and not necessarily representative of those held by Inside Time or New Bridge.

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We stick together The Old Colonel can now confess, it was a stolen copy of Inside Time that started it all. I'd wanted to reach ex-Servicemen and women doing time yet didn't know how, but after an ex-matelot called Darren Newland showed me the paper the one he had nicked from his neighbour at HMP Grendon, Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, suddenly there was the means of spreading the word nationally about a project we'd started here in Buckinghamshire.

HM Prison Service at the Gay Pride London 2006

Fitting in Upon reading Andrew Ballion’s contribution in your August issue, written in response to an earlier letter from Mark Cossington relating to gay inmates ‘staying in the closet’ whilst in prison, I felt Andrew clearly missed the point, as Mark was making an argument using his own experiences as an example to illustrate the difficulties of ‘fitting in’ whilst in prison. Like Mark I’m heterosexual, yet can still empathise with how difficult life can be for gay people, or indeed anybody who appears that bit ‘different’ in prison. Even outside prison, fitting in is paramount for us as a society, with the emphasis on dieting, face lifts and make-up (image) classic examples of how much we all long to fit in - and to disguise our flaws essentially to make our lives that much more acceptable. Jail is no exception, apart from the fact that you are often surrounded by ignorant people who don’t think twice about venting their views physically; causing further turmoil for the persons involved. So if making your stay at one of Her Majesty’s hotels more tolerable by trying to fit in is what you feel needs to be done, then that is exactly what you should do. On the other hand, if you regard being true to yourself higher than your physical and mental health then be my guest; hopefully the prison Neanderthals will leave you alone and accept you for who you are. The old cliché will always ring true: ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’. Chris Murphy – HMP Liverpool
... After deliberating for some time on Mark Cossington’s contribution I can no longer keep quiet. I ‘came out’ at the age of 17 (now 23) in a High School English lesson. My trust in a so-called friend was broken and I was ‘outed’. Of course I could have continued to deny it, however in a split second I had to decide whether I constantly wished to live a lie; having to remain silent when the values I held were being assaulted; having to think twice about everything I said or did. Perhaps Inside Time readers might care to stop for a moment and consider just exactly what that means; imagine having to lie and deceive your loved ones just so that you can ‘fit in’, and continually having to hide a fundamental part of who you are just to be loved by your parents or to avoid physical or verbal abuse. Can you even begin to imagine how it feels? That morning on the English lesson marked the day I felt strong enough to come out of the closet others wanted to keep me locked in. I was free of my own mental prison and it was one of the best days of my life. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to be gay; I was born this way and refuse to live a life of deceit and loneliness in order that I don’t rock the delicate views of those who know only the homophobic stance. Martyn – address supplied

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So a single advert went into Inside Time in January 2005, just like the one in this current issue (see below). It explained how our two organizations will give a hand to any ex-Forces personnel who are doing time. Fast forward to now and we've assisted over 700 to get back on their feet upon release. But we can do more - you only have to ask. So how does it work and who are we? The Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen and Families' Association (SSAFA) is a bit of a mouthful, but everyone knows of The Royal British Legion (RBL) if only because of Poppy Day. These are the two main charities for the Armed forces and they can send caseworkers into any one of our 140 prisons. You just have to ask to see one. But some people still tend to hold back. Why? Here are some of the things we're asked - and the answers. Q: I was in the Services only briefly, so I reckon I won't qualify? A: Not so. Even if you only did one day's paid duty that's OK. We'll check out your Service record. People discharged on medical grounds, even after only a brief period, needn't worry either. Q: I was discharged on disciplinary grounds and/or court-¬martialled. Surely they won't want to hear from people like me? A: Wrong. Once you joined the Services,

you became part of a family. None of us ever leave it, come what may. We stick together. Q: What about my partner/children? A: No problem. What we do includes dependants. Apart from practical help, there's realistic advice and emotional support too. Q: So how much can I get out of this? A: We don't give out cash grants, but over 400 of those we helped got some form of financial assistance. That's over £200,000 in all. We chipped in towards • Council tax/rent arrears • Relocation costs • Household goods/work tools - plus education and training including distance learning. So if you were in the Services, think about it. Check out our advert and do yourself a favour! Lt Colonel Tom Ridgway Buckinghamshire

insidetime IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS

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Have you ever served in the Armed Forces? If the answer is yes, you may be entitled to assistance from The Royal British Legion and SSAFA Forces Help. We are working together, offering advice and support to men and women who have served in the Armed Forces and their immediate dependants. Whether you are still serving your sentence or are due for release, we can provide financial and emotional support to you and your family, and can offer assistance with: · · · · · · ·

Immediate Needs ie. household goods, rent Practical advice on housing Education/Training (including distance learning) Equipment and/or Work Tools Relocation Costs Advice and Guidance on getting a job or learning a trade Assistance for your partner and children

Regretfully we cannot make cash grants. Nor can we offer legal or appeals advice, although we can put you in contact with organisations who offer this type of help.

Through our network of national caseworkers SSAFA Forces Help and the Legion can act as a resource for your resettlement needs, assist you whilst your sentence is ongoing, or just provide a confidential and caring link to the outside. If you would like further information, or a visit from one of our caseworkers to discuss your needs, please write to:

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Insidetime September 2007

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Powers removed?

passionate release on medical grounds.

I am a lifer with a 15-year tariff currently in his tenth year inside. A few years ago, the Home Secretary’s powers were removed and decisions relating to lifers are now made by the Parole Board, however I know lifers who have completed their time, had a parole hearing with the Board recommending that they be transferred to open conditions, yet the Board have referred the case back to the Home Secretary for the final decision - he/she in turn often rejects the Board’s recommendations. Can Inside Time offer enlightenment? B Chambi – HMP Garth

The European Court of Human Rights decided in 2002 that the release of tariff-expired adult murderers should be determined by a court-like body and not the Secretary of State. Home Office Ministers agreed to administrative changes subsequently made statutory in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which provided for the release of mandatory lifers to be directed by the independent Parole Board. Before directing the release of a lifer, the Parole Board must be satisfied that the prisoner’s continued detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.

* The Prison Service writes: Every life sentence prisoner has to serve a minimum term of imprisonment for deterrence and retribution – known colloquially as the “tariff”. No lifer can expect to be released before they have served the tariff period in full. The only exception to this policy is the possible release of a prisoner on licence if the Secretary of State is satisfied that very special circumstances exist which justify early com

It is possible for the Parole Board to direct the release of a lifer from a closed prison if the panel is satisfied that the prisoner’s level of risk of serious harm to others has been reduced to a minimum. However, a period in open conditions, prior to release, is essential for most lifers usually following satisfactory progression through First and Second Stage (Category B and Category C) closed prisons. A move to an open prison

Try a bit of respect From being in prison in the 1980s, I know we were then called only by name or number, however I was under the impression that things have moved on somewhat in terms of respect afforded to inmates - yet have had to use the complaints procedure here at Kingston because staff insist on referring to me as ‘Woodin’. Following the complaint, a senior female officer asked me …”Please tell me what the rules are then?” I stated to staff that I merely wish to be addressed not as ‘Woodin’ but with the simple courtesy ‘Mr’ preceding it. This is not pedantic political correctness but respect for others. If a prisoner was to call an officer by only his/her surname that person would be adjudicated for being disrespectful. Can Inside Time offer guidance regarding how prisoners should be addressed by staff? Howard Woodin - HMP Kingston * The Prison Service writes: I note that Mr Woodin has previously complained about being addressed only by his surname, although I am not sure what response he received from staff at Kingston. The issue of the term of prisoners' address is inextricably linked to that of decency. Both Phil Wheatley, the Director General, and before him Martin Narey, have been outspoken about the importance of making sure that in all dealings with prisoners they are treated with decency and respect. Interactions with prisoners should reflect the need to balance decency and respect with maintaining good order and discipline. The Service has chosen not to mandate an instruction nationally on how prisoners should be addressed, recognising that within those parameters it can be appropriate to use first names or titles and surnames. Governing Governors may choose to issue local instructions where they feel it appropriate. Laura McCaughan- Prisoner Rights, Responsibilities and Communications Section

allows final testing in conditions that more closely resemble those that the lifer will encounter in the community, often after having spent many years in closed prisons. Prisoners have the opportunity to gain work experience, take resettlement leave and, more generally, open conditions require them to take more responsibility for their actions. The Parole Board has no statutory authority to direct a lifer’s transfer to open conditions. A lifer can normally only be transferred from closed to open conditions when a positive Parole Board recommendation to this effect has been accepted by senior managers in PreRelease Section (PRS) on behalf of the Secretary of State. Further information about tariff, the structure of a life sentence and release on life licence can be found in the Lifer Manual (PSO 4700). Prisoners may obtain access to the Lifer Manual on request to the Lifer Manager. Paul Jackson - Pre- Release Section, Public Protection Unit

Independent adjudications In the ‘Independent Adjudications’ article by Donna Peters in your July issue she refers to MDT failures and advises that …’the barcode number, which is on the sticker on the bottom of the chain of custody form, must also be handwritten on the top section of that form and there must be signatures to the forms’. I was found to be positive on an MDT but after reading the article I checked my chain of custody form and found the barcode number had not been written but there was a sticker. I then checked the relevant PSO and unfortunately for me, our library PSOs had not been updated and the PSO had been amended in March unbeknown to both myself and the library. Can Donna Peters clarify the issue for Inside Time readers? Robert Waller - HMP Everthorpe * Donna Peters, Parlby Calder Solicitors, writes: The MDT manual has been updated to allow stickers to be used, however the stickers should still be

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* Inside Time writes: A prisoner, reluctant to leave his contact details and speaking from his mobile in another category C prison, was rather a bizzare way for Inside Time to be alerted to the above issue! However, we are grateful for the call.

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on the top part of the chain of custody form as well as the bottom tear-off slip. The reason for this is, as set out on the prison MDT forms given to prisoners, that if they want a second opinion then the tear-off slip will be detached and the barcode number must be written if not enough stickers or a sticker on the top part. This is to protect the anonymity of the prisoner. I trust this clarifies the situation, as obviously it was not my intention to confuse anyone.

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10

Insidetime September 2007

Newsround

Right to vote upheld In a landmark decision, the Australian High Court has upheld the fundamental human right to vote, finding that the Government had acted ‘unlawfully and unconstitutionally’ in imposing a blanket ban denying prisoners the vote. In 2006, the Howard Government passed legislation which denied all prisoners the right to vote. This law was challenged in the High Court by Vickie Roach, an Aboriginal woman prisoner. The High Court struck down the blanket prohibition on prisoners voting, although it upheld the validity of the law providing that prisoners serving a sentence of three years or longer are not entitled to vote. Speaking after the decision was handed down, Philip Lynch, Director of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre which ran the case, told Inside Time, “This is a common sense decision and a victory for representative democracy, accountable government, the rule of law and fundamental human rights. The Howard Government disenfranchised prisoners on the spurious ground that to do so would promote respect for the social contract and the rule of law. Far from achieving this, denial of the fundamental human right to vote results in social exclusion, isolation, resentment and unaccountable and unrepresentative government. This is particularly undesirable given that the overwhelming majority of prisoners will be released at some stage.” Mr Lynch said that the supreme courts of Canada, South Africa and Europe had, over the last ten years, reached the same conclusion.

Death row conviction overturned Super-prison plan confirmed The building of a ‘super-prison’ for the north east of Scotland has been confirmed by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The new 700capacity, publicly-run jail will replace ageing Victorian jails in both Aberdeen and Peterhead. The minister (pictured above) believes that his announcement will mark an important turning point for prisons in the north east of Scotland. He said: "After years of indecision we are announcing positive steps to replace Victorian facilities at Aberdeen and Peterhead with a brand new state-of-the-art prison in the area. "This, like the replacement prison at Bishopbriggs, will be a prison run in the public sector, for the public good, and not for private profit. “Prisons should not be filled up with minor offenders at the taxpayer’s expense”, the minister added, “but instead should be for the purpose of detaining dangerous criminals and punishing serious offences”.

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Death row Scot Kenny Richey has had his conviction overturned on appeal for the second time by a US court. Richey, 43, was sentenced to death more than 20 years ago after being convicted of deliberately starting a fire in Ohio in which a two-yearold girl died. The grounds of appeal were that Richey, originally from Edinburgh, received inadequate legal representation during his trial in 1987. The court ordered that Richey should be retried or released within 90 days. In January 2005, the same court overturned Richey's conviction and announced that he should be retried or released. However the prosecution appealed. The US Supreme Court held that the decision to overturn his conviction may not have been procedurally correct and so asked the Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit to reconsider. This was in November 2005 and Richey has remained on death row until the latest decision.

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A succession of challenges

Did I say that…?

Prisons & Probation Ombudsman Stephen Shaw, writing in the Ombudsman’s Annual Report 2006-2007, has reflected on a year that ‘presented a succession of challenges’ and ‘budgetary pressures that bore down on our ability to meet the demands placed upon us’. The number of complaints that the PPO office receives has continued to rise, and although the increase reflects the increase in the prison population, the principal reason is that more of the complaints received are eligible in the sense that they have been through the Prison Service’s internal system. During 2006-07, 4,666 complaints were received, of which 4,321 were about the Prison Service, 316 were about the National Probation Service and 29 were from detainees in Immigration Removal Centres. A total of 1,560 investigations were completed. The Ombudsman also investigated 185 deaths in custody during 2006-07; of these 88 were from natural causes, 14 were as a result of substance misuse, 2 were homicides, 74 were apparently self-inflicted and 7 were unclassified. Stephen Shaw said: “I have seen more complaints about the impact of regimes and restrictions of liberty, and the Annual Report offers case summaries on themes such as Control & Punishment and The Right to be Heard that illustrate prisoners’ concerns. “Moreover, as the public and political mood has hardened, so has the definition of what is reasonable and proportionate. There are daily examples of this, for example in complaints about temporary release or decisions about Home Detention Curfew”.

L A T I F A D A M S S O L I C I T O R S

‘Under Labour, record numbers - some 29 million - are now in work and we have slashed joblessness’ Peter Hain, Work and Pensions Secretary According to a study by the House of Commons Library, Britain’s real unemployment rate is more than double the official figure and costs nearly £18 billion a year more than the Government admits. The total jobless figure rises to more than four million when ‘hidden unemployment’ is taken into account. The study also says there are almost a million who are ‘economically inactive’ who can work - such as those on incapacity benefit but capable of work. The additional jobless also includes more than a million part-time workers who would like to work full-time. The study, which uses a new international measure of unemployment, is a blow to the Government’s claim that it has slashed joblessness.

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Insidetime September 2007

11

Newsround

Youth Justice Board is failing to meet targets, says Report The Youth Justice Board, set up seven years ago by Labour to cut juvenile crime, has failed to meet any of its key performance targets in the past 12 months, according to its Annual Report. The Report shows that the Board is missing its key targets to reduce the number of first-time entrants to the youth justice system by 5% by next March and cut reoffending rates by 5% by the same date.

Overcrowding criticised Praise for Shotts A prison which was once notorious for violence has been praised by inspectors for its improvements. Shotts Prison in Scotland is "unrecognisable" from the institution where, less than two decades ago, clashes between staff and inmates were common, a report has said. Scotland's chief inspector of prisons highlighted safety improvements as a key factor in the improved stability at the prison. The absence of overcrowding was also said to have been a critical factor. Chief prisons inspector Dr Andrew McLellan's report, based on an inspection in February this year, praised the efforts by prison staff to cut violence in the institution. His report said: "Less than 20 years ago, an HMCIP report stated that 'incidents of mass indiscipline and confrontation with staff became the norm'. "That prison is unrecognisable today." He added that the "safe atmosphere" throughout Shotts was "remarkable in a prison that was once notorious for violence". However, the report contained concerns over the "poor practice" in suicide risk management. An average of 26 prisoners a year have been subject to the Scottish Prison Service anti-suicide procedures, but there has not been a meeting of the Suicide Risk Management Group since February 2006.

Dorchester Prison staff are ‘battling against overwhelming odds in old and overcrowded premises’. The criticism comes after Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said there were too many prisoners and too little investment in buildings there. She added that the Dorset-based inmates needed more purposeful work but said progress had been made and that an inspection showed two sides of Dorchester prison. "First, it records the progress that has been made over the last two years. Second, it shows the limitations on that progress with too many prisoners and too little investment in buildings or purposeful activity. "Dorchester's prisoners are now being held in a safer and better environment. But too few of them will have been able to access the activity and resettlement support they need to reduce their chances of reoffending." Inspectors also found that the treatment of those at risk of self-harm or suicide had improved, but anti-bullying arrangements and the care of vulnerable prisoners "needed strengthening". The inspectors recorded that in spite of recommendations made at the last inspection, "urgently-needed capital expenditure for a new healthcare centre, visits hall, and gym shower facilities had not yet been made available". Geoff Dobson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust told Inside Time: "Regrettably, the majority of prisoners at Dorchester spend most of their time locked in their cells, where the only people who will impact on their thoughts and behaviour are other offenders. For younger and short-term prisoners this is particularly disastrous, with opportunities for resettlement and rehabilitation limited by the sheer pressure of numbers”.

No letters? No visits? Why not get in touch with New Bridge? New Bridge has been providing prisoners with a befriending service for over 50 years; long enough for them to have learnt how to provide the kind of contact prisoners could find helpful during a difficult period in their lives. New Bridge volunteers are ordinary people who come from all walks of life and mostly have a partner; are not necessarily religious; nor are they generally well off. However they are good listeners who are reasonably mature in their outlook on life and have a common desire to help people. If you have at least one year left to serve then write to: Pauline, New Bridge Befriending, 27a Medway Street, London SW1P 2BD.

46% of inmates believe drink was a factor in their offending, say Alcohol Concern An Alcohol Concern research bulletin has highlighted the lack of services for prisoners with drinking problems. This situation exists despite evidence showing that 30% of male prisoners and 24% of female prisoners are alcohol dependent. The organisation has called for funding to ‘kick start’ the development of alcohol interventions in prisons, saying that, ‘giving support to prisoners with drink problems could make a major contribution to cutting down the likelihood of their re-offending.’ The most widely available form of support for prisoners with drinking problems is Alcoholics Anonymous through AA groups but they only operate in half of all UK prisons. Source: Insider magazine published by RAPT.

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Jeremy Browne, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, described the Board’s record as ‘another sign of the spectacular failure of the government’s approach to cutting crime. The Youth Justice Board is in serious trouble if it cannot meet a single one of its targets.’ He argued that it had undermined its efforts to focus on prevention, restorative justice and rehabilitation.

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12

Insidetime September 2007

Newsround

Offender monitoring under threat as new IT programme crashes

Lack of judges causing trial delays An acute shortage of judges is causing long delays in bringing criminal trials to court, putting more pressure on overcrowded prisons and delaying justice for victims of crime. Retired judges are being pressed into service, and part-time recorders are being repeatedly asked to serve for longer periods. Such ad hoc measures save money because the Government does not have to pay holiday allowance or pension contributions for retired or part-time judges. As the criminal justice system struggles to cope, serious cases are being put back until 2008 and overcrowded remand prisons are holding record numbers of people. Relations between the new Justice department and the judiciary are already poor and will not be helped by the widespread belief that much-needed judicial appointments are being delayed in order to save money. There are at least 47 vacancies for circuit judges across England and Wales, with more than 30 of those in the South East Circuit, where pressure on court space and time is most intense.

Catering course teacher Werner Stoll (pictured left) with students who graduated from a 12-week Food Preparation & Cooking course at HMP Brockhill. The course aims to help students gain placements in the catering or hospitality industry upon release. As part of their graduation the students catered for a charity function for all the prisoners and staff at Brockhill where a total of over £200 was raised from donations.

Gang crime due Inappropriate to absent dads use of PNDs The continuing problem of gang violence is due to the absence of fathers in black communities, according to Justice Secretary Jack Straw who says young black men needed their fathers as role models, otherwise their development suffered. Black girls from similar backgrounds had different attitudes and succeeded more than black boys, he said.

The courts in and around London already face difficulties finding courtrooms and judges to conduct the growing caseload of terrorist trials which routinely start later than scheduled and overrun by months.

He was responding to US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson who said inner city violence was an economic problem. "Gang violence is rooted in the economics of desperation," said Rev Jackson, adding that some people were ‘profiting’ from providing guns to deprived areas.

Jonathan Playford QC, writing in The Times adds: 'After a lifetime in the law, the last eight years of which were spent as a circuit judge at a busy provincial Crown Court, I retired a year ago, aged 66, holding every available criminal 'ticket', and most civil ones. I wrote offering my services, and in particular offering to continue to try murders as well as other cases, only to be told that there was a rule against retired circuit judges doing murder cases. It was not worth the while of busy people even to try to have the rule relaxed. And that was that.'

He called for more investment in pre-natal care and education, rather than building more jails. But Mr Straw, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said the problem was not due to economics. "One of the striking things is the difference between the attitude and the success in life of black girls from exactly the same backgrounds compared to black boys. "Black boys go backwards when they get to secondary school. It's a cultural problem. It's the absence of fathers who are actively involved in parenting”.

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On-the-spot fines for crimes such as being drunk and disorderly, destroying property and shoplifting are being issued at a rate of one every three minutes, according to latest police figures. The number handed out in England and Wales rose by almost 40 per cent in a year as police officers on the streets made use of a swift and economical way of dealing with offenders. But the surge in the use of penalty notices for disorder (PND) has also helped police to meet a key government target because they count towards a ministerial pledge to increase the number of crimes ‘brought to justice’. Police representatives claim that the need to meet the target of bringing 1.25 million offences to justice in 2007 to 2008 has ‘corrupted’ the use of PNDs by encouraging officers to use them inappropriately. Chief Superintendent Derek Barnett, vicepresident of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “Experience suggests that when used sensibly, PNDs have been a useful tool for the police service. But the emphasis on targets for ‘bringing offences to justice’ has corrupted their use. Offenders pay either a £50 or £80 penalty even though they may have caused criminal damage of £500 or stolen up to £200 of goods from a shop. Representatives of shopkeepers bitterly oppose PNDs, claiming that they encourage shoplifting by effectively letting offenders off.

A multimillion-pound government project to give greater protection to the public by managing offenders more closely is threatened with collapse because of financial problems. Ministers have halted all further development work on the project while officials conduct an emergency review of the costings and capabilities of the £244 million programme. The crisis is the latest setback to an IT system that underpins the whole of the Government’s strategy to manage offenders from conviction and during their prison sentences to supervision in the community by the Probation Service. About £155 million has already been spent on the project but this year it was revealed that there was a £33 million shortfall on capital funding. It is understood that it has now been discovered that the initial costings did not include VAT and that cancelling the project will cost the Ministry of Justice £50 million in fees to EDS, the private contractor in charge of developing the system. Under the project, more than 200 disparate Prison and Probation Service databases would consolidate into a single, accurate profile of an offender. More than 80,000 users within the criminal justice system, including courts, Prison and Probation services, police forces and other partner organisations, would share up-to-the-minute information on an offender such as his or her conviction records, addresses and problems. It would allow prison and probation staff to know that a particular offender needed help with housing, or tackling drug or alcohol abuse, on leaving jail. The aim was to help to reduce their risk of reoffending by tracking them through the system and providing what ministers describe as “end-to-end offender management”.

Judges free jailed prison officer The Court of Appeal has freed a prison officer jailed in July for stealing from Full Sutton prison. Judges said the mental state of Timothy Stark at the time made his four-month sentence ‘excessive’. They reduced it to six weeks, allowing him to walk free. Mr Stark, 38, used his job in the admissions section of the prison to steal £1,300 of camera film, as well as a tracksuit and some boxes. He then offered them for sale on an online auction site. Lord Justice Latham said Mr Stark was clearly suffering from depression at the time and advised him not to return to the prison service and to seek psychiatric help.

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Insidetime September 2007

13

Newsround

The 40% cannabis risk There is also evidence, less strong, that the drug increases the risk of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Out of control teenagers

are tucking away: 27% of our teenagers admit they drink regularly compared with just 5% of Italians and 3% of French. Gang membership is also much higher in this country, and affects 'a significant proportion of British youth'. But it's sex that sees the bigest gulf between teenagers in Britain and their European counterparts. British 15-year-olds are by far the most promiscuous: 38% of them admitted having had sex. Only the Germans, Finns and Swedes were anywhere near as active, at 28%. The Poles, at 15%, were the most reserved.

The report was immediately welcomed by The Times medical correspondent, Dr Thomas Stuttaford. 'The analysis may at last convince some politicians and doctors who have persisted in promoting a libertarian approach to the use of cannabis to change their mind,' he said. Doctors have issued their starkest warning yet about the effects of cannabis. A new report says users of the drug are 40% more likely to develop a psychotic illness. The warning, published in The Lancet, is written by seven specialists in mental health. They looked at the findings of 35 studies from around the world and discovered 'a consistent association between cannabis use psychotic symptoms, including disabling psychotic disorders'.

NEWS IN BRIEF

They say they cannot be certain that the drug is the direct cause of problems, but warn: 'We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness.'

But Leslie Iverson, a professor of pharmacology and member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, was more cautious. 'The authors admit that there is no conclusive evidence that cannabis use causes psychotic illness,' he said. 'Their prediction that 14% of psychotic outcomes in young adults in the UK may be due to cannabis use is not supported by the fact that the incidence of schizophrenia has not shown any significant change in the past 30 years.' The findings come only days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug and to cut £50 million from work treating drug addicts. Source: The Lancet Vol 370 July 28 2007.

As the United Nations designate the Sydney Opera House as a World Heritage site, many are convinced that the iconic building is not exactly as they remembered it.

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Britain has the worst behaved teenagers in Europe, according to a leading ‘think tank’. They are more likely to take drugs, have sex at an early age, indulge in binge drinking and get involved in fights. A report from the Institute for Public Police Research, a think tank with close links to Labour, says the collapse of family life is partly to blame. With no guiding hand from the family, youngsters are more likely to succumb to peer pressure. 'British teenagers spend more time hanging out with their mates and less time with adults,' says Julia Margo, senior research fellow at the IPPR. 'And British adults are less likely to intervene to stop teenagers committing vandalism and other antisocial behaviour. It is an admission that successive governments have left British youth to its own devices.' The study revealed that 44% of British youngsters had been involved in a fight the previous year - compared with 28% in Germany, 36% in France and 38% in Italy. Those figures can perhaps be explained by the amount of drink that British teenagers

After the sucess of the $100 laptop for children in 3rd world contries, a lowcost Apple iPod is now being trialled.

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In the same week as Children’s Minister Ed Balls says he wants to see conkers back in the playground, teachers suspect widespread use of steroids.

The breakdown of family life is highlighted by the finding that just 64% of teenagers eat with their parents in Britain, compared with 89% in France and 93% in Italy. The problem appears to be at its worst in Scotland, where 59% of 15-year-old boys and 48% of 15-year-old girls said they spend four evenings a week or more with friends rather than family. British children spend half their spare time watching television, playing computer games and using the internet. Eighty per cent of children aged five to 16 have a TV in their room. The report came in the same week as the goverment announced that £1.4 billion would be spent on out-of-hours clubs at primary and secondary schools. The IPPR says activities such as Scouts, Girl Guides, cadets, martial arts clubs and drama groups should also be encouraged. 'Every child should be expected to do at least an hour a week of constructive afterschool activities,' says Julia Margo. 'They might not like it, but the evidence shows that the ones who don't want to do it are the ones who would benefit most.'

To increase the number of convictions in rape trials in the US, ABC’s Channel 7 launches a pilot news programme.

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14

Insidetime September 2007

Newsround

City bonus shame

'$100 laptop' production begins Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007. Getting the $100 laptop to this stage has been a turbulent journey for the organisation and its founder Nicholas Negroponte. Since the idea was first put forward in 2002, the low-cost laptop has been both lauded and ridiculed. Intel chairman Craig Barret famously described it as a "$100 gadget" whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its design, particularly the lack of hard drive and its "tiny screen". Other critics asked whether there was a need for a laptop in countries which, they said, had more pressing needs such as sanitation, water and health care. Professor Negroponte's response has always been the same: "It's an education project, not a laptop project."

“The XO is built to cope with the harsh and remote conditions found in areas where it may be used, such as the deserts of Libya or the mountains of Peru. For example, it has a rugged, waterproof case and is as energy efficient as possible. You can power it by solar or human power." Governments that sign up for the scheme can purchase solar, foot-pump or pull-string powered chargers for the laptop.

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Did I say that…?

Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo's, has condemned the payment of £14 billion in City bonuses. He said: "The inequality this represents should shame us as a society. While these bonuses fuel record waiting lists for Rolls Royces and house price inflation, which makes it increasingly difficult for young people to buy homes, the poverty of 3.8 million children in the UK grows ever deeper. Right now, the life expectancy of children born in some parts of Glasgow is lower than life expectancy of children born on the Gaza strip. Yet just one quarter of the annual amount paid in city bonuses would halve child poverty in the UK. This gross inequality must be addressed if the UK's journey toward being a broken society is to be halted". Barnardo’s works with approximately 110,000 children, young people and their families in over 383 specialised projects in local communities across the UK. This includes work with children affected by today’s most urgent issues: poverty, homelessness, disability, bereavement and abuse.

Bleak outlook for the poor

The failure of compassion Can human beings be trusted to respond humanely to victims of genocide? Stalin didn’t think so. He supposedly coined the phrase: “One man’s death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.” And psychological research into “compassion fatigue” bears him out, says Professor Paul Slovic, of the University of Oregon. In a recent study in the US, Slovic and his colleagues discovered that donations to aid a starving seven-year-old child declined sharply when her image was accompanied by a statistical summary of millions of similarly affected children in Africa. In a separate study in Israel, one set of people was asked to contribute to the cost of eight children’s medical treatment while a second was asked to help raise the same amount to treat just one child. Researchers found that people gave far more to help the single child than the group. What this shows, says Slovic, is that humans can’t “feel” the suffering of large numbers of people. In short, “faced with genocide, we cannot rely on our moral intuition alone to guide us to act properly”.

Uncertain Future? Nowhere to go?

A report compiled by scientists from more than 100 countries has warned that the consequences of climate change will be felt most harshly by the people least equipped to deal with them. “It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report predicts that 75 to 250 million Africans will face water shortages by 2020, and that, while crop yields could increase in southeast Asia, they will decrease by 30% in central and south Asia. It warns that rainfall patterns are likely to change, bringing more powerful storms and increasing the incidence of “drought, flooding and stress on water supplies”.

“If 30,000 children died recently and avoidably every day in Africa or Britain we would call it an emergency and an emergency is what it is.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking at the United Nations in New York, called for a fresh international effort to eradicate poverty in Africa. In fact Britain’s direct aid to all African countries fell last year (2006/7) by 2%. At the G8 summit at Gleneagles two years ago Gordon Brown committed Britain to reaching an internationally agreed goal of raising overseas aid to 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (a goal set more than 25 years ago); the figure last year was 0.52% Phil Bloomer of Oxfam, said: “This fall is shocking and demonstrates how important it is that further increases in aid over the coming three years guarantees the UK meets its promises to Africa.”

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Do you know...?

15

Newsround • 47% of black Britons say crime and violence are the most pressing problems facing the country. 12% cite racism, 9% unemployment and 8% the influx of Eastern European immigrants.

approve of funding Islamic militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

• One in four women forming a same-sex civil partnership was previously married to a man.

• 32% of Europeans regard America as the biggest threat to global security. So do 35% of Americans aged 16-26. Among Americans of all ages, 25% see North Korea as the biggest threat, followed by Iran (23%), China (20%) and the US (11%).

• 55% of Poles working in Britain plan to stay here permanently.

• Almost two NHS patients per week leave hospital after an operation with surgical instruments accidentally left inside them • Polish workers in Britain sent home nearly £1bn in the first three months of this year.

• In the US, 40% of three-month-old babies are regular TV viewers, and 90% of twoyear-olds watch an average of 90 minutes a day. Americans as a whole watch TV for four hours and 30 minutes a day - 90 minutes more than the world average.

• Asda has reported a 41.5% rise in sales of nicotine patches since the smoking ban was introduced in England.

• Carlos Slim was declared the world’s richest man. The cigar-chomping Mexican telecoms tycoon has accrued an estimated fortune of $67.8bn - equivalent to 8% of Mexico’s GDP - beating even Bill Gates’s $59.2bn.

• An engineering company that advises local authorities on sustainable transport projects has banned its staff from bicycling because it is too dangerous. Jacobs Babtie which is supposed to be helping transport for London meets its target of a fivefold increase in cycling by 2025 - has told staff at its 36 offices that they must drive or use public transport.

• In the second half of the 20th century, 29% of all Nobel prize winners were Jewish, although Jews only make up 0.2% of the global population.

• 52% of Iranians are in favour of developing nuclear weapons, saying it would make their world safer. 58% think Tehran is right to help finance Shia militias in Iraq, and 66%

NEWS IN BRIEF

• 68% of Britons believe climate change is already happening, but 51% think it will have little or no immediate effect. 37% admit they are doing nothing to combat climate change, and 70% say it’s up to the Government to take a lead by passing laws.

• Ruhela Khanom was exposed as the juror from hell. The unemployed 20-year-old from Bow, East London, was thrown off a murder trial after she was caught listening to an Mp3 music player under her hijab while the defendant gave evidence in the witness box. Khanom had previously been reprimanded for arriving late every day and doodling instead of taking notes.

Two more cyclists in the Tour de France pass a dope test.

The BBC are in trouble again for misleading viewers when Prince Charles is apparently seen talking to a bucket and telling it ‘one day my mother will kick you’.

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• 10,000 Poles have applied for jobs building the new Olympic Stadium.

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• Last year 291 people in Northern Ireland took their own lives - up from 138 ten years ago.

Following the 100th Anniversary of the Scout movement, Robert BadenPowells ‘Scouting for Boys’, first pubAnd SPECSAVERS get the World Eye lished in 1908, reaches fourth in the old Popping Competition underway time best seller list behind the Bible, the Koran and Mao Tse-Tuns Little Red Book say Scotland Yard.

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16

Insidetime September 2007

Diary

Month by Month

loving family. She is also blind and her memory doesn’t do well after 1920. When she dies, we will mourn her death but celebrate her life with a sense that The Grim Reaper has not been so grim in her case. She has survived long enough to receive a card from the smiling Queen, which was perched on a shelf above her chair.

Rachel Billington

I talked to Nicola (pictured above), of the design company Ni-co, who showed me the terrific work her students within the prison had produced, using the theme of recycling, which means exciting use of plastic and tin! She is now offering work placements in her company to some of her students and is enthusiastic about continuing to work with Holloway. I promised a visit and a report for Inside Time.

Four dresses designed by women in HMP Holloway using the recycling theme Prison officers have been on strike - illegally, it seems. They feel they are underpaid and overstretched and, moreover, are concerned by the rise of attacks on officers which have increased 34% since 2001. Overcrowding is obvious to everyone - prisoners, prison officers and the Ministry of Justice. Norman Brennan of the Victims of Crime trust says ‘the system is in meltdown’. This view is echoed by a great many other concerned parties particularly in the Conservative government. And yet, despite all this doom, there is still some excellent work, often run by charities, going on in prisons. Earlier this summer I went to the magnificent Victoria & Albert Museum in London where S-t-r-e-t-c-h, a charity based in York were showcasing an arts and fashion design project in prison. The show was called ‘Inspire Inside’. A year ago, the V & A approached Stretch with the aim of finding a way to work with audiences in a closed prison environment, with no access to the Internet or means to visit the world famous museum. Stretch had already established a reputation for bringing together museums, galleries and offenders. I talked to its director Carlotta Goulden (pictured right), who was putting final touches to the exhibits. She believes strongly that the kind of projects she runs can be hugely helpful for men and women

EP D

who have dropped out of formal education and fallen through the welfare net. Around us were example of the very high standard of work produced by inmates, including vivid paintings and fabulously inventive fashion items, such as shirts, dresses, belts and bags.

On the day 11 year-old Rhys Jones was tragically killed, I was celebrating the 100th birthday of my aunt. She is a wonderful woman, surrounded by a large and

His killer is another matter: probably a teenage boy from an estate less prosperous and well ordered than his victim’s home. The shot that killed Rhys may have been chance. Quite possibly the boy did not plan to kill anyone, but the gun in his hand was not there by chance. If and when he is caught, he may be taught to understand what he has done. Our society still accepts the idea of repentance and change, even if the tabloids try to teach otherwise. Learco Chindano, the youthful killer of the schoolteacher, Philip Lawrence, is said to have changed enough to be recommended for parole at the end of his twelve-year sentence. Ultimately, we all have to accept responsibility for the bad in our society as well as the good. A healthy childhood doesn’t guarantee a long life but a good upbringing usually results in good behaviour. Why did this teenage boy have a gun in his hand?

OLLIERS S O LI C ITO R S

The project saw four pilot projects in four prisons round the country. The V & A created virtual tours on DVD of the Japanese galleries and the Fashion Collection that were taken into the prisons by a freelance artist. The prison staff have cooperated fully and indeed one of the guests at the event was Sue Saunders, Governor of HMP Holloway. Interestingly, the museum has been connected to Holloway on a much earlier occasion when some women laid mosaics in galleries as part of their community service work.

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Erwin James, the very successful writer and ex-offender, opened the exhibition. He told me, ‘It can feel one-dimensional in prison, but art gives you further dimensions.’ At the moment he’s researching and writing a book on the infamous Devil’s Island – which from 1852 to 1946 formed part of the notorious French penal colony. In fact it was a group of islands lying off the humid and jungly coast of French Guiana. Most of the 80,000 prisoners succumbed to the rampant disease and harsh conditions, and were never seen again. Not much chance of picking up a paintbrush or a sewing needle there.

Her story and the growing number of others like her – it is not at all difficult now to buy a hundredth birthday card – make it harder than ever to bear the sudden death of a young boy. Not just the parents and family and friends but the whole of society is thrown into shock. We look for blame; guilt; a reason. Life shouldn’t be like that. Well, it shouldn’t. But on the other hand, it is. 11 year-olds get cruelly killed, whether by accident or design. We all remember people we’ve loved who’ve died far too young – innocent, as we can safely say about poor Rhys Jones. Let us, like the Everton fans, try to celebrate his childishly happy life and be glad that he seems to have enjoyed every day of it.

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17

Comment

Can protest music influence social change? Andrew Cousins of Gema Records highlights protest music and its significant impact on social issues through the years

In “The Rag,” not only did McDonald question why America was in Vietnam, he also suggested that the nation’s motives might be less than the noble, using lyrics such as “Come on generals, let's move fast; your big chance has come at last” and “Come on Wall Street, don't move slow; why man, this is war au-go-go; there's plenty good money to be made supplying the Army with the tools of the trade.” Despite the gravity of their subject matter, many protest songs shared a common element in humour. “People go out to be entertained; the ‘hit 'em over the head with woes’ type of song turns people off,” explained Phil Ochs’ sister Sonny, “If you make them laugh, they enjoy the entertainment, but then when they go home, they realize that they've been given a strong point of view on a serious subject”. There was also a musical backlash. “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” a patriotic tribute to American soldiers, was the number one record in the country in 1966. And in his 1969 hit, country music artist Merle Haggard boasted that he was proud to be an “Okie from Muskogee” with a song that featured lines such as “We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street” and “We don’t let our hair grow long and shaggy like the hippies out in San Francisco do.”

“A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once. But a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over.” Joe Hill, American songwriter Those of us who grew up in the Vietnam War era know that Government’s inability to connect with today’s youth is not a new problem. In fact when young Americans began questioning the wisdom of the nation’s involvement in Vietnam, the foundation of the “generation gap” that characterized the era had already been built by folk singers who challenged their elders and the status quo with songs about justice, civil rights and other social issues. Years before Vietnam became a topic for national debate, Pete Seeger, who was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, had been singing about topics such as labour unions and the civil rights movement. Peter Paul and Mary had been performing as a trio since 1961, singing traditional folk songs as well as their own versions of compositions with socially conscious messages by new artists such as Bob Dylan. Dylan himself had already released four albums by 1964. Together with singer-songwriters such as Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and Tom Paxton, they were part of an emerging folk music scene in New York’s Greenwich Village. Their songs touched on a variety of social issues that were developing in the 1960s,

including war. However, the references to war generally were not to specific conflicts. Rather, they were characterized by rhetorical questions such as those posed by the title of Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (1961)” and the lyrics of Dylan’s “Blown’ in the Wind,” which asked, “How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?” and “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? (1963)”. Seeger also raised the view that America might be in over its head - literally - in a song called “The Big Muddy.” On the surface, the song was the story of a platoon leader relentlessly ordering his troops to cross a raging river, even though they kept falling deeper and deeper into the water. In reality, “The Big Muddy” was a metaphor for America’s involvement in Vietnam (“We’re waist deep in the big muddy…”) and President Johnson was the platoon leader, described in the song as “the big fool (who) said to push on.” A clear example of how protest singers addressed this issue can found in the lyrics of Country Joe McDonald’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag,” a dark humoured song about going to Vietnam to die (1967): And it's one, two, three, What are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam; And it's five, six, seven, Open up the pearly gates, Well there ain't no time to wonder why, Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Nevertheless, protest music continued to connect with American youth; not only through humour but also by capturing the wide range of emotions that American youth were experiencing. There was the despondency of Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” and there was defiance embodied in the title and lyrics of Phil Ochs’ “I Ain’t A Marchin’ Anymore.” As more Americans, particularly young people, began to question the war at teach-ins on college campuses, at demonstrations in Washington D.C., and at rallies all over the country, protest music by singers such as Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Country Joe McDonald enjoyed increasing popularity. Given conditions in the music industry at the time, the increasing interest in protest music underscored the magnitude of the youth culture’s opposition to the war. Unlike today’s superstars, these artists did not routinely sell millions of records or play to huge audiences in stadiums and arenas. They were not promoted by massive publicity campaigns nor could they benefit from the resources and support of the mega-corporations that control the music industry today.

movement, the rise of feminism, and more liberal attitudes on sex and drugs. And in the world of music, what once had been considered the exclusive province of long-haired, foul-mouthed, radical singers was becoming a popular topic for leading entertainers whose repertoire previously had been limited to love songs: In 1968, the Beatles sang about changing the world in “Revolution” and John Lennon recorded “Give Peace a Chance” the following year. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s musical catalog moved from blues numbers (“Suzy Q”) and pop classics (“Proud Mary”) tunes to songs that criticized the rich and powerful for the ability to evade the draft (“Fortunate Son”) and described combat in Vietnam “Run Through the Jungle. African-American groups, known for soul music and the Motown sound, began to focus on social issues that included the war with lyrics such as “Brother, brother, there's far too many of you dying” and “We don't need to escalate... war is not the answer” from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and “People all over the world are shouting end the war” from the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.” The songs reached numbers two and three respectively on the Billboard charts. Even the King turned to social issues. In 1969, Elvis Presley had a hit single with “In the Ghetto,” a song about the cycle of poverty, violence and sorrow in America’s cities. In the aftermath of the National Guard’s fatal shootings of four Kent State University students in 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were among Atlantic Records leading artists, wrote and recorded “Ohio” in less than three weeks and released the song with the full support of the record company, even though the lyrics held President Richard Nixon responsible for the students’ deaths. The impact of the music, like the war itself, is likely to be debated for years to come. Was protest music just a reflection of the times? Or did it play a role in effectuating change, and can it mobilise opinion on current world wars? There are valid arguments for both positions and there is no clear-cut answer. In fact, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the answer may just be blowing in the wind. * Andrew Cousins is Managing Director of Gema Records, the leading supplier of Music, Games and Films to UK prisons. Their extensive Summer 2007 catalogue is available to all prisoners at a cost of £2, which is fully refundable against the first order. To request a copy, send your cheque or P.O. to Gema Records, PO Box 54, Reading RG1 3SD.

Yet protest music became a fixture among American youth, who were exposed to it in coffee houses on college campuses, at protest marches, and on underground radio stations playing music that commercial radio would not dare to touch. The popularity of protest music in the 1960s also was fuelled by the massive social change that evolved from the Civil Rights

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T

hroughout history it has often been assumed that lying can be detected by examining changes in bodily activity - but we are actually deceiving ourselves if we believe there will ever be an error-free way of detecting deception. Polygraph tests in particular should not be ascribed special status. I make this conclusion as the chair of a working party convened by the British Psychological Society to examine research into the most popular polygraph tests and assess their use in real life situations. The working party’s report, which was published in January and entitled “A review of the current scientific status and fields of application of Polygraphic Deception Detection”, concluded that the accuracy of polygraphs is not high and that the rate of incorrect decisions is too significant to ignore. Of course polygraph tests are not currently used in criminal investigations in the UK, but they are in many other countries including Belgium, Canada, Israel, Japan, Turkey, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and the USA. In a number of countries the courts have been apprehensive about admitting testimony concerning the ‘outcomes’ of polygraphic lie detection and the BPS report should be of assistance in this regard. Polygraph tests work by measuring changes in bodily activity such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and palmar sweating. Three out of the four most popular lie detection procedures assume that while answering so-called ‘relevant’ questions, liars will be more aroused than while answering so-called ‘control’ questions. Yet this premise is somewhat naïve, as truth tellers may also be more aroused when answering the relevant questions, particularly when these relevant questions are emotion evoking, for example an innocent man, questioned about murdering his beloved wife, might experience strong feelings about her. An innocent examinee can also become more aroused due to fear, which may occur, for example, when the person is afraid that his or her honest answers will not be believed. Moreover, a suspect may admit having guilty knowledge but nevertheless deny guilt. This happens when the suspect admits being present but denies the specific alleged acts, for example in an alleged sexual assault where the suspect admits the sexual acts but claims that they were consensual. In our report we examined the available evidence to establish whether the polygraph is a useful procedure for the UK.

Insidetime September 2007

Comment

the classification of guilty suspects. In these two tests only 76 per cent and 42 per cent of guilty suspects were ‘caught’ and correctly classified.

Polygraph tests do lie

This is probably because some guilty suspects may be able to ‘cheat’ polygraphs by suppressing their physiological reactions with the help of countermeasures. Mental countermeasures include meditation, training in hypnosis to produce ‘amnesia’ for the offence, and biofeedback training. Guilty people can also use physical countermeasures such as using drugs prior to the examination to dampen physiological responses or increasing their arousal on control questions by inflicting physical or mental pain on themselves or producing muscle tension. This reduces the differentiation in bodily activity. Proponents of the polygraph test argue that it is highly improbable that countermeasures can succeed because properly trained examiners would notice that the examinee is trying to fool them. However, several studies, some conducted by polygraph supporters, have shown that the use of countermeasures can be very effective in defeating polygraph tests, and that they sometimes remain unnoticed by polygraph examiners.

After extensive research, Professor Ray Bull concludes that even in the most favourable circumstances, polygraph lie-detection accuracy is not high Scientific laboratory studies, which generally show somewhat favourable results for polygraph testing, are strongly attacked by polygraph opponents. Amongst other things, they argue that the ‘guilty’ participants, who are asked to commit a mock crime, have little incentive to try to beat the polygraph test and that innocent participants are unlikely to be concerned about the relevant questions.

“

... for example an innocent man, questioned about murdering his beloved wife, might experience strong feelings about her ... Moreover, a suspect may admit having guilty knowledge but nevertheless deny guilt.

”

Field studies illustrate the accuracy of polygraphs in the ‘real world’ but their quality is subject to debate. One of the

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main problems is establishing with certainty whether the suspect is actually innocent or guilty. Confessions are widely accepted as ways to establish the ground truth, however a guilty suspect who passes a polygraph test is unlikely to confess, and with no confession the incorrect polygraph decision will not be noted.

One of the most famous countermeasures test was conducted by Floyd ‘Buzz’ Fay, a man who was falsely convicted of murder in the USA on the basis of a failed polygraph examination. He took it on himself to become a polygraph expert during his two-and-half years of wrongful imprisonment. He coached 27 inmates, who all freely confessed to him that they were guilty, in how to beat the control question polygraph test. After only 20 minutes of instruction, 23 of the 27 inmates were successful in defeating the polygraph examination.

Most field studies have been carried out using the Control Question Test (CQT) technique, which compares responses to specific questions about the crime (relevant questions) with responses to control questions, which are expected to arouse anxiety but to a lesser extent than the relevant questions. Overall field studies show the CQT polygraph technique catches guilty suspects in 83 per cent to 89 per cent of cases. But innocent suspects do less well, with between 11 per cent and 47 per cent being classified as guilty.

After studying such evidence as this we concluded that even in the most favourable circumstances polygraphic lie detection accuracy is not high, so an overreliance on an imperfect procedure may lead to undue relaxation concerning the developing of: other methods of identifying or screening wrongdoers; and other ways of ensuring security and preventing crime. The belief that people who ‘pass’ a polygraph test are, therefore, cleared of suspicion is a false belief.

The two field studies conducted using another polygraph technique, the Guilty Knowledge Test, revealed very good results regarding the classification of innocent suspects (94 per cent and 98 per cent of innocent suspects were correctly classified) but rather poor results regarding

* Professor Bull is from the University of Leicester and Chair of the British Psychological Society’s working party on Polygraph Deception Detection. * Reproduced by kind permission of Barrister magazine

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Comment

Crystal ball sentencing Douglas Salmon offers a personal perspective on the highly contentious IPP sentence

H

ave you seen The Minority Report? Tom Cruise has got three psychics floating in a pool comatose. They make predictions about crimes that are going to be committed: mainly murders. Old Tom's in there live-o with his badge and gun before they happen and they're up on charges. The story is about people being arrested and tried for crimes they haven't yet committed, but are predicted to commit. The reality is, here in Britain, we have our very own equivalent: the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection or IPP. In April 2005, due to an increase in violent crime, there was a change in the sentencing law available to Crown Court judges. Instead of the automatic life sentence, people were being given a new type of sentence. The structure of the sentence is not known for sure by anyone within the prison service. I have had different versions of what it entails from my legal representation; prison staff; and inmates. The IPP might be called a knee-jerk reaction to growing crime rates that is beginning to cause far more problems than it has solved. There are 50 to 100 people a week coming into custody with IPP sentences; clogging an already overcrowded prison system. Many see the IPP as a replacement for the old mandatory ‘two strikes’ sentence, which needed a repeat conviction for 11 specified offences. However the IPP covers no fewer than 157 offences, and can even be triggered by a first offence. As the specified offence that attracts an IPP sentence may in itself not be that serious, offenders are receiving relatively short tariffs, although they are still being classed as lifers. What adds to the confusion is that judges are halving the minimum term for some offences, as well as deducting a period for guilty pleas. Over 50 per cent of IPP sentences are under two years, and the median tariff is around 30 months. By 2011 it is predicted that there will be 12,500 prisoners without a release date - 3,500 more than the current total. In December 2006 there were more people in prison serving indeterminate sentences than there were serving 12 months or under. Because the IPP covers 157 offences, judges are being drawn to it because it covers a wider spectrum than other sentencing laws. But the main problem affecting anyone involved in the prison system is that judges are recommending such small tariffs that offenders are being considered for parole almost immediately after sentence has been passed. Then problems further down the line begin

when prisoners stack up in the gateway jails in which they were received. They do not get the chance to undertake the various offending behaviour courses that will satisfy the parole board they are suitable for release. Also, spaces at Stage One lifer prisons are unavailable as the sudden change in the dynamics of the prison population was not foreseen by those who formulated the law. IPP sentences have quadrupled the work for all the resources dealing with prisoners classed as lifers. There is also confusion amongst IPP-sentenced prisoners about how long they will have to serve before being eligible for parole. The answer is this: prisoners will have to serve the period up to their tariff as an absolute minimum.

what they might do in the future rather than the case before the court. In effect, on an offence that they may well never commit. We're back to those three psychics floating around in a pool. Also, the system that has now been created means that someone with a very small tariff, say 12 months for a not too serious crime, will end up doing about the same amount of time as someone doing a five-year IPP for manslaughter. Someone doing 12 months will take as long to get on, and complete, the relevant courses. With this message being sent out, people will see no need to limit the severity of their crimes due to the penalty incurred.

“

”

The crucial point is: IPP sentencing laws set a new precedent in British justice in that people are sentenced on the basis of

The courses available to IPP / lifers in Chelmsford, and many other local jails, are ETS and P-asro. If a place at a Stage One prison becomes available while the prisoner is engaged in ETS he will be expected to move, foregoing the course. But, despite this, the chances of a place coming up are unlikely (in the near future at least). Prisons are finding it difficult to process the increased rate of IPP-sentenced prisoners. The prison service is not the only level that is unprepared for this increase, it also puts pressure on the parole board who are assessing prisoners for release when they have only just been sentenced. The prison service, probation service and parole board are finding themselves having to deal with a situation they are completely unprepared for. The fundamental confusion at the heart of this sentence is that ministers responsible for the legislation covering IPP sentences do not consider IPPs as lifers. Neither do the courts. However, the prison service and the probation service do class IPPs as lifers. On top of this, most solicitors and barristers are unfamiliar with the guidelines concerning indeterminate sentences, and will offer a variety of different ways in which the sentence is structured and operates. There are also grey areas concerning how the IPP sentence joins to other sentences like recall, etc.

...people are sentenced on the basis of what they might do in the future rather than the case before the court. In effect, on an offence that they may well never commit.

Confusion for inmates also arises because the tariff corresponds to half of what they would have received if they had been sentenced to a determinate period. For example, a four-year determinate sentence is the equivalent of a two-year IPP, which means you will serve two years before being eligible for parole. But the confusion doesn't end there. As offenders are being considered for parole almost as soon as being sentenced, the prison service and other related groups are finding themselves unable to assess the individual and their needs. The parole board are then assessing someone for whom nothing has changed, as, in being sentenced to an IPP, they have only just been deemed a risk to the public.

prisoners on. Local jails are not equipped to provide any of the relevant courses, leaving the prisoners unable to work on their sentence plan. This leaves their risk to the public high until they can reach a Stage One lifer jail. But once here the waiting lists to enrol on offending behaviour programmes will be long, and delays in starting, and completing, the courses, will be inevitable.

Another unforeseen factor of the IPP sentence is its effect on the families of people sentenced to an indeterminate term. They have no idea when they will be reunited. The IMB describes this as 'inhumane'. At one time in Britain, someone sentenced to a life term was not told their tariff. This was considered inhumane and the law subsequently changed. This old practice is now being repeated under the new guise of IPP. No one has yet been released on their tariff, so inmates know that this figure by no means represents the length of time they are likely to serve. There's no way they can tell how long they will be away. And due to the increasing burden on the system, D-cat lifer / indeterminate prisoners are finding themselves unable to leave Ccat prisons. There are serious consequences involved in not moving these

The IPP status has been successfully appealed because of confusion surrounding how it connects to other sentences. Depending on what the judge has said in court, appeals have been upheld on the basis that courts are unsure if these sentences can be served concurrently or consecutively. Ultimately, the IPP sentence is an extreme addition to the sentencing laws. But what is surprising is how little it was discussed in parliament before its implementation. As a product of the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, the IPP was mentioned only once during the second reading of the Bill. Members of the Bar council, as well as some MPs, feel that the new sentencing laws covered by IPP are too severe. But it would seem that the Government is waiting to see whether in practice the policy works or not. When the problems implicit in the theory come about, it may well be that the law is repealed. We can only wait and see. * Douglas Salmon is currently resident in HMP Chelmsford

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Insidetime September 2007

Comment

The Cons of the Round Table

coins to make good use of and a little carrier pigeon told me the other day that the ladies in the village are desperately short of chastity belts. Therefore we will be creating a brand new metal-work room and shall make some.”

“Fantastic!” mumbled Sir Mordred.“ Well at least I’ll be arriving in style then eh!”

“Are you serious?” asked Sir Mordred.

“The Gov bothers me sometimes you know”, whispered Sir Chance A Lot to Sir Percival, sniggering.

“Absolutely!” replied Arthur. “Give me strength!” laughed Sir Percival, “It was only last week that Sir Galahad had a townie and saw a note pinned on yonder tree saying that the government were concentrating on offenders maintaining family ties!” “I’ve got a bloody home leave next weekend! So what you’re saying is when I get released, my missus is on lock-up?” moaned Sir Chance A Lot. “Well, it doesn’t look like she’s gonna be banged up mate that’s for sure!” laughed Sir Percival. “Or on Unlock!” giggled Sir Mordred. “Enough of the sordid remarks please!” shouted Arthur, “This is a worthwhile project to help those less fortunate!” “It’s a load of Bullwood if you ask me!” said Sir Mordred, shaking his head in disbelief. “So who’s testing these belt things out then?” asked Sir Chance A Lot. “Who do you think?” winked senior officer Maleagant.

By Alison Henderson

T

he honourable governor of HMP Conalot, Arthur King, could hardly contain his excitement as he had just received word from the Lady Gwenevere Trust. Conalot had qualified for a handful of coins to go towards a brand new project. Arthur called upon senior officer Maleagant to gather three cons up to the round table in order to discuss how the prison was best going to spend the coins. First to enter the room was Sir Chance A Lot of Manchester, well known for his rather Strange-ways and of course his prolific jousting offences. Next to plonk down on the round table was Sir Percival of RisleyPapers and Sir Mordred of Garth – renowned for robbing the local forest bank. “Morning gentlemen”, spoke Arthur King. “This morning we have some good news from The Lady Gwenevere Trust … Oh, just hang on a minute whilst I lift up the Dovegate, it seems the carrier pigeons have arrived with mail for you lot!” “Good stuff”, whispered Sir Percival, “I hope there’s one off Merlin my brief!” “Why? Is he any good mate?” asked Sir Mordred.

“Oh he’s a wizard at these recall cases you know”, winked Sir Percival with a glint in his eye. “All rise”, spoke senior officer Maleagant as Arthur King entered the room with a tiny handful of mail. “Right, one for you Sir Percival and one for you Sir Mordred, but nothing for you I’m afraid Sir Chance A Lot”, said Arthur. “Why not?” asked Sir Chance A Lot. “No, nothing from Wymott either I’m afraid”, replied Arthur. “No Sir, I meant why not?” repeated Sir Chance A Lot. “I’ve just told you, there’s zilch from Wymott!” shouted Arthur, “And by the way Sir Percival, the parole board have knocked you back, stating that you’ve failed twelve times trying to draw Excalibur.” “oh nooooooooooo!” wailed Sir Percival, “What exactly do they want? Blood out of a stone?” “No, just the sword, so it says on the letter”, replied a stern faced Arthur. “But ... but” stuttered Sir Percival, “They said...” “Right gentlemen, we shall proceed with the meeting”, interrupted Arthur sharply. “Like I was saying, we have been given some

PROBLEM? WE CAN HANDLE IT!

The con’s faces turned a ghostly shade of Whitemoor as they suddenly realised their fate. “Sir, am I right here in saying that you want us to make them and you want us to test them out as well?” asked Sir Percival nervously. “Correct!” replied Arthur, “So we will see you three down at the metal-work room bright and early in the morning at 7.00am.” “Righto boss”, mumbled the cons.

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The next morning, all three cons arrived at the metal-work room looking somewhat apprehensive. “Morning chaps!” sprung a voice from the corner. “I’m Winson Green, your metal-work teacher. This session will be heavily monitored and each chastity belt will be unique, containing its own very special key, which of course you won’t have access to.” “You don’t say!” mumbled Sir Percival under his breath. “Time we got to work then chaps”, said a jovial Winson Green. After hours of sweat and toil, hammering and clanking heavy pieces of metal, the cons were each fitted a metal contraption in the nether region area. Senior officer Maleagant gathered the three keys and sniggered as he clipped them onto the ring that dangled from his waist. The three cons limped wearily back to their cells, each one scheming in their minds how they could get the things off! “This is killing me!” moaned Sir Percival loudly. “Me too!” groaned Sir Mordred - holding onto the bars on the cell window. “Ssssssh! Keep it down!” whispered Sir Chance A Lot, “The knight clocky will be on his way round in a bit. Anyway Sir Mordred, I thought someone like yourself, known as Garth Vader on the jousting scene, would be coming up with brilliant ideas on how to get these things off!”

“Ah, before I go Sir Mordred, I forgot to tell you, you’re up at the Court Jester in two days”, said Arthur.

Sir Percival wriggled furiously on the floor as the belt irritated him beyond all comprehension.

“Oh what for now Sir?” replied Sir Mordred.

“Do you have to do that Sir Percival?” complained Sir Mordred, “It looks like you’ve got a bad case of the Wormwood Scrubs there my old mate!”

“Lets see,” mumbled Arthur as he shuffled the stack of papers in his hands.“ Ah, right, well, it says here that the Court Jester is considering you for HGV tagging Sir Mordred.” Sir Mordred looked somewhat confused. “Sir, who does my probation officer think I am, Ben Hur? He knows I don’t use chariots, I only use one horse when I’m jousting!” “Nothing to do with me Sir Mordred, I’m just reading what’s on the note here. Oh, and just one more thing, make sure you tell the Court Jester that you’re wearing a chastity belt, otherwise the metal detector will sound off”, replied Arthur.

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“No, no! You’ll be coming back here after the Court Jester - Styal is a women’s prison as you well know Sir Mordred”, said a nodding Arthur.

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Sir Chance A Lot started to smile craftily as he came up with a solution. He hobbled over to the table and began to pen a note. It read: ‘Dear Mr Geller, I hope you’re well? I’m fine under the circumstances but I haven’t had a visit for over two months now. May I say that I find your talent of bending metal absolutely amazing, so I was just wondering if …’ (… to be continued) * Alison Henderson is a former entertainer and stand-up comedienne, writer and poet.

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Insidetime September 2007

Pet sounds

Court Shorts

The drinker

Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

T

he pains of imprisonment take many forms, but I suppose most people would say that separation from family is the hardest to bear. Relationships become strained, you no longer have shared interests, the children grow up and you and your partner grow apart. Every prisoner fears the ‘Dear John’ letter. Indeed, I know from my death in custody investigations that such letters and phone calls can sometimes have really tragic effects. But it is not just relationships with other human beings that are fractured when you go to jail. Imprisonment also means separation from our animals and pets. The intensity of our attachment to animals can mean that losing touch with them is almost as hurtful as losing touch with family. Indeed, for most of us, pets really are part of the family. Being in jail may inevitably mean being cut off from most contact with animals. Yet there is a lot of evidence that having a pet to look after and train has a genuinely therapeutic effect. There is even a charity called ‘Pets as Therapy’ that promotes the use of animals in care homes and other institutions. I am sure the same would apply in prisons. Indeed, thanks to the power of Google, I have come across research from America that claims remarkable results for a programme linking problem youths with problem dogs, the two groups learning acceptable behaviour from each other. There is also

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21

Comment

a study that found better staff-prisoner relationships, and reduced violence, drug abuse and even suicide as a result of pet programmes in prisons.

Google also teaches me that the Prison Service has never commissioned any research of its own into the potential of animal-assisted therapy in the rehabilitation of offenders. Perhaps they are frightened of the tabloid headlines (Barking Mad etc). Perhaps they are acknowledging the reality of prison life that necessarily limits the extent to which animals can be involved. (I don’t expect NOMS to invent a new resettlement pathway to cover this omission.) But purely personally, I am always pleased when I see aquaria and fishtanks in prisons, or come across things like the prison aviary in Latchmere House. Coldingley has an even more famous Bird Project where prisoners clean, feed and maintain a large collection of birds of prey in a purpose-built sanctuary. The birds give demonstrations at country fairs and the like. I am sure you will write and tell me of many other examples. In the long-term prisons, lots of prisoners keep caged birds and I have written in this column before about the benefits this brings. Yet I am told that one former Home Secretary actually tried to ban prisoners from owning birds. ‘Not austere enough’ was his view. In contrast, here in the Ombudsman’s office we like budgies, and over the years we have built up a file of complaints relating to their care and welfare. The other week we took on an appeal against an adjudication where the prisoner had been charged with allowing his bird out of its cage to fly around the landing. Rather quaintly, this was considered a threat to health and safety (although whether to the bird itself or to prisoners or staff upon whom it might poop was not entirely clear). However, the chap concerned had been warned on several occasions only to allow the bird to fly around when his cell door was closed, so I regret we could do little to help him. The adjudication was bang to rights. But, you ask, did our report include a line to the effect that a budgie flying around a landing was “contrary to wing policy”? Oh yes, I am afraid it did.

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I have nothing but love for Ireland, but that doesn’t alter the fact that among those hauled before the courts for alcohol-related offences, Irishmen with a fondness for the stuff come high on the scoreboard. I’ve never seen a St Patrick’s Day reveller in the dock wearing a green hat with a shamrock on his sweater as Chris Blessington evidently has, but I do recall an amiable County Mayo man who pleaded guilty to drunken driving, as well he might: he was three times over the limit. Worse, this was not the first time. He’s been done twice before for the same offence and on the last occasion was disqualified for four years. This was his rather confused plea in mitigation: ‘The wife’s pregnant, you see, and we were planning to emigrate to New Zealand. Then me brother turned up unexpectedly from abroad. I hadn’t seen him for a long time. He said our mother was seriously ill. I was very upset. Gutted. So me brother and me went to have a few drinks. And when I got into the car, I clean forgot I was drunk, Your Honour.’ John Mortimer, creator of the immortal Rumpole, likes to tell the story of a beak of the old school who had to sentence an Irish labourer. The man had been charged with peeing down the staircase at Leicester Square underground station, shouting at passers by and generally being drunk and disorderly, not for the first time. The magistrate told the man that this time he was predisposed to be lenient with him. But he would let him off only on one condition - ‘Oh yes your Royal Highness, anything you say.’ ‘I want you to promise me that you will not take a drop of alcohol for the rest of your natural life.’ ‘Oh yes, your Holiness, I promise you, not a drop.’ ‘But when I say not a drop, I mean that you must never, ever touch a single glass, nothing at all. Not even the teeniest weeniest little glass of dry sherry before your dinner.’ A courtroom sketch for Inside Time by the artist and magistrate Chris Blessington, based on The Magistrates Tale by Trevor Grove, himself a magistrate, author and a Director of Inside Time.

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Insidetime September 2007

Comment

As human as our victims

Lifer Ben Gunn wonders just how much, and for how long, society wants lifers to be punished

A

But this isn't every minute of every day. We also live as normal a life as we are able. We enjoy good TV, a funny joke, a nice brew. Our conscience does not dull our human qualities. Why should it? Because the pain our victims carry doesn't dull their human qualities either. They laugh, cry, go to work, watch TV. They are not in distress every minute of every day - and they are the ones who are said to be suffering.

ccording to some brave anonymous screw in Wakefield, quoted in the papers, Ian Huntley has been complaining that Aramark had screwed-up his canteen order. The same screw found this to be an outrage beyond belief - Huntley should spend all his time writhing in guilt, not counting his chocolates. This made me wonder about two things. Firstly, why is it that no investigation is ever launched by the Prison Service into the legions of screws who happily leak their venom onto the pages of the tabloids? And doubtless top up their beer fund in the process. It has never happened. Not once. At least I have the stones to put my name to what I have to say, and take any resulting lumps, whereas these guardians of our moral order skulk in the shadows like the spineless, spiteful wretches they are. There's nothing like standing up for what you believe in - and that type of conduct is nothing like standing up for what you believe in. Secondly, it made me wonder - not for the first time - what it is that our victims want from us? I have to tread carefully here, not least because the last time I raised this issue I was given a friendly spanking by Tim Newell. But I think it is fair to delve into the issue. Nearly every day we are fed a diet of what are, so it is alleged, the views of victims. Psychology loves to do it. So does the Parole Board. The tabloids just can't stop doing it. Even the occasional screw does it. Once, when I was refusing compulsory exercise, a screw wandered into my cell and said, "Your victim can't do exercise." Whilst being true, what the hell did that mean? I asked if I should do two hours instead of one, to make up for it; which I thought was quick thinking but was really bemused indifference.

Emotional pain, grief, just doesn't work like that. It is trite to claim that time heals all wounds, yet time does slowly relegate the pain and allow daily life to come increasingly to the fore. Whilst some victims say that it is they who have been given the life sentence, in the course of normal life this sentence gets easier. Everybody who has lost someone close to them recognises this.

“

I don't know a single lifer who, in the still dark hours, does not twist and turn under the weight of his crime. You kill someone, it comes back to haunt you ... But this isn't every minute of every day.

What did he mean, really? That I should be grateful for my life, when I deprived him of his? Well, I don't need to kill someone to be grateful for my life - that comes with birth, part of the deal. I don't doubt this screw was sincere in some way, he meant something by what he said. He just didn't make it clear. The same applies to our POA hero from Wakefield. Sincere, probably. Incoherent,

”

definitely. Having committed our crimes, whatever they may be, we seem to be absolved forever from being afforded the status of 'human'. Otherwise, what is the problem with us complaining about Aramark? Not liking being robbed seems perfectly natural to me. So is the claim that, having killed, other people are entitled to screw with us? I'd like to suggest that we examine that chain of reasoning, but that doesn't comprise a coherent thought process. No more than my screw and his exercise problem. And this is a large part of the problem that I have with victim issues - they seem to be incoherent. And incoherence is a lousy basis on which to build public policy. I may be being unfair, of course, because I recognise that the statements of victims and victim groups are mediated through journalists - who are superimposing their own agenda. One thing has occurred to me lately. I suspect, given victims’ preoccupation with PlayStations and TV's, we are expected to spend all of our time tormented by our consciences. I don't know a single lifer who, in the still dark hours, does not twist and turn under the weight of his crime. You kill someone, it comes back to haunt you.

Not that this is inevitably the case. There is an illness, pathological grief, in which the distress does not diminish. One of the parents of a Brady-Hindley murder was famous for this. Forever tormented both by the loss of her son and the baiting of the tabloids. Her grief was palpable; but still unusual. Oddly, as far as I can tell, the same is true for many lifers. The weight of the blood on our hands does not ease with the years. Perhaps the older we get, the more we appreciate the enormity of what we have taken. But this is not recognised. Prison staff are never interested in exploring the effects of our offence on ourselves. As long as they can tick a box, 'victim empathy', they are happy. Perhaps they ought to wonder why a disproportionate number of prison suicides are lifers. Just a thought. Of course, if we do show distress at what we have done, we are instantly accused of faking it for the Parole Board. And if we top ourselves, like Dr Harold Shipman, then we are accused of ‘jumping ship’ and getting off lightly. That the people who make such inane comments are usually the ones who want to bring back hanging only highlights the bafflement that I face when trying to unravel victim issues. We are as human as our victims. Daily life does intrude after a while, life returns to some sort of equilibrium. The same can be said of our victims. This shared humanity could provide a basis for a sensible exchange between offenders and victims; if only the debate wasn't framed by the screaming media hyenas. * Ben Gunn is currently resident in HMP Shepton Mallet

Insidetime September 2007

A Government’s shame ... continued from front page

by Mary Monson

T

he Government has already told us that from October 2006, anyone with a total family income of over £11,000 will have to pay a proportion of their legal costs for a case in the Magistrates Court. As for those who earn £20,000 or more (again including what their partner earns), they now have to pay all of their legal bills in the Magistrates. Oh, and if you’re self-employed, for the first year or two of these “reforms” the Legal Services Commission (the government’s Legal Aid arm) say they are very sorry, but your income will probably be too hard for them to work out, so you have to pay your legal fees too. That or have no lawyer in court…a court where you could go to prison if you are convicted. Then the government told us that it was time to “improve value” and efficiency to their customers (whether they mean you or me by that I’m not really sure). No longer will solicitors get paid for travel to and waiting at a police station or at court. Well, if it improves efficiency and discourages the Legal Aid Fatcats, that can’t be a bad idea. Can it? Now we learn that from December 1st 2007 there will be a reduced fee structure, which will almost certainly lead to a reduced level of service for clients. So there it is, it doesn’t sound very bad. After all, it’s not really any concern to defendants whether their lawyers are paid a living wage or not. Well, not in theory. The problem is that now for mid-level Crown Court cases (i.e. a GBH or Drug Supply case), lawyers will be paid between 10 and 20% of what is required to prepare the case properly. So instead of being allowed to fee at an hourly rate, spending time with the client to get the full background of the alleged offence and offender, interviewing witnesses, going through the unused material with a finetooth comb, and everything else that is absolutely necessary to do a good job for the client, the solicitor will be able to visit the

The Government requires us, as lawyers, to tell clients they get the same service if they go Legal Aid as if they pay privately. In my firm we usually need to spend over 1,500 hours preparing a murder trial, and the government wants to pay us £4,000 or £5,000 for that. So the government want to pay criminal lawyers £3 an hour. Out of that we will have to pay the wages of lawyers, secretaries, rent, petrol, the lot. And to add insult to injury, I am supposed to lie to my clients and tell them that they are still getting a service. Even the chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission has called Legal Aid cuts “mindless”. If bad legal representation means more wrongful convictions, then this response is not surprising. So what’s the point I’m making here? Don’t get charged for a Crown Court offence after December 1st 2007. Or if you do, have a house to sell, because the government will now only pay for the legal equivalent of an out of date packet of Tesco Value Crisps to defend you. And anyone who tells you any different is either funding their Crown Court practice at a loss (I will be trying to do this – keeping the criminal work going by doing more private civil legal work), or is being economical with the truth. The Legal Services Commission will probably now write a response letter to this article saying I’m wrong, that everything’s fine, and that the defendant has never had it so good. But hey, there are still people who believe in the Easter Bunny. * Mary Monson is a solicitor of 30 years experience and has represented clients in political cases involving the prison population. In 1992 she successfully defended Alan Lord against allegations that he was the ringleader of the Strangeways Riot.

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client twice, read the prosecution statements once, and go to court – but not have the money to pay a solicitor to attend – unqualified clerks only now. It will be this for criminal solicitors or face bankruptcy. And make no mistake, some solicitors will not think twice about adopting this conveyer-belt approach that many in the prison population feel is the norm among some larger firms already. Other firms are quietly departing from Legal Aid work. Perhaps that is the more honest option.

mary monson solicitors THE PRISON PHOENIX TRUST Head doing you in? Stressed out? Can’t sleep?

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Clients accepted throughout the country We speak: Po-Polsku, ýesky, Slovensky, ɉo-Ɋɭɫɫɤɢ, Also Guajarati, Urdu, Hindi, Español, Français

We need to limit foreign stars ... they're killing off the England team

“

There's no doubt the quality of the Premiership is good - but our national game is suffering as a result of the influx of foreign players. And we have to act quickly or face the consequences. While you are never going to stop the Cantonas, Zolas and Bergkamps of this world coming to play in our league it is seriously getting out of hand. Nearly 60 per cent of players starting in the Premiership this season will be foreign, rising to 70 per cent in the top four clubs Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal. That is staggering. And if that isn't worrying for the state of the English football team then I don't know what is.

England are not producing less talented players, it's just no one is bothered enough to look for them. The other result is that millions of pounds are going out of the country. Look at Shevchenko, he's come from Italy, cost £30 million and he's 30. Are you telling me that money could not be invested to bring through great new blood and scout for home-grown talent? In 10 to 15 years, when we really start reeling from the effects, fans will start complaining because we won't be qualifying for European Championships and World Cups. We won't be good enough. But how do we solve this? I would love to go back to a limit on foreign players. Maybe three is unrealistic, but certainly five or even seven could work. That way you would start to see young British players starting to shine. We've got to start somewhere and the fact is if we don't start soon then the national game is as good as dead. Ian Wright in The Sun on August 8th 2007

”

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Insidetime September 2007

Comment

Home detention curfew Donna Peters from Parlby Calder Solicitors highlights what prisoners need to know about ‘tagging’ Presumed unsuitable for HDC: There are of course certain types of offences which mean that a prisoner is presumed to be unsuitable and those offences are as follows: • Murder, attempted murder, threats to kill, conspiring, aiding or abetting, death by dangerous driving; • Causing explosions, placing of explosives and possession of explosives; • Possession of offensive weapons; • Possession of firearms with intent; • Cruelty to children; • Racially aggravated offences; • Any sexual offence.

T

he Home Detention Curfew Scheme (HDC) or ‘tagging’ is available to prisoners serving more than 3 months imprisonment but less than 4 years. It was introduced as a means of reducing the prison population, however recent queries from prisoners would seem to indicate that not all establishments are providing the same information.

• Liable for removal from the UK; • ERD for HDC is less than 14 days from the halfway point of sentence.

HDC can form part of your sentence plan and you will be released on HDC unless there are any reasons to suggest that the HDC conditions will not be complied with.

Presumptive HDC eligibility: Those prisoners who are not serving sentences for or have a history of violence including possession of a weapon, sexual or drugs offending will be presumed eligible for release on HDC.

Those excluded from eligibility: There are certain prisoners who will not be deemed suitable for HDC. These are prisoners who: • Are serving an extended sentence; • Are serving a sentence for being unlawfully at large (absconding/failing to return); • Have previously breached a curfew order or were recalled for breaching the HDC scheme; • Detained under mental health provisions; • Subject to notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003;

On arrival at prison you will informed of your HDC eligibility date. It is prudent to seek legal advice as soon as you become aware of your HDC date in order that representations can be prepared on your behalf.

A recent amendment means that prisoners who have previous convictions for possession (without intent to supply) of drugs can still be considered for HDC. Release on HDC is of course subject to a satisfactory home check, i.e. that there is a continuous supply of electric and access to a landline telephone, the property is in England and Wales, and the person with whom you intend to reside is also acceptable.

However, just because your offence may fall within the presumed unsuitable list does not necessarily mean that you could not be considered for HDC and you should contact your solicitor as soon as possible, who will be able to draft some representations on your behalf. Exceptional circumstances: Where these rarely occur, it will be for the Governor to decide on whether or not the reasons are ‘exceptional’. Risk of offending is not a reason to refuse an application for release on HDC under exceptional circumstances. For example, a person with no previous convictions who has committed one of the presumed unsuitable offences but where there are substantial mitigating circumstances. This also includes Category ‘A’ prisoners serving less than four years. In addition, where foreign nationals may be subject to IND reviews if you have submitted applications for your status to be considered you cannot be deported during that time, in which case your circumstances may well fall within the exceptional circumstances. It is important that you speak to an immigration lawyer to establish what applications you may be able to make prior to contacting a prison law lawyer to assist you with HDC.

Ross S olmon & C o

Attridge law

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Representations: When contacting a solicitor to assist with your representations, you should provide the following information, as this will assist with the drafting: • What your index offence was, when you were convicted and how long your sentence is; • Whether you have previous convictions and what they were and when; • What your proposed release address will be and with whom you will be residing; • Confirmation of whether you have complied with your sentence plans and what, if any, additional courses you have undertaken; • What your recent OASys risk level was calculated at; • What IEP level you are and whether you have been involved in any adjudications; • What employment you are in and whether that is a trusted position; • Any other information you believe will assist your case to granted HDC; • If yours is an exceptional circumstance – then the reasons why you believe so. Assessment: HDC suitability assessment takes place approximately 10 weeks prior to your eligibility date. The usual assessment is a standard suitability test and is carried out by probation. Information about you will be gathered from not only yourself (or via your solicitor’s representations) but also a member of prison staff who has daily contact with you. Internal probation will also contact the probation office of the area into which you wish to be released, in order for a home visit to be undertaken and to consider if you are suitable for release on HDC. If you have been unfortunate enough not to have complied with previous curfew requirements then an enhanced assessment will need to be undertaken. This will involve a panel being convened, usually consisting of the Governor, seconded pro-

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25

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The fear factor Former prisoner Lucy Charman offers a personal view on tagging and its overall effectiveness

bation officer and a member of staff who has daily contact. The board will then consider your overall behaviour and engagement with prison regimes and sentence plans. Release on HDC: If your release has been deemed suitable then adults serving over 12 months will have their HDC expiry at the halfway point. You will then be subject to normal licence conditions until your sentence expiry. Youth offenders serving less than 3 months on HDC will also be required to have a notice of supervision to ensure compliance. If you do not comply with the HDC requirements you are still subject to recall to prison. If you are recalled you are entitled to appeal the decision and you should contact your solicitor as soon as possible for assistance in this regard. If you intend to appeal the recall, it is important that you make a statement to the prison making it clear that you intend to appeal. The deadline for this is the following day. It is important that you contact your solicitor immediately because representations must be submitted within 3 days of recall. Refusal to grant HDC: There are five reasons upon which your application for release on HDC will be refused:

1. An unacceptable risk to the victim or members of the public; 2. A pattern of offending which indicates a likelihood of re-offending during the HDC period; 3. A likelihood of failing to comply with curfew conditions; 4. Lack of suitable accommodation; 5. Shortness of potential curfew period (i.e. at least 14 days). If the HDC application is refused, the written reasons must be given to you including any reports upon which the application was refused. This additional right was as a result of R v Home Secretary ex p Allen [2000]. It is important that you provide a copy of those papers to your solicitor as soon as possible. Your solicitor will then be able to consider appealing the decision on your behalf. Alternatively, you can complete a complaint (COMP) form. Governors are given guidance that any appeals submitted by solicitors should be dealt with as a priority. If the refusal is upheld then the solicitor can make a complaint to the Ombudsman to consider your case. If the application is refused again, and the solicitor/barrister believes that the reasons are not valid, then a judicial review could be undertaken to review the position.

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Effective? Depends who you ask! For those who watched the Panorama programme in June regarding ‘tags’ (and Serco in particular) it would appear that tagging doesn’t work – certainly not as a deterrent against reoffending at any rate. The subjects chosen as an illustration were being tagged for such things as breaching ASBOs - just another badge of glory to these youngsters and a way of putting two fingers up to society. The subjects were never in during their curfew time, yet nothing was done about picking them up. That would only lead to yet another court appearance - if they bothered to turn up - followed by a slapped wrist, maybe a few more days on the tag and that’s it - really scary stuff, not! Hardly likely to have them quaking in their nicked designer trainers! Tags are used in two ways; one for prisoners coming out early on home detention with, in my case, a curfew of 7pm – 7am and regular trips to probation. Secondly, they are given out by magistrates in lieu of going to prison and to keep the criminal concerned off the streets at a time of the day when he or she is normally up to no good; you only have to see the gangs of youths hanging round parks and town centres to know that the time of day is not an issue! This option only works if they are monitored and scared enough not to break the curfew. Having spoken to a magistrate on the subject of tags, they were of the opinion that they are a waste of time. Unfortunately it is often the decreed punishment for a certain offence, particularly for juveniles or young offenders, due in the main to the lack of facilities to send them to and the justice system, in their infinite wisdom, keeping banging on about ‘rehabilitation rather than punishment’. In the case of persistent offenders, some magistrates are in favour of the short, sharp punishment, as considered some time ago; a few months in an institution with no designer gear, no home comforts, no lie-ins and actually having to get up and go to work may be a much better option and something that a lot of people would not want to repeat. Probation, when questioned on the subject, consider that they are over-

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stretched and can only give a short time for the weekly check-in to tagged offenders; no ‘quality’ time to help with rehabilitation, always supposing the tagged offender has even bothered to turn up for probation in the first place. Statistics given by the Ministry of Justice regarding the recall of offenders who breach tagging or licence conditions is well over 70% - no wonder then that given these details, and programmes like Panorama, the general public have no faith in tagging, and I wouldn’t blame them. However, it still means that 30% have stayed on the straight and narrow, and once in a while it would be good if they were highlighted. All the time the media concentrate on emphasising the negative side of tagging and punishment in general – and let’s face it, exposés and scandal sell – the public will be anti-tagging and other forms of community punishment. Once in a while a few success stories should be told, not only to prove a point for the justice system but also to ensure that those considered suitable by prisoner governors will still be given the opportunity for early release. Tagging doesn’t work in most cases and will not work unless breaches are punished effectively. With all the CCTV in most towns and cities, it would not be difficult for there to be a photographic monitoring system, similar to the computers police have in their cars, to pick up ‘dodgy’ vehicles - that would alert the police and the person breaching could be picked up by the monitoring service or police and returned home or incarcerated for the remainder of the curfew. Maybe a ‘three strikes and you’re inside’ rule should be implemented? Strike one, ASBO, breach and strike two is a tag – to be monitored properly, breach and strike three is custodial. There has to be a fear factor attached to the tag for it to work. The thought of going back to prison and losing everything all over again has certainly worked in my case! * Inside Time writes: We understand that Lucy has since been through the ‘de-tagging’ ceremony!

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Insidetime September 2007

Disability discrimination in open prisons Disability discrimination is becoming an increasingly important part of prison law. Whether it be wheelchair use, bathing facilities or access to medication, it is clear that the prison estate is not very disability-friendly. Another significant development was that the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) intervened because of the public interest. Importantly, they produced correspondence which showed they had been criticising the response of (what was then) the Home Office to disability in the prison system, and revealing that the responsible minister had agreed the relevant Disability Equality Scheme was inadequate. This enabled us to argue not only that the DDA had been breached in our client’s individual case but that these breaches were caused by systemic failures across the system as a whole. We said that the Secretary of State had failed to think properly, or indeed at all, about how he was to accommodate the needs of disabled prisoners in the open estate, and this has produced the results we were now seeing. This amounted to a dogged determination to maintain the status quo and not, as the DDA requires, thinking positively and in advance about how to equalise the position of disabled people so far as possible. Ultimately, after more than a year of litigation, the prison and the Secretary of State backed down and offered our client a practical solution. It is also accepted that there has been a past breach of his DDA rights and the case is now adjourned for an assessment of damages. That is enough for him.

Jules Purdon & Nick Armstrong

W

e recently acted on a case that raises a specific disability discrimination issue, and which we suspect is rather common. Our client was a disabled lifer who succeeded in obtaining a Parole Board recommendation, and a Secretary of State acceptance, for transfer to open conditions. Unfortunately, however, when it came to moving him, the prison refused because they said they could not accommodate his drugs regime. The healthcare centre was not open seven days a week and the prison was not prepared to countenance either self-medication or dispensation by officers. This created massive problems because there was only

Taylor Bracewell

one open prison offering our client the courses the Parole Board required. Therefore unless the prison shifted its position he was going nowhere, and would ultimately not achieve release. We commenced proceedings arguing that the prison was caught by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) because training and testing of this kind was a service within the meaning of that Act. Reasonable adjustments to accommodate our client’s disability were therefore required. The prison and the Secretary of State resisted this argument, saying (amongst other things) that we were not concerned with services. Halfway through the proceedings, however, in December 2006, the DDA was amended to bring into force new public authority functions and disability equality duties, which largely (though not entirely) allowed us to sidestep the services point.

MICHAEL PURDON

S o l i c i t o r s

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Please contact us to discuss your requirements: Taylor Bracewell Solicitors 17-23 Thorne Road Doncaster South Yorkshire DN1 2RP

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However, we cannot help but think that there must be a lot of other prisoners out there with similar problems. Informally, we know that there are. Disability generally, and particularly in the context of open prisons, is a real problem but there are now some powerful new duties that can help. They should be used to their full.

* Jules Purdon is a solicitor at Michael Purdon, Solicitor, 33 High Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne. Nick Armstrong is a barrister at Matrix Chambers in London.

KRISTINA HARRISON S O L I C I T O R S SPECIALISTS IN PRISON LAW • Recalls • Parole • Adjudications • IPP & Extended Sentences • Lifer Issues • Categorisation • Transfers • Property • IEP Scheme • HDC • Request/Complaints • Appeals • CCRC • Judicial Review • POCA

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Insidetime September 2007

Bob Woffinden writes...

The case of Glyn Razzell Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden examines the bizarre case of a man sentenced to life for a murder that never happened be ready to get back into court at a moment’s notice. So Glyn had to pull out of a day trip to France planned for the following day; a few friends were going to stock up on wine and cheese. As Glyn’s people-carrier was the most spacious of their vehicles, he agreed to exchange cars just for 24 hours.

T

his murder case is so implausible that, had it been suggested as a television crime drama, it would never have got made.

Glyn Razzell met Linda Davies (both pictured above) on a train in 1979, when he was embarking on a career in insurance and she was reading French at Reading University. They were married, lived just outside Swindon and had four children. Their marital difficulties began in 1998. Needing to accommodate their growing family, Razzell designed an extension to their home and builders came in to do the work. Linda, who had suffered recurring mental health problems, embarked on a torrid affair with one of them. According to one of her friends, “She had sex with him in the house, she would go upstairs with him while the children were downstairs … she was crazy about him”. Glyn found out and moved out. He formed a new relationship; Linda, the builder having soon tired of her, also found a new partner. Their divorce arrangements became bitter and protracted. Linda twice made allegations that Glyn had physically assaulted her. These led to criminal charges, though each time the jury acquitted Glyn. On Friday 15 March 2002 Linda, who by now worked as a student support assistant at Swindon College, went to court and got an order freezing all of Glyn’s finances. Glyn couldn’t contact his solicitor over the weekend but on Monday morning he was advised to

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That day, Tuesday 19 March, Linda dropped off the children at school and then went missing. About 16 hours later, just after one o’clock in the morning, Wiltshire police knocked up Razzell to ask him a few questions. They also searched his car, which had just been returned to him. He helpfully told the officers that he’d been using a different car, his friend’s Renault Laguna, during the day. So the next afternoon, the police searched the Laguna. They didn’t find anything suspicious. With Linda still missing, they then took the Laguna into police garages and kept it for four days while they carried out a thorough examination. Again, there was no evidence whatever to connect that car with Linda’s disappearance. The Laguna was returned to its owner in a filthy condition with, for example, fingerprint powder everywhere. The owner cleaned it thoroughly inside and out. A week later, the police took the car in again. Now, they immediately found spots of blood that DNA testing subsequently showed to be Linda’s. Glyn was charged with her murder. At Bristol Crown Court in November 2003, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Yet there was no evidence that Glyn – or indeed anyone – had abducted Linda. He took a telephone call at home at 8.24; Linda would have needed to park her car for work

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at about 8.45. It would have taken him about 15 minutes to reach that part of Swindon from his home. Had he been planning anything, then he would not still have been at home to take that call. In any case, we know that he hadn’t driven to the theoretical abduction site. The police examined traffic cameras at 25 sites to find evidence of his drive across town; but Glyn’s car (the one he was borrowing) wasn’t on any of them. That morning, he had walked through the local park. He quickly realised that he could prove the alibi. “Look”, he told police, “on my walk I went past Westlea police station. There are CCTV cameras outside, so you will be able to verify what I am saying”. The police responded that the cameras outside the station were not working. Razzell, of course, cannot possibly have known that. At trial, the prosecution described Glyn as “a methodical man who planned everything in advance”. If that was true, then he obviously did not commit this crime. He would have abandoned any abduction-and-murder plan as soon as he had to switch cars at less than 24 hours’ notice. Any forensic traces of Linda in his own car could have been easily explained; any traces of her in someone else’s certainly couldn’t have been. In fact, although Glyn has been convicted of Linda’s murder, there is no evidence at all that she is dead. Moreover, he can only have carried out the crime on 19 March; and she was seen alive the next day. The witness knew her well and waved. “She didn’t wave back”, she said, “and I thought she looked cross and wasn’t happy to see me. “Even knowing what I know now, I am sure it was Linda.” Wiltshire police examined about 200 sites in an exhaustive search for a body; they did very little to ascertain whether Linda had disappeared of her own volition. Yet there are clear indications that Linda may have been about to fake a disappearance. She did have

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On the kitchen calendar at home, there was a question-mark against the very date, the 19th, on which she disappeared. She had to wear a college identity badge to work; that day, she left it at home. She actually had two mobile phones, one of which was an emergency number, reserved solely for contact with the children. She left that at home, too. She had drawn up a to-do list for a trip the previous day to the town centre. One of the items on this list was: ‘Collect travel tickets’. During that visit to the town centre, she went to three banks. No one has ever been able to explain how those original police searches of the car could have missed the bloodspots - and these were visible-to-the-naked-eye bloodspots - unless, of course, the answer is that they hadn’t been there then. The Nicci French crime novel, Secret Smile (which became a television drama starring Kate Ashfield and David Tennant) may well have been suggested by this case. The story (by the successful writing partnership of Sean French and Nicci Gerrard) concerned a woman faking her own disappearance in order to gain revenge on her partner and, indeed, send him to prison for life for her murder – a murder that never happened. Of course, the authors made sure that their fictional scenario had substantially more credibility than the real-life case put forward by the Crown Prosecution Service at Bristol Crown Court. * Bob Woffinden has taken up and helped to rectify a number of high-profile cases of miscarriage of justice and has written books on miscarriages of justice and the case of James Hanratty, whose innocence he still hopes, one day, to be able to prove. Unfortunately, neither Bob Woffinden nor Inside Time are able to enter into any individual correspondence regarding this column.

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problems: she had defaulted on her mortgage repayments; and she also had emotional difficulties at work. One internal e-mail makes it clear that her position as a member of the student support staff had become anomalous, since it was she who appeared to need support from the students.

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28

Legal

Insidetime September 2007

Short changing Barrister Stanley Best advises prisoners not to be ‘caught off guard’ when seeking legal representation

Y

ou might think that you have only to ask your solicitor to brief Counsel, of whose ability you have perhaps heard, for your Parole Board review or recall appeal and it is as good as done. Think again. Indications from one quarter or another show that there are a small number of solicitors who have such terrible memories that when it comes to arranging a conference with Counsel, or sending him instructions for your hearing, they completely forget about your wishes and you end up being represented by a caseworker (or at best a young, very newly qualified and inexperienced solicitor). A caseworker, being translated, often means a solicitor's clerk with no legal qualifications whatsoever and little experience or occasionally a trainee solicitor – ie not yet fully qualified. One caseworker admitted to me that he had been in a solicitor's office for only 15 months, but was allowed to deal with lifer reviews! One could hardly blame him; he simply followed his firm's policy of keeping cases ‘in house’, ie to be dealt with by a caseworker rather than by a solicitor or Counsel. Since a firm charges the Legal Services Commission for a caseworker the same fee as would be paid for a solicitor or for Counsel, this means that the firm, keeping cases ‘in house’, reaps more profit for itself on each case at your expense because you may be deprived of the best advice and representation and at the expense of legal aid funding. The job description ‘caseworker’ has been poached from the Crown Prosecution Services. You, a mere prisoner, may be thought of small account and, in any event, you may not realise that the solicitors have decided to keep your case ‘in house’ until the day of the hearing when it is, in practical terms, too late to protest save to the Parole Board panel who may offer you an adjournment which, although it should result in you being properly represented next time, means a probable delay of at least three months. However, if you do not complain you may live to regret it, for the caseworker may have done little to prepare your case for hearing and will not be experienced at dealing with your case before the Parole Board panel.

The Law Society says that a solicitor should always make clear to the client the category of person (solicitor/legal executive/caseworker) dealing in his office with a client's case, but in some cases this requirement is overlooked. The danger for you is that unless you are properly represented by experienced Counsel you may fail to gain a decision to which you are or may be entitled. Andrew Holroyd, the newly elected President of the Law Society, is quoted (Law Society’s Gazette, 26th July 2007) as saying, very rightly, that professional ethics are at the top of the agenda so far as he is concerned. The facts set out herein are very much a matter of professional ethics, so that when the Law Society President reads this article, one must hope that he acts appropriately. Why do some solicitors (and it is only a few) behave in this way? Strangely enough, a part of the blame lies with the Legal Services Commission. It too is not exactly thrilled at funding Counsel to appear on behalf of prisoners and now pays Counsel a fee for representing a prisoner at a hearing only at the same level as a solicitor. In the eyes of some solicitors, there is an open invitation to allow an unqualified or less than fully qualified employee, i.e. a caseworker, to prepare and handle a case at the hearing allowing the solicitor employer to pocket the same fee as would be paid for Counsel (were he to be instructed), but in fact for a caseworker not even, in some cases, having had legal training. The caseworker may be charming, but charm offers you less than the skill of a competent lawyer when the Home Secretary argues against your release. Preparation for your parole hearing is half the battle. How well will your caseworker prepare your case? Recent experience has pointed up unhelpful developments. Some caseworkers are so deficient in understanding of what is required to get a case up for the hearing that they are seemingly unable to recognise the need for evidence (expert or otherwise) or for the written representations made earlier to have been carefully constructed so as to make the best impact on the panel. Recently, I encountered one who proposed that glaring and damaging omissions should be either ignored or left until the hearing to be corrected, with consequent problems for the client who would be considered to have kept things back from the Parole Board about his case. Ultimately, in the case I have in mind, the solicitors simply wrote to the prisoner who offered unsatisfactory

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answers which should have been explored face to face. They will not be because the firm has a policy of not visiting prisons which are some distance away and deal with everything in writing when they can. By contrast, Counsel are not so restricted and I have recently, e.g. like other members of the Bar specialising in parole reviews and the like, been far afield - North, South, East and West. It is of very great importance that prisoners (and all others) facing a court or a tribunal, such as eg a Parole Board panel, be adequately represented and that proper steps be taken to gather evidence and get the case ready for hearing. Caseworkers are not experienced at deciding what evidence is needed nor, for reasons of cost, always ready to seek expert witnesses to help you in your case. Remember, the Parole Board has, in some respects, even more sweeping powers than a court of law. It is not bound by the rules as to evidence as in a Crown Court. Hearsay evidence is regularly accepted. In Gulliver -v- Parole Board (4 July 2007), the Court of Appeal held that when hearing an application for re-release of a prisoner following his recall to prison by the Home Secretary, the Parole Board are not required simply to review the Home Secretary's decision (with which they might disagree), but could and should take into account all the evidence available to it even though what was revealed had not been available to the Home Secretary when considering the recommendation for recall. For example, you may, whilst out on licence, have been wrongly accused of an offence and recalled to prison immediately after your arrest. Months later you are found not guilty in the Crown Court. Indeed the prosecution may have decided to offer no evidence against you so that you leave court without the stain of a further conviction on your character. If you think that you can then, without more ado, resume your parole licence, think again. That is where the approach to your case exemplified by Gulliver -v- The Parole Board kicks in and the question of rerelease is enquired into again in the most searching manner as though you had never previously been released on licence. In that and other situations, not least including your very first parole review hearing, you should always be represented by a fully experienced lawyer before the Parole Board. If you have heard well spoken of particular Counsel you are advised to make your request for representation by

Counsel clear in writing to your solicitor, even if he/she is one of the very many who always play the game by the rules. Keep a copy- of your letter and be careful to ask in that letter for an undertaking or promise in writing that your wishes will be respected. If you don’t get a written assurance that you will have Counsel to represent you where that is your wish, then change your solicitor. For many, many years solicitors have regularly turned to experienced Counsel for guidance as to how to handle a wide variety of cases. A few solicitors are now declining to go to Counsel and instead dealing with cases ‘in house’ or, in other words, doing not what is good for you, but what is more profitable for them. At the very least you should always be represented by a competent and experienced lawyer, whether Counsel or solicitor. Bear in mind that however good Counsel may be, he cannot make bricks without straw, nor turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, so tell your solicitor who prepares your case to send to Counsel everything, so that he may pass vital information on in the brief. This problem does not stop at the parole view. If your application fails, Counsel may, in some cases, advise that you seek judicial review of the Parole Board’s decision in the High Court. In one recent case where I did advise taking the matter to the High Court, the solicitors’ firm said that they were ‘allowed to defer’ to Counsel’s opinion, ie they had a discretion in the matter. Not so. If they think it wrong, they must seek funding for a second opinion. In fact as the Legal Services Commission confirm, when Counsel advises in favour of an appeal, the solicitor should communicate Counsel’s advice to the Legal Services Commission whose decision to grant or refuse funding will then be made, in most cases granting funding. Usually Counsel’s opinion is accepted, which is further reason for briefing Counsel initially. You have been warned. Don't be caught off guard and let yourself be short-changed by a ‘rogue’ solicitor or one that is well meaning but mistaken. You may well live to regret it. * Stanley Best is a practising barrister at Barnstaple Chambers Fax/phone: 01837 83763.

Insidetime September 2007

Legal

Disclosure and PII Procedures Aziz Rahman & Jonathan Lennon In this article we attempt to give a short explanation of the recent history of disclosure and developments in Public Interest Immunity (PII) so that those facing the current regime(s) may better understand the reality of what is expected of them, and what they can hope to gain from the current processes. Disclosure of so-called unused material is often very important to Defendants who are very interested in knowing about material the prosecution does not intend to use. Early Days In the early 1980s, the situation was simple, ‘unused material’ i.e. material the prosecution were not going to use, was made available to the defence if it was relevant. Sensitive material could be withheld and that decision was made by the prosecutor not the Court. Then the early 1990’s produced the first of the real watershed ‘miscarriage’ cases; R v Ward [1993] 1 WLR 619. The Court of Appeal laid down a more generous disclosure regime – all ‘material’ evidence was to be disclosed – i.e. “evidence which tends either to weaken the prosecution case or to strengthen the defence case.” The Court found that where there was sensitive material, the Crown should normally inform the defence and the Court would rule on the claim. This would be after an ex parte (private hearing) between the prosecution and the Judge. The case of the M25 three (R v Davis, Rowe and Johnson [1993] 1 WLR 613, 617) refined the PII regime. There were now 3 types of PII applications; the first two are still used today: 1. The first (and for most cases) is where the prosecution tell the defence about the PII application and what category of material it is about. The defence are then entitled to make their own representations to the Judge. 2. The defence are told about the application but not what category of material is involved as that would, in effect, reveal that which the Crown contend should be kept secret. 3. In exceptional cases, where even to reveal the fact that an ex parte application was to be made could ‘give the game away’, then the ex parte hearing could take place without notice to the defence. This procedure was enshrined in statute in the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 and the Rules made under the Act - though now in practice the Rules are replaced by the new Criminal Procedure Rules, which largely replicates the old system. It is arguable that the third procedure, the most severe, despite being included in the new Rules, has in fact been abolished by the House of Lords decision in R v H & C (see below). Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 This is the Act which will apply in virtually all cases being prosecuted today. However the Act is in two forms. If the criminal investigation commenced after 1st April 1997 but before 4th April 2005, then the CPIA test, in its original form, will apply.

This introduced the concept of the prosecution disclosing any material which, in the prosecutor’s opinion, might undermine the case for the prosecution. This is followed by the Defendant completing a Defence Statement where the Defendant sets out: ‘in general terms the nature of the accused’s defence.’ Further disclosure, or ‘secondary prosecution disclosure’ is dependent on what is said in the Defence Statement; as is any hope a Defendant may have of influencing the outcome of any Public Interest Immunity application. In a recent case, the authors actually named a suspected informant in a Defence Statement and it was revealed that in fact not only was the man an informant but had been paid by the police to inform. In some cases a different approach may be correct and great care is needed in drafting the allimportant Defence Statement. Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (as amended) The Crown now have to begin the process by disclosing material ‘which might reasonably be considered capable of undermining the case for the prosecution…or of assisting the case for the defence.’ The defence are then under an obligation to serve a Defence Statement which is required to be much more detailed than previously. R v H & C and the Golden Rule In the case of Edwards and Lewis v UK the European Court considered the ex parte PII procedures adopted in those cases violated the applicants’ right to a fair trial (Article 6). The defence cases involved allegations of

entrapment by the police and the Court felt that the ex parte process was not a fair way to deal with the issues, as the Judges had to make findings of fact before deciding upon disclosure. Those findings of fact were reached after hearing only one side – the prosecution. The answer, the Strasbourg Court suggested, might lie in the appointment of a ‘special’ or ‘independent’ counsel to argue the Defendant’s case but who would be duty bound not to reveal the sensitive issues that he has heard about to the defence. R v H & C [2004] 2 AC 134 was the first domestic case that successfully relied on the argument for special counsel (the authors represented H). The case eventually went to the House of Lords and a seven-stage test was laid down for Judges considering disclosure and PII. This effectively limited the use of special counsel to exceptional cases only. The Lords decided that the prosecution, and not the Courts, should primarily decide on issues of disclosure – i.e. a prosecutor will decide first of all if material is relevant and if it isn’t, there is no need to disclose or see the Judge, never mind seek a PII ruling if the material is sensitive. This leads to the danger that the prosecution will simply decide that material which is sensitive is actually not relevant anyway and therefore, even if the defence have asked for disclosure of the same, the material is not disclosed and even the Court is excluded. The defence however still has a right to apply to the Court for disclosure and the Lords reminded the Crown that the starting point is the ‘Golden Rule’, i.e. that any material which weakened the prosecution case or strengthened that of the defence should be disclosed, and that that rule should be read fairly widely. The Court however warned against Defendants attempting ‘try-on’ defences, i.e. making “general and unspecified allegations and then seeking farreaching disclosure in the hope that material may turn up to make them good.”

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29 The Protocol On 20th February 2006, a ‘Protocol’ on disclosure was published. Its aim was to set down clear guidance on how Judges and the parties to a criminal case should deal with the issue of disclosure of ‘unused’ material. It advocates a ‘sea-change’ in the approach to the handling and management of unused material. There was concern that too much was being disclosed which was leading to spiralling costs and lack of proper scrutiny. Much of what is in the Protocol is not new – but the repetition of the proper procedure will serve to remind prosecutors that they ‘have to get it right’ or the defence will be reminding the Judge of which paragraph of the Protocol the Crown have offended. For example there are police duties to gather and record unused material fairly and in accordance to the relevant Code of Practice, and to set out in a Schedule (usually called an MG6C) a list of all the non-sensitive unused material, and for that schedule to be sent to the prosecutor expeditiously. The Protocol also however underlines that the Crown can’t simply comply with their disclosure duties by giving the defence ‘everything’. There must be a considered approach. The Protocol does make it clear that many so-called Defence Statements, up to now, have been so lacking in detail that they hardly qualify for the title. Now Judges are told that they have a duty to make sure Defence Statements are up to the mark and if not, the Defendants can expect their juries to hear adverse comments about their defence, as well as affecting the prospects of any application for further disclosure. But the Protocol also reasserts the proper procedure for applications to the Court to order further disclosure. In fact, if done properly, the defence can use the system to, in effect, place a burden on the Crown. The defence apply to the Court for disclosure of the disputed material sending a copy of the application to the Crown. The Crown then has 14 days to agree to provide the disputed material or set out in writing their objections and attend Court. If they fail to reply in time the Court may decide the matter on paper – i.e. only reading the Defendant’s argument (see para 44 of the Protocol). This system has in fact been in place for some time (Criminal Procedure Rules, r25) but widely ignored. Hopefully, more defenders will now see how pressure can be kept up by using the rules/Protocol to their advantage. As usual it is simply a case of being pro-active; ensuring the Defence Statement is drafted carefully and using the legislation /rules/ Protocols etc to keep the pressure on. In Practice What does all this mean? Disclosure and PII has always been a difficult topic and one that we are likely to have to re-visit after the first challenges to the new system have been settled. Basically the rule for all Defendants facing trial where disclosure is likely to be an issue is early preparation. The only way to maximise disclosure is to ensure that the Defence Statement is drafted fully and precisely. The document, now more than ever, has to be persuasive; i.e. if it does not persuade the prosecutor then it may be the platform for representations to the Judge about the proper PII procedure, the Golden Rule, objective relevance and special measures, e.g. edited disclosure, special counsel and so on. As always, early preparation is the key. *Jonathan Lennon is a Barrister specialising in serious and complex criminal defence cases and Prison Law at 23 Essex Street Chambers in London. He is former co-editor of the Prison Law Reports and was junior Counsel in R v H (CA). 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 and was acting Solicitor for H.

30

Insidetime September 2007

Legal

Q&A

Given the above, we are somewhat confused by the sentence extract provided by your correspondent. This appears to refer to a sentence passed under the new sentencing structure, firstly because your correspondent is told he will be released halfway through his sentence and secondly because he is told he will remain on licence throughout his sentence. We also find it difficult to explain how he could be released under supervision earlier than 4 years. As far as we understand, your correspondent would not be eligible for release before the halfway point, under the old or the new law, because the length of his sentence means he would not be eligible for HDC. When your correspondent is released from prison he will be under probation supervision for a period in any event, regardless of whether he is released under the old or new law or at what stage he is released.

Mr G – HMP Acklington: Can Q From: you kindly advise in layman’s terms the full meaning and any implications of the following sentence extract (the crimes were around 25 years ago and I believe I was sentenced under the old law). “That makes a total of eight years imprisonment. Unless you are released earlier under supervision you will serve one half of that sentence in custody. You will then be released on licence for the remainder of your sentence”. I am concerned as to whether this means I will only serve four years regardless of any conditions i.e. parole. Could you explain ‘released earlier under supervision’ … earlier than four years?

A

Your correspondent states that he was sentenced under the old law. This would be appropriate given that his crimes took place around 25 years ago. The sentencing structure brought in by the new law, the Criminal Justice Act 2003, only applies to offences which took place on or after 4th April 2005. One of the differences in sentencing under the CJA 2003 is that all determinate sentence prisoners are eligible for release at the halfway point. A determinate sentence prisoner is someone who has been sentenced to a specific term and not, for example, someone serving a life, IPP or extended sentence. Under the old law, a prisoner sentenced to 4 years or over is only eligible for release at the halfway point and whether he or she is actually released is up to the Parole Board. Only at the two-thirds point is he or she automatically released. He or she then remains on licence up until the three-quarters point as opposed to someone sentenced under the CJA 2003 who remains on licence until the sentence expires.

We suggest your correspondent finds out what law he was sentenced under by contacting probation or his old solicitors. If following this he has any further queries about sentence calculation that are not answered by probation he may want to contact a prison law solicitor to advise him. From: Mr A - HMP Albany: In January Q 2006, I was sentenced to 14 years for crimes allegedly committed before April 2005. The Judge stated that I would serve half (7 years) in custody and the remainder on licence. However, I successfully appealed against sentence and had the term reduced to 10 years. On both occasions the prison print-out for time to serve stated PED at halfway through sentence and EDR at two-thirds. I know there have been changes in the CJA and this has led to a degree of confusion. Am I eligible for release at the halfway stage or at the two-thirds stage?

A

You will not be considered by the Parole Board until you have served at least half that period in custody. Unless the Parole Board recommends earlier release, you will not be released until you have served twothirds of that sentence. Your release will not bring this sentence to an end. Instead, the remainder will be suspended. If, after your release and before the end of the period covered by the sentence, you commit any further offence, you may be ordered to return to custody to serve the balance of the original sentence outstanding at the date of the further offence, as well as being punished for the new offence. Any time you have spent on remand in custody in connection with the offence(s) for which you are now being sentenced will count as part of the sentence to be served, unless it has already been counted.

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After your release you will also be subject to supervision on licence until the end of threequarters of the total sentence. If an order has been made under section 44 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991: After your release you will also be subject to supervision on licence for the remainder of the sentence. You will be liable to be recalled to prison if your licence is revoked, either on the recommendation of the Parole Board, or, if it is thought expedient in the public interest, by the Secretary of State. Mr G - HMP The Mount: I am Q From: serving a nine-year sentence in total, of which I get half remission as I was sentenced under the new law of April 2005. I received seven years for possession with intent to supply and two years to run consecutively for possession of criminal property. I appreciate I am not eligible for HDC on my seven-year sentence; however am I eligible for release on HDC on my two-year consecutive sentence?

A

PSO 6700 governs the HDC scheme. Paragraph 2.6.1 considers the issue of concurrent and consecutive sentences, however although you were sentenced to seven and two years consecutively, the overall order for imprisonment was nine years and this will therefore be taken as a whole and you will not be entitled to HDC. From: Mr B - HMP Wealstun: I am currently serving a four-and-a-half year sentence on charges of deception. Along with my sentence I have a £330,000 confiscation order.

Q

As it was my first offence I was given category D status straight away and spent 17 months in open conditions; successfully going out on town visits, and got on resettlement and found full time employment. In November 2006, I was transferred to closed conditions as I passed my due date for the confiscation order. The prison said I was too high risk of absconding due to a possible consecutive sentence. They have not recategorised me and I have now been in closed conditions for 7 months. The CPS have confirmed with the prison that my assets are frozen and they have accepted the reasons I have been unable to pay, and

have no plans to invoke a consecutive sentence. They have applied for receivers and are waiting for the High Court to process the application. Given that I have paid £112,000, have a flawless record whilst on licence, and do not have a single adjudication, how can I still be classified as flight risk?

A

You say in your letter that the Prosecution have accepted that you are unable to pay the remainder of the Confiscation Order, but they are applying to the Court to appoint a receiver. The Prosecution have not accepted that you cannot pay and are enforcing the Confiscation Order against you. To enforce an Order, the Prosecution can apply to the Court for the appointment of an enforcement receiver and/or they can apply to the Magistrates’ Court to activate the sentence imposed in default of payment of the Order. From your letter, the Prosecution are not applying for the default sentence to be activated yet; however they can do so in the future. An enforcement receiver will be appointed to trace any realisable property that you have or have had in the past. You say that you have Category D status, but you have been moved into closed conditions. The prison has not re-categorised you but you have been reallocated (upgraded) to closed conditions after reassessing you. You are not in closed conditions because of the delay in appointing a receiver; you will have been moved as the prison will have had notification that there is a possibility your sentence in default will be activated and therefore you are at a higher risk of absconding. If you do not have any assets to pay, you can apply to the Court to discharge the Order on the grounds there is nothing available to meet the amount to be paid. You can instruct a firm of solicitors to do this for you. They will need to obtain all the information from your original firm of solicitors who dealt with the confiscation hearing at the Court.

Inside Time Legal Forum Answers to readers’ legal queries are given on a strictly without liability basis. If you propose acting upon any of the opinions that appear, you must first take legal advice. Replies for the Legal Forum kindly provided by Frank Brazell & Partners; Levys Solicitors; O’Keeffe Solicitors; Parlby Calder Solicitors; Stephensons Crime; Stevens Solicitors - see advertisements for full details. Send your legal queries (concise and clearly marked ‘legal’) to Inside Time ‘Legal Query’ PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ. For a prompt response, readers are reminded to send their queries on white paper using black ink or typed if possible.

Insidetime September 2007

31

Legal side the legal system.

BANKS ON SENTENCE Answers by Robert Banks, a barrister who writes Banks on Sentence, the book the Judges use for sentencing more than any other. www.banksr.com

Q

I was sentenced to 6 years for attempted robbery etc. While serving I was sentenced to 12 months with 4 years extended for ABH. I have now been summonsed for another ABH and prison mutiny. I have heard that for IPP, the offence must carry 10 years or more. Is this right? Can I receive IPP?

A The first question when considering IPP is to ask, “Is the offence a specified offence (i.e. one which is listed in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sch 15)?” The answer is ‘Yes’ for ABH and ‘No’ for Prison Mutiny. So you cannot be given an IPP or a new extended sentence for Prison Mutiny. The next question for the ABH charge: “Is there a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm occasioned by the offender of future specified offences?” If ‘No’, you can’t be sentenced to IPP etc. If ‘Yes’ then ask, “Is the offence (ABH) a serious offence?” This means an offence which carries life or a maximum of 10 years or more. The answer is ‘No’ for ABH. So you cannot be given IPP at all. I hope this puts your mind at rest.

Q I read in the July issue of Inside Time about the Guideline Panel and Council. I was sentenced to 20 years for drug importation. Drug Couriers, predominately Foreign Nationals, are not accorded their privilege of pre-sentence reports to mitigate their sentences. How do I write in to the Council about drug couriers, as I do not have access to the Internet? A My experience is that pre-sentence reports are written for foreign nationals but are not written for those who are expected to receive long sentences unless there is an issue about dangerousness. Also, pre-sentence reports do not necessarily help the defendant.

I have spoken to the Sentencing Guidelines Secretariat about representations from prisoners and I know they would be very interested in your views. You should write to Sentencing Guidelines Secretariat, 4th Floor, 10 George St, London SW1P 3AE. Tel: 020 7084 8130.

Q I am awaiting sentence and the case has gone over for reports. The prosecution served my form and on it is arson with intent 6 years ago. In fact that is what they charged me with but it was dropped to just arson. The person for me the day I pleaded was doing a lot of cases and I am not sure she is going to do anything about it. I am worried that on the day of sentence, the Judge will disbelieve me and sentence on the basis of the old charge - and I could get IPP. What should I do about it?

A It is very important your solicitors let the prosecution know that the entry is challenged. The rule is that where a conviction is challenged the prosecution have to prove their version is correct. If you rely on this it could be dangerous. The probation may treat the form as correct and your objection could be lost if the Court is in a hurry to complete its list. You are in a better position if you show the conviction listed is wrong. You should ring, or if you cannot ring you should write to your solicitors and ask them to (1) write to the prosecution and tell them the conviction is wrong so they are on notice about it and (2) write to the Court where the arson was heard and ask for a certificate of conviction for you on the day in question. That will settle it in your favour once and for all. On the day of sentence you should ask your advocate to give a copy of the certificate to probation so the correction stays in your file and the wrong charge is not used against you in the future. Your solicitor should also write to the records office for the CROs and ask them to amend their records. The letter should enclose a copy of the certificate of conviction.

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S

I would like to thank all those that have written in with comments about the Probation Service: L writes: My report was done by video link for 12-14 minutes. I never once saw the probation officer’s face, as she chose to be unseen. She was not fully aware of what I had been convicted of. She recommended IPP. The Judge said I was not a danger so he could not give me IPP. This report has a large impact on my sentence planning and any parole requests, so how can a pre-sentence report be challenged?

A Individual reports can only be challenged through advocates’ submissions at the Sentencing Court or the Court dealing with the Appeal. Saying you were lucky the Judge rejected the pre-sentence report’s finding doesn’t help, as the impact of a false report will be felt when your release is being considered. I would like someone to take the whole unfair system to the High Court for declarations in principle about the system. Consideration should be given to the lawfulness of their working practices and the written instructions to their officers. The situation is that the service is obsessed with victims and yet they always ignore the victims (i.e. the defendants) of their unfair working practices. The unfairness will, on occasions, cause people to spend longer in prison than they should. J writes: I have a violent conviction from 30plus years ago. I was interviewed for no longer than 20-30 minutes and the officer appeared very hostile. His report said I was violent and liable to re-offend. I was given IPP. I fail to see why probation officers should have such power to determine a sentence. I would like to see an appeal system put in place whereby a case could be heard on its merits and not by bodies out-

hepherds olicitors

Serving prisons in the Midlands and the North of England

Specialists in Prison Law and Criminal Defence Work We can assist you with : • • • • • •

All criminal court proceedings Adjudications Parole Applications Re categorisation and transfers HDC refusals Licence recalls

M writes: My ex-partner made a very unreliable and biased statement against me. My barrister challenged the statement and it was deemed inadmissible (I presume during the trial. RB). The author of the pre-sentence report had a copy of it and recommended IPP. My appeal against the IPP failed at the first stage. I am concerned my reports will be kept on file and follow me through my sentence. I have written to the probation service but to no avail. The report may not enable me to progress as quickly as I should. Where do I go from here?

A Keep fighting, and let everyone know at each stage that the statement was written by someone with an axe to grind and is wrong. Say this calmly, rationally and explain why her statement was wrong. Ask who is considering your case to make a note of your side and keep it in your file. C writes: I am 40 and I pleaded to arson. I have no arson convictions. The probation reporter was doing the job of police, CPS, and told lies. She said I was dangerous and the Judge said his hands were tied. In Court, no one looked at the facts. Probation f**ked me. She was only 23 and inexperienced. I feel her report was misleading, untrue and based on what she believed happened and not on the facts. P writes: She (the writer of the report) totally never wrote what was said and this is one of the reasons these meetings should be tape-recorded. My Amazon officer made me out to look worse than David Blakely before Ruth Ellis killed him. She left so much out of the report.

* I would like to apologise to those who wrote in some time ago and had to wait for a reply. A number of the replies have been held over to next month, as I wanted those who wrote in about probation to see their views published. * Unless you say you don’t want your question and the answer published it will be assumed you don’t have an objection. No one will have their identity revealed.

CRESCENT & CO SOLICITORS

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Passionate about prisoners' rights We cover all prisons throughout the UK and provide a quick response to requests for visits We are able to assist you in the following areas:• Judicial Review • Licence Recalls • Adjudication • Categorisation and Transfers • Parole • Appeals & CCRC • Lifer Reviews and DLP`s Immigration matters: • Appeal against deportation & human rights apps. • Confiscation proceedings • Criminal Court proceedings and appeals

or any other prison law matter

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For a guaranteed prompt response c o n t a c t R a c h e l B a l d w i n at

Mr Sulayman Dawodu or Miss Remy Mohamed

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32

Insidetime September 2007

Book Reviews

Inside Little Britain by Matt Lucas, David Walliams & Boyd Hilton Jane Andrews delves into the lives of the hugely successful double act whose comedy has given them cult status "The computer says no!" That is how I felt when I sat down to write this review. Not because I hadn't enjoyed the book, it was just the fact of how do you transcribe a long book about short lives into words so as to give it the justification it deserves? Firstly, Lucas met me with the dedication, "Matt would like to dedicate this book to David. David would also like to dedicate this book to David". Some may say this is rather egotistical of Walliams, but on closer inspection you will come to realise that here we have two people who are in fact very caring individuals who crave to be liked by the masses. "Yeah but no but yeah but no but ... " you may be saying by now, but this is in fact a book about a year in the lives of Matt Lucas and David Walliams - the double act of the successful, if not at times controversial comedy show that hit our screens in the last three years. The book is set out in diary form, covering the biggest live comedy touring show ever, as well as a biography written by Boyd Hilton. It starts with the seven week run up to their tour, and shows us a small insight into the lives of the pair as they attend the GQ magazine awards. We are introduced to just how "camp" Walliams can be in his discussion with Dale Winton, at the after show party, when Winton expresses his desire to take tea in Primrose Hill with Walliams: "No, seriously, I love the idea of taking tea with you. Let the whole world see: just the two of us, two single

men on the town, having tea and cakes ... " This can only explain why, for some time now, the Sun newspaper has been running an occasional "gay-o-meter" monitoring Walliams’ life or, more aptly so, the tabloid coverage of his life measuring the extent to which his behaviour could be deemed "gay" to it's readers. At this point some may say that surely this is grounds for slander. However, it is in fact David who regularly comments about it: "You have to keep track of the gay-o-meter in this book ... it would be good to know how gay I am one day to the next... " However, it did make me think Walliams is bothered about his private life more than he makes out, because of his over zealous references throughout the book. "I just think the gay male act fills people with anxiety in a way lesbian sex doesn’t … for example, what happens when you're in prison … now is that because you suddenly accept that you have needs and you have to rely on men to satisfy them ... people are wrong to polarise things ..”' Walliams finds it highly amusing that people cannot understand that a sexually ambiguous man can have relationships with gorgeous women, and is he merely trying to prove that he is not gay! However, what I found sad was how he explained that for many years he could not conceive being attractive as a man to be of any interest to such women, and only after a conversation with Graham Norton did he find reassurance that he was being true to himself. "... It's not really about sex ... it's about who you want to wrap your arms around at the end of the day... " What left a "mark" on me was when David refers to the ever-hopeful love of his life throughout his book as "X", to protect her identity. He himself says he is so pleased that Matt has that someone special to share the dark nights with and even though he has a wonderful family and friends, all he craves for is … "that someone intimate to share all this with ... ". Even though throughout the book both Lucas and Walliams are very open about their private lives, especially Lucas's openness to his own sexuality and his recent civil partnership with his long-term partner, Kevin,

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when they start to have a conversation about how the press can be so inaccurate in their reporting, Matt briefly mentions that they said his father went to prison for four years, and he corrected it by saying it was only six months. It became obvious that this was in fact as much information as he was willing to offer anyone. You can but wonder what private troubles this particular individual encountered especially as he is not shy in saying how much he values therapy: "... it was the beginning of me. I dreaded the thought of having to deal with myself ... great to talk to someone who doesn't have an agenda ... to help you face your fears”. This all came to a head in his life when his father died; smoking too much cannabis and trying to come to terms with his sexuality. His mother was shocked at first but she has been such a great support throughout his career and what made me smile so much was this particular quote: "I may not give her babies ... but I can give her BAFTAs! " Some may not agree with their humour, but here we have two comedians who have achieved fame and brought some light into those with a disability. As one fan who suffers from chronic ME wrote to the characters "Lou" and "Andy" saying "... if you're not feeling good, it's nice to watch something like that and laugh - laughing makes you feel better..." Finally, last year Walliams raised £1 million for Comic Relief by swimming the English Channel in ten and a half hours. On his return to Folkestone, he did not make a "Kerfuffle" as he spent over an hour with his awaiting fans, greeting them with the infectious voice of the Emily Howard character, "I'm a lay-dee but I've just swum the channel!" Even though it takes a year to write one series this team still works, contrary to its critics, so watch out for the next series, but in the meantime read this book by simply saying ... "I want that one! "

* Inside Little Britain by Matt Lucas, David Walliams and Boyd Hilton is available in all good bookshops * Jane Andrews is currently resident in HMP Send

HINE & Associates

Solicitors

Specialising in CRIMINAL DEFENCE and all aspects of P R I S O N L AW including: Licence Recall Adjudications Parole Hearings Categorisation Judicial Review Serving London and the Home Counties for immediate help and assistance contact Lisa Gianquitto on: 01753 482400 or write to: HINE & Associates Solicitors 17 East Common Gerrards Cross Bucks SL9 7AG www.hineassociatessolicitors.co.uk

Book Aid International donates 25 millionth book

Just £1.25 means one more book can be sent

£25 could help provide 20 reference books for a Zambian hospital

£50 could help supply 40 vocational textbooks for a college in Sierra Leone

£100 could help provide 80 children’s books for community libraries in Cameroon Sara Harrity, Director of Book Aid International, writes: 2006 was an outstanding year for Book Aid International. As well as initiating our exciting new projects to promote literacy and engage marginalised communities, I was able to donate to the Kenya National Library Service the 25 millionth book we have made available to the developing world - a great moment!

In 2006 alone, our supporters enabled us to make over 568,000 books and other information resources available to readers in some of the poorest communities in the world. These materials helped thousands of disadvantaged people gain new knowledge, expand their ideas, and develop creative approaches to local challenges.

33

Insidetime September 2007

Book Reviews

The Blantyre House Prison Affair

A book to read before you die

by Tom Murtagh

Les Misérables

Joe Chapman highlights events surrounding the alleged ‘raid’ on Blantyre House in 2000 by prison service storm-troopers Wired to the moon’ is a phrase used by former prison service Area Manager Tom Murtagh OBE to describe views or judgements he feels are unworkable, unfair or just simply crazy. In his book, the Blantyre House Prison Affair, he invites readers to examine the events which culminated in the removal of prison governor Eoin McLennanMurray and the lock-down and full search of Blantyre House resettlement prison on 5th May 2000. The search and protests that followed led to an unprecedented inquiry by a parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee, which eventually displayed all of the characteristics of a modern day witch-hunt. Tom rose through the ranks and during his time as Governor of The Maze prison in Northern Ireland, he travelled to work each day in a bulletproof car and carried a loaded gun for personal protection. On 5th October 1988, Tom and his wife Frances drove to a local DIY store and whilst there were alerted to a bomb that had been placed on the underside of their car. They later discovered that the explosive device had actually been triggered but a speck of rust on one of the connections had prevented detonation. Tom moved to England to further his career prospects and finally became Area Manager for East Anglia in 1992; moving to become Area Manager of Kent in 1996. Tom must have thought that nothing could have been more stressful than living in fear of his life in Northern Ireland. However, the decisions that he was to make about the management of Blantyre House, in light of concerns about public safety, would prove to be more of a threat to his personal health than mere bombs and bullets.

Kaj & Co Solicitors Criminal and Prison law specialists

Victor Hugo 1802-1885 First Published 1862

The book reveals the evidence behind an inquiry into an alleged ‘raid’ on the prison by prison service ‘storm-troopers’ and a bizarre campaign to support the former governor using the authority of the Home Affairs Select Committee. It calls into account the credibility of the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, and exposes corrupt prison staff, conditioning by career criminals, and most importantly how one of our most powerful institutions can be engineered into the culture of a ‘witch-hunt’. Protected by ‘Parliamentary privilege’, the full evidence is still not available to the public, but there is enough material in this very well written, thoroughly researched and well balanced presentation of the facts for readers to decide if matters were dealt with fairly, giving regard to the process of natural justice.

Les Misérables is one of only a few novels that have taken on a vivid afterlife long after their initial publication. There have been (horribly) abridged versions, rewritings, movies, and, of course, the world famous musical, yet in order to understand the true scale of Victor Hugo's achievement, one must return to the text itself.

It is an important piece of work for anybody interested in penal policy but more so for those who are employed within prisons (paid or voluntary) and for the prisoners themselves, who might often wonder why difficult decisions have to be made by prison managers. Undoubtedly controversial and a story that needed telling, it provides a real insight into the ‘dirty tricks’ that can go on within the corridors of power at Westminster and in local prison management teams. Tom Murtagh wants readers to become his judge and jury and begs the question: "Were the final recommendations of the powerful Home Affairs Select Committee wired to the moon?"

The image of Cosette created by Hugo's illustrator Emile Bayard is now famous as the logo for the musical based on the novel.

* The Blantyre House Prison Affair by Tom Murtagh is available from Waterside Press Ltd, Domum Road, Winchester SO23 9NN. Tel: 0845 2300 733. [email protected]. * Joe Chapman is a former prison officer who worked for 22 years as an individual counsellor and group therapy facilitator.

DAVIES & JONES SOLICITORS

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An illustration shows the costumes designed for a French theatrical version of Les Misérables, performed in 1878.

Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, this novel is concerned with the way in which individual lives are played out in the context of epoch defining historical events. What is 'History"? Hugo asks us. Who creates "History"? To whom does it happen? What role does the individual play in such events? The character of Jean Valjean is thus the key to Les Misérables, an escaped convict whose desperate need to redeem himself through his adopted daughter, Cosette, lies at the heart of the novel. Valjean is pursued throughout by the extraordinary Inspector Javert, with whose life his becomes irrevocably entwined, and who is relentless in his determination to uphold the law and to apprehend him.This personal drama of hunter and prey is then cast into the cauldron of revolutionary Paris as Cosette falls in love with the radical idealist Marius and Valjean grapples with the possibility of losing all that he has ever loved. The novel draws the reader into the politics and geography of Paris with a vividness that is unparalleled, and then leads on, incorporating Hugo's characteristic meditations upon the universe, to the battle of Waterloo, and the final, astonishing denouement. There are not many texts that can be termed national classics, but Les Misérables is one, and is a landmark in the development of the historical novel that stands alongside the greatest works of Dickens and Tolstoy. It is also a deeply compelling read.

David Rees or Simon Palmer Davies & Jones 32 The Parade, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 3AD

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34

Insidetime September 2007

Jailbreak

A R eligious C onundrum m There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:

TWENTY QUESTIONS T O TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 1. Astana is the capital of which country? 2. Who is currently fifth in line to the British throne ?

1. He called everyone brother. 2. He liked Gospel. 3. He couldn't get a fair trial.

?

3. Born Henry John Deutschendorf Junior, which American singer died when his light aircraft crashed into the sea off California in 1997?

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish: 1. He went into His Father's business. 2. He lived at home until he was 33. 3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God. But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian: 1. He talked with His hands. 2. He had wine with His meals. 3. He used olive oil.

?

4. James Earl Ray was arrested at Heathrow airport in 1968 and subsequently convicted of whose assassination? 5. Who was the famous wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia? 6. Cedi is the basic monetary unit of which African country?

?

7. What was the name of the ship on which Charles Darwin set sail on his voyage around the world in 1831? 8. Harry Longbaugh was better known by what name?

?

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian: 1. He never cut His hair. 2. He walked around barefoot all the time. 3. He started a new religion.

9. BRN is the international vehicle registration for which country?

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian: 1. He was at peace with nature. 2. He ate a lot of fish. 3. He talked about the Great Spirit.

12. What object officially joined our solar system on 1st May 1930?

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish: 1. He never got married. 2. He was always telling stories. 3. He loved green pastures.

15. In 1992 which scientist and philosopher was absolved of heresy by the Vatican?

But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a WOMAN: 1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was no food. 2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it. 3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was work to do

18. What is the 1990's cult Japanese electronic toy which is cared for as if it were a pet?

10. For which film did Henry Fonda win his best actor Oscar?

11. Who was the first reigning British monarch to make an official visit to the USA?

?

13. What is the name of the carnival held in some countries on Shrove Tuesday? 14. A spheksophobic fears which insects?

?

16. Who in 1990 became the first chancellor of a united Germany?

?

17. Which American celebrity claims to have a maid called Vaginica Seaman?

?

19. What is the line called on a ship which is the limit to which it may be loaded? 20. Who played the prison warden in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz?

ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE

Inside K nowledge The p rize q uiz w here w e g ive y ou t he Q uestions a nd t he A nswers ! A ll t he a nswers a re w ithin this issue o f I nside T ime - a ll y ou h ave t o d o i s f ind t hem ! ! 11. What did 23 out of 27 inmates in a USA jail, coached by Floyd 'Buzz' Fay, successfully defeat? 1. When do applications start to join the Relaunch Project?

?

? ? ? ? ? ?

2. John Allen has had a series of what?

12. Which charity promotes the use of animals in care homes and other institutions?

3. What did Tom Clark request within a Confidential Access complaint in December 2006?

13. According to Lucy Charman, what has to be attached to the tag for it to work?

4. As a solitary confinement prisoner, who doesn't have access to TV?

14. Who is quoted as saying that professional ethics are at the top of the agenda?

5. What were injuries to Tucker Lynch caused by?

15. Unfortunately for Glyn Razzell, the CCTV cameras were not working outside which police station?

6. Where can guidance be found on the operation of VDT programmes?

7. How many 'specified offences' are there under the Criminal Justice Act 2003?

8. How many people have the ‘Royal British Legion & SSAFA Forces Help’ assisted to get back on their feet upon release? 9. How many complaints were received by the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman's office during 2006-2007?

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 drawn from all those who tried, regardless of how many answers are correct. Prize winners' names will appear in next month's issue. Send your entry to:

Inside Time, ‘PRIZE QUIZ’ PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ

Please use a 1st or 2nd class stamp, as entries in envelopes with insufficient postage will not be accepted. Closing date 25/09/2007

10. In which year did John Lennon record 'Give Peace a Chance?'

PLEASE DO NOT CUT THIS PANEL OUT, SIMPLY SEND YOUR ANSWERS ON A SEPARATE SHEET SHOWING YOUR DETAILS

Last M onth’s w inners - £25 prizes for the first 3 names drawn with 15 correct

£

answers to last month’s quiz :Kevin Bradshaw - HMP Wymott Brian Martin - HMP Manchester and Dawn Herdman - HMP Send

£

£

Plus £5 Consolation prizes for: Alan Kippax - HMP Gartree and Derek Hastie - HMP Hull

"Are you an Irish prisoner about to leave a UK prison? Do you have a story to tell about the difficulties of separation from your family and/or prison life? An award-winning programme-maker is producing a 1/2 hour documentary about the problems of Irish prisoners incarcerated overseas and in particular in the UK. The programme is part of a series funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland for the Dublin-based station Newstalk 106-108fm http://www.newstalk.ie. If you are willing to be interviewed or would like to know more contact: Sara Parker on 07970 369278 or write to her c/o Inside Time PO Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ The interviews would be anonymous and any contact made would be confidential".

Open Day

HMP Blundeston Therapeutic Community Lowestoft Suffolk NR32 5BG

Thursday 11th October 2 - 4.30pm We would like interested staff from other establishments to look around our TC, see first hand the work that goes on here and allow the residents to share their experience through workshops, testimonies and music. Refreshments will be provided

For further details and to reserve your place please call 01502 734717

Answers to Last Month’s Inside Knowledge Prize Quiz 1. Long Lartin; Gartree; 6. Five Channings Wood & Swaleside 7. 23,420 2. Over 20 years 8. Shah Mohammed Haque 3. Four 9. Apparent breaches of licence 4. HMP KIngston conditions 5. Standing Order 5a 10. Charles Hanson

J BON Solicitors We are Experts in the following: 1. Criminal Court Proceedings including Defence and Appeals 2. Police Station Representations 3. Immigrations ad deportation 4. Human Rights 5. Judicial Reviews 6. Prison Law 7. Parole 8. Adjudications 9. Appeals 10. Family Matters

Please write or call: Chinwe Okoli, Bright Arrey-Mbi or Joe N’Danga Koroma J Bon Solicitors 541 Barking Road East Ham London E6 2LW

020 8471 8822 “You will not regret contacting us”

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Eighteen Five 9,000 Mr C - HMP Holme House Try to eat itself

insidetime IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS Current and back issues can be viewed and articles downloaded. A legal database, showing who is available, where, and what issues they specialise in, is fully operational, together with links to over 50 help organisations.

So please, tell everyone at home now!

www.insidetime.org

35

Insidetime September 2007

Jailbreak GETAWAY VEHICLES WORDSEARCH

CAPTION C OMPETITION Tell Gordon that if the prison population here is getting too high think about hanging or just grabbing them by the neck and .......!!

Last month’s £25 prize winner Gregory Haworth HMP Wymott Tony Blair meets with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Governor, as he prepares to leave number 10 and start his career as the Middle East envoy.

Well d one G regory your £ 25 p rize i s i n t he p o s t .

-   -    -   ANOTHER £25 PRIZE IS ON OFFER FOR THE BEST CAPTION TO THIS MONTH’S PICTURE A statue of Nelson Mandela, the former South African President, is unveilled in the central garden of Parliament Square alongside thoe of Churchill, Disraeli and Sir Robert Peel. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pictured here with Mr Mandela at the ceremoney..

TRY TO FIND THE NAMES OF 45 GETAWAY OPTIONS

ALFA ROMEO, ASTRA, AUDI, BIKE, BMW, BUS, CELICA SUPRA, CHRYSLER, CITROEN, CORSA, CORVETTE, DAEWOO, ESPACE, FERRARI, FORD ESCORT, FORD FOCUS, GOLF, GRANADA, HONDA, HYUNDAI, JAGUAR, JEEP, KIA, LADA, LAGUNA, LANDROVER, LOTUS, MACLAREN, MASERATI, MEAT WAGON, MERCEDES, MINI, MONDEO, MOPED, MUSTANG, NISSAN, NOVA, PANDA, PROBE, ROVER, SKODA, SQUAD CAR,SUBARU, TAXI, VECTRA

CHECK FORWARD, BACKWARD AND DIAGONALLY, THEY ARE ALL THERE!

P HIP HO JAZZ

COUN

TRY

POP

SOUL ROCK

R&B INDIE Music & Computer Games

Gema, sponsors of Jailbreak Suppliers of Music CD’s and Computer Games, both new & pre-owned. Catalogues cost £2 (postal order payable to ‘Gema’) but this is r e f u n d e d w i t h f i r s t o r d e r. Gemma PO Box 54, Reading RG1 3SD P R O B A B LY LY T H E U K ’ s L A R G E S T M U S I C B A C K C AT AT A L O G U E

Y Y I M O D D J N G G H I S G U L N N T

K H Z E G V E A Y P C R R O M A Q A O L

B U R A B U S G E A T G A E N A C T V W

A G Z T D F R U J W L P R D E N N N U A

N L R W P N O A S R O C R N O V A Z U H

F L A A L F A R O M E O E O Y K Q F Q J

E Y C G N D L P D D V O F M B A S T R A

G M D O U A A U E E R U I A H E J E D U

F U A N C N D S R T S N N X N U L R J E

D S U C H X A A I K I C I K A S E I R B

R T Q S L S U C O F D R O F Y T L Y E J

M A S E R A T I P K E X D R L D P N D Y

B N F S E R R L G N P L H E T O P O C L

E G D Q E T T E V R O C Y S P E G M V H

N L I D U C P C N C M M U I F U S O D A

F H Z T A E C A L S Y T N Z E B M R E J

S E N E E V S P X H O N D A T L V I Z G

N W W J K S W S C L T U A G U H Y U D V

Q W O Z I M H E P B T E I Q Y D P X Q R

J Q C N B U T D C T U B T H J X I V W W

This Wordsearch was compiled by Lucy Charman ex HMP Morton Hall (tagged now free) Many thanks Lucy and well done.

Just 4 Fun

Drowning Rats And Frenchmen

As he walked off down the street, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the sewers and begun following him. This was a little disconcerting, so he Send your version of what is being said or A tourist walked into a Brighton curio/antique shop. After thought here. Closing Date 25/09/2007 started to walk a little looking around for a while, he noticed a very life-like bronze faster, but within a couple statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but it was so striking that of blocks the swarm of PICTURE PLEASE DO NOT CUT THIS Send your versionOUT of what he decided to buy it anyway. rats had grown to hunis being said or thought WRITE YOUR ENTRY ON A PLAIN SHEET OF PAPER GIVING dreds, and they were all here. Closing DateIT TO: YOUR NAME, NUMBER AND PRISON. THEN POST He took it to the owner and said: "How much is this bronze squealing and screeching 20/02/2006 in a very menacing way. Inside Time “CAPTION” P O Box 251 Hedge End Hampshire SO30 4XJ rat?" The owner replied: "It's £12 for the rat, and £100 for the story." The tourist gave the owner his £12 and said: "I'll He increased his speed Please use a 1st or 2nd class stamp, as entries in envelopes with just take the rat, you can keep the story." insufficient postage will not be accepted. and ran on towards the beach and, as he ran, he IT’S A CON looked behind him and saw the rats now numbered in their MILLIONS, and they were running faster and faster. By now very concerned, he ran down to the pier and threw the bronze rat far out into the water. Amazingly, the millions of real rats jumped into the water after it and were all drowned. The man walked back to relate all this to the shop owner, who said: "Ah, you've come back for the story then?"

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"No," said the tourist. "I came back to see if you've got a bronze Muslim fundamentalist cleric, an Arsenal supporter, and anything French!"

36

Insidetime September 2007

SmartJustice

THEY ARE PART OF THE GANG THAT GO TO THE FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD FOUNDATION. THEY ARE BECOMING RESPONSIBLE YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHALLENGING OTHERS WHO ARE BEHAVING BADLY. THAT'S MAKING THEIR COMMUNITY A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE. 90% OF BOYS WHO HAVE ATTENDED FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD, WHO WERE IN DANGER OF PERMANENT EXCLUSION, HAVE REMAINED IN SCHOOL.

SHE SCORES FOR HER LOCAL FOOTBALL CLUB AT THE NACRO

EVERY DAY HE'S DEALING WITH LOTS OF ISSUES. LIKE, HIS DAD IS

COMMUNITY SPORTS PROJECT IN BRAINTREE. SINCE SHE JOINED LAST YEAR SHE’S BEEN THEIR TOP SCORER. SHE’S CHANGED HER BEHAVIOUR AND SHE’S BECOME A ROLE MODEL FOR OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE. THE LOCAL COMMUNITY’S HAD A RESULT TOO. LAST YEAR THE PROJECT WORKED WITH OVER 500 YOUNG PEOPLE IN SOME OF THE MOST DEPRIVED COMMUNITIES IN ESSEX AND THROUGH SPORT HAS HELPED TO REDUCE YOUTH CRIME AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE AREA.

NEVER THERE, HE'S EXCLUDED FROM SCHOOL AND HIS MATES LIKE TO FIGHT. LUCKILY, PHIL DOESN'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT ALONE. HE GOES TO THE YOUNG DISCIPLES WHERE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE ONCE INVOLVED IN CRIME HELP OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES. 70% OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO'VE BEEN TO THE YOUNG DISCIPLES HAVE GONE BACK TO EDUCATION, STARTED A TRAINING COURSE OR SET UP THEIR OWN BUSINESS.

SmartJustice, based at the Prison Reform Trust in London, campaigns for more alternatives to custody and promotes initiatives that are effective in changing offenders' behaviour, stopping crime before it starts and tackling the causes of crime for adults and young people. Their aim is to widen the debate on crime and punishment with the general public and the media, to question the effectiveness of prison for non-violent offenders and to campaign for more investment in initiatives that tackle the causes of crime. The work of SmartJustice includes public events and regional activities, extensive media coverage, talks to a wide variety of community groups and schools and regular briefings on criminal justice, including major surveys on victims’ views about how to cut non-violent crime, in partnership with Victim Support, and a survey on women in prison.

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1. Kazakhstan 2. Princess Beatrice 3. John Denver 4. Martin Luther King 5. Lady Godiva 6. Ghana 7. HMS Beagle 8. The Sundance Kid 9. Bahrain 10. On Golden Pond 11. George the Sixth (in 1939) 12. Pluto 13. Mardi Gras (means 'Tuesday Fat') 14. Wasps 15. Galileo (His crime in 1632 was against the church by stating that the Earth orbited the Sun, rather than vice-versa.) 16. Helmut Kohl 17. David Gest 18. Tamagotchi 19. Plimsoll line 20. Patrick McGoohan