the National Newspaper for Prisoners & Detainees a voice for prisoners 1990 - 2015 A ‘not for profit’ publication / ISSN 1743-7342 / Issue No. 188 / February 2015 / www.insidetime.org An average of 60,000 copies distributed monthly - Independently verified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations plus over 450,000 monthly online readership - Independently verified using SMARTER STATS
24 E-cigarettes: health revolution or fresh pack of trouble? “...the potential to save thousands, perhaps even millions of lives must rank alongside the discovery of antibiotics”
26 Butler Trust Awards: Finding treasure
33 Open prisons - a failing holiday camp?
“During the inspection one prisoner asked to return to the prison from hospital to die among people he knew and who cared not just for but about him”
“if prisons create inmates ill-prepared for release the consequences will be vast”
Supplement Inside Entertainment
39 Your Valentine’s messages
If Not Now, When? Asks the Report on: The Case for a Royal Commission on the Penal System needed framework for a set of sound and realistic criminal and penal policies.
Eric McGraw
‘O
ur penal policy is adrift, fragmented and full of contradictions. It cannot deliver results that are in the public interest. We also know that our politicians are incapable of touching penal issues without going into party rants and rituals of finger pointing,’ said Sean McConville, Professor of Law and Public Policy at Queen Mary Law School, University of London and one of the authors of the Report.
The great national advantage a Royal Commission can offer is that it would free politicians and other policy makers from the addictive but always short term advantage of partisan policy making. Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC and an author of the Report told Inside Time: ‘Conscious of the cost and delay of such inquiries in the recent past [the Bloody Sunday Report was 12 years in the making and cost about £200m and the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, announced in 2009, has still to report] the proposal is specifically timelimited and budgeted reasonably at the outset, with it reporting to Parliament well before the General Election in May 2020.
The case for an authoritative overview is more pressing than ever. A Royal Commission could, for a generation or more, provide a much
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NJ GD>DOJMN
Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC (left), former High Court Judge and a Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Henry Brooke, publisher Bryan Gibson and Sean McConville, Professor of Law and Public Policy, Queen Mary School of Law, University of London.
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Nothing in the last decade has curbed overcrowding. Numbers teeter on the very edge of operating capacity. Overcrowding nullifies rehabilitation programmes and crushes the spirit of staff and prisoners alike. Reconviction rates have scarcely moved and the same army of offenders trudge expensively through courts, probation offices and penal institutions.
Mailbag
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Photocopying: extortionate prices
..................................................... G STEVE KNIGHTS - HMP STOCKEN The governors here at HMP Stocken have taken to stopping all Rule 39 legal privilege photocopying being done within the sight of the inmate on the wing photocopier and now say the following - ‘All Rule 39 photocopying should be sent to your legal advisors for them to copy’. As a result, as a litigant in person, I have to find a solicitor and pay the minimum of around £50 plus postage in order to get my legal copying done. With the present case I am fighting this is going to cost me around £100-150 per month, which is never going to happen when I am on a ‘wage’ of £4 per week. Surely it is unhelpful to say the least to block or slow down my ability to hold a prison to account. I would like to know what NOMS have to say about this? Michael Wood HMP Stocken’s Governor
Writes
Where a prisoner is represented, the solicitors or legal advisers will be required to copy papers on behalf of the prisoner. Where this above is not an option, or where a prisoner would prefer to use other facilities, the following options are open:
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Star Letter of the Month Congratulations and a £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter.
‘Fair trials have fallen out of fashion’
..................................................... B GRANNON - HMP GARTH In the November issue David Wells of ‘Wells Burcombe Solicitors’ asked whether ‘fair trials’ are still possible...? In the article he comments on the gradual loss of fairness in the trial process during his twenty years experience in criminal trials. He ends by saying: It is not possible to list everything that has undermined the golden thread of British justice, ‘innocent until proven guilty’. Most defenders nowadays would feel that they must instead try and prove that they are innocent.’ In the Sunday Times on the 17th of August, David Davies MP and former Shadow Chancellor wrote: ‘The Attorney General should consider the way the police and CPS handle historical sex offences. The current approach started out well-intentioned but has become slapdash and has already damaged a number of people’s reputations.’ He adds this dire warning ‘If we are not careful, one day soon it will lead to a wrongful conviction.’
1. A prisoner gives their papers to an officer, a cash disbursement form must be submitted Historic sex offences are the low-hanging at the same time, all photocopying will be at fruit for those whose livelihoods depend the prisoners own expense. The officer will upon increasing the conviction rates. Over arrange for them to be copied, this photothe passage of time documents are copying will be completed within the prisons destroyed and potential witnesses die. business hub and no other areas are available Blavo Novonce 2012_Blavo Dec these 2008 red border SHADOW.qxd 13/11/2012 Page Conviction rates are high09:42 but with no1 for photocopying, completed requirement for independent evidence or papers are then handed back to the prisoner. corroboration, the chances of a fair trial are These arrangements are on the understandlow. ing that although papers WILL NOT be read, the prisoner accepts that there would be the The ‘slapdash’ approach is evident at every possibility of the documents being viewed. If stage of the process from arrest to incarthis is not acceptable the following options ceration. It seems that checks and balances are available. that have long preserved the ideals of British justice are today swept aside as 2. The prisoner can make arrangements for impediments to the smooth operation of the the papers to be posted to relatives or friends ‘conviction conveyor belt’. or handed over at visits. Local arrangements are in place to manage this. One such impediment is the glaring anomaly 3. If a prisoner is not satisfied with the above, that lies within the granting of ‘special he may make arrangements to send papers measures’. Mr Wells says: ‘It is my experiout to a photocopying bureau. Local arrangeence that applications are being made too ments are in place to manage this. frequently and in cases where it is inapproPhotocopying is at the prisoner’s own expense.
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priate to do so.’ It seems that ‘special measures’ are steps taken by the court to reduce the fear and anxiety that might be experienced by witnesses who are in some way less than fully capable. These ‘special measures’ include the removal of wigs and gowns; the screening of a witness from sight of the accused; or the removal of a witness from the courtroom altogether. Under the Youth and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (ss 16 & 17) some persons do not need to make an application for protection. These persons are regarded as automatically eligible and they include children; persons suffering mental disorder, persons suffering significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning, persons with a physical disability or suffering from a physical disordered, and last but certainly not least, the glaring anomaly: ‘a person who is the complainant in respect of a sexual offence and is witness in proceedings relating to that offence.’ The complainant in a trial dealing with a sexual offence is automatically eligible for ‘special measures’ protection, the same level of protection given to children and disabled persons. The drama of the trial opens with the accused in the dock under guard and his accuser hidden from his intimidating presence under the protection of the court, the same court that is now going to hold a ‘fair trial’. The adversaries are presented as ‘victim versus assailant’. The prejudicial impact on the defence case is fatal. No form of ‘directions’ could possibly remedy the constant implication of guilt that runs on inexorably throughout the trial. Times change and social mores alter accordingly. The concept of a fair trial in court may be as outdated as ‘fair play’ in sport. The answer to David Wells’ question might be ‘Fair trials have fallen out of fashion’.
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If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Quakers need not apply Restorative justice for sex offenders ..................................................... JOHN PALMER - HMP DARTMOOR
..................................................................................................... WAYNE ADAMS - HMP/YOI MOORLAND
I was interested to read the letter from Mark Humphries (January 2015 issue) about Quakers not being allowed to worship at HMP Norwich. Whilst at HMP Wandsworth I found that the prison management often dropped Quaker worship.
I think restorative justice is a wonderful idea as it provides an opportunity for the victims of crime to get a little bit of closure. It also allows the contrite offender to express their sincere remorse. Once it’s completed the victim can go home feeling perhaps a little less scared, having put a face to the crime, and the offender can feel a bit better knowing they have done something. It also lowers the chances of reoffending. But, and it is a big but, sex offenders are forbidden to take part in restorative justice. They are not allowed to apologise to their victims, and the victims are not allowed to be healed. The sex offender is not allowed to express remorse. Does this explain why sex crimes are currently high? Sex offenders can or could reoffend because there is too much hatred on the outside against them because of the lack of restorative justice. I hope there will be a day when sex offenders can participate in restorative justice, for the benefit of the public.
During a period of more than two years at HMP Channings Wood I found that Quaker worship was not allowed. Also, since I have been at HMP Dartmoor Quakers have not been allowed to worship. At HMP Exeter Quakers are allowed to worship but Jehovah’s Witnesses are not, much to the annoyance of my pad mate there who was a Jehovah’s Witness. In the late 17th century more than thirteen thousand Quakers were placed in British prisons for ‘worshipping god outside the established church’ - an action made illegal by the Quaker Act 1692. Although hundreds of years have passed since the Act of Toleration many prisons still do not allow Quakers to worship. When it comes to prisoners being treated lawfully and without religious favour - Quakers need not apply.
‘HMP is the biggest drug Medication is not a dealer in the country’ ‘privilege’ ..................................................... PAUL MULLEN - HMP HOLME HOUSE
..................................................... M HUMPHRIES - HMP WAYLAND
I am 50 years-old and this is my first time in prison. I am in prison for being a drug dealer but, like everyone else in prison, I am innocent! And as an innocent drug dealer I have met some major drug dealers in this country, but none as big and blatant as the prison system! HMP’s slogan should be ‘Come on in and get some free Methadone!’ I have witnessed prisoners being refused painkillers and told they have to take Methadone! People come into prison clean and are sent out as drug addicts, it is an absolute scandal that nobody seems to want to talk about. I don’t know how they get away with it. If people knew the truth of what goes on in our prisons they would not believe it.
I write concerning the letter from Alex Wallis, HMP Peterborough, ‘Self-harming can lead to Basic’ (December issue) and the published reply from NOMS. Mr Wallis asked if it is right for prison medics and managers to put someone on Basic for self-harming. He used a popular coping mechanism when he found himself in a very dark place after having vital medication withdrawn. Isn’t it good to know that there ‘is no crisis in the prison system’? NOMS ought to be ashamed of themselves. If you read their response it says ‘All decisions including the withdrawal of privileges...’ Since when has vital medication been a ‘privilege’?
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Contents Mailbag ......................... pages 2-9 .................................... Newsround ................. pages 10-16 .................................... Website Comments ............. page 17 .................................... Diary .......................... pages 18-19 .................................... Comment ................... pages 20-33 .................................... Education ......................... page 35 .................................... Short Story ....................... page 36 .................................... Wellbeing ......................... page 37 .................................... Terry Waite Writes ............ page 38 .................................... Valentine’s messages ......... page 39 .................................... News from the House .... pages 40-41 ................................... Legal ......................... pages 42-45 .................................... Legal Q&A .................. pages 46-47 .................................... Inside Poetry ............... pages 48-49
Actress Judi Dench is a devout Quaker, the faith that is arguably not as well known as other religions stems from a mix of Christianity and its most notable aspect is that it believes it is not the only religion. Dame Judi came to the faith when she attended Mount School. Judi has said that being a Quaker is “essential to her life and work”. valentines Poetry ....................................................... page 48
emailaprisoner
.................................... Reading Groups ............... page 50 .................................... Book Reviews .................... page 51 .................................... Jailbreak ..................... pages 52-55 .................................... National Prison Radio ......... page 56
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Views expressed in Inside Time are those of the authors and not necessarily representative of those held by Inside Time or the New Bridge Foundation.
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Mailbag
Spies are listening
..................................................... SAMSON McNAB - HMP SWALESIDE I feel that the recent revelation in The Independent seems to have slipped by largely unnoticed - ‘Spies eavesdrop on lawyer-client communications’. Here at HMP Swaleside ALL Pin-Phone calls to legal advisors are recorded, but (apparently) not monitored. In the legal visits room you are video recorded throughout your whole visit. I think that depending on how much of a priority of what you discuss with your legal advisers may affect the level of security you face from the authorities. I guess the prison authorities happily hand over all and any material gleaned from these actions with no questions asked. Logic would dictate that Rule 39 legal mail is also routinely tampered with and read for the same reason. Could you please ask NOMS what their policy is on legally privileged communications and requests for examination of such by the security forces, GCHQ, NCA, the police and CPS? The question is do they hand over legally privileged communication information to these people - yes or no? Also, what safeguards are in place at the MoJ to ensure the process is documented to ensure that RIPA 2000 provisions are followed? Furthermore, does NOMS and the MoJ accept that such activity is lawful and not a breach of human rights?
Writes NOMS takes seriously obligations to safeguard legal and other confidential communications. Calls to legal advisers are not recorded as a matter of routine and the occasional inadvertent recording of such calls is caused by human error, either on the part of a prisoner or a member of staff. PSI 24/2012, which mandated the call enabling arrangements on the PIN phone system in all prisons, was introduced in order to, amongst other things, better protect legal and other confidential communications. HMCIP is currently investigating instances where these safeguards have not been followed and will make recommendations about future delivery. NOMS will issue revised policy in 2015 after considering HMCIP recommendations.
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Current policy is set out below. This is in line with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and prison rules. Police and other law enforcement agencies (LEA) applications for interception of communications and covert surveillance within prisons Prisons offer opportunities for police and other LEA to prevent, detect, or investigate crime. However, before any intelligence gathering operation can commence, an appropriate police or other LEA officer must make a written application to explain the necessity and proportionality of what is sought to be achieved by the operation. PAS National Forms must be used. Provisions for voluntary or ad hoc disclosure remain unchanged. Applications will not be successful unless the interference with privacy is justifiable. The legislative basis limiting prisoners’ communications with persons outside the prisons are set out in prison rules 34, 35, and 35 A-D. Prison Rule 35A specifically allows for the interception of communications. Section 4 (4) of RIPA makes lawful the interception of communications carried out under the Prison Rules. The legislative basis for covert surveillance applications is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000. There are some basic principles concerning police/LEA use of covert investigative techniques in prisons: Interception of Communications In all cases, where legal professional privilege (LPP) or other confidential material is sought as part of the application, the Authorising Officer is a more senior manager. In the case of an application by the police or other LEA for the interception of communications between a prisoner and his legal adviser (or other confidential communications), applications must be considered by the Chief Executive Officer of NOMS or another Director. The governor/operational manager must not authorise this type of application. Covert Surveillance of legal visits This is intrusive surveillance whether it takes place in a room for legal visits or in the main social visits hall, when being used as an overflow area for legal visits. The authorising officer is the Justice Secretary or another Secretary of State. David Wells & Jason Elliot page 42
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‘It’s who I am ... it’s what I do’
................................................................................................... JAMIE STARBUCK - HMP LONG LARTIN Having had my own mental health issues in the past I find it alarming that we can now be put on Basic (television removed, etc) for self-harming. The prison system can threaten to take TVs away all they like but how, exactly; will they stop me wanting to take a razor blade to my stomach to take away my emotional pain? Surely putting self-harmers on Basic will make it worse as at least the television is a distraction. The prison system clearly recognises that I am a criminal so isn’t it a little perverse to punish me for a ‘behavioural’ problem that in no respects are they seeking to correct? They may as well punish me for breathing incorrectly. There is a famous story about a scorpion and a frog - the scorpion wants to cross a river and negotiates with the frog for a lift across on his back. Halfway across the river the scorpion stings the frog who immediately, and somewhat indignantly yells ‘what the f*** dude? Now we’re both going to drown!’. To which the scorpion replies ‘It’s who I am ... it’s what I do’.
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Mailbag
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Recall review within reasonable time
..................................................... PAUL C STELLATO - HMP RANBY I would like to give any inmate who is challenging their recall decision some valuable advice. Article 5(4) Human Rights Act 1998 allows us the ability to claim damages if we have lacked the ability to challenge this detention ‘speedily’. There is no set time limit and each case is looked at on a case-by-case basis. I have currently initiated legal action in County Court, but it’s not easy. As a guide, you have to prove the review could have been performed sooner. Not just a couple of days, but significantly sooner. PSI 30/2014 gives guidance on the responsibilities of PCCs and Probation. You are looking at errors in disclosure as this could have necessitated another review or appeal. Delays in giving you the dossier, you have to receive it within 24 hours, so anything longer will not only possibly be per se a violation of Article 5(2), which directly relates to reasons being disclosed, but a contribution of Article 5(4) delay in review. Probation almost always forget to disclose parts B or C and must perform certain proscribed actions. You need to review the above PSI and use letters, complaints and if possible (via friends, family and Email a Prisoner) to send emails as evidence is essential. As a guide you need at least 2 or 3 different delays or one major delay. In addition if the Parole Board mess up and act illegally on a paper review (the main way is by not assessing evidence of behaviour, not an assertation by Probation about an incident that they were not actually a witness to) you can sue just for this delay. Anyway the course of action through the Courts is long-winded but revenge is sweet.
Let’s help the ‘nice’ criminals
..................................................... JIMMY H - HMP WORMWOOD SCRUBS I was watching the news over the Christmas holidays and it was reported that ex servicemen and women should be given extra help and support to help them overcome being in prison. That’s all well and good, for them, and I have the greatest respect for those who have served their country - they have my heartfelt thanks - but it angered me. We are ALL in prison to be rehabilitated but I feel like those that politicians and the tabloids single out as ‘more deserving’ are just convicted criminals like the rest of us. What makes these people better than others who have committed the same, sometimes horrific, crimes? If anything those who commit crime because they are uneducated and living in poverty and desperation should be given ‘extra help’, not people who have had the best of training and yet still go and commit crimes. And if they commit their crimes due to ‘mental health’ problems, because of the pressures of having served, then get them into hospitals. Turning the prison system into a two class system where some are more deserving than others is a typical Tory trick. The reason a lot of ex-servicemen are in prison is because of violence, and who could not see that coming? If you take a kid off a housing estate and train him to kill without mercy, make him proficient with weapons and explosives, then send him off to foreign wars in order to put this training into practise, how can you expect him not to use what has been drummed into him when he returns from the theatre of war? There is no magical cut-off switch for these people. But they should be treated and retrained long before it gets to the stage where they are using their ‘skills’ on the general civilian population. But nobody gives a toss.
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Our prisons should be working at rehabilitating ALL prisoners, not just the chosen and politically useful few. After all, isn’t that part of the prison systems brief? To ‘rehabilitate’ without favour? This seems to be just another spiteful dig at the rest of us from a bunch of privileged toffs who hate the poor but are mindful of needing plebs in order to fight their wars and do their dirty work in the future.
..................................................... MR SHIELDS - HMP MOORLAND n I have nothing but respect for servicemen who risk their lives in defence of our country, but the recent announcement by the MoJ about ex-servicemen in prison being singled out for ‘extra help’ is a slap in the face to the rest of us in prison who are crying out for help. We have all committed crimes or we would not be in prison so we should all be treated the same and not put into ‘special’ categories. The problem I have is that although it has been acknowledged that a lot of ex-servicemen have mental problems, such as PTSD, there are thousands of non-ex services prisoners in the system who also have these problems but where is the help and support for them? The answer to that is there is none. Ex-servicemen have so many more opportunities than others who end up in prison, employment is near guaranteed due to their training and work experience and there are many organisations helping them out. So, in my opinion, yes, they should be given help and support but not at the expense of the rest of us. This sort of help should be given to all prisoners who have difficulties with poor education, accessing employment and housing, and mental health problems. Though, with Grayling and this government’s track record of talking big and doing nothing, I would say to ex-service prisoners ‘Do not get your hopes up’, the rest of us have been waiting for rehabilitation and help for a hell of a long time.
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Illegal cell searches?
..................................................... Below is an excerpt from a letter we published in the December issue from David Barton at HMP Lowdham Grange about staff conducting ‘hooch runs’: “These ‘hooch runs’ take the form of entering our cells during the lunchtime lock-up for a nose about. My bedding is often in a mess, clothing in disarray, family photographs moved. As far as I am aware it is illegal to search a cell without the presence and knowledge of the prisoner? Could NOMS offer some clarification on the legality of the way these so-called hooch runs are being carried out?”
Writes Staff at HMP Lowdham Grange confirm that the searches that take place at the prison for the purpose of detecting Hooch are not full cell searches. They take the form of standard accommodation fabric checks, which will be clarified in the prison’s Local Security Strategy. In accordance with Prison Service Instruction 68/2011, “Cell, Area and Vehicle Searching”, establishments outside of the High Security Estate are required to undertake a risk-assessment to determine the frequency of accommodation fabric checks required, depending on their local needs, security risks and requirements. Prisoners are not required to be present during such a search. The Daly Judgement, which was ruled in the House of Lords in 2001, found that prisoners must, in normal circumstances, be present when legal correspondence is searched during a cell search. They are not required to be present in other circumstances. Please be assured that the prison have confirmed that a notice to staff is to be issued to remind them that cells must be left in the state that they were found following a search.
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Mailbag
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If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. The decision to allow matches but not lighters was made and agreed by Senior Operational Managers in the High Security Estate in 2012-13 due to a number of prisoners using lighters in a way that was detrimental to the safety and security of the establishment. The potential for further use of lighters to endanger the safety of staff and prisoners was identified and on this basis it was decided that lighters would no longer be permitted items for prisoners to have in possession. Matches were agreed to be the safest option after the risks were assessed against the need to provide prisoners with appropriate smoking requisites. This matter is under regular review.
Lighters: the definitive answer
..................................................... In several recent issues of Inside Time we have had mailbags containing various theories about why prisoners in Dispersal prisons cannot purchase disposable cigarette lighters from the prison canteen, like prisoners in other prisons. We asked NOMS for a definitive answer to the question, and this is what we received...
Writes I am able to confirm that the reasons quoted by your reader for not allowing cigarette lighters into High Security prisons are valid.
The nature of the prisoner population held in the High Security Estate was also taken into account when making the decision not to allow lighters into dispersal prisons. The HSE holds the country’s most dangerous prisoners, including those convicted of terrorism offences and all Category A prisoners. I must explain that prisoners are only downgraded to Category B or C status and relocated to lower category prisons after following a rigorous process of risk assessment. I can also inform you that the dangers that cigarette lighters present are also recognised within PSI 20/2012 Incendiary and Explosive Devices which is included in the National Security Framework. The underpinning requisite of this PSI is to ensure that all threats to the security, safety, order and control of establishments are detected and deterred.
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
‘Thanks, big mouth!’
How long must we wait?
I’d just like to thank Mr ‘Big’ Dan Rod of HMP Rye Hill for his poem about pre-gabs in the November issue. What the hell was he thinking? There’s nothing big or clever about getting out of your head. As someone who is prescribed pre-gablin properly he has just made my life that little bit harder. I’ve had wars with staff and healthcare about being prescribed this medication and they have tried to block this medication on many occasions. Now Mr ‘Big’ Dan Rod has given them the ammunition to say that these drugs should not be prescribed in prison. I don’t judge anybody in prison for wanting to get out of their heads, but I do take issue with writing a bloody poem for publication drawing attention to the fact that some people abuse medication, it just makes it harder for those who genuinely need it. Thanks big mouth, I can see how you got caught!
I was reading the reply from Elizabeth Moody - Deputy Ombudsman - about George Fredrick not having his lost/damaged property complaint investigated for 18 months. I have been waiting for nearly 2 years for mine and I’ve been left with virtually no clothing or anything due to my loss and I cannot replace them because the Ombudsman hasn’t sorted my complaint allowing me to receive damages for my loss. I know there is a backlog but a 2 year wait is taking the p***! How can I get a fair hearing of my complaint when after 2 years most of the evidence and witnesses are gone or won’t remember due to the length of time it has been? I feel that the Ombudsman should now have to compensate people who are waiting this long. It is true that we should never rush to justice, but crawling there is also unacceptable.
..................................................... ANDY LOGAN - HMP LEWES
..................................................... JOSEPH SAMUEL - HMP WOODHILL
Invaluable help from an old lag
..................................................................................................... BRIAN - EX PRISONER I was lucky enough to be put in with a lifer for my first couple of weeks on the wings. He gave me an intensive crash course on survival inside, over the next six years I had cause many times to thank him for the insight he gave me of how it all really works. He told me that the best thing I could do was to shrink my horizons down to more realistic levels, to treat the whole thing as an experience, to grab every opportunity to do something that you can, and make your surroundings more homely... because for the next six years, that is what it will be. I too ended up on the enhanced wing for the last four years, and sailed through my sentence without cracking up. Now, a few years later I can look back on the experience of prison as just that. An interesting experience. And I bless the guy who took the time and trouble to share what he had learned. Make no mistake, prison is humiliating, nasty, brutish, and can be a nightmare... but only if you let it get to you....
YOU’RE MEANT TO BE DOING TIME… ...NOT PERSONAL INJURY You’ve committed the offence, been found guilty and now you’re doing time at Her Majesties pleasure…….and time is all you should be doing. You may not have your freedom but you do have your rights. A wet floor, loose stair, trip in the gym, attack by a fellow inmate or even intimidation from prison staff. If you think you have suffered personal injury
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officers in, so the due diligence which would result in officers not coming into contact with prisoners when they have a known conflict is simply ignored. In a situation with frustrated prisoners and a lack of officers it could only make sense in the mind of a prison Governor in allowing those in conflict to meet.
HMP Woodhill in crisis
..................................................... KEVAN THAKRAR - HMP WOODHILL Having spent some four and a half years of my wrongful imprisonment at HMP Woodhill, since September 2007, I can confirm that the current running of this establishment is by far the worst I have seen. I have witnessed prisoners locked down for excessive amounts of time, resulting in increased frustration which is evident from the daily alarm bells being activated by prison officers unwilling to address a situation in a way which does not result in more lockdown (Prison Officers Association policy.) Officers will tell you that staff shortages are the problem. To a certain extent this may be true as the management allowed too many officers to take voluntary redundancy packages. However, the Governor responsible for that was demoted to a C Category prison some time ago so conditions should not still be deteriorating. The replacement Governor, in an attempt to deal with claims of staff shortages, has spent even more money bringing in officers from other high security prisons paying them to stay in hotels, covering their travel expenses and providing them with enhanced wages. Whatever the excuse this situation has stemmed from gross incompetence, shortsighted management structures, and is a flagrant disregard for the amount of taxpayers’ money being wasted on a failing prison system. These officers from other prisons are known as being on “detached duty”. They are not a sustainable solution and should never have been allowed to continue to work in temporary positions. The majority of them are from the other high security prisons, usually block ‘screws’ who see their deployment to Woodhill as a paid holiday. As they only work for two week stints they are not able to complete the work that would be expected from a regular officer. They are not shy in making sure everyone knows they are being paid to sit there and do nothing. The recruitment process is not followed to bring these temporary
trapped? trapp
It is not all this Governor’s fault; he inherited most of these problems. But he has had long enough to get a grip of those areas whose resources have been wasted (e.g. the notorious security department) to allow those areas to operate. Instead, he has decided to lock everyone up, reduce access to visits, gym, education and everything which could reduce tension, whilst simultaneously allowing the Security Governor to invent more and more unnecessary restrictive local policies and bureaucracy which require all the more manpower to maintain. Although less than 10% of Woodhill prisoners fall within security category A, compared to some dispersal prisons where the figure is nearer 50%, the security arrangements currently in place far exceed anything I have seen elsewhere. A recent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report exposed an example of this, that standard Category A prisoners at Woodhill must move cells every three months, but in all dispersal prisons only High Risk A Category prisoners and Escape List prisoners are required to move cells. Woodhill claimed to be relaxing their policy as a result of this report but, months later, have made no attempt to do so. It may seem like a small issue, but when looked at in the context of a lack of resources, how can it be logical to expect what resources are available to be completing all the work required to move someone into an alternative but identical cell? So many other examples of wasted resources exist which, if questioned, will be met with the textbook response that these things must be done for “security reasons”. Everyone knows there is never any substance to the claim of “security reasons”, yet the idiocy of maintaining this position when the consequences of the disproportionality of most of Woodhill’s security measures is to put the security of the prison in jeopardy is incapable of being comprehended by the Governor. Unless the Governor is able to realise the damage his security Governors are doing it is inevitable that he will fail in his job of running a safe prison. They have been let off the leash for too long; they must be reigned back in and muzzled. Only then will Woodhill stand a chance of averting the crisis they currently find themselves in.
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Mailbag
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
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IPP - Some questions that need to be asked
..................................................... SIMON BURROWS HMP BULLINGDON Habeas Corpus (enshrined in the Magna Carter 800 years ago) is the law that underpins the right to a fair trial in the British legal system. In its basic form it ensures that no one can be held without appearing before a judge/court to ascertain whether a prisoner is guilty or not guilty of a crime. When a person was given an IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection), the judge, in his sentencing remarks, would have calculated the tariff (i.e. the minimum length of time that person has to serve before being eligible to seek parole) by taking the amount of time they would have been given had he/she been given a determinate sentence and then halving it. So, for example, if the offence the person had pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of would have merited a sentence of 6 years imprisonment, the tariff set under IPP would be half of that sentence; so 3 years. However, because the judge has determined that the offence would merit 6 years, any amount that the prisoner serves over that length would be manifestly excessive because the person is being held longer than the crime justified. There has always been the view that someone on IPP is being held partly as punishment for the crime and after that for public protection ‘in case’ they were to commit further crimes on being released. If this is the case, then under the Habeas Corpus Act, (which has never been repealed) all people who are now over twice their tariff (i.e. the full amount that would have been given had they received a determinate sentence) should now be taken back to court and tried for the ‘future offences’
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that they have yet to commit. As this cannot be done, then all IPPs being held beyond twice their tariff should be released immediately. What this boils down to is a very old standing principle of Habeas Corpus versus ‘dangerousness’ or the law against opinion. It could be argued that IPPs are ‘lifers’, in which case can the judicial system honestly say that people with IPPs of 72 days or less than 1 year tariffs have committed crimes that justify them being locked up, possibly, for the rest of their lives? I met one person with a 12 month tariff who is still in prison after 9½ years. When he is finally released he will spend the rest of his life on license. If this was the intention of the courts when they were handing out IPPs in the 7 year period before the sentence was amended then why did they not simply use existing legislation that enabled them to impose a life sentence? However, that is precisely what was handed down, only under a different title. So, again, if the crime committed did not warrant a life sentence then being given an IPP is manifestly excessive. And how can it be argued any other way? We have ended up with a system whereby anyone who now commits a crime of either similar or greater magnitude will receive a sentence which will be far less than that of a person who committed a similar crime, simply because they committed it between April 2005 and December 2012. IPPs should be looked at again with a view to changing them to determinate sentences and finally correcting what the law has clearly identified as an unjust sentencing system. The financial savings would be massive as there are approximately 5500 IPPs costing around £192 million per year. And please can we bear in mind the families of people serving IPPs who also suffer a huge amount.
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Mailbag
‘Opened in error’
..................................................... A PRISONER’S RELATIVE My son was due a legal visit from his Barrister and put in a general application to request that he could hand out legal paperwork to the Barrister on a visit. The reply that came back was that any paperwork he wanted to hand out had to be sent to the security department before the visit, in an unsealed envelope, this would be checked by security to confirm that it was legal paperwork and then security would take it down to the visits room on the day of the visit. My son declined to leave this with security. The Barrister was also informed that he could not give my son any paperwork on the visit. The Barrister sent in legal paperwork to my son and on the inner envelope was written my son’s name and prison number and Rule 39. This was inside the outer envelope and on the front of the outer envelope was the legal team stamp: it was sent special delivery. Special delivery was guaranteed for the following day. I checked with the Barrister and he confirmed that this had been signed for by the prison. This paperwork was not taken to my son until he had requested it and he had informed staff when it had been signed for. The wing Senior Officer contacted Security about this. When the legal paperwork was sent to the wing it was in an internal envelope and had clearly been read as the paperwork was not in page order. My son completed a Comp 1 asking why this had been opened and read despite it being clearly marked as legal mail. He did not receive a reply to this or the Comp 1A. He completed a Comp 2 requesting why the Governor had authorised this to be opened
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. and on what grounds. He also asked him why it had clearly been read, sent to the wing in an internal envelope and he requested to know if an SIR had been completed and was the legal team informed that this had been opened. The legal team were not informed that this had been opened. The reply from the Governor was that this ‘had been opened in error’, which is the constant mealy-mouthed excuse offered in such cases. Can you please tell me A) why prisoners are being forced to hand legally privileged papers to Security in an unsealed envelope? B) why Rule 39 mail is being opened, read and treated in such a cavalier fashion by HMP Parkhurst? C) what are you going to do about it?
Writes The Prison Service takes any breaches of legal privilege seriously and as such I have contacted the Governor at HMP IOW to investigate this matter. The Governor confirmed the following;
are subject to no victim contact conditions or no child contact conditions due to the nature of their offences. We have a duty to protect victims and to assist with this aim there is a procedure in place to pre-approve any requests for prisoners to hand items out on visits. Reluctantly, the Governor at HMP IOW had to put this in place after an attempt to contact a prisoner’s victim by handing an item out on visits was discovered. Prisoners and staff were informed of this development via the prison council and official notices to prisoners and staff. • The local procedure and application forms published in July 2014 do not include instructions for staff to routinely send items to the security department; this is not part of the normal procedure. • I have been given assurance from the Governor that when complaints are received about legal mail being opened they are fully investigated and there is evidence of completed investigations to support this. The Governor takes all complaints seriously and works with his team to learn from previous incidents and to review and revise systems to
• HMP IOW has checked its complaints data against the allegation as set out; we could not find any evidence of a complaint received at HMP IOW matching this case.
Michael Purdon Solicitor Advising prisoners nationwide since 1994
Criminal Appeals, CCRC, SOPO Judicial Review Challenges This relationship brings together two&highly regarded organisations with a passion for human rights. the imposition of IPP sentences, led We have successfully challenged the way in the review of mandatory tariffs as well as being central to
Criminal Appeals, CCRCchallengers and Judicial Review challenges... the development of prisoner to delays in progression and
the timing of parole reviews. We have an arsenal of experienced counsel who have worked with us for a number of years in High Court and Court of Appeal cases. Supreme Court To we have successfully the imposition of IPPCourt Wedate presently have permissionchallenged for challenges in the Supreme sentences, led hearings the way inforthe review of mandatory as awell as relating to oral Cat A reviews and also tariffs seeking being centraloftothe therestrictive development of prisoner challenges to delays reappraisal aspects of the case of ‘James’ relatingin progression and the timing ofcourses parole reviews. to whether failure to provide gives rise to compensation.
In this case we have been unable to establish the identity of the prisoner and follow up the complaint directly with him. My advice to any prisoner who feels they have been treated unfairly would be to use our internal complaints system in the first instance as the prison is best placed to address related concerns. If they are subsequently unhappy with the response they have received and have used the internal appeal process, there is an avenue for them to raise the matter to the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
Send your message (20 words max.) to Inside Time and we will publish as many as possible in a special Mother’s Day section in the March issue. All messages received will appear on our website. Include the name and address of your mum and she will receive a copy of the newspaper. Entries must be sent to Inside Time ‘Mother’s Day’ Botley Mills, Botley, Hampshire SO30 2GB. Closing date 19th February and don’t forget to include your full details too!
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• HMP IOW has no record of any authority to open legal correspondence matching the allegation, as it has been set out. There have been occasions recently where authority has been granted to open legal correspondence, subject to appropriate approval being gained, and this led to the discovery of breaches to the Rule 39 process. However on each occasion the prisoner and his legal advisor were informed.
Mother’s Day 15th March
• However, it can be confirmed that prisoners at HMP IOW may hand out items on a visit, subject to prior checks and approval. Prisoners and staff are kept informed of procedures via local notices and the most recent instruction on the subject was published on 25 July 2014. • HMP IOW holds a number of prisoners who
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Mailbag
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‘Makes no sense at all...’
© kalinich24 - Fotolia
....................................................................................................... COLIN CAMPBELL - HMP WOODHILL After being convicted I have been made up to Standard Category A. This in itself should make little difference to a prisoner’s daily life, however, here at HMP Woodhill it does, albeit in a series of minor irritations. There is one aspect of life as a Category A prisoner that makes no sense at all, and that is being able to contact solicitors. I am aware that there are frequently restrictions imposed on prisoners preventing them from contacting, usually friends or family, but to place any restrictive measures in the form of a prisoner being able to contact a solicitor, well, that seems like an obstruction for obstruction’s sake.
9 month-old baby refused visit
..................................................... A PRISONER’S RELATIVE My Granddaughter’s partner and 9 month-old baby drove through treacherous conditions on the 27th of Dec from Kent to get to Preston to stay at her Aunts overnight, and went to see her father on the 28th at HMP Preston. Not realizing she needed ID for the baby, which on her previous visit she was not asked for, the prison declined letting the baby go through, and her partner had to cope for nearly 3 hours with a teething baby in the car while granddaughter went in to visit her father. The first time my daughter and I visited my son she had forgotten her ID but they said she could go through just this once but yet turned a 9 month-old baby away. I know of this officer who refused the baby a visit and he thinks he is a law unto himself with a big chip on his shoulder. After visits on our way out many are disabled and he keeps us standing packed like sardines till (he) is ready to open the gate, with a smirk on his face. I have written a complaint about this incident to the Minister for Justice and am awaiting the outcome.
“ARC LAW”
I can only assume that every other Category A prisoner has to fill out an application form requesting that a particular solicitor be added to their list of solicitors, this I fully understand, but then the prison does something which makes no sense at all - they write to the solicitor asking that the solicitor returns a consent form agreeing that a particular prisoner be allowed to contact them! What the hell is that about? They are registered solicitors, I am a prisoner - so why is the prison system wasting time and money by interfering with a legal process? Are the people who operate this system aware that the appeal process needs to be started within one month of conviction? I wonder if other prisoners are having the same problems?
Cameron’s ‘sick’ scale
‘I passed a polygraph’
Prison healthcare
I believe I may have to pass the hat round to raise funds to purchase another bucket for Prime Minister David Cameron to be sick into, because if the thought of giving prisoners the vote makes him feel ‘physically sick’, I can’t imagine what he must be feeling at the revelations that members of his party belong to a paedophile ring operating out of Westminster.
In reply to Mr L Philips (‘Polygraph has proved my innocence!’ - January issue), I too passed a full polygraph test in October 2013. I was wrongfully convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 26 years in total for crimes that I did not commit. Maintaining my innocence I requested a polygraph from day one but was repeatedly refused. After 9 months of stonewalling by HMP I was granted access to a tester who conducted the test. It finally took place in October 2013 at HMP Parkhurst. I paid for an extended test and the credentials of the examiner include ‘working for law enforcement agencies worldwide’. He is also a trained psychologist and a member of C.O.P.S.
Having seen so many letters over the past twelve months in Inside Time regarding the various standards of the Healthcare Service within the Prison system, I thought that the following information should be common knowledge.
..................................................... ARNOLD - HMP FORD
How does all this rate on Mr Cameron’s ‘sick’ scale? I only ask because he doesn’t seem to be saying a lot about how ‘sick’ this makes him.
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..................................................... JOHN CONNOLLY - HMP PARKHURST
The examiner commented that he had ‘never been so badly delayed in getting access to a client’ as he had been with me. My friends and family have always been 100% behind me so the result of the polygraph was no surprise to any of us - I passed the test. I actively sought this test because I am innocent. I have a young family who are badly affected by my absence and are going through hell needlessly. My career is in tatters and there is a heavy financial burden on my family. I spent 29 years building an impeccable reputation and now that is all gone. I am currently in the appeals process but nothing can make up for the 3 years of hell we have already been through. I hope that at my appeal, common sense will prevail and I feel for all the other families ripped apart by horrible lies and speculation.
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Unlock’s office move
Please contact us for a no obligation assesment. Offices in Halifax & London with nationwide coverage
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..................................................... KEITH ANDERSON - EX PRISONER
Back in 2012, a Government Committee report stated that by October 2014 the Prison Healthcare computer system would be fully linked in the NHS. So that prisoners full medical records would be available to the Prison Healthcare Service. Having put in a Freedom of Information request, this is the following reply: ‘NHS England took over the responsibility for the provision of healthcare in secure and detained settings in April 2013, at this time we also took over the commitment to have an integrated IT system. However the current IT system contract does not end until July 2016 and NHS England is about to undertake a procurement of a new system. The new system will have an electronic transfer of medical records between the community and secure settings. In the interim, prisons and other secure settings are able to request copies of medical records from the community GP’s, but will not be fully linked until July 2016.’ Interestingly, with the governments abysmal record on installing new computer systems anywhere within their departments, July 2016 no doubt will come and go!
....................................................... CHRISTOPHER STACEY DIRECTOR, UNLOCK
In the final sentence regarding copies of medical records from community GP’s, it does not state that GP’s do not have to supply a full medical file of a patient/prisoner, a brief resume will do. The GP’s may also charge the requesting Prison for this service!
Since January 2014, we’ve been based at Maidstone Community Support Centre. For the last year, we had a Royal Mail ‘postal divert’ in operation, which meant that we were still receiving any letters that were sent to our old address. This divert is no longer in operation. If you see our old address anywhere, please let those involved know our new one. Our full address is Unlock, Maidstone Community Support Centre, 39-48 Marsham Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1HH.
Finally, we have a prime example of the Prison Service wasting so much money in Healthcare suppliers. You would have thought that the local NHS Trust services would supply healthcare to prisons, that does not happen. Example being, at Channings Wood, Dartmoor and Exeter, all in Devon, healthcare is supplied by Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation based 125 miles away in Poole, Dorset!
Newsround
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org processes were haphazard and prisoners had a poor introduction to the prison. Some problematic and difficult to manage prisoners were located alongside new arrivals on the first night wing, which, Inspectors said, was an ‘inappropriate mix’.
THE INSPECTOR CALLS ... Nick Hardwick - HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Inside Time highlights areas of good and bad practice, along with a summary of prisoner survey responses at HMP Garth and HMYOI Feltham (A). These extracts are taken from the most recent Reports published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. under 18s annually. They said; ‘We found a staff group who were working very hard to deal with a significant number of very troubled young people. For the most part they seemed to be doing this in a calm, patient and sometimes courageous way.’
HMYOI Feltham (A)
Young people aged 15 to 18; remand and sentenced Managed by HMPS CNA: 240 Population: 180 Announced Full Inspection: 11-15 August 2014 Published: 14th January 2015 Last inspection: January 2013
‘Significant improvements, but still major concerns’
32% Remand 8.7% Number of foreign nationals 29% Age 16 or under 17% Lost property on arrival 47% Treated well in Reception 66% Food is bad or very bad 54% Don’t know who IMB are 55% Treated with respect by staff 33% Number who have felt unsafe 33% Victimised by staff 67% Had an adjudication 60% Difficult to see dentist 10% Easy to get drugs 79% Had been excluded from school 29% Not engaged in any purposeful activities 10% Get no visits Feltham is divided into two sections - A holds young people 18 and under; and section B holds young men up to 21. They operate separately but are managed as one. This report refers to Section A only. A report on Section B has also been published. Inspectors visit every establishment holding
Reception, first night and induction arrangements were generally swift and effective and some facilities, notably reception and the induction unit, were in a better condition than when we last inspected. Risks were managed appropriately and most boys reported feeling safe on their first night. Inspectors noted; ‘Feltham’s approach to safeguarding was thorough and staff generally understood their responsibilities in respect of child protection. We observed good, wellintegrated working relationships with the local authority which had strengthened and the institution was working constructively with them to ensure the replacement of social workers they had recently lost and which had left some gaps in coverage. The institution had gone to considerable lengths to address violence and bullying behaviour. The number of fights and assaults had reduced since the last inspection but despite this violence still remained too high and there had been more assaults on staff than ‘normal’. A significant amount of violence is gang related.
The number of violent incidents had been rising steadily and there was a sharp increase in the two months before the inspection. Inspectors found frightened prisoners seeking sanctuary in the segregation unit and lodged on the drug recovery wing.
HMP Garth
Category B training prison Managed by HMPS CNA: 811 Population: 780 Unannounced Full Inspection: 11-22 August 2014 Published: 14 January 2015 Last inspection: April 2012
‘Staff shortages undermining progress’
0% Unsentenced 6.3% Number of foreign nationals 4.5% Number on recall 22% Lost property on arrival 67% Treated well in Reception 50% Had legal letters opened 60% Food is bad or very bad 22% Don’t know who IMB are 77% Treated with respect by staff 32% Number who have felt unsafe 26% Victimised by staff 73% Difficult to see dentist 33% Easy to get drugs 20% Not engaged in any purposeful activities 23% Less than 4 hours
Staff shortages meant the prison was running a restricted regime. All lunchtime and late evening unlock periods had ceased and weekend association was reduced. Although HMP Garth is a training prison, most prisoners could only attend education or work for threeand-a-half days a week, and morning activity sessions were routinely shortened as staff were unavailable to supervise movement to and from activities.
out of cell Inspectors said; ‘Like too many prisons we have been to recently, the prison was beset by chronic staff shortages which impacted adversely on many aspects of its work. The prison had recently taken on a new role as a national category B sex offender treatment hub and two wings holding about 200 men had been re-roled to fulfil this.’ Cells on the first night wing were dirty and badly prepared. Reception and induction
Recently published HMCIP reports Altcourse - September 2014, Chelmsford - September 2014, Cookham Wood October 2014, Elmley - November 2014, Feltham - January 2015, Garth - January 2015, Guernsey - November 2014, Hewell - September 2014, Hollesley Bay - January 2015, North Sea Camp - November 2014, Peterborough - October 2014, Portland December 2014, Springhill - September 2014, Swaleside - September 2014, Swinfen Hall - November 2014, Thameside - January 2015, Wakefield - November 2014, Wormwood Scrubs - September 2014, Wymott - October 2014 Copies of the most recent report for your prison are available in the library. New address for HMCIP Victory House, 6th floor, 30-34 Kingsway London WC2B 6EX
Our Team of over 25 specialist advisors have a wealth of experience to offer you including:
Inspectors said; ‘We were concerned about the number of times boys had been placed in special accommodation, although a small number of boys with very acute mental health and behavioural needs, who were placed on this measure, were better cared for in the establishment’s Albatross unit. The number of self-harm incidents had reduced, but the management of these cases was just adequate, and too many boys in crisis were left locked up for too long with not enough to do’.
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Newsround
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Chris Grayling spent £72,000 of taxpayers’ money to defend ‘unlawful’ prison book ban The High Court has ruled Chris Grayling’s prison book ban “unlawful” and Mr Justin Collins said he could see “no good reason” for the Government’s stance and said their defence was “misleading”. Andy Slaughter, the Shadow Justice Secretary, discovered the amount the Justice Department had spent on legal fees for the trial after submitting a written parliamentary question. “We all knew the ban on sending books to prisoners was a half-baked policy from an out-oftouch Government,” he told the Mirror. “Now they have spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on losing the case. Chris Grayling should focus on the bad decision-making in his own department, rather than waste public money in this way.” Frances Crook, CEO of the Howard League for Penal Reform, which co-led the original campaign to scrap the ban, told The Independent: “It is a scandalous waste of public money, squandered on curtailing people’s right to read and learn. The Ministry of Justice must lift the ban on sending books and other essentials immediately.”
Eighty-two prisoners killed themselves in 2014, up seven from the previous year, according to statistics compiled by the Howard League for Penal Reform. Frances Crook, the chief executive of the Howard League, said: “The government has chosen to allow the prison population to increase whilst it cuts staff, and that has led to an increase in people dying by suicide.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We respect individuals’ rights to wear religiously appropriate clothing, including hats, turbans and caps.”
Deaths in custody
235
deaths in prison, including: 127 died of natural causes 82 prisoners took their own lives 24 deaths yet to be classified 1 murder and 1 alleged murder Source: The Howard League for Penal Reform
Since 2010 the number of prison officers, governors and support staff in public sector jails has fallen by 10,000, with half the jobs going in the past two years, according to MoJ figures. There has also been a huge increase in the number of adult male offenders, up almost 5,000 since the coalition Government came to power.
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The things people say…
‘Not one Crown Office investigator or prosecutor has raised a concern about the evidence in this case’ Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC made this announcement on December 20th 2014 and added that ‘Lockerbie conspiracy theory is dismissed’ Dr Jim Swire (Father of Flora murdered at Lockerbie) noted: ‘The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission carefully investigated the case while Mr al-Megrahi was still alive and found no less than six reasons why the case should be the subject of a further appeal. The Appeal, as Lord Mulholland will remember, was cut short by the return of al-Megrahi to his homeland (Libya) just before crucial questions over the Crown’s case could be re-examined in Court.”
Supporting New Bridge’s vital work
in England and Wales 2014
average prison population in 2014
A Sikh solicitor has won undisclosed compensation after being barred from entering a prison to visit a client because he had pins in his turban. Amrik Bilkhu, a criminal defence solicitor, was told to remove the pins even though he pointed out it would make the religious garment fall apart. He brought a religious discrimination claim against the Ministry of Justice, which has now settled out of court and agreed to pay Mr Bilkhu’s legal costs. Mr Bilkhu’s collegue Duncan Burtwell, of GT Stewart solicitors, said: “Any legitimate security concerns relating to Mr Bilkhu’s turban pins could have been more proportionately addressed than by the refusal to admit him to the prison altogether. In any event, Mr Bilkhu’s attendances at Belmarsh on previous occasions and Belmarsh’s ‘approval’ of his turban pins for subsequent legal visits rendered the entire incident ridiculous. “
Prison suicides in England and Wales at ‘seven-year high’
84,250
Sikh wins compensation over prison turban challenge
11
Feltham prison: Inspectors found 1 in 4 children held in what amounts to solitary confinement The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons’ report on Feltham prison, published on 13 January. Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “One in four boys in Feltham prison is spending 23 hours a day locked up in his cell in conditions which amount to solitary confinement. This is unacceptable. Despite some improvements, violence is endemic, including 79 assaults on staff in six months. It is particularly concerning that the use of force on children has increased dramatically since the last inspection.
On a rainy day in January, New Bridge Volunteer Hilary started the 1st leg of walking the Capital Ring (6.2 miles Woolwich to Falconwood) to raise funds for the prison charity New Bridge.
“However, the problems outlined in this report are not confined to Feltham; they mirror the findings of a series of inspections conducted across the country in recent months. Staff are rightly praised by the inspectorate, but they are working in challenging environments where they are being asked to achieve the impossible.
New Bridge volunteers write to and visit prisoners serving long sentences in prisons throughout England & Wales. Volunteers are linked to the prisoner not the prison and stay in touch when prisoners are moved. Last year New Bridge volunteers travelled nearly 108,000 miles and wrote over 7,000 letters providing contact with the outside world to the prisoners they support.
“It is high time we stopped locking up children in large, violent institutions and invest instead in what works in rehabilitating children whilst keeping them safe.”
In 2015, Hilary aims to walk the 78 miles of The Capital Ring in 15 stages to raise over £15,000 to support New Bridge’s vital work.
If you feel you would benefit from the support of a New Bridge Volunteer write to Befrienders, New Bridge Foundation, 1a Elm Park, London SW2 2TX.
12
Newsround
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Dangerous prisoners to be stripped of human rights According to the Legal Editor of The Times, the Conservatives plan to take a hard line on deportation. Terrorist suspects, criminals and illegal immigrants will be banned from using human rights on a ‘get out of jail free’ card under a Conservative party Bill of Rights being prepared for the forthcoming General Election. A draft Bill drawn up by senior Conservative lawyers will stop ‘family life’ grounds being used to avoid deportation from Britain. It will
The things people say…
The Times January 20
also state that British judges can ignore rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg which outlaw bans on prisoner voting and the police being members of a trade union and restrict whole-life terms on people convicted of murder.
UN General Assembly resolution on children and forced marriage A United Nations Resolution demonstrates the broad international consensus that urgent action is needed to end child marriage, a practice that holds back 15 million girls a year, or about 41,000 a day, denying them fundamental rights and undermining their future. If there is no reduction in child marriage, 1.2 billion girls will marry as children by 2050 - equivalent to the entire population of India. “The passage of a UN resolution does not mean that we will end child marriage tomorrow, but resolutions are important in setting global norms. This is a firm statement from the international community that we have to act on child marriage if we’re to ensure equality and reduce global poverty”, said Heather Hamilton, Girls Not Brides. The Resolution recognises that child and forced marriage: • Is a practice that severely impairs girls and women’s human rights and is a threat to their
“I’m very happy to be judged on the record that I have as Prime Minister” David Cameron on the Andrew Marr Show, 4 January 2015 Mr Cameron appears to have forgotten this Conservative Government’s record. l One million people using food banks;
health, education, economic and social status;
l Largest A&E deportment closure in NHS history;
• Is inherently linked to deep-rooted gender inequalities, norms and stereotypes; and,
l Hundreds of thousands of new insecure and zero hours jobs created;
• Is itself a barrier to development and helps to perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
l Bankers’ bonuses protected;
More importantly, it’s the first time that countries have agreed on the steps that they - and partners in international organizations and civil society - should be taking to address the problem, including:
l Botched Royal Mail sell-off cost tax payers £1bn;
• Enact, enforce and uphold laws and policies to end the practice; • Develop and implement holistic, comprehensive and coordinated responses and strategies in cooperation with stakeholders, including civil society; and
l Debt higher than under Labour;
l 3.6 million disabled people targeted by spending cuts; l Introduction of the bedroom tax; l £3bn tax cut for the top 1% of earners; l 3.5 million children living in poverty and expected to rise.
“Only the Labour Party can save the NHS” Ed Miliband, Leader of Labour Party, addressing the House of Commons in January 2015. Mr Miliband appears to have forgotten the last Labour Government’s record. l It allowed the NHS to squander millions of pounds on a computerised system that did not work; l It oversaw the expansion of an inefficient NHS bureaucracy, whose fat cat leaders flit from NHS trust to NHS trust hoovering up taxpayer’s money in pay-outs and pay-offs on the way; l It virtually doubled the pay of GP’s without exhausting the necessary extra efficiencies from them, hence the current chaos in A & E departments; l It mismanaged the recruitment and training of nurses, forcing the NHS to recruit overseas staff to make up the shortfall.
• Promote and protect the human rights of all women and girls, including their right to education and to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality.
The Clink named Cardiff City’s finest eatery The Clink, at HMP Cardiff, is number one on TripAdvisor out of 946 restaurants in the Welsh capital. More than 350 satisfied customers left glowing reviews on the hugely popular site. The restaurant, which opened to the public in September 2012, has also been credited with helping slash rates of re-offending, as the latest figures show that it has reduced the re-offending rate of released prisoners who worked there to 12.5%. The national average is 47%. Around 30 prisoners work a 40-hour week either in the kitchen or restaurant, training towards nationally recognised City and Guilds NVQs before returning to the prison at the end of each working day.
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Newsround
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Smoking is bad for birds We know that smoking is bad for us. What’s less well advertised is the fact that it may also be harmful to birds. Urban birds have long been picking up cigarette ends, and using the cellulose in the filters to line their nests. The filters ward off parasites in much the same way as the leaves with which birds usually line their nests. And the nicotine in the filters also wards off fleas and the like, making them a practical substitute in built-up areas where the appropriate trees may be in short supply.
13
NEWS IN BRIEF
7 million: increase in sales of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and showing a great profit.
© Fotolia
The beginning of the end of Aids? The HIV virus is getting less and less deadly, reports BBC News, and eventually could become “almost harmless”. And the cause of this lies in the very ease with which the virus adapts to the immune system. Scientists from Oxford University have discovered that its ability to mutate and get past the defences of particularly effective immune systems comes at a cost: it reduces the ability of the virus to replicate, which over time makes it less infectious and slower to turn into Aids. The scientists studied 2,000 HIV-positive women in Botswana and South Africa, and found that in Botswana it now takes 12.5 years for the virus to turn into Aids, whereas in the 1990s it took just 10. In South Africa it still takes ten. That’s because in Botswana, Aids arrived a decade earlier so the virus is further evolved. In particular it has evolved to evade a gene called HLA-B*57, a potent immune defence, against Aids. “The virus is trapped between a rock and a hard place - it can get flattered or change to survive, if it changes, that comes at a cost”, says Professor Philip Goulder.
© Stepan Popov - Fotolia
But they also contain toxins - and new research suggests that these are damaging the genetic information within the birds’ cells. ‘It seems that bringing cigarette butts to the nest has negative consequences that may counterbalance the benefits of using them as ectoparasites repellents reported the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
In Los Angeles a leading cosmetic surgeon takes delivery of Kim Kardashian’s buttock implant.
So what seems to be the problem?
Teenage girls self-confidence plummeting
© grafikplusfoto - Fotolia
The growing pressure on the NHS Half of women in England are currently taking prescription drugs, as are 43% of men, a new snapshot study suggests. The commonly taken ones included cholesterol-lowering statins, antidepressants and pain relief drugs. When questioned for the Health Survey for England, almost a quarter of women, and a fifth of men, said they’d taken three different prescribed drugs in the past week, a figure that rises to 70% among the over-75s. Antidepressants were taken by twice as many women as men a total of 11% of women were taking them, compared with 5.5% of men. These were most commonly taken by middle-aged women and those from deprived areas - 17% of the poorest women took antidepressants, compared with 7% of the richest. The greatest proportion of prescribed drugs, however, were for cardiovascular disease, these accounted for 30% of the total. The single-most prescribed drug was simvastatin - which lowers cholesterol - with 40 million prescriptions (followed by aspirin, with 31 million prescriptions). And almost 50% of over-65s of both sexes were taking some form of statin, reflecting the age group’s high risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease.
Levels of self-confidence among teenage girls seem to be plummeting. According to new figures from the Schools Health Education Unit, only 33% of 15 year-olds now report feeling good about themselves, down from 41% in 2007. By contrast, more than 50% of boys aged 14-16 have high self-esteem. Most teenage girls cited the way they looked as their greatest worry - above school work and family issues. Two-thirds said they were “too fat”; 14% had skipped breakfast that day. Younger girls had similar concerns: 53% of 12 and 13 year-olds, and a third of 10 and 11 year-olds said they wanted to lose weight. Yet only one in four boys aged 14 to 16 were worried about their body size. The national survey of around 17,000 secondary school pupils also found that a third had looked for porn and violent images online.
Watch out for the ten-year itch
A patient is rushed to A&E.
© shockfactor - Fotolia
They talk about a seven-year itch - but according to a new study, it’s at ten years that relationships start to really suffer. Researchers gathered 2,000 women who were born in the 1950s and 1960s, and had married in their mid 20s, and quizzed them at intervals over 35 years. Participants were asked, for instance, how happy they were, how often they and their husband laughed together, and also what they argued about. The results suggest that in almost all cases, happiness starts to decline almost as soon as the honeymoon is over - and in most cases it never recovers. Problems reach a peak at 10 to 15 years possibly because it’s at that point people feel most ground down by the responsibilities of family life. But if couples soldier on for a few more years (by which time children are more independent), the conflict levels start to drop off, and by 35 years, some report being as happy, or even happier than they were at the beginning.
British men are getting bigger British men have grown two inches in the past half century, and are generally bigger all round. In 1954, the average male weighed 11 stone 6lbs, was just over 5ft 7in tall, and had a waist of 34 inches and a chest of 37 inches. He took a size seven shoe, and a size 14 collar, and could expect to live to the age of 68. Today, the average man weighs 12 stone 6lbs, is 5ft 9in tall, and has a 42-inch chest and a collar size of 16. He takes a size nine shoe - and can expect to live to 79. He also eats and drinks about 25% more than his counterpart in the 1950s.
Grumpy Cat, The first cat to earn $100m.
... gives a beaver in Canada the idea to log on.
14
Newsround
STRANGE BUT TRUE l West country bus timetable website hacked by terrorists Islamic extremists hoping to disrupt travel across the Western World hacked instead into a website that publishes bus timetables for the Bristol area. Commuters who visited the TavelWest website after Christmas were confronted by a black screen covered in Arabic text and playing Arab music. A banner informed them that the website had been taken over by DarkShadow, a group that is believed to work out of Ivory Coast and Tunisia. The cyber-terrorists are presumed to have thought they were hacking into a website that promoted international travel in the West - not bus routes in the West Country. The TravelWest site was still out of operation this week.
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
707 adults per every 100,000 residents is the highest in the world, by a huge margin. With 1,800 state and federal correctional facilities and 3,200 local and county jails this means in many parts of America, particularly the South, there are more people living in prisons than on college campuses. In some counties, prisons account for 10, 20 or 30 percent of the total population. l Women hit hardest by courts for failing to buy TV licence Seven out of ten people found guilty of failing to buy a TV licence last year were women. More than 100,000 women were given criminal records for not paying the £145.50 fee, each given a minimum fine of £1,000 on top of court costs. Last year 32 people were sent to prison for failing to pay the licence fee. Women were also more likely to be at home
when inspectors called. Children were being forced into care because their mother was imprisoned for failing to pay the fee.
Owing to ongoing rail improvements this train will be late.
l Thrown into the cells for beeping at a police car After a driver sounded his horn at a police van which was moving slowly and repeatedly braking in front of him he was handcuffed, thrown into a cell and had his fingerprints, DNA and mug shot taken. The driver’s solicitor said that the case should never have come to court after the CCTV coverage clearly contradicted the police account that he was shouting and being threatening. Despite this the CPS seemed determined to take the case to Court and it wasn’t until a week before the trial they realised there was no case.
l Constipated goldfish gets life saving operation A pet owner from Norfolk spent £300 to have his goldfish cured of constipation. The unnamed man took the two-year-old fish to his local vet in North Walsham when it seemed to be ailing. Vet Faye Bethell worked out that there was a blockage in the fish’s bottom - and warned him that without surgery, it would die. Initially, he balked at the cost of the treatment, but ten minutes later, he changed his mind and the hour-long operation went ahead. “There was nothing special about the fish. He just liked it a lot,” Bethell said. l The U.S. has more jails than colleges The USAs national incarceration rate of
NEWS IN BRIEF
A gripping new scheme at Churchill for customers to get a reduction on their car insurance is launched.
It is difficult to imagine what the murdered cartoonists would make of seeing the Saudi Ambassador to France taking part in the rally in Paris shortly after the jailed freespeech Saudi activist, Raif Badawi, received the first 50 of his 1000 lashes in Jeddah.
Oral Hearing? ... don’t go it alone
And Charles spots Andrew in Davos.
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Newsround
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
8 million
2.3 million
Estimated number of Americans who have diabetes but are unaware of it.
Syrian refugees who have fled Syria.
© loreanto - Fotolia
© LoloStock - Fotolia
3 billion
8 million
59
World’s population under 25 years of age.
Estimated number of vinyl records sold in 2014, a 33% increase from 2013.
Number of British deaths from Islamistrelated terrorism since 9/11.
15
100,000 Deaths in Syria since March 2011. © vvoe - Fotolia
32,525 Number of road deaths in Britain since 9/11.
© Photographee.eu - Fotolia
© Marylène - Fotolia
8,000
£3.5 billion 5
55
Deaths from Ebola.
Annual cost of alcohol abuse to the NHS.
Average number of Americans killed annually by wasp or bee stings.
© khunaspix - Fotolia
© dina777 - Fotolia
46%
1.45 trillion
Drop in the price of crude oil since June 2014.
Google searches in 2014.
© Minerva Studio - Fotolia
© Monkey Business - Fotolia
14.6%
380 million
How much more than last year consumers have spent on dining out.
Total number of diabetics in the World in 2014.
15
5.1 million
Number of ‘ailments’ the Pope said afflict Vatican leaders, including ‘having a funereal face’ & committing the ‘terrorism of gossip’.
Number of people killed annually by diabetes - more that the annual death rates of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Average number killed annually in America by terrorists since 9/11.
16
Newsround
m Do you know...? l The traditional “elderly people” crossing road sign, showing a couple stooping over walking sticks, perpetuates false stereotypes about older people and should be replaced according to the Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers. Ros Altmann says the image risks sending a subliminal message to employers that the over-50s are “frail and disabled”, when in fact many are perfectly fit and healthy. l More than half of British parents would rather not brave the outdoors with their children, preferring to hang out with them at home. According to a recent survey, 18% find it stressful to be outside with their families, while 41% fear for their children’s safety when they go for a walk. l The police were accused of failing to record 800,000 crimes a year - 20% of those reported. A third of violent crimes reported in England and Wales go unrecorded, according to the audit by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. If alleged crimes are not recorded, they’re unlikely to be investigated. The watchdog described this trend as “indefensible”.
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
leading contender for Lianfairpwllgwyngyll in Wales is “Word Puzzle Town”. Hadrian’s Wall has been dubbed “Mountain Earthworm”. Among the existing names for British sites are “the pickled little cucumber” for the Gherkin. l Among people who have turned vegetarian, 84% have gone back to eating meat; 53% gave up being vegetarian within a year. l The average British household bought 8% less food in 2014 than in 2007 but - owing to rising food prices - spent 30% more on it. Meat has suffered the largest decline 20%, families are buying 37% less lamb and 23% less beef than in 2007 as well as 4% less chicken. By contrast sales of eggs are up 16%. l Officials in Melbourne are urging the city’s residents to email its trees. All 70,000 of the trees are contactable, and anyone who writes is guaranteed a reply. One emailer told a tree; “I am stuck inside and so jealous of you soaking up the sun. You seem to be having a ball.” The Chinese elm replied:
“Sorry you’re stuck inside I am really enjoying stretching my stomata and giving my chloroplasts a good workout. I spent the weekend well hydrated and preparing for the summer.” l Since 1860, swimmers have gathered on Brighton beach on Christmas day to take a dip in the sea. But the council cancelled this year’s event and closed the beach, owing to safety fears. It says too many inexperienced swimmers are taking part, many of them drunk. l Pope Francis implied that pets will be able to join their owners in heaven after all. Catholic teaching is that animals have no souls, and so cannot pass through the Pearly Gates. But Francis reportedly comforted a child whose dog had died saying: “Paradise is open to all God’s creatures.” l Welsh rugby could lose its favourite song. Delilah, the Tom Jones hit about an unfaithful woman killed by her lover, is sung before every Welsh rugby international. But
l Almost 18,000 people died in terrorist attacks around the world in 2014 - an increase of 60% from the previous year. Four Islamist groups were responsible for most of the deaths: Isis, Boko Haram, al-Qa-eda and the Taliban.
l 42% of people would vote for Britain to leave the EU while 31% think EU membership has been bad for the UK. l 59% of voters regard UKIP as sleazy and disreputable, more than any other party. 44% think the description applies to the Tories and 31% to Labour - the party’s lowest ever sleaze rating. l Children’s cartoons are “hotbeds of murder and mayhem”, according to a new study. Ian Colman of the University of Ottawa, who led the research, said that the likes of Frozen and Finding Nemo featured as much “rampant horror” as many of the grisliest adult thrillers. Even films without human characters are not as harmless as they might seem: the study warned that children could be traumatised by the animal violence in A Bug’s Life.
l One in three children under the age of 15 woke up with only one parent on Christmas day.
l There are an estimated 87,000 children in England who are not attending registered schools, and are thus “invisible” to the authorities. Russia has banned transsexual and transgender people from driving, including them in a list of “mental disorders” which preclude people from driving. Also included are people whose sexual interests extend to fetishism, exhibitionism or voyeurism. Pathological gamblers and kleptomaniacs are also banned.
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l 64% of people think British intelligence agents have been involved in the torture of terror suspects. 34% say there are circumstances in which torture is justified; 50% say it never is. However, 47% are in favour of the British security services using information obtained through torture.
l Premiership football clubs have been accused of rampant commercialism when it emerged that young fans are now having to pay to be match-day mascots. Around half the clubs extract fees, ranging from £150 to £450. In the past, the places were offered free, to charities and competition winners.
l Trampolines account for nearly 50% of A&E admissions for injuries in the home among children aged under 14.
l Chinese visitors to Britain face a major hurdle: there are no Chinese names for many British attractions. So tourism officials are now inviting them to devise their own names, and post them online. A
campaigners are now calling for it to be banned, on the grounds that it trivialises domestic violence.
• Re-categorisation • Category A Reviews • Adjudications • Home Detention Curfew • Judicial Review
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l Glasgow city council faces a huge compensation bill in the wake of the recent devastating accident when one out of control truck killed six people and injured scores of others. Across the country, councils and then insurers have paid out close to £23 million since 2008.
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
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Website comments via www.insidetime.org in the Guardian though which said it seemed to have been enforced before Christmas. I guess not though. A bit more information on the date would be great. L - Why are prisoners still not allowed to receive books when the book ban was overruled by the High Court? Who can we complain to about this?
Restricting prisoners’ access to books ruled unlawful
Rod Clark - Prisoners Education Trust Chief Executive, writing about the overturning of the book ban hoped that from this month sending in books would be easier. W - The court ruling is great. But when will prisons enforce it? I am just being met by shrugged shoulders from staff who haven’t heard anything about it.
E - These are the same type of people who fly drones over foreign countries dropping bombs and killing innocent civilians. Because they don’t have to face the consequences of what they do they can happily damage and destroy peoples’ lives with no conscience or victim empathy. It’s the same as prison staff who refuse very elderly visitors access because they are confused over ID.
M - I just called Cardiff Prison as I have purchased a book for someone. I wanted to know who to address it to etc. “Oh no” he said they cannot have books. “We have a library for books”. I said the law banning books was overturned in December, and you are breaking the law. He said it will not be given, it will be put in his property, accessible only upon release, huh! Why is it ok for them to break the law?
New and improved Inside Time website now online Online readers of Inside Time have grown at such a pace our website was groaning under the pressure. We recorded over 10 million visits in 2014!
J - I have sent in diary, calendar and puzzle books ‘all new’ to my partner and so have other people. Why are they not allowed to have them? C - When phoning the prison about it one person had said he had heard something but ‘phone back tomorrow for a definite answer’. After calling back and getting another person it was just a straight ‘No’ to sending books. I asked ‘but isn’t it meant to be changing?’ and she just said ‘no books’. I’m not sure if this is just because she isn’t aware. I read an article
An abuse of power
Charles Bronson wrote about how a faceless person at prison headquarters refused to allow him to have a photo of himself taken and sent to his seriously ill mother.
‘OAPs pay to stay in prison’
The design of the website was also an issue as it had been adapted so many times it was becoming a little messy and difficult to navigate. The outdated software behind the scenes was not going to be suitable for those using tablets and mobiles. This meant we had to bite the bullet and effectively start again.
B - This is disgraceful treatment of the prisoner and his wife. It amounts to daylight robbery. This topic has been covered in Inside Time many times and the answer from the powers that be is that the pension is a benefit and prisoners aren’t entitled to benefits. I do know that if a prisoner has investments he is still expected to pay tax and National Insurance (to pay for his pension) whilst inside; even though he is entitled to nothing.
The bulk of the work was undertaken over the Christmas break but we hit a few snags and were not quite ready for 1st January. Thankfully most of the work has now been completed and we will soon see the benefit. Meanwhile we can only apologise to our visitors for any difficulties experienced.
A 70 year-old prisoner commented in Mailbag about his pension being denied in prison.
Christmas messages from your loved ones posted on www.insidetime.org Happy Xmas to my wonderful son Gary Boyd. I love you dearly son. X
fortunate to have someone post a message to them at this time of year. X
Happy Christmas Matt, will be thinking of youxxx Will toast you with Jack, Cyril & of course Katkins next Saturday.
Merry Christmas to my son Dylan at Hindley miss u loads happy Christmas keep ur chin up love Mam, Dad, Soph, Chaz Bonnie-lea see u soon xxxxx Gemma, Paulie, kyky xxx All the family xxxxxx
Thinking of you at Christmas David xxxx Love Aunty Mary uncle Jim. Australia To my gorgeous fiance, H Love you with all my heart, my precious. All my love Sharon George xxxxxxxx John-boy/Dad & Grandad, We will miss your company this Christmas. Hopefully Rochester will supply a roast dinner and not serve chips! Love you loads, Patricia To lennon a love an miss u loads carn’t wait till u get out merry xmas see u soon babe love always an 4eva your darling shelley xxxx To all of you who will be in jail this Christmas ... remember one day you will wake up and be free. John C Happy crimbo jaydine Ashley and lottie!! I miss you both lots hun. Buff love Katie Merry Christmas to my son Lee in Elmley. You have caused me such a lot of grief, but you only have have one mum, and this one loves you very much , it’s unconditional. XXXXX Loraine. Also Merry Christmas to all the inmates in Elmley who are not
To Andrew, at Spring Hill. We all love u and miss u and can’t wait till you are back where u belong with Sarah & the Kids. Hang on in there kidda, not long now Amanda, Paul & Finn xxx To my son David aka Chips thinking about u always, hope ur ok a big merry xmas fae dad and Phyllis luv u loads keep smiling c u soon To Glen Fitz at Bullingdon, Happy x-mas son, miss you terrible. Keep the chin up it won\’t last forever! love ya to bits Mam xxxx Dear kev, (Horfield, Bristol) Hope all is well with you. Have sent you a Christmas card. Will see you soon when you send me a request visit. Lots of love Auntie Annette I love you with all my heart Marcus I wish we could spend our first new years together but we have plenty more :) think about you all the time. My number 1 man xxxxxxxx love you love Kirsty Baby (macca), love and miss u, each day that passes is a day closer to u being out. Blessings Emma (Lol Big Face) Xxxxx
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Diary
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org the art and writing, it’s his ability to find humour in any situation, however dire, which brings him through. It’s possible that those whom he threatened, kidnapped or otherwise hurt, may not warm to his particular brand but then very few people have had to face his life and, as he remarks, more than once, ‘I’ve never killed anyone.’ Although he then rather spoils this virtuous declaration by detailing how he once planned a murder but was foiled by circumstances. For which he is grateful.
Month by Month by Rachel Billington
Rachel enjoys Charles Salvador’s (previously Bronson) mix of comedy and horror, before contemplating the joys of owning a pet in prison, particularly the tasty sort
The other point about Charlie is that he is a charmer. And like all charmers he understands people very well and is prepared to like them if at all possible. When you consider his best mates in prison were Ronnie Kray and Frankie Fraser you can see entertainment value is high on his agenda. I only once met Charlie, on a visit with my father, Frank Longford, to (I think) HMP Whitemoor. My father was fond of him, particularly after surviving a press-up competition, for Charlie was/is a passionate muscle-builder. Since my father was well into his eighties, the ratio of achievement was about a hundred to one.
W
here to begin with Charles Bronson, ‘Britain’s most violent prisoner’, Michael Peterson (his birth name), and, since 2015 (name changed by deed poll) Charles Salvador? Maybe by describing the exhibition of his paintings I visited last week in London’s East End. After all, Charlie is still in prison after forty-one years so his work has to speak for him. Which is not to forget his sixteen books. Energy is not a problem - except when he was in Broadmoor Mental Hospital being forcibly
and detailed information. This present exhibition is as good as any I’ve seen with the ‘loons’ and the treatment of the ‘loons’ producing a wild imaginative world that recalls Charlie’s hero and owner of his new name, Salvador Dali. (I wonder if Charlie also borrowed Dali’s magnificent moustache which I once admired for myself on the rocks of Cadaques where he lived.) Richard Dadd was a famous Broadmoor inmate and painter of the nineteenth century. The tiny figures streaming across his pictures are not unlike Charlie’s figures from hell, except that Dadd’s tend to be fairies with gossamer wings. Dadd, who killed his father, died in Broadmoor.
injected with drugs. That’s what this new exhibition, called ‘The Death of Bronson’ and curated by James Elphick, is about: the five years from 1979 that Bronson, then twenty-seven, spent in Broadmoor. An accompanying book is subtitled ‘My Journey into Hell’, a description unlikely to be contradicted by anyone who reads the book. One can only trust - which I actually believe - that things are better there now. Charlie is a survivor and, judging from both
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I still have some artwork Charlie sent me round this period when he was already producing his special take of horror, comedy
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If Charlie is not ‘mad’, he is certainly unusual and the unusual is not well tolerated in institutions. ‘My Journey into Hell’ makes a good case for his ‘bad behaviour’ - for example scaling up on Broadmoor’s roof and hurling down nearly two hundred tiles - being exacerbated by the inhuman treatment meted out to him and others. He is meticulous, incidentally,
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Diary
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org prisoners’ wish to take captives. ‘The amount of people who own, or have previously owned budgies is truly amazing’, he writes, ‘But what is even more shocking is the number of prisoners who admit to having caught or kept such things as flies, spiders or cockroaches as a pet in a small box. Yet simultaneously, the same people will moan endlessly about the brutality of caging a person in such a confined space day after day.’
- Shahzad Javed, HMP Low Moss, ‘Tipple’ Bryan Kidd, HMP Shotts,‘Hinterland Detour’ - Graham Gardner, HMP Frankland, ‘Ambition’ - Don-Carlos Ellis, HMP Longlartin, ‘Going Home’ - Bob Beck, HMP Grendon, ‘The Deceiving Countryside’ Daniel Tait, HMP Shotts, ‘In Praise of Wharfedales’ - Tony Joyce, HMP Parkhurst
Book review ....................................................
Charlie with his fiancé Lorraine Etherington
The Final Countdown! ...............................................
in recording the ‘good’ nurses who tried to understand his point of view. Now sixty-one, Charlie has found a champion in Lorraine Etherington, a criminologist who is spear-heading a campaign for his release. He says ‘The greatest dream in my life would be to be accepted in the art world and to live as a free man...’ Society, just like prison, finds it very difficult to accept oddballs like Charlie, particularly when violence is an issue. He is still kept in solitary confinement. Charlie says, ‘It’s non-violent all the way. It’s a peaceful journey from here on...’ I certainly hope he gets his way.
.......................................................
Recently, I had lunch at the Mexican street food restaurant, Wahaca, where their latest delicacy is ‘Chapulines fundido’ which translates as crickets cooked with onions and chillies. A useful note added that ‘Entomophagy (eating insects) is popular the world over and seen by many as the answer to global meat shortages.’ Perhaps Adam has misread the intentions of the owners of spiders, cockroaches etc. They are not kept as pets but as food. Of course it could be argued that this is a worse fate capital punishment as it were, versus life imprisonment. At least cannibalism is not at present part of any criminal system that I know.
n At the end of last year my eldest son’s family acquired a beautiful Whippet puppy. Since their last pets were a Californian King Snake and a Green Tree Frog, it is perhaps not surprising that he immediately became the object of communal adoration. Loving a snake is not easy. On the other hand I read a story about a former prison officer who keeps a pet crocodile in his home. He is quoted as saying, ‘I spent four decades keeping dangerous animals behind locks and gates, so it’s no different here.’ Would a prison officer really say that?
© prisonimage.org
The subject of pets in prison has always fascinated me. Personally, if imprisoned, I would try to lure the more personable creatures into my cell - perhaps I’d try to get hold of the traditional budgie. Pigeons figure in quite a few of the poems which come to Inside Time, although I’ve never fancied them myself - too noisy and greedy. In one of his blogs from HMP Wakefield, Adam Mac expresses disapproval at his fellow
Some animals really do have a purpose in prison - and I don’t mean the sniffer dogs. In Scotland there is a rehabilitation programme called Paws for Progress which works with young men in HM YOI Polmont. They are taught to train dogs from charities so that they can be re-homed. All the seventy men who have been on it so far have rated the experience extremely helpful in improving their own behaviour as well as the dogs. It seems that bonding with animals has a really good effect on people who find it difficult to deal with their fellows.
English PEN is delighted to announce the 2014 winners, runners - up and highly commended of the prison writing competition. Their entries will be published in this year’s collection ‘In a Parallel Universe and other voices’ launched on 25 February at a public event at the Free Word Centre in central London. Writer Meg Rosoff, this year’s judge, said ‘Within this body of work, I heard some amazing voices. Your voices. They were humorous, thoughtful, intelligent, wise, angry, sad and passionate’. This was a bumper year with over 500 entries from 80 prisons stretching from Scotland to London and France so there are more winners than normal as you can see from the list below. A big THANK YOU to all who entered - we could not have done this without you. The collection will be available from the English PEN website after 25 February and all winners will receive two copies, as will the libraries who took part.
Poetry .................................................... WINNER: ‘Kitchen School’ and ‘In a Parallel Universe’ - Gareth Kerr, HMP Shotts
RUNNERS UP: ‘Wall of Firsts’ - R. W. Beardsley, HMP Ryehill, ‘Life’s Lessons Ain’t Taught’ - Trust Maneya, Brook House IRC, ‘The Winding Road’ - Brian Hannah, HMP Low Moss, ‘The Last Breath’ - Warren Jay Matthews, HMP Frankland, ‘Flowers’ In Northern Ireland, at Hydebank Wood prison, women, many of whom have problems with violence, are taught to care for and train Labradors. The Prison Service director general Sue McAllister said, ‘Looking after the dogs has had a very positive effect on prisoners. But we have not stopped there. Hydebank Wood also has a number of rescued battery hens. And managing and caring for those also has a therapeutic benefit, plus they also provide fresh free range eggs.’ Fresh egg or no fresh egg, I’d still rather bond with a dog. If you have a pet, I’d love to here from you. Hot press news: A colleague at Inside Time assures me that pets are now banned from prison. Can this be true? First books, then pets. What next?
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‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist’ - Paul Prendergast, HMP Swaleside
RUNNERS UP: ‘Roots by Alex Haley’ - Lennox Watson, HMP Thameside, ‘Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist’ - Andrew Craigie, HMP Frankland, ‘For Those I Loved by Martin Gray’ - Ian Holden, HMP Usk, ‘The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by N. Tomalin and R. Hall’ - Gordon Chorlton, HMP Guernsey
Fiction/Memoir .................................................... WINNER: ‘A Face in the Clouds’ - Mark Banner, HMP Stafford
RUNNER UP: ‘The Find’ - Anonymous, HMP Full Sutton, ‘A Fantastic Journey’ - Sean Meier, HMP Stafford, ‘A Letter To Myself’ Oisin Hendrickse, HMP Wormwood Scrubs, ‘The Road Ahead’ - James Henry, HMP Onley, ‘My House On The Hill’ - Patrick Regan, HMP Bullingdon, ‘Chance Encounter on a Sunday Afternoon’ - Steven Munn, HMP Bure, ‘Anything Could Happen’ - Lee Gilmour, HMP Kilmarnock, ‘Beginning’ Matthew Jones, HMP Parc, ‘Anything Could Happen’ - Jon Webb, HMP North Sea Camp
Flash fiction .................................................... WINNER: ‘A Letter to Myself’ - Steven Millward, HMP Guys Marsh
Highly Commended ....................................................
(Poem/Short Story) ‘Well, I Never!’ - Craig Topping, HMP Ranby, (Poem) ‘My Spiritual Home’ - Michael Thomas, HMP Glenochil, (Book Review) ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby’ - Roshan Danris, HMP Shotts, (Poem) ‘Chances’ Alexander Holden, HMP Usk, (Poem) ‘Mug’s Game’ - Gareth Cooke, HMP Parc, (Poem/ Flash Fiction) ‘ My Life in 100 Words’ - Craig Roy, HMP Shotts, (Poem) ‘Ahm Bad’ - Eddie McCreadie, HMP Shotts, (Book Review) ‘Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer’ - Matthew Jones, HMP Parc
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Comment
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Fear, brutality and secrecy Sarah Baker looks back at the decades of state sanctioned abuse prisoners have suffered and asks has anything really changed?
I
am not surprised that it has taken so long for the historic sexual and physical abuse investigation into Medomsley Detention Centre to take place, though I was overjoyed when 900 men came forward to highlight issues that have been occurring in prisons, detention and youth custody centres ever since they have been in existence. Almost all of the most brutal ‘alleged’ crimes would have taken place in secret, behind closed doors, in isolated segregation units and without any independent witnesses present. I would suggest that any prison staff who were present when the abuse took pace are highly unlikely to come forward and give evidence against their colleagues who could in turn implement them in the abuse. I suspect that very little will happen as a result of this new investigation. Maybe there is a slim chance that a few old scapegoats (usually those who have since died) will be thrown to the wolves, but experience tells me that the POA (Prison Officers Association) will protect its own as it always has done. In the past the POA have protected perpetrators of abuse at all costs and the prison system has a history of never admitting when its staff are at fault, just as it has never admitted that it has always been a statistical failure to both its prisoners and society! With an absence of forensic evidence, I am sure that few, if any, alleged abusers will ever see the inside of a courtroom and be forced to account for any criminal actions. As far as circumstantial evidence is concerned, who would ever believe the word of an ex prisoner/ criminal over that of a state-sanctioned turnkey? Unless there are staff whistleblowers or substantial forensic evidence or independent witnesses I can see this being quietly brushed under the carpet. Whoever coined the phrase ‘Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely’ could have been describing the thousands of prison officers and their union who have abused their positions over the years. Prisoners have suffered state sanctioned abuse for many decades, though these days they tend to describe it as ‘restraint’. I have been battered by prison staff in segregation units and hospital strip cells on numerous occasions and I invariably found governors, chaplains, doctors and members of the Board of Visitors turned a blind eye to my injuries. Prison officers always stated that my injuries were either self-inflicted or as a result of having to be restrained. It is a well known fact that any member of staff who speaks out about the abuse dished out to prisoners by their colleagues will be ostracised by fellow staff and hamper their chances of further promotion. The British prison system is run on fear, brutality and secrecy. As a child in youth custody I was mentally scarred by some of the scandalous things that I experienced, heard or witnessed. As male prison officers were hurting thousands of us children this mistreatment would be officially sanctioned by the government who promoted the ‘short sharp shock’, which was nothing
short of a child abuser’s charter. It pains me to know that many of the ‘alleged’ abusers are still working in British prisons and I can well imagine them whingeing to new recruits about how things were better in the ‘good old days’ when prison staff had the power of god over prisoners. I can remember when prison staff were regularly drunk on duty, drinking in their subsidised clubs over lunch break and then coming onto landings staggering, looking for a fight and stinking of alcohol. I remember prison staff wearing Robinson’s Jam golliwog tiepins and/or National Front badges openly, and not shy about calling black prisoners any abusive name you care to imagine. I never saw a black or ethnic minority member of prison staff until the mid to late 1980s. Institutional racism, homophobia and bigotry of every kind imaginable was the norm behind the walls of HMP. And for the prisoners, there were no ‘good old days’. The mentality of many of the ex-military staff who joined the Prison Service in the 1970s and 80s was often frightening. They seemed to have exchanged one institution for another, and brought with them their US and THEM ideology, often seeing prisoners as ‘the enemy’ who needed to be turned into submissive shells of human beings, by any means necessary! With many officers, even today, working,
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eating, drinking and sometimes even living together, it is still nigh on impossible to get an officer to turn on a colleague who is corrupt, brutal or even mentally ill for fear of being ostracised by their colleagues. Some may say that I am throwing generalisations around like confetti, but I am speaking from experience and many reading this, those who suffered the brutality of the British penal system, will know that I speak the truth. I have spent years being locked up by so-called ‘officers’ who
come to work and leave society’s concepts of right and wrong outside the gates as they try to impose their own warped ideas of middleclass morality on me. Thankfully the open brutality from prison officers, which was commonplace before the Strangeways riots, is now a rarity. When officers used to give us a ‘hiding’ it was often as a deterrent to other prisoners and was done in full view of them. With more opportunities to report such abuses of power nowadays the staff tend to keep their hands to themselves unless they are overdoing their use of approved ‘control & restraint’ techniques. In the ‘good old days’ prison staff would just have mobbed us in the cell and thrown a mattress over us so as to stop any external bruises showing. However, I suspect that incidents of brutality in our prisons will continue to surface. As prison staff are basically paid to control us this ‘control’ has always been underpinned with the threat of violence on those of us who are unwilling or unable to submit to those in authority. As the prison system is at present, thousands of us are serving our sentences full of prescribed anti-depressants to help us deal with the trauma brought on by the imprisonment itself. Without the prescription drugs there would be a vast increase in both suicides and self-harm. I predict that it will be only a matter of time before many of us succeed in bringing successful actions against the MoJ for the post-traumatic stress disorders that our incarceration has caused. May the day soon come! Sarah Baker currently resides at HMP Lewes
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Mental healthcare in prison Know what you’re entitled to and who to contact for help when it’s not given struggling to get the healthcare you need and you can access an advocate, we strongly recommend that you make use of them.
Polly McConnell & Charlotte Bull Rethink
A
There is also the prison complaints system. We’ve heard from prisoners who feel it’s not worth using, however we would encourage you to use it as much as possible. If there are others in a similar situation to you, you could think about all making complaints - it makes it much harder to ignore. Also think about trying to involve people outside of prison. If you have friends or family members who could write letters and make calls on your behalf, ask them to. You could also write to your local MP and make them aware of the problems that you are facing. Ask him/her if they are willing to get involved. The more people who can push for change the better.
fter our article in August’s issue of Inside Time, we had a large number of letters about problems you’ve been having accessing prison healthcare. We also heard from a lot of people who were struggling to get a diagnosis in prison or felt that their mental illness was completely misunderstood by staff. This is unacceptable and demonstrates the human cost behind the media headlines about prison budget cuts and staff shortages. It is the individual stories that we hear that demonstrate the true impact that bad decisions about the criminal justice system have on people’s lives.
With this in mind, we wanted to let you know what your rights are when it comes to healthcare in prison. We think it’s important that you know what you are entitled to and what you can push for. Everyone has the right to free healthcare in prison and the standard of that care should be the same whether you are on remand or serving a sentence. You can ask to see a doctor at any time by making a ‘general application’. The sort of help you will get will depend on your needs. If you have less severe mental health problems
© prisonimage.org
such as mild or moderate anxiety or depression, the doctor may arrange for therapy or counselling These are known as ‘primary services’. If you have more complex mental health needs, such as severe depression, severe anxiety disorder, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the prison mental health team will probably be involved in your care. They are often called ‘in-reach teams’. They should offer services such as talking therapies, help with self harm and suicidal thoughts, medication and help for carers. In most prisons, a psychiatrist will visit at least once a week. Some prisoners have severe mental illness that cannot be effectively treated in prison. The Mental Health Act is a series of measures which mean that a prisoner can be moved to hospital for mental health treatment. If you are sentenced, you could be transferred using section 47 of the Act. If you are on remand, section 48 would be used. If your mental
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health improves in hospital, you could be moved back to prison at any time. These measures can make sure a prisoner gets the medical care and treatment they need. However, there are still very long delays for a transfer to take place, usually much longer than the 14 days stated in the Mental Health Act Codes of Practice. You should talk to a lawyer if you think that the Mental Health Act may apply to you. But what can you do when what should happen isn’t happening? In some places there are advocacy services that help people in prison. Advocates are independent people who can help you to get your views or concerns across. Advocates can be invaluable - they can act as a very powerful voice on your behalf and can make all the difference if you are pushing for changes to be made to the way you are cared for. If you are
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Whilst there is never going to be a quick fix solution to getting better healthcare in prison, a combination of these different tactics can lead to positive results. Tony* received a life sentence and is currently in a secure hospital. He was sentenced to prison, transferred to hospital and diagnosed with schizophrenia. It took a long time to find a medication that worked for him, but with the help of an advocate and support from outside prison he managed to stabilise his mental health condition. He told us that he never felt so well and that he was so glad that he kept pushing for help and care. The Rethink Mental Illness Advice Service provides practical information and advice to people affected by mental illness and their families at all stages of the criminal justice system. Rethink Advice and Information Service, FREEPOST RRYH-TZBT-GEHU, 15th Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TP. Tel: 0300 5000 927. We are open 10am to 2pm Monday to Friday. Email:
[email protected] *Names and some facts have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
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Comment
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Post tariff? Vote for change! A serving IPP prisoner calls for the implementation of Section 128 of LASPO
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s a post-tariff IPP prisoner I read with interest a recent article in Inside Time concerning a House of Lords debate relating to the increasing number of IPPs still held well past their individual tariff dates. The debate, on 20th October 2014 centred around the abolition of the IPP sentence via the 2012 LASPO Act (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) and how specifically Section 128 of said Act had not been signed off nor implemented by the Justice Secretary. This section, as I understood the article, gave him the power and legal authority in law, since 2012, to amend the much derided and draconian release test then and it is still in place for every IPP prisoner. For those readers with a determinate release date and other readers generally it has remained extremely difficult for any ‘on tariff’ or ‘post tariff’ IPP prisoners to demonstrate their individual ‘reduced dangerousness’. Why? Because the previous low threshold that was in place in order to give an IPP was and continues to be measured against an extremely biased high release threshold that even someone with the behaviour of Mother Teresa would struggle to meet. Throughout the debate, various Lords made repeated reference to the fact that the Justice Secretary has consistently avoided any and all meaningful engagement on his refusal to enact Section 128. One can only imagine the huge fiscal cost upon the taxpayer, coupled with the emotional cost on those post tariff prisoners and their families because our Justice Secretary, empowered by Parliament, has ignored Section 128. The Lords, on the side of
commonsense and fairness, to their credit, made a concerted and cogent presentation in forensically highlighting Mr Grayling’s failings, aiming to either shame him into correcting his now two-plus years of Ministerial inertia; or allowing the power of Section 128 of the 2012 LASPO Act to flow back to Parliament so that MPs can excise this judicial canker.
“ So here is a thought for every prisoner serving this draconian sentence, consider asking your own family, friends, etc to sound out their local MPs regarding both Section 128 and also the ongoing mismanagement of those still subjected to a sentence no longer in existence ” Unfortunately the motion was defeated at the voting stage which made me question what else could be done to address this ongoing Kafkaesque nightmare that myself and thousands of other post-tariff prisoners are still living. One needs to step back to try to get some perspective on why our present Justice Secretary has been so intransigent, not only towards Section 128 but also in correcting the iniquity of all those still serving IPP sentences,
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especially when he himself is on record in 2012 describing the whole IPP format as ‘A stain on the Criminal Justice System’. The man is media savvy, after all who else could sell a riot at HMP Northumberland last year as a ‘minor disturbance’, even though the Inside Time Mailbags reflected a major rather than a minor disturbance. Yet, for all that, he is an unreconstructed Right Wing stalwart whose thinly veiled capricious nature towards prisons and prisoners is more suited to back-bench posturing rather than front-bench ministerial rank. A view somewhat validated by his ill-judged and pernicious book ban, now ruled illegal by the High Court. Conversely it is easy to extrapolate that our present Justice Secretary’s non-endorsement of Section 128 is because he does not want to sully his image with compassion or anything as bothersome as improving a prisoner’s lot generally; let alone those still tainted and hampered by a sentence he himself voted to annul. I must say that this article is not intended to be a constant diatribe against our Justice Secretary, but more of an expose of the dichotomy of the man and his public utterances. Moreover I do not want to appear as a proverbial lone voice ‘raging’ against the machine per se; far from it as lone voices count for nothing in prison, and to the minds of the Justice Secretary and his ilk prisons and prisoners do not win votes. Though one could imagine his change of attitude thinking of a 90,000 captive block vote! The idea of voting does bring me onto the central tenet of my article regarding Section 128 etc. For whilst I cannot vote, my family
and friends can. And they read the same Inside Time article and, like me, were ignorant of Section 128’s existence and subsequently were appalled at the inertia of the Justice Secretary in signing it into law. Especially as they have just had to share my latest knockback because I do not meet the present release threshold. So here is a thought for every prisoner serving this draconian sentence, consider asking your own family, friends, etc to sound out their local MPs regarding both Section 128 and also the ongoing mismanagement of those still subjected to a sentence no longer in existence. Have them ask if he/she will support the activation of Section 128 in the first instance if elected. No support = No vote, it really should be that simple and in a marginal seat (of which there are a few) such votes collectively make a difference. There is an old adage in life that nothing changes if nothing changes. Our present Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, has had over 2 years to remove the last vestiges of what he has called this ‘stain on the criminal justice system’; his signature on Section 128 of the 2012 LASPO Act would be a major step in helping to remove this stain. So, again, get your people to vote in the General Election for an MP or party that will finally put an end to this Orwellian construct of a sentence. One does not notice the passing of days in prison but the years stack up like flotsam at the high tide mark. I received a 14 month tariff that has long passed and, like many others, there is nothing tangible to aim for given the sheer indeterminacy of being an IPP prisoner. Vote for change.
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If there are no votes in prisons, why does the general election matter? ment before release; the issue of prisoner voting rumbling on; changes to the Incentives & Earned Privileges (IEP) regime; continued stalling on the problem of indeterminate-sentenced prisoners held beyond their tariff date (frustrated by the imperative of population management obstructing their sentence progression in some cases) and an eye-watering backlog of cases waiting to be processed by the Parole Board; the impact of benchmarking in public sector prisons necessitating significant resources savings; an attitude of marginal cost pricing which has seen high-performing prisons shut as they prove more expensive to run; and plans to continue expanding the prison estate, not least through a mega-prison to be constructed in north Wales. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the reforms heralded under the banner ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’, which has shaken up probation services and institutionalised community rehabilitation. All in all, that is quite a lot for prisoners, staff and all others voters to get their heads around and provokes much to consider when thinking about what might happen over the coming five years.
by Robert Pettigrew Released Potential Community Interest Company
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here aren’t any votes in prisons. The phrase is well worn and a conclusion speedily reached by election strategists and candidates plotting the path to power. It’s probably true to say that there isn’t a great appetite for politics in prisons either. And whatever the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, it seems unlikely that ballot boxes will be crossing through the prison gate anytime soon. So why should those all but a handful of prisoners bother to take any interest at all in this year’s democratic process? And why should voters take more interest in how the consequences of their decision will impact on prisons? Inevitably, the answer to both questions is that decisions made by the winners after the election will have a material difference on what happens behind prison gates. Indirectly, it will also determine what happens elsewhere in schools, hospitals, in the military, and much more besides. It will even influence almost every community in the country, potentially for decades to come. With just several dozen of the tens of thousands in prison serving whole-life tariffs, even those not able to vote have a stake in what happens in May. Before the last general election the House of Commons’ Justice Select Committee produced a report which they titled ‘Justice Re-Investment’. Their conclusion stated the basic fact that every pound spent building new prisons is not only money that cannot be spent on other measures (including crime prevention, other public services or even tax cuts), but that increasing the number of places in prisons means paying the costs of running and operating those establishments in the future. What is more, if money can be found to expand the prison estate, could that money more effectively be used to reduce levels of crime and re-offending? Their answer was an emphatic ‘yes’.
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Yet despite that enlightened contribution, the course of criminal justice policy for most of the last five years has been a further rhetorical arms race to see which politician can present themselves as the ‘toughest’ on crime and criminals. It seems that ‘effectiveness’ is surrendered in favour of machismo for politicians spouting off about crime and prisons. With a further round of budget tightening promised beyond 2015 (and coming on top of savings of £175 million up to 2015 through benchmarking in public sector prisons), the availability of more cash to make the system work better seems a somewhat unlikely prospect. So, making sure that prisons are decent working engines preparing ex-offenders for release will require some smart thinking - and possibly some degree of re-engineering. I don’t expect much of the campaign to be about prisons. But with around fifty-thousand staff across England & Wales, some eightyfive thousand prisoners, and the wider family
associated with prisons, there is quite a large body of people with a reason and interest to make a difference. And with prisons costing more than £2 billion a year, there are many reasons for the taxpayers to take an interest in how their money is spent - as a comparison the figure in 1987 was just £882 million. The prison population has doubled over the last twenty years or so, with no reduction in the rate of re-offending. More than half of the prison population are now serving sentences longer than four years. More prisoners, serving longer, and costing more has been the experience since the early 1990s. Is it time to change the tune? Could things be made to work better? Surely the answer is ‘yes’, and there is more than one way in which that could be achieved. Consider those decisions which have been made during the last five years, which have ranged quite widely. We’ve seen proposals to introduce a full working week; the ROTL review restricting opportunities for resettle-
It might be that those involved in prisons want more of the same; but I doubt it. Given that prisoners are unlikely to get the vote anytime soon; budget cuts are here to stay at least into the medium-term; and there will continue to be a comparatively large prison population in this country - the challenge is how to achieve and deliver more and better outcomes. And if you feel that politicians have yet to come up with the best ideas, then choosing to stand aside is unlikely to steer them in the right direction. If that’s how you think, then they haven’t managed to find their own way to the correct answer. Politicians and journalists view elections as contests: would-be titans scrapping it out for control of the levers of power. As the contest becomes more of a joust, the arguments often get lost beneath the rhetoric, the spin, and the characterisation of various opponents. Perhaps from the detached perspective of prison, it is time to look at the election more as an opportunity for good ideas to flourish? How to make that happen is the real unanswered question.
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E-cigarettes: health revolution or fresh pack of trouble? John Butler explains the trials and tribulations of changing his smoking habits
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have tried several times to stop smoking and I’ve failed every time. I realise that patches, nicotine, hypnosis or strong willpower might work for some people but not me. Then e-cigs came on the market. All I can really say about these things is they are the Holy Grail that everyone who wants to stop smoking has been searching for. The impact e-cigs have already had on people’s health and the potential to save thousands, perhaps even millions, of lives must rank alongside the discovery of antibiotics. Unlike every previous ‘anti smoking aid’ the e-cig is the complete package: • It feels like a cigarette (and looks like one); • It tastes like a cigarette (just don’t use ‘flavoured cartridges’); • It delivers nicotine just like a cigarette; • It doesn’t smell (and neither do your clothes); • It doesn’t drop ash anywhere; • It doesn’t burn holes in the duvet cover; • It doesn’t stain your fingers and; • It doesn’t cause lung cancer, heart disease etc. Plus; • You can ‘smoke’ it in the pub while you’re drinking alcohol which causes liver damage. I’m surprised the Government don’t give them away; they’ll save the NHS millions of pounds. Some people say that e-cigs will encourage children to smoke, what a load of nonsense, that’s like saying that selling apple juice, which looks and tastes like cider but has no alcohol in it, will encourage children to start drinking ‘Diamond White’! The ONLY problem with e-cigs is that they contain nicotine which is a very addictive drug; apparently it is more addictive than heroin, so people who switch from Benson & Hedges to e-cigs will remain addicted to nicotine. So what? If a doctor can show me one case of a person being killed by ‘nicotine poisoning’ I’ll shake his hand, admit that I’m wrong and never speak about e-cigs again. The Prison Service, so I’ve been told, have refused to authorise the use of e-cigs in prison because they don’t know enough about them and are concerned that there could be some health risks. Perhaps the Prison Service could explain why they allow us to buy tobacco on our canteen? I mean the health risks associated with tobacco are well known - it kills people. Tar, carbon monoxide, toluene (don’t mix this with nitric acid!) benzene and 1001 chemicals are found in cigarettes, and every single one of them is toxic. But the Prison Service let us have them. I spend £10-15 per week on tobacco and £3 on coffee and the Prison Service have a little business arrangement with DHL but of course they don’t get any ‘financial reward’ for this, do they? Because if the Prison Service did earn a few quid on all the tobacco bought by prisoners it might explain why the Governor is dragging
brought about because he smoked in prison and his solicitor claims that their client might not be about to die if he had stopped smoking but the Governor took his e-cig off him a couple of years ago? Prisoners who are attacked in prison or who slip on a wet floor, sue the Prison Service for ‘Neglect of Duty of Care’’ I’ll bet there’s a solicitor out there who would view a Governor’s delay in making the Our specialist team are committed to helping victims of abuse and aretoexperts in - which decision to return something a prisoner he had already been told could have only bringing action against local authorities, such as social services, and he residential to have taken from him, as more than a simple institutions, such as children’s homes. oversight. Especially if this delay might be seen Our dedicated team of male and female lawyers have a proven track record with as contributing to a prisoner’s poor health.
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sexual, physical and emotional abuse claims. in all should allow to terms with andprisons it can be difficult for e-cigs to Child abuse can take a long time to come Governors be used in their prisons and they should do it victims to speak out about their traumatic experiences. Regardless of how long ago NOW. If they don’t the Prison Service should the abuse took place, you may still beaable to make a claim. issue National Directive, instructing Governors them. is no need for ‘pilot Anything you say to us will be handled withtotheallow utmost levelsThere of professionalism, schemes’, ‘consultation with medical experts’ sensitivity and understanding. or a ‘phased programme’ of allowing them.
his heels - perish the thought. However, I am a fair man. Erlestoke prison does provide nicotine patches if prisoners want them, which I believe cost £15 a box and some prisoners do use them - I’ve tried them but they didn’t work. So this costs the prison a few hundred pounds a week. I told the Governor that I don’t expect the prison to buy my e-cig or pay for refills. I will pay for them, I already have! If other prisoners were allowed to use e-cigs the money spent on nicotine patches could be spent on something else, or put back in the ‘public purse’. But I think the Governor already knows all this, even officers I’ve spoken to have said they cannot understand why I can’t have my e-cig. E-cigs have been around for quite a while now - is five years a safe bet? Tens of thousands of people have used them. Some people use them to give up smoking but a lot of people use them because e-cigs allow us to have everything we enjoy about smoking, the taste of tobacco, the hit that we get from nicotine etc, without the tar and all the other things found in cigarette smoke - all the ‘good’ things and none of the bad. I think if you asked anyone who smokes what they would ask for if they had one wish, it would be to have a cigarette which gives them everything they get from smoking with none of the health risks and the genie in the lamp would say ‘Your wish is granted’ and would hand them an e-cig, it’s that simple. If the Prison Service want to know if e-cigs are ‘safe’ to use, look at how many people use them ‘outside’ and try and find one person who has had any medical problems which could be attributed to using an e-cig. If the Prison Service want to know if e-cigs could cause any problems for people who are near someone using an e-cig - like second hand smoke - why are shops, offices, restaurants, allowing people to use e-cigs in these places when smoking cigarettes is banned. I even
© pixarno - Fotoliafor pubic funding and Jordans are recognised by Child abuse claims are often eligible And the decision should not be left to any few specialist providers of legal aid for the legal services commission as one of the‘Governors’ local discretion. saw someone, a few months ago, thisusing type an of work in the UK.
e-cig inside a hospital. Health experts, doctors, Government advisers, senior medical experts are all saying the same thing: Using e-cigs will save thousands of lives every year.
Some prisons and some Governors are very supportive of the use of e-cigs and they deserve credit for that, but others adopt a far different approach and they should perhaps be exposed and held accountable for their failings.
While the Prison Service drag their heels and Call Christine Sands and the team on 01924 868911 make ridiculous excuses to deny prisoners the Emaila
[email protected] chance to use e-cigs, here’s thought: What John Butler currently resides at HMP Write toService Neil Jordan Wellington Road, Dewsbury, WF13 1HL will the Prison say if oneHouse, day a prisoner Erlestoke is told he has a terminal medical condition
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Prison reform for rehabilitation What to do with our failing prison system? A R Mears believes he has the answer
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any knowledgeable and concerned people are agreed that prisons are failing, the reconviction figures giving a measure of this failure. Such a broad conclusion is unhelpful in providing guidance on the measures to be taken to end failure unless the aspects of prisons’ performance in which they are failing are precisely identified. Unless there is some consensus on what their performance should be, there is no way of assessing the precise way in which prisons are failing and consequently what actions have to be taken to end failure. Would be reformers must face this fundamental question before they can propose effective reforms, otherwise their proposals, however well intentioned, can achieve no more than tinkering with the problems. Just for examples, visiting procedures for families and the internal complaints procedures can be improved once the will is there but piecemeal improvements leave the basic system untouched.
courts to their local prison and should be released once their sentence has been served and they have been rehabilitated. But are they? A resettlement prison can be defined as a local facility to which young people who have gone off the rails and committed offences can be sent to get their lives back on track. Prisons should not be closed institutions dominated by security and run for punishment (and private profit) determined by risk analysis (by psychobabes) but places of hope for the future. Places for correction to learn both how to behave (by discipline and example) and to learn skills to get jobs for rehabilitation back into the community. As a former governor, now released from the NOMS gang, has written ‘prison is an opportunity to intervene, to try to put right what has gone wrong’.
However, the answer that appears to be held in practice by those responsible for the penal system is that prisons are for punishment, both because offenders have harmed their victims and so deserve to suffer pain, to dissuade them from further offending, and When considering the performance of prisons, because others will thereby be dissuaded from comparisons can be made with other organistarting to offend - retribution and deterrence. sations operating in the public sector. People A related answer is that offenders once put who need medical treatment are sent by their out of (temporary) circulation cannot continue doctors to their local hospital and are released to commit offences while inside - incapacitaonce they are healed. In a similar way, people tion. These three answers are thought by poli509 Out and About 22.10.14A_Layout 22/10/2014 who deserve penal Ad treatment are sent by1 the ticians22:29 to bePage the 1key to reducing crime and
Out and about
MO POLNTHLY AVA ICIES ILAB LE
they do not require any changes to the present failing system. Curiously, the latest official strategy for reform though entitled ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ does not highlight actions within prisons, where rehabilitation has to begin, but concentrates on managing offenders after release by contracted providers. The idea seems to be that rehabilitation is a marketable commodity to be delivered by a privatised probation service. The answer by those campaigning for real reform is that prisons should be for rehabilitation. By enabling prisoners to regain jobs and housing and making it easier for them to continue loving relationships with families and friends outside they will thereby be reformed from being offenders to being honest citizens who pay their taxes. To get jobs they have to learn skills, manual or intellectual, so education must have a high priority. Yes, but is this a sufficient answer? If they want to continue to go for easy money by robbery, will education just make them smarter gang leaders or investment bankers? Not only does behaviour have to be corrected but also the intention behind the behaviour needs to change. Rehabilitation is a psychological process that starts inside the person; it can be encouraged but never enforced. Trying to improve behaviour by extending control by authorities after release is not rehabilitation. The offending ‘old me’ needs to decide for itself to change direction to become the ‘new me’ that always should have been. How can this change be advanced? Mainly through empathetic relationships which can discern the ‘new me’ within the ‘old me’. Establishing relationships takes time - people in prison have plenty of that. Some teachers and some wing officers have the necessary abilities to act as mentors but in the present climate of austerity and staff reductions they are overwhelmed by the numbers that need their help. The prison officer friend of Terry Waite (December 2014 issue) puts it well ‘The magic bullet is to get to know the man or woman and to encourage and support that desire to change’. The prison population in September 2014 of 84,400 was 112% of CNA with 80 out of 118
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prisons overcrowded. In the ten most overcrowded prisons the overcrowding ranged from 52% to 86%. These figures are published by the MoJ but the politician heading this department was able somehow to assure parliament that there is no overcrowding crisis. Over the last three years the number of prison staff has been reduced by 28% so that now there are 4.8 prisoners to one officer. The first priority, before any positive actions can be taken, must be to reduce the numbers inside as the minister Simon Hughes and the former minister Denis MacShane (January 2015 issue) have argued, so that face to face contacts build constructive relationships. A high prison population may boost the egos of politicians who can then boast that their policies are tough on crime to please the tabloids and earn votes. The first move is to end short sentences of imprisonment - some ridiculously short - just two weeks has been awarded. The power of magistrates to imprison must be curbed in favour of tough community sentences known to be effective and cost less than imprisonment. These are the preferred sentences in public opinion polls. Short prison sentences only make unproductive work for staff occupied in processing people in and out. Those with mental illnesses should be diverted to secure hospitals by the courts, not sent to prisons where little is done for their recovery. People suffering from drug and drink addictions cannot recover simply by being imprisoned (a punitive law is no solution). The deep seated reasons for their desperation to opt out of harsh reality have to be addressed. A parallel move is to transfer those remanded in custody to secure hostels under the control of the courts, where their attendance is needed, not the prison service. These changes will easily halve the prison population. The prison staff will then have a chance to get to know the prisoners and encourage their rehabilitation. Everybody wins, the reformed exoffenders and the public whose taxes pay for their (expensive) time inside. A R Mears is a prison commentator
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org light in the prisoner’s darkness and she has clearly dedicated her life to help those who are lost.”
Johanne Tomlinson
Finding treasure A selection of prisoners’ contributions to the 2014-15 Butler Trust Awards John Pollock The Butler Trust
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e had a phenomenal response from prisoners making nominations for the 2014-15 Butler Trust Awards: hundreds of you made dozens of nominations or added helpful comments. Now the Awards are announced, and with the winners off to St James’s Palace in April to get their certificates from our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, we can share more details about the outstanding people who won an Award or Commendation this year - thanks in part to prisoners…
Trevor Lewis Trevor, a Physical Education Instructor in HMP Exeter, was nominated by fifteen prisoners. At 66 years old, he’s the longest serving and oldest ever PEI. Prisoners call him ‘a big dog’ with a gift for spreading laughter. Another says Trevor “organised activities for the children and the parents which are always very good, he also takes part. He always makes the family and children welcome on these visits. When I have been on these visits, my partner, son and me have always enjoyed them…He is a gentleman and a role model for all staff.”
Clare Cowell Clare at HMP Grendon was nominated for her therapeutic work. Taken hostage by a prisoner at HMP Woodhill in 1995, she says that
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“Rather than deterring me, I wanted to understand why prisoners chose their paths in life and to help and support them in trying to change their behaviour for the better.” One ex-prisoner says “I have personally seen Clare take verbal abuse from rude, angry, immature, upset, confused offenders and still she continued to help guide them on their journey regardless. Clare has helped so many people from B Wing, myself included.”
Kath Davies, Paul Goodridge, David Griffiths and John Watts All work at HMP & YOI Parc where they created an Assisted Living Unit for elderly prisoners. An 83 year old prisoner says, “I have been treated with kindness and respect. There are days when I do not feel very well and am in a lot of pain. The staff know what to do, and do all they can to help me.” Another simply calls the unit his “family.” Now get your hankies out: this is from the Chief Inspector’s report. “During the inspection one prisoner asked to return to the prison from hospital to die among people he knew and who cared not just for but about him.”
Elizabeth Shapland Elizabeth has spent 25 years as a volunteer giving bereavement counselling at HMP Bullingdon. “Elizabeth has unselfishly given up her time for all the prisoners who are in desperate need. When we feel alone and sad, she gives us comfort; when we feel lost and in despair, she gives us hope. She is like a shining
If you have ever served in the Armed Forces and you or your partner need help you may be interested to see what’s on offer from: The Royal British Legion and SSAFA You can write to TRBL/SSAFA (Ref Inside Time) Freepost SW1345 199 Borough High Street London SE1 1AA or tell your partner to call either the Royal Bitish Legion Contact Centre on 0808 8028080 (Mon - Sun 8am - 8pm) www.britishlegion.org.uk or SSAFA on 0207 403 8783 www.ssafa.org.uk Full details are shown in our advert in the classified section of Inside Information. Copies are available in all prison libraries
someone has been so kind to me and my family.” Another ex-offender calls Bob “a really good person who genuinely cares for us all”, and says Bob “doesn’t need to go out of his way to assist us but he does.”
Johanne is a Lead Nurse at HMP Stafford. The nominating prisoner says “she has shown complete dedication, understanding, commitment and professionalism when conducting the Veterans’ Anxiety Group…Johanne developed a course that can and will only grow stronger throughout the prison service.” Another says “Jo’s the first one I’ve ever come across who takes a personal interest in how you feel,” while another adds, “It made such an impact on me, and I’m a hard person to make an impact on, believe you me, but this did.” One describes her work simply and powerfully, “It’s like a whole world has opened up in front of me.”
Ali Joubert Ali at HMP Huntercombe created a highly regarded gardening project, and prisoners say Ali is “always bubbly and laughing”, “always has time for everyone no matter what their problem”, “is especially patient with those who don’t understand English” and, like a line from a song, “She turns your mood upside down and puts a smile on your face.”
Bob Paterson Bob is a Faith Services Team Leader at HMP Addiewell in Scotland. One ex-prisoner, John, says “I would like to thank you for helping my wife and kids. It’s been a long time since
We hope that selection of prisoners’ input to the Awards show how it enriches our understanding of some of the best work in the system - and so, once again, our thanks to all of you who have taken part. Fifty years on from Winston Churchill’s death, his words about prison still ring true. He praised the “tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if only you can find it in the heart of every person.”
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Something has to change A serving prisoner puts forward ideas to make Offending Behaviour Programmes more effective
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s I see it, the biggest issue with Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBPs) is twofold: The suspicion with which prisoners view programmes’ staff and the way programmes’ staff view prisoners. Both are problems which ‘rose-tinted spectacles’ could go a long way towards fixing. All of us know that the label ‘offender’ is a serious handicap. Once labelled as abnormal, even the most educated and qualified of treatment professionals can interpret perfectly normal behaviour as problematic pathology (Rosenhan, 1973). Anecdotal evidence from other prisoners backs up the view that prison psychologists can also sometimes focus too much on negative one-off events, rather than see the big picture when forming an impression of us (Skowronski & Carlson 1989). While it may not happen often, this can have a devastating impact on a prisoner - not just in terms of parole, but also on a deeply personal level. Having potentially overcome an internal struggle in their decision to engage with an OBP, any perceived unfairness could feel like a betrayal of trust. That trust is integral to the therapeutic relationship, which in turn is a huge factor in determining rehabilitative
success (McNeill et al 2005). I am not suggesting that facilitators ignore concerns when they arise, only that they be prepared to accept proven and potential biases in their perspectives. Wherever a conclusion is drawn, care should be taken to weigh up the evidence against that position. With most CBT based OBPs being supervised, the system is already set up to facilitate this approach. Disagreeing with or challenging a colleague’s opinion should never be seen as personal criticism but as a positive contribution to the process. If a conclusion is correct, it should stand up to scrutiny - that is good science. It is not always straightforward for the prisoner to question either course material or facilitators. Research has shown that inmates who resist the rhetoric of CBT can be seen as evidencing criminogenic pathology (Fox 1999). This is supported by anecdotal evidence from prisoners again and again; the fear of the consequences of disagreeing can seriously impact on sincere and open engagement with any OBP. If we are to truly buy in to the collaborative nature of CBT, we must feel safe to voice differing opinions. Without fear of further stigma or labelling, the
focus can be on reinforcing positive shifts in our identities. Going further, there is some evidence that a ‘de-labelling’ process encourages desistence (Trice & Roman 1970) and that this is most effective coming from treatment professionals (Wexler 2001). Genuine identity change requires external recognition as well as the internal changes made by the prisoner. ‘Not only must a person accept conventional society to go straight but conventional society must accept that person as changed as well’ (Meisenhelder 1982). Unfortunately, it is much easier to mistrust or downplay positive change in prisoners to avoid being caught out by the minority who may try to fake it (Lofland 1969). The nature of psychology is that some level of subjectivity and professional judgement is inevitable. However, there are tools available which could solve the problem of acknowledging progress in addressing offending behaviour without risking the professional reputation of staff. One method of evaluating the effectiveness of CBT is Jacobson’s Clinical Significance Analysis (Jacobson et al 1999). Essentially it boils down to two questions. Did the person demonstrate change significant enough not to be the effect
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of chance? And if so, did this change take the individual into the normal range for the measure used? This kind of analysis yields an objective metric which can then be used to place an OBP participant into one of four categories: reliably deteriorated, no reliable change, reliably improved or, recovered. An evaluation like this would be invaluable, not just for the prisoner who then has concrete validation of their efforts but also for those concerned with future treatment or management plans. A prisoner who finds himself in the ‘reliably deteriorated’ category can hardly argue that he has been ‘stitched up’ with recommendations for further work. Just as the problem is double-headed, so must be the solution. Trust is a two-way street and will require effort from both prisoners and programmes departments alike. Should programmes staff be seen to be open to prisoners input; more accepting of positive change and less prone to reinforce negative labels. I believe prisoners would have no reason to mistrust OBPs. Conversely, if prisoners are prepared to drop the cynicism; take responsibility for their rehabilitation, and engage honestly and actively there should be no reason we cannot all be ‘reliably improved’. Treatment professionals must ask themselves constantly if they are creating the environment which makes rehabilitation likely. The rest is on us.
C Zeb currently resides at HMP Bullingdon
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Parole Board: ‘want to get the right answer’ Sir David Calvert-Smith,Chairman of the Parole Board addressed the Westminster Legal Policy Forum in December. This is what he said:
In the long time I’ve spent as a practitioner of one sort or another in the criminal justice system - in fact I was thinking about it recently, it’s only two years shorter than Harry Roberts spent in prison - I have noticed that with two possible exceptions, one being the maximum sentence for theft and the other the general sentencing policy for the possession of small amounts of dangerous drugs for personal use, all changes to maximum sentences have been increases. The last speaker, Andrew Neilson, spoke about Transforming Rehabilitation, and that too is a big issue for us. I must say there are some hopeful signs to us at the Parole Board, from the “dangerous offenders” end of TR. The aim is that dangerous offenders will be dealt with exclusively by the National Probation Service, and that the continuity in Offender Manager for such prisoners will be better than it currently is and it’s right to say that members of the Parole Board are already seeing, albeit it’s patchy, improvements in that direction. The dangerous offender concept has gradually developed within the Courts on the back of the discretionary life sentence, so that you only received a discretionary life sentence if the Court found that you were dangerous, or so dangerous that you needed to be kept in prison until the Parole Board said you were sufficiently low risk to be released. This was made statutory and indeed mandatory in some cases by the 2003 Criminal Justice Act. We are still living with the consequences of that. As a result of the concept of the dangerous offender and the imposition on such offenders of the sentence of imprisonment for public protection, we have currently several thousand, over 5,000, prisoners who are in prison and effectively serving a life sentence compared with a population pre-2003 Act of a few hundred. Now the sentence has actually been abolished so that no prisoner sentenced since December 2012 is serving an IPP. The result is that people now sentenced for exactly the
same offending with exactly the same background are serving determinate or indeterminate sentences, depending on which side of December 2012 they were sentenced. In addition we have the growing concern expressed most recently in the House of Lords about what to do with dangerous offenders, in particular those short tariff prisoners now many years past their tariff, and whether there is some way in which the remaining group of IPP prisoners, which will continue to occupy our prison system for 10, 20 years if nothing is done about it, can be reduced. On the back of the dangerous offender concept, a whole science, a very sophisticated science, of risk assessment has been developed, so that our dossiers at hearings are frequently 200-300 pages long, and contain an enormous amount of information based, not only on personal observation, but on various, as most of you will know, scientific methods or tools of determining risk. However, I’m going to go back to what the Alison Liebling said, and indeed Nick Hardwick repeated, an enormous amount depends on the people. If the prisoner is lucky enough to have had a good offender supervisor, and to have a good offender manager who has got to know the prisoner and started to make really sensible plans for his or her release and conditions on release, then the chances of that prisoner being released are higher. Imagine a Parole Panel which is faced with a prisoner who has only recently arrived at the prison where he is, who has a new offender supervisor, and an offender manager who has never actually met him. Some of our panels direct the attendance of the offender manager at the hearing, not only so that they can ask the offender manager questions, but also so that he or she can actually meet the person, whom, if released, he or she will be supervising in the community. This is a sad state of affairs, but as previous speakers have said, the human factor is very, very important. Time and again I’ve attended hearings or spoken to members, who have said in effect that they were so impressed by the work that had been done in prison with the prisoner, and the relationship that had been built up and was being built up with the offender manager, that they were able to direct release, whereas in another case that would not have been possible. Various solutions have been suggested as to how Parliament might reduce the IPP population. We have one criterion only which we
must apply, because that’s what the statute which governs our decision making says. We decide whether the risk of the prisoner is now such that it is no longer necessary for the safety of the public that he or she be confined. That is the only criterion we can apply and the hurdle is a high one. The prisoner is dangerous because a Court has said that he or she is dangerous and we have no power to, for instance, say well we don’t think he was dangerous in the first place, and therefore we are going to release and effectively allow an appeal against sentence. We have to take that as a given, as do, of course, the professionals who prepare the reports which we have to consider. Various possible solutions have been proposed such as the power of the Ministry of Justice, which is within the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to alter the test for release to impose conditions which if fulfilled could result in the release of the prisoner by the Parole Board. For example “changing the burden of proof” so that unless the Secretary of State can show that the person is still a danger, then the Parole Board must release him. The reality of such change is that they perhaps ignore the way in which Parole Board hearings are conducted. Parole Board hearings are investigative hearings, they are not adversarial hearings. The Parole Panel is endeavouring to find an answer and will welcome help from whoever can give it, but at the end of the day it will not apply a burden or a standard of proof, it will simply answer the question set by statute. One thing that the Parole Board would resist strongly, because I believe it would affect public confidence in its
existence as an organisation, would be if it was effectively directed to release prisoners whom it believed constituted a danger to the public. There is no sign of any will, in any future Government, whatever its complexion, come May next year, to reverse the upward drift in sentencing policy. Many of the changes in my lifetime such as reducing the time served from two-thirds to a half or allowing discretionary release after a third, were clearly induced, not by penal policy considerations, but by financial ones. I suppose it’s conceivable that if things get to be as bad as some of our speakers have predicted they may, then the sheer pressure of finance may bring about the sort of change which many have advocated should be brought about as a result of sensible penological thinking and the implementation of more sensible policies. But for the moment, we must continue to operate our test as we are instructed to do. The last thing I would say is that Parole Board Panels, when they are hearing a case, sit in a small room with a prisoner who wants to be released or, at the very worst, recommended for progression to open conditions, with two or three professionals who are totally focused on the future of that prisoner, and three panel members who want to get the right answer. I can assure this audience, as I’ve assured many others, that that is the only thing that a Parole Board Panel thinks of when it is hearing a case. It is not thinking, on the one hand, “Oh well we must release more people because it will save the Prison Service money, and it is not saying, “We must keep them in prison because sections of the press will take a dim view if we don’t”.
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Two paths to surviving the winter Doug Heming
Volunteer Prison Chaplain
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inter is a season when much of life seems to be displaced! It is the season of migration and hibernation and incarceration. As the season of incarceration it is perhaps the season of prisoners and refugees in the wheel of human experience.
anyone belongs. There is no-one whose natural home is in the four walls of a cell. Prison is a place of nomads who belong on the outside but find themselves displaced for a season. Like the migratory birds in winter, it might be possible to build a second home, but you never truly belong there. But waiting is not the same as giving in.
Imprisonment and displacement can make life feel like an eternal winter. Life is curtailed for those in prison just as winter means those outside have to deal with short and cold days and a sense that the land around them is dead. So prisoners, and those over the wall, each look for the signs of life to bring some hope and cheer. But all the flowers are gone and the usual sound of birdsong which can lift the spirits is no longer heard. It can feel like survival is the name of the game in winter. The same can be said for the season of human incarceration or displacement.
But the waiting way does not mean rolling over and giving in. It means a real fight. Not the fight of gang warfare, battling for resources and survival, but a fight against loss of hope and of darkness. Breaking through to feel the sun again from a hidden place is no easy task. It requires a drive for life. A spirit of never giving in or accepting a situation. It demands resilience against an entire season of challenges.
This challenge can be met in two ways. There are those who see this season as a call to arms; to gather in groups and fight the lean season together. Groups help us find the things we need to survive and to avoid predators too. This is why prison life, and indeed life outside for many, can seem best dealt with in gangs. Strength in numbers to fight the reality of the winter of the soul and the season of imprisonment. But there is another way in which we can face this season. It avoids gang warfare and fighting for scarce resources which can leave some maimed and scarred in the spring. It is a way of hope, of looking forward, of gratitude. It is in my mind the better way but it is also the harder way because it is the way of waiting. The way of waiting in the winter season is based on the truth that most life begins buried and hidden and incarcerated. Think about it. The birth of a human life begins deeply hidden in the body of another. Buried in the flesh and out of sight. The birth of much plant life is the same. In most cases the seeds of a fruit, which will germinate and bring new life, are at its core and hidden within its protective outside skin. So the new life of spring often comes from imprisoned places; down in the earth hidden from the sun; deep within the fallen fruit of the trees; out of the hibernation of caves and holes in the ground. This then is another way of looking at any season of imprisonment and displacement. Not as something to fight but something to endure because it has the potential for new life, for vitality, for change, for emergence. I understand this is not easy. It may seem like giving in. This is because prison is not where
The winter season of imprisonment is about survival there is no doubt. But believing in a Spring season is where hope can come again and allows us to have a choice of how we spend our winter. A choice of how we fight. Fighting those around us for material resources or fighting the unseen forces of anger and darkness and hatred than can kill our hope and faith of a better season in our lives. I choose the second way because I am reminded that: In the littlest baby, the tiniest star, the smallest bulb in the winter ground, in the weakest prisoner, is the seed of love found which can overturn the universe. Wouldn’t it be a good thing for the policies and procedures of our criminal justice system to also embrace this second way? To see prisons as places of potential where we can nurture and germinate new life?
Echoes of an old life Ross Bell’s impressions of life on the inside
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t is often said that operational tours are vast passages of debilitating boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror. It may be likely that most prisoners can also relate to this maxim. Also with the concept that there are only two good postings in the whole of the Army, the last one and the next one, never the one you are on. This could also equate to the dissatisfaction I experience from most inmates about whatever prison they are currently in, how it was better in the last one and how their next move is redolent with improvement and opportunity. You are acutely aware of the boredom and the terror when they descend upon you but what you cannot perceive is the low level of continual anxiety. It hunkers down on your subconscious and slowly grinds the nerves until they begin to twist, fray and splinter. Your ability to deal with small irritations becomes eroded and slight differences in the calm of peacetime become vast vaults of misunderstanding when the fog or war descends. And this is just with your comrades. It is with these mental challenges I struggled through a couple of tours. I’m beginning to realise these challenges exist in here. Even though the situations and environment are entirely different, you have to recognise that the same symptoms of stress occur here and can colour your daily interactions with people. Not only do you have to realise these tensions exist within you, but with everyone in the prison (staff and inmates alike). The problem is that many people will not be consciously aware of the burden that is upon them and don’t even know why they react in the ways they do sometimes. Small incidents can spiral completely out of control in such a short space of time with the wrong
words said at exactly the wrong moment. A situation you think is normal shifts dramatically just because the other person doesn’t agree with your point of view, or doesn’t understand your sense of humour. Threats, either real or perceived, stalk the corridors of most prisons like a malcontent spectre and the hum of violence reverberates in the base of the skull ready to come to the forefront at the hint of a challenge. Kindness is often seen as weakness and individuals build emotional barriers around themselves to hide their true personalities to avoid conflict, or deflect others attempts to dominate them. The system attempts to control with its own violence (solitary confinement, loss of privilege, loss of family contact) and the subjugated deal with the shame of holding their confrontation in as they grate upon each other’s egos. The whole, roiling tempest of emotion held back by the ethereal promise of open prison. Others will try to have conflict with you, but it isn’t about you. It’s got everything to do with them and their anxiety. I’m glad I can recognise this echo from an old life and gently steer my way through a crowd of unknowing anger.
About The Man
I was born in Broadstairs, Kent 42 years ago. Punctuating my career as an Army Officer and working for the family business (booze), I committed VAT fraud in 2005. For this crime, I was sentenced to 8 years in 2014. This blog is an attempt to communicate with my friends and family about how I am feeling and what’s happening inside (and ‘inside’). If you’re reading this and I haven’t met you before, you are most welcome.
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Spotlight Police and Crime Commissioners In 2012 elections took place throughout England and Wales for 41 Police and Crime Commissioners to replace the Police Authorities. Commissioners with a variety of backgrounds and interests in specific issues were appointed to serve a four year term. They all produced individual police and crime plans to suit the needs of their respective regions and now, half way through their four year tenure Inside Time is in touch with them and looking to see how things are developing.
Rehabilitation is the key The Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, Ian Johnston, highlights how he is working with local and national partners to rehabilitate offenders with the aim of reducing the revolving door of reoffending in Gwent.
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y role as Police and Crime Commissioner goes beyond policing and since being elected into office in 2012 I have drawn together a wide range of partners in the community to help tackle crime and its root causes. Rehabilitation plays a vital role in supporting offenders to break free from the cycle of reoffending and it helps them to rebuild their lives by making some positive changes which enable them to turn their backs on criminality. I’m a key stakeholder of the Gwent Integrated Offender Management (IOM) programme which takes a multi-agency approach to managing high risk offenders. The agencies
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org involved include the probation service, the police, local authorities, drug and alcohol services and local health providers. The approach recognises that repeat offenders have multiple problems which contribute to their offending which cannot be addressed by a single agency. The programme ensures that all offenders leaving prison have co-ordinated support to help them stay on the straight and narrow. The Gwent IOM programme has been singled out as one of the best in Wales after securing a 9.1% reduction in the rate of re-offending amongst the most prolific offenders. Substance abuse is one of the many factors that can make it hard for people to break away from offending and that’s why I fund and support the Gwent Drugs Interventions Programme (DIP) - a key partner within the local Integrated Offender Management (IOM) and Priority and Prolific Offenders (PPO) arrangements. The programme has supported nearly 2,000 clients since 2006 and 70% of the IOM cohorts have come through DIP. Earlier this year, I visited DIP clients in Newport to find out about the challenges they face and how effective DIP was at supporting their needs and I have also visited staff and inmates at HMP Usk to better understand their work and the challenges they face. The DIP programme has developed both effective and strengthened partnership working with all the agencies involved by ensuring a single point of contact for service providers. It delivers recovery and rehabilitation services that are absolutely key to my aim of reducing crime in Gwent by tackling the underlying causes of offending. I also have commissioning powers and funding to help support my remit to reduce crime. I have established a Strategic Commissioning Board which includes key local partners as members and the rehabilitation of offenders is one of five themes which form part of my strategic commissioning intentions. My Partnership Fund awards cash seized from criminals and from the sale of unclaimed found property to support projects that meet my priorities. Some of the money has been awarded to projects which enhance work with prison inmates and offenders to help reduce crime. This includes awards of: l £9,600 for the Specialist Treatment Organisation for the Prevention of Sexual Offending
USP Group
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l £4,835 for the Voice Hub, a volunteer - run community space for people in recovery from drug and alcohol issues in the city of Newport; l And £8,400 to Victory Outreach UK to provide woodwork, employment and IT skills, Book keeping, CV Writing and Healthcare and fitness sessions to help in the rehabilitation of men and women from a life of addiction, crime and prison. I’m also a big supporter of using innovative and more restorative approaches to divert offenders away from the criminal justice system to prevent future offending. There’s a strong and growing evidence base that restorative justice meets the needs of victims and reduces the frequency of reoffending. This is why I was delighted to secure nearly £235,000 from the Home Office’s Police Innovation Fund recently to support the creation of the Women’s Triage Scheme, a Wales-wide project which aims to divert women who have been arrested away from criminality and provide them with a new ‘restorative’ approach to their rehabilitation. I have also provided £50,000 over two years towards the Making Connections project run by Monmouth Comprehensive School which aims to bring together those harmed by conflict and those responsible into communication. This enables everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. Since its inception, the project has seen exclusions for inappropriate behaviours at the school reduced by 93% and the school is currently looking at ways of rolling the project out through Gwent and beyond. And through my Community Safety Fund grant, I awarded the Positive Futures project in Newport with £280,000 two years ago. The project uses sport and physical activity to help inspire young people in Newport at risk of crime and substance abuse and acts as an alternative to anti-social behaviour. It’s important to note that every £1 invested in interventions saves £33 in tackling crime overall and these partnerships and initiatives which I fund and support assist me in developing approaches which ensure people in Gwent are less affected by crime.
This child abuse inquiry is pointless Dominic Lawson - The Sunday Times
Six months on, debate still rages about who would chair the Government’s landmark inquiry into historic child abuse. But whoever gets the job will have been “set an impossible task”. He or she will have to investigate how allegations of child abuse were dealt with ‘from 1970 to the present’ across a vast range of public and private bodies - Whitehall departments, schools, care homes, prisons, religious organisations, the armed forces, to name but a few. If Lord Saville’s inquiry into Bloody Sunday - an incident that lasted barely two hours - took 12 years and cost nearly £200m, imagine how long and costly an ‘elephantine’ inquiry of this sort would be. It wouldn’t report for decades. Nor would it be much help in establishing ‘lessons that can be learnt’, because, in truth, such reports are “rarely read by anyone”. Besides, what new lesson could this inquiry teach us? Officials are already ‘vigilant almost to the point of paranoia’ about child abuse. In sum, a public inquiry into abuse claims will waste time and money. Far better to leave it to the police.
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Transforming lives: reducing women’s imprisonment
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ince the Soroptimist’s UK Programme A c t i o n Committee (UKPAC) took the decision to mount a campaign, in partnership with the Prison Reform Trust, to reduce women’s imprisonment, Soroptimist members have been working to gather information and increase awareness of how women in the criminal justice system are treated in their local areas. In 2013-14 Soroptimists asked police officers, probation officers, criminal justice social workers, magistrates, sheriffs, health professionals and managers of women’s community services what happens in their local areas to women who offend or are at risk of offending. The report highlights progress and good practice whilst identifying constraints, gaps and shortcomings in local service provision. The majority of women in trouble with the law are minor but persistent offenders and often have histories of domestic violence, abuse, coercion, mental illness and addiction. Many are also mothers. Most women serve short prison sentences for non-violent offences at huge public cost. 59% of women entering prison serve custodial sentences of six months or less. Theft and handling offences account for 30% of women’s arrests and 41% of custodial sentences given to women. Whilst Soroptimists encountered differences in governance and approach taken to women in the criminal justice system between the four nations, a number of themes (many of them inter-linked) were common across the UK. l Leadership is needed to bridge the disconnect between policy and implementation Despite commitments to reforming women’s justice voiced by politicians of every stripe, a leadership deficit has meant UK-wide change has not been delivered. l Gender-specific approaches are the exception but should be the rule Equality law requires specific treatment for groups with protected characteristics where this has been shown to be more effective in meeting their needs. Despite the evidence that women specific responses to offending are cost-effective and reduce reoffending, enabling women to live healthier, more productive lives, most women in contact with criminal justice agencies across the UK are still subject to generic systems and practices which have evolved in response to men’s offending. l Uncertain funding of services working with women in trouble is counter-productive Despite operating across jurisdictions characterised by their differences rather than similarities, the community services identified in the course of Soroptimists’ inquiries shared an uncertain funding future and were at the mercy of budget cuts and short-term funding decisions. In each of the nations, services were expected to do more with less. In some parts
of the country, services women could ill afford to lose were at risk of closing. In others, lastminute funding extensions had been granted, but in the long-term, the expectation was that services would demonstrate their worth locally and be commissioned and funded from mainstream grants and budgets. l Attitudes to women in trouble are perceived as barriers to progress Soroptimists around the UK found evidence that political, media and some public attitudes towards women in trouble are barriers to reform. Despite these concerns, evidence from public opinion polling has found that attitudes towards women who offend, and support for effective responses, are more nuanced, with strong public support for community solutions to the drivers to women’s offending. That this dichotomy exists suggests the need for strong leadership across governments and local agencies in making the case for women in trouble. l There are clear opportunities to reduce the women’s prison population Whilst limited availability of women-specific community orders was cited as a reason sentencers felt they had no option but to impose custodial sentences. Poor-information sharing about services available locally hampered take up of women-specific orders where they did exist. Some services had sought to address this by involving local sentencers in management boards but a more systematic approach is needed if women’s community services are to fulfil their potential as alternatives to custody. Soroptimists across the UK were particularly concerned by the large number of women in prison who were mothers. Imprisoning mothers is counter-productive and costly to the state, both in the short and long-term, and could often be avoided if courts took proper account of primary caring responsibilities in sentencing decisions, and women were supported to stay with their children. l Sharing learning across jurisdictions is important As this report demonstrates, women in contact with criminal justice agencies across the UK have much in common, and it stands to reason that, despite different approaches and legal systems, lessons which are drawn from what works in one corner of the UK will apply equally across the rest of the country. In the course of their inquiries, Soroptimists uncovered pockets of interesting practice, innovative approaches to funding and examples of integration which need to be applied more widely. Sharing learning across jurisdictions would not only ensure the spread of effective practice, but also protect against the temptation to reinvent the wheel when working with women in trouble in different parts of the country. As this report finds, what works with women in the criminal justice system is in evidence across the UK. The challenge is now to take that learning and turn it into standard practice. Transforming lives: reducing women’s imprisonment Report can be downloaded from http://new.ukpac.org.uk
Informing you about where to find help gang culture but now works to inspire young people – including those in prison. Recently Chris has been telling Spotlight about the people who’ve inspired him including Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela and Michael Jackson.
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potlight is the show on National Prison Radio which shines a light on those charities and organisations in prison which are there to help you. It’s on every Monday at 11am, repeated at 5pm. Among those organisations recently featured on Spotlight has been Llamau – a charity which helps people in Wales at risk of homelessness – including those just out of prison. One of those who has been helped by Llamau is Jody who is living in one of the charity’s hostels. She’s now taking qualifications to achieve her dream of becoming an engineer in the Royal Navy. She told Spotlight: “People in hostels – and those who’ve been in care – are always being targeted as bad people, so I want to prove them wrong. Llamau don’t judge you because they know what position you’re in and it’s easy to speak to them because you know what you say is confidential.” Jody was awarded the weekly Spotlight ‘Woman of the Hour’ award, which recognises someone who’s achieved something special either inside or outside prison. If you’ll be living in Wales after your release and you want to find out more about Llamau, speak to your offender supervisor. Other organisations featured on Spotlight recently have been Spark Inside, St Giles Trust, Sova, Safeground, Justmentoring, Elemore and Prisoners’ Education Trust. Another regular feature on Spotlight is Chris Preddie OBE (pictured) who’s NRP’s poet-inresidence. Chris grew up on the fringes of
You can hear him on Spotlight every Monday at 11am and 5pm, repeated Sunday at 9am.
NPR is changing! We’ve been speaking to people in prisons across England and Wales about how they’d like National Prison Radio to sound. We’ve listened to what you have to say, and next month we’re going to be launching a brand new schedule. We’ll be introducing some exciting new programmes, including a show especially for women in prison, as well as a show focusing on your health. The schedule will be launched on Monday 2nd March and full details will be in the next edition of Inside Time.
Criminal Defence and Prison Law Experts Nationwide professional and experienced Advice and Representation in the following areas: • Adjudications, Judiical Reviews • Categorisation • Parole Review/Hearings, Licence Recalls • Tariff/Minimum Term Reviews & Appeals • CCRC, Confiscation Proceedings • Criminal Defence of all types from Murder to Motoring Offences
Contact Tony Marshall at: Alexander Johnson Solicitors 246 Bethnal Green Road London E2 0AA
0207 739 1563
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Comment
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Reducing violence in prisons PRISON REFORM TRUST Ben on Channel 4 News
The media tart experience Ben Gunn
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henever I have a camera pointed at me, I am aware of all the times I used to watch ex-cons on the telly. Often it was painfully frustrating - “tell them about X!” - and sometimes toe curlingly bad. When the little red light goes on, then, I am acutely aware that my harshest critics, the most important audience, is the one I never get to see or hear from - you guys inside. It is important that I do a good job for you, as best I am able. I am not a spokesperson for prisoners. No one can claim that position and I’d quickly slap down anyone who claimed it. The best that any of us outside can do is try to reflect the pains of imprisonment, the concerns, to educate a wider audience. The longer we have been out, the harder that can become. Of course, I could be making a complete hash of it; I daresay someone will let me know! The weird thing is, none of it phases me. My first media thing came a few weeks after my release. Channel 4 News with Jon Snow, responding to some silliness the Prime Minister had spewed. Evening primetime. Millions watching. My first glimpse into the world of telly! And its always a big deal. Not just because I somehow have to get to London and back from Somerset, but because if I screw it up then it gives people an excuse to slag off cons and ex cons even more than they do. Having gone through 13 parole hearings may have helped me develop a tolerance for pressure! The process begins with an Email or phonecall from a producer. They explain the story and explore your views. If they think they can use you, the process rolls on. The news agenda is a fickle beast, though, and it is common to be told later in the day that the story had been dropped because something else more interesting had happened. There comes a point when the news agenda is settled, though, and the gig is definitely on. Off to London I trekked, to find a car waiting
for me at Paddington. I could get used to this… Whisked to the studio - I forget where! - and the Green Room. This is where guests sit around awaiting to be shoved into the studio. Channel 4 had the makeup artist in the corner, who faced one hell of a challenge. The night before I has fallen down the stairs face first, skinning a line from my chin to my forehead. I ended up with more makeup than Coco the Clown, although through the magic of TV none of this was obvious. TV studios are strange. Some are actual sets. Some are merely concrete boxes with a couple of chairs; all the images, walls, etc are special effects. Its odd being told to look at a cross chalked on a concrete wall and told to pretend its another person. Channel 4 is pretty much how it looks on screen. While I always know the topic being discussed, particular questions aren’t shared beforehand. This makes quick thinking essential. And a thoughtful use of language - swearing is a no-no! I think I’ve only been caught by surprise once, when I thought a co-guest, an ex copper, was advocating vigilante justice. I was all “Well I never, I’m appalled”, when what I’d usually say is “fecking muppet”… Perhaps my best day was when Grayling announced his new horrible regime changes. Sixteen interviews around London, giving my opinion of our dear Minister. The highpoint was at Sky; I was leaving the studio as Grayling was entering. “I’ve just spent ten minutes in there giving you a kicking”, I told him. “That’s alright”, said Grayling, “I’m up next and I’ll return the favour…” It’s been a busy couple of years. I’ve popped up on every channel and endless radio stations from here to Russia. But I don’t buy into much of it. I’m not called by the media out of kindness, and I know there is always another ex con round the corner who can become media flavour of the month. Perhaps Inside Time should take over the role, become the “go to” source for media interviews? Ben Gunn is a Lifer released in 2012 after 36 years in prison - BEN’S PRISON BLOG - Lifer On The Loose prisonerben.blogspot.co.uk
Francesca Cooney Advice & Information Manager
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here has been a lot of media attention recently about the rise in violent incidents in prison. The records show that serious assaults in prison have risen by 27% over the last year, with prisoner on officers assaults rising by 12%. In theory, prison staff can prevent assaults by using dynamic security. This is the idea that staff are regularly talking to prisoners, aware of what is going on in the wings and using information and communication to prevent and reduce violence. However, as the numbers of prison staff reduce prison culture can change. Firstly time out of cell and meaningful opportunities are reduced, potentially leading to frustration and tensions. Secondly, staff are less able to monitor what is happening on the wings and communicate with the prisoners in their care. The government is aiming to change the law to make possessing a knife or other offensive weapon in prison a new offence. At the moment, prisoners can receive an additional 42 days time if found in possessions of a weapon. The new offence could be punished by a sentence of up to four years. The Prison Reform Trust supports measures to reduce violence in prisons but we are concerned that this proposal does not address the underlying reasons for violence in prisons. It is important to remember that we don’t know about all prison assaults, just those that are recorded by prison staff. The information we have shows that between 2009-2012, just 12% of recorded assaults in prison involved a weapon. Most assaults in prison don’t involve weapons. And when prisoners do use weapons, usually these are items that are found close to hand. Very few assaults include a designed for purpose or handmade weapon. The evidence shows that nearly half
of assaults using a weapon are classed as ‘other’. This includes things like balls or cues from the pool table, hot water, furniture and plates. The problems of prison violence are not due to the ‘weapon’, which is often an everyday item. This shows that other measures to prevent violence are needed. Prison violence can be reduced when officers have the time and training to confront antisocial behaviour consistently and when prisoners have a proper regime. The prison discipline system works most effectively when it is part of an approach across the whole prison. This includes officers being alert to any aggressive behaviour or potential trouble. Communication with prisoners is crucial - prisoners can be consulted about how to reduce violence, for instance through regular wing meetings that can discuss causes of tension and through prisoner surveys about victimisation, which provide knowledge about the underlying factors contributing to violence. So, if we really want to keep prison staff and prisoners safe, action against weapons is a small part of the strategy. Prisoners need to be able to access support for resolving conflict and be protected from victimisation. We would like to see more mediation schemes in prisons as these help to provide a safe environment and can develop prisoners’ skills in preventing violence. We would also like to see an assessment of the necessary ratio of staff or prisoners required to maintain a safer and secure prison environment and more resources for training and supporting prison staff.
If you have any questions or need advice about prison matters you can write to us at Prison Reform Trust, FREEPOST ND6125 London EC1B 1PN. Please note that we cannot give immigration advice. Our free information line for prisoners is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 3.305.30. The number is 0808 802 0060 and does not need to be put on your pin.
J C HUGHES
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TIP THE SCALES OF JUSTICE IN YOUR FAVOUR
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Open prisons - a failing holiday camp? There is currently a crisis in the open prison system. This much we know from reading our daily papers. But for those individuals personally involved in the workings and machinations of the prison system there is a worrying and growing realisation that the wrong crisis is the one being highlighted. by Bill - father of a prisoner
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he recent ‘wave’ of absconders from open prisons was undoubtedly a story that ticked tabloid boxes. The ticking of enough red rag, or red-top, boxes will usually be enough to get a story splashed across front pages. The fact that a totally different picture is often going on behind the headlines is disregarded even when inaccuracies are suspected by readers. Delving deeper for reality or answers is often sidelined in a rush for hysteria. It is certainly true that the difficult process of gradual and temporarily licensed release from open prisons is undergoing a period of major upheaval, and many families and inmates trying to restart lives are becoming collateral damage in these changes. These issues are not just being raised by the odd lone voice. A consensus is growing from those frequently exposed to the system, who have the ‘inside’ knowledge, and who recognise the real flaws occurring in open prisons. Unfortunately these are voices that lack any power as they usually come from the disenfranchised; the ignored; the sidelined; those who have experienced the process themselves and witnessed first hand its inadequacies in preparing an individual either for a temporary release or for a life in the outside world. Ex-prisoners and their circles don’t form a strong lobby when it comes to getting a message across to a mainstream, but it is this mainstream that will have to bear much of the cost of failed transitions. The debate on the exact purpose of prisons is a long and ongoing one. It is highly divisive and emotive, and as a society we have not really reached satisfactory conclusions. Whether prisons are for retribution and punishment; taking people off the streets; or forming part of a rehabilitation process, the one issue there can be little doubt on is that if prisons create inmates ill-prepared for release the consequences will be vast. There have undoubtedly been incidents of absconding in recent times which are alarming and these have raised issues that need addressing. But a misleading picture, where hordes of dangerous criminals appear to be wandering our streets coming and going as they please from open prisons, has been portrayed to the public and led to a depressingly standard knee jerk reaction to the problem. This kind of deception normally occurs because politicians are predominantly big fans of a tough on crime rhetoric: it understandably plays well with the media and large sections of the electorate. And part of that tough on crime message is to be seen to be particularly tough on perpetrators of crime, even if this may lead to some counter-productive measures. This is often achieved in partnership with a compliant media keen to provide the requisite level of outrage for change. Without an accurate analysis being put forward by the media or govern-
ment, the changes in regulation don’t reflect any current reality so the kind of problems the system is now experiencing become inevitable. In fact over the last decade the number of prisoners absconding while on temporary license has gone down from 1300 a year to 204. Yet this fact is not reflected in the press. If we look behind the numbers there are also other factors hidden in these statistics which reveal more layers beneath the one-sided coverage. The main cause of ‘absconding’ is not an uncontrollable urge to go on a crime spree, but where inmates have received bad news from home. Little or no account is taken of inmates not returning due to bullying and many of the cases include late returns where time spent travelling has formed a part of release time, and with more prisons closing many inmates have found themselves residing in prisons far from their homes. In the eyes of many people the finger of blame, and the apparent bogeyman in this scenario, seems to point squarely at Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Justice - a man whose actions and words scream denial of any crisis. Searching for one sole scapegoat is rarely productive or helpful but there does seem to be a direct line from most of Grayling’s ideas and policies to the situation that can now be found. The unknown factor is whether it is down to a lack of strategic thinking on his part, or whether he is, in fact, with the assistance of the newspapers, achieving his own pre-defined set of objectives. The changes implemented by Chris Grayling in the wake of the high-profile absconders includes dramatically cutting down on ‘town visits’; a freeze on any day/weekend release applications to stay with family; psychological risk assessments before any license can be granted which adds yet more delay and another level of bureaucracy into the system; and all prisoners to be tagged for day release when this option is eventually reintroduced. While some of these, on the surface, may seem reasonable the result is a dramatic slowing down of what was hardly a seamless process even before the recent press coverage had shone a grossly biased light on the proceedings. We are now consequently witnessing a reality where large numbers of arbitrary decisions are made to return prisoners to closed conditions with little or no evidence to back up decisions and after Mr Grayling’s recent changes to legal aid they only have a slight chance of challenging such decisions; increased overcrowding, frustration and anger in a closed prison system already at crisis point; and the effective breakdown of this most crucial stage prior to release. This is a time when inmates often have to rebuild relationships with family, shake off the effects of being institutionalised, and hopefully begin to undergo this necessary staggered introduction to freedom and increased responsibility. There is immense pressure on inmates during this stage with so much at stake; a lot of progress has already been made just to reach
this point. It has often been accompanied by a sense of anticipation over an arrival in open conditions which can then lead to resentment and anger when things don’t work out; when they discover there is little or no constructive or meaningful activity to fill the day or contribute towards rehabilitation; where they see other inmates shipped out daily to closed conditions without explanation and their day becomes spent worrying if they will be next to meet this fate. In the current climate it has become the easy option to just send someone back into the closed system, to abstain any responsibility for making decisions on allowing a temporary release, especially with lifers. Whatever people’s views are on crime and punishment, prisons have a duty to prepare inmates for life in the outside world. Bearing this in mind we have to ask ourselves whether stopping town visits or banning inmates from ‘walking the streets’, in any way, helps prepare them for engaging in these exact same activities when they are released? An open prison system that works should surely be a stepping stone between the almost artificial environment of a closed prison and the often daunting prospect of life outside. It should be a place to pick up extra life skills to aid in this transition, research employment or training options to avoid landing back in society with no prospect of earning money other than from crime, and to find accommodation when the social housing crisis means that in most cases they will have little or no priority until their release. With such challenges ahead this period should be used as constructively as possible.
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The prison service has been subjected to some of the severest cutbacks of any sector, and it is not only in open prisons where shortfalls are being felt. But as open prisons are usually the last stage of the incarceration process, and with much of the anecdotal evidence suggesting some, quite frankly, baffling decision making, it is here where mistakes or inadequacies threaten to totally unravel any positive work that may have been previously achieved with inmates. While none of us wants another ‘skull cracker’ on the loose, the spiral of damage this man caused may have spread beyond the crimes he committed when on the run. The simmering frustration of inmates, who have often served their time in the way society demands, now finding themselves unable to prove their suitability for release may not only prove a contributory factor in rising suicide rates within prisons, already up a scandalous 64%, but the continued stalling of prisoner progression will also surely hinder chances of achieving successful outcomes on re-offending rates. Although the aims and purposes of our prisons will always involve some degree of retribution, even attempts at revenge in a number of cases, setting prisoners up to fail in this way is not only an inhumane way of dealing with the problem of crime, it is also catastrophically short-sighted. This seems particularly true if these aims are to ever include rehabilitation and creating end-products of individuals being released as free of bitterness and aggression as possible, and ready to function in society.
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Education
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
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Rod’s look ahead to 2015 Rod Clark Prisoners Education Trust, Chief Executive
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his time last year I predicted that 2014 would be a year of anxiety and opportunity. It was more extreme than that. Over the past twelve months we’ve seen severe staff shortages and dangerous conditions impact negatively on education in some prisons. Reduced regimes have meant prisoners unable to get to education and with overcrowding, there have been not enough activity places for the population. Inspection report after inspection report has revealed a saddening litany of problems and just this week a report of HMP Garth found staff shortages meant most prisoners could only attend education or work for three and a half days per week. Over the past few months the government has repeatedly emphasised its commitment to education, with recent announcements doubling the amount of education young people receive and a new holistic women’s curriculum. At the PET annual lecture NOMS Chief Executive Michael Spurr gave a heartfelt commitment to support the needs of longersentenced prisoners. PET very much welcomes
the sentiment behind these commitments, but PET has also expressed its concerns about the introduction of secure colleges in particular. As legislation was still going through parliament at the end of last year, the government simultaneously continued with its plans and issued a consultation on the rules. In the Prisoner Learning Alliance’s response, I expressed our concerns that the large size of the institution and distance from young people’s communities will severely compromise safety and therefore, the ability of the College to function as an effective learning environment. Just this week, a damning report on Feltham YOI identifying high levels of violence found that though education provision was good, attendance was too low and sanctions imposed for poor behaviour outside education sometimes included missing classes. As the government brings in a whole raft of new changes this year, we sincerely hope officials will listen to the expertise and experiences of charities and organisations working to deliver services that are really making a difference to the lives of people in prison. In spring last year we brought many of these organisations together for the PLA’s Smart Rehabilitation conference, where criminal justice and education experts together discussed the benefits of a tailored education package encompassing a broad range of subjects and styles of learning. Despite the
challenges for the sector in 2014, there were highlights too. Throughout our 25th anniversary year we reflected on the many positive achievements of our learners and alumni; people who have overcome adversity and have changed their outlook on life, carved out new futures and focused on being productive citizens, both in prison and out. In 2015, PET’s New Year’s resolution is to build on the successes of its learners, staff and supporters over the past 25 years. Evidence shows what we do works and we hope to expand even further. Thanks to generous funding we are planning new projects for young people and women in prison and developing our new alumni network. We are also in the process of completing an ambitious project working with prisons to develop rehabilitative cultures by taking advantage of the talent prisoners possess and we look forward to evaluating the results this spring. In 2015 colossal changes are underway to probation and prisons. As the landscape changes with new community rehabilitation companies beginning to carve out their plans to help people leaving prison, it is our hope they will see education is one of the clear pathways to reducing reoffending and will work closely with prisons to plan individuals’ activities in custody and after release.
Further Education doesn’t have to just be about employment sweating through exams to please a potential employer. Your life can be enriched by education in ways other than finding a job. Further education can mean making the most of your time behind bars, developing a new outlook on your future and building your selfconfidence. Take Dan’s story, for example.
Jon Lindsay
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© xalanx - Fotolia
an said he wasn’t interested in further education. “I can read and write well enough,” he said. “Besides, I already know what I’m going to do when I leave jail.”
In the distance learning unit of HMP Parc we hear a lot of excuses from people who don’t want to study. “I’m too old to learn anything new.” “I’ve had a tough time in school so the last thing I want is more frustration while I’m locked up.” But education doesn’t have to be about
Dan is a big guy in his fifties. Sociable and quick with a funny story, Dan is a good guy to know. Although he’s been a successful farmer, when he entered prison he realised his basic education wasn’t up to scratch. He quickly progressed through the Toe by Toe to tighten up his literacy, and then he swiftly passed through Level 1 and Level 2. He was soon frequently seen lurking in the prison library checking out detective novels. With his new confidence in literacy Dan never gave further learning a thought. He had money in the bank, was nearing retirement and had no need to learning anything more than the basics of what he already had. Or did he? Dan and I spoke frequently about his personal life. He revealed some issues around confidence and self-esteem. He often referred to himself as not very bright. But I can assure you Dan’s knowledge of farming and hunting could fill the libraries of academic colleges. He also had us in stitches with his many stories of life in the shooting club. Dan was encouraged to have a go at writing some of his stories down. With great trepida-
tion, Dan was guided to the computer, something he’s never used before, where he learned to touch-type. With just a few hours a week effort, Dan was typing his stories like any proficient computer user. Dan is now studying a Fiction Writing correspondence course through distance learning and has submitted his stories to the Koestler competition. Through distance learning, Dan has increased his confidence and self-esteem. He’s progressed by leaps and bounds and now has an activity he can use when he leaves prison. He can spend his retirement writing his funny stories and sharing his knowledge of farming. Dan’s knowledge will be handed on to his friends and family as well as the community. Dan can make a valued contribution to society. Dan can also hold his head up high knowing he’s as smart as the next guy and can learn anything he puts his mind to. Maybe it’s not all about certifications and qualifications, but if they gave out certificates for self-esteem and personal confidence, I know Dan would have them thanks to his commitment to further education. Further education doesn’t need to focus strictly on employment. Consider studying to increase your self-confidence, create a new positive direction, spend your time in jail more productively and fill your future with interesting activities and people. There’s a correspondence course to help you succeed in just about whatever you wish to learn. Just ask your education department.
“When I came to prison it felt as if I had lost everything. After a period of undiagnosed depression, self medicated with copious amounts of alcohol, I irrationally set fire to my own flat. So when I say I’d lost everything, I literally mean everything! More than material things, I’d lost my selfconfidence, I’d lost all self-belief and particularly any hope of returning to my previous role as a ‘jobbing artist’, painting murals, meeting client briefs, facilitating art projects and producing my own artworks. It had all gone. Shortly after I’d settled in, as much as one can settle in prison, I got the opportunity to attend an art class during the day. I started tentatively, working through a short course, struggling to meet my own standards. Although difficult and frustrating, I felt a spark of my creative fire and I was eager to do my own thing. I was told Prisoners’ Education Trust may be able to fund some basic materials for me. These would help with the course but more than that allow me to practice my art in my cell. I was granted the funds and obtained some quality pencils. When they arrived it was an absolute delight and in no time I was producing art to my standards, I was feeling more confident and with that my depression was lifting. The breakthrough came when I drew a portrait of Albert Einstein for no other reason than to prove I could still do it. I have since won awards from the Koestler Trust and had work exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall in London. I have also had work included in various local art projects and completed pieces for the prison. I owe my gratitude to PET because those few materials really allowed me the opportunity to express myself creatively and as a consequence my depression and self-belief has gone from dark to light and colourful. I also owe a great deal to the prison art department and my tutor for the chance to turn a very negative frame of mind into a positive, brighter one. When I’m released I plan to have my own online gallery. I have so many pictures queuing up in my mind waiting to be painted so the materials you funded will be getting well used over the coming months. Once again many thanks - art is so underestimated in helping someone’s mental health.” by John
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Short Story
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org ‘Oi, dippy,’ the man said from somewhere behind him. ‘You’re going to end up doing yourself a serious injury. Aint it dawned on you yet? I’m not actually here. This is just some sort of weird dream, either yours or mine, I’m not entirely sure.’ Blake held his head.
The competition attracted a record 624 entries from men, women and children in prisons and the community. Judges included Rachel Billington OBE, Kingslee ‘Akala’ Daley, Erwin James, Michael Morpurgo OBE, Chris Mullin and Femi Oyeniran. Prizes were awarded in three categories for comment, short story and lyric/rap. Here Inside Time publishes the winning entry in the ‘Time’ 1,000 word short story prize category, Every Passing Moment by Daniel. The judges said the winning piece showed”skill in telling an unusual tale, a worthy winner”.
Every Passing Moment by Daniel
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‘That time goes too quickly sometimes,’ the man said. Blake glanced around the cell. He felt the slightly strange sensation of being in the middle of a conversation that he couldn’t remember the beginning of. ‘It doesn’t seem to be going very quick right now,’ he said, looking at his bare wrist, wishing he had a watch. ‘But how about the last six years?’ The man asked. ‘How quick have they gone?’
icky Blake had done it. He’d served his time. Six years he’d been sentenced to and six years he’d served. Today, he was finally going home. He might have been out and home a lot earlier were it not for the stubborn streak that ran through him like the name of a seaside town through a stick of rock.
Blake stood now, confused. ‘Do I know you?’
As Ricky Blake waited alone in the reception holding cell for his release papers to be signed off he smiled smugly. He’d done things his way, on his own terms. As far as he was concerned, he’d won. In less than an hour Ricky Blake would be a free man, answerable to no one. He looked at the cell door. Time definitely seemed to be dragging this morning. He lay back on the hard wooden bunk and rested his tired eyes.
‘What do you mean not exactly?’ he asked the man, annoyed. ‘What are you trying to do, mess with my head or something?’
‘Funny how quick the time goes, in it?’ a deep voice intoned above him.
‘Who do you think you’re talking to?’ Blake said, tightening his fist.
Blake bolted upright. He’d only just closed his eyes and he definitely hadn’t heard the door open or close. He rubbed his eyes and glanced up at the man now standing in front of him.
‘I wouldn’t do that,’ the man said, looking at Blake’s clenched fist. ‘Why are you so irritated all the time? You’re just about to get out of prison, just about to get another chance at life, yet here you are losing your temper over the slightest little thing, the same temper that’s got you in trouble your whole life I might add. You can be such an idiot at times.’
‘What time is it?’ he asked the man. The man shrugged. The lines etched into the man’s leathery face betrayed his advanced years but he was otherwise in pretty good shape for a man of his age. Blake put him somewhere in his midfifties. ‘I must have dozed off,’ Blake said. ‘I didn’t even hear the door go.’ The guy nodded, then said: ‘So do you agree?’ Blake furrowed his brow. ‘Agree with what?’
‘Not exactly,’ the man said.
‘Look,’ the man said, ‘This is kind of strange, I grant you, but I’m you, twenty years from now. Somehow, here I am in a cell with my younger friends. I remember being in this very cell, waiting for my release papers to be signed.’ Now he really looked at the man, Blake had to admit it, the man did look very much like him, albeit somewhat older. ‘How can this be?’ Blake asked, confused and sore. ‘I don’t know.’ The man said. ‘Some sort of lucid dream. Listen, it’s not important. Instead, for once in your life, just shut up and listen. You think you’re clever, but you’re not. Tonight you’ll be in the boozer bragging about you done the time standing on your head. Believe me, you won’t do the next twenty standing on your head.’ ‘I’m never coming back to prison.’ Blake said. The man nodded knowingly. ‘Yeah, I remember thinking exactly that but, trust me, unless you listen to what I’m saying right now, you’re definitely coming back - for a long, long time.’ The man sounded sombre and reflective. Blake noticed for the first time that the man was
dressed in prison greys. ‘Do you seriously expect me to believe all this?’ He asked the man. The man shook his head then pulled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of a pair of fluffy dice on his forearm. Blake pulled up his own sleeve to reveal the still red and blotchy tattoo he’d had done just yesterday - a pair of fluffy diced. For the first time in his life he was totally speechless. ‘I was outside less than a month,’ the man said, ‘before getting myself lifed-off. Fast forward nearly twenty years and I was just laying there thinking about how much time I’ve wasted in prison when, suddenly, here I am looking at my younger self right before I got out and really messed things up. Look, I don’t know if this is my dream or your dream, or what the hell’s going on here but, if this is somehow real, if you are real, if I really am talking to my younger self, then know this: the past and the future, they don’t really exist. The past is gone and the future is yet to happen. All you have is the present moment. It’s the only reality there is.’ ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Blake asked. His older self looked slightly frustrated. ‘It means now is your point of power. Every passing moment is another chance to start turning your life around. Use your present wisely, you’re painting your future with it.’ ‘I don’t get it,’ Blake said. ‘You will.’ His older self said, vanishing as quickly as he’d appeared.
‘Then how do you know I’ve done a six?’ The man smiled slightly but didn’t speak. Blake’s jaw tightened.
The man carried on smiling. Blake’s temples started to pulse a little. ‘See,’ the man said, ‘There you go again, getting all irritated. What is it with you? When are you going to learn?’
‘Right,’ Blake shouted, swinging his fist at the man’s jaw. A second later Blake felt an explosion of pain in his knuckles. He’d somehow missed the man and hit the hard concrete wall. Somehow the man was now standing behind him, laughing. Blake spun round and lunged for the man. Once again, though, he missed, this time crashing head-first into the wall. A sickening pain erupted in his forehead and quickly engulfed his whole body.
Getting your life back on track after you leave prison isn’t easy. We understand. Are you residing or being released in London? Our service will support you with:
• Benefits and Housing advice • Getting identification documents • • GP registration • Mental health advice • Drug and Alcohol advice • • Employment and training advice • We will help you develop a plan for positive change
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Wellbeing
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Focus and face the day
37
Head-to-Knee Come down as far as you can. 10 breaths each side
Bridge Preparation and Bridge Push up your hips and stay like this for 2 deep breaths. Gently place your back on the floor again and rest. Repeat.
The Prison Phoenix Trust We all have times when we feel overwhelmed - when your head is spinning, you can’t concentrate and you don’t know what to do next. Not a nice feeling! In this state, you make mistakes, forget things, or sometimes do things you regret. Yoga and meditation are perfect for handling these kinds of feelings and preparing to face whatever’s troubling you. If you do the poses below while breathing as deeply and slowly as you can, you’ll feel better, calmer and more centred at the end. Do them every day and you may find that as well as your body getting suppler and stronger, you aren’t as easily wound up. If you don’t have time to do the whole sequence, but you can feel yourself getting overwhelmed by panic or anger, just take 10 deep, slow breaths. Tuning into the breath can really help if you are interested in calmness, happiness and the real you. The breath is always with you, waiting to help.
Rest 20 breaths
Child 10 breaths
Down Dog 5 breaths
Sitting Sitting with a straight back however is comfortable for you. Keep your eyes open and breathe normally in and out through the nose. Count the breaths silently to yourself, in 1, out 2, in 3, out 4 and so on, up to 10, and then start from 1 again. If you lose count, it doesn’t matter. Just come back to 1 and keep going. Do this for 5 mins
Standing Forward Bend 5 breaths
Eagle and Easy Eagle Wrap your left arm under your right arm and touch your palms together. If they don’t reach, do the easy version. 5 breaths each side
Triangle 5 breaths each side
THE PRISON THE PHOENIX PRISON TRUST Head doingTRUST you in? PHOENIX Stressed out? Head doing you in? Can’t sleep? Stressed out? Can’t sleep? Simple yoga and meditation
practice, working Simple yogawith and silence and the breath, meditationmight practice, working withyour silence and the just transform If you want a free book and CD to help you breath, might just transform set up a regular yoga and meditation life in more ways your life in more ways than practice write to: The Prison Phoenix Trust, than youyou think... think ... Interested? PO Box 328, Oxford OX2 7HF. The Prison Write to The Prison Phoenix Trust P.O.Box 328, Oxford, OX2 7HF.
Interested?
Phoenix Trust supports prisoners and prison officers in their spiritual lives through meditation and yoga, working with silence and the breath. The Trust supports people of any religion or none. We also run weekly yoga classes for inmates and prison staff.
Write We’d to love The Prison Phoenix to hear from you anytime and have Trust several 328, free books,Oxford, which could help you 7HF P.O.Box OX2 build and maintain a daily practice.
We’d love to hear from you anytime and have several free books, which could help
38
Terry Waite Writes
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
From over the wall Terry Waite writes his monthly column for Inside Time
Terry Waite CBE
F
or the past few weeks I have been occupied with many things including preparing for the launch of a new book in April. This is the fourth book of mine to be published and let me tell you it’s a hard slog. Often prisoners feel that they would like to write a book and indeed some very good books have found their inspiration from behind bars and some have become best sellers. Of course you have a head start if you are already known to the public as were some of the politicians who were locked up in recent years. Before they ever put pen to paper the general public were interested in them and so it was not too difficult for them to get an agent and eventually a publisher. It’s not so easy if you are not already a ‘public name’. Broadly speaking, books written by prisoners fall into two broad groupings. There are the classic memoirs which detail the everyday events of different forms of captivity. The often horrifying memories written by former prisoners of war make the reader wonder how on earth these people survived such conditions. Then there is whole collection of Hostage memoirs and of course some of the classic works recounting the day to day lives of civilian prisoners. It’s a cliche often repeated that everyone has a book somewhere inside them and generally speaking this is true. Not everyone can write, certainly, but every indi-
When you come to writing remember it is a hard slog. There will be days when the words just flow and days when you just can’t think of what to say. Don’t worry, just keep at it. Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela
Prison Diaries Denis MacShane
Your book may never be published, or may The Little Book Letters from of Prison Birmingham Jail even be rejected by possible publishers. Frankie Owens Martin Luther King Don’t worry. Many of the finest writers have had dozens of rejections and the world is littered with unpublished manuscripts. My that I am a dreadful speller and although I love latest book, due to be published in April, is a words I can’t spell for toffee. These two comic novel and it was not an easy job to get handicaps meant that I avoided writing for it into print because so many publishers years. What saved me was when my father associated me with serious books and not gave me his old Olivetti typewriter and with humour. Well, we shall see if they were although my spelling was not great I could right in not wanting it. I really don’t care too now write more comfortably. These days with much how many it sells. I enjoyed writing it. a keyboard and a computer the spellchecker It has made many people who have read the solves the second problem. Well, almost. The draft laugh and that is fine by me. If it brings spellchecker is not always right and I often in a bob or two so much the better. So, if you know when a word is not correct even though are thinking of putting pen to paper why not I have a problem in spelling it. have a go and if you never had a proper chance to learn to read or write well, I only When I first started to write with the typehope your prison is enlightened enough to writer I thought I needed to impress by using provide you with the opportunity to learn. long and complicated words. That was a total You won’t regret it. mistake. I had to learn to write as simply as I could and as you will see, if you have read this far, I have not yet mastered this art. Terry Waite was a successful hostage The second main group of books written by negotiator before he himself was held serving or former prisoners are novels and the captive in Beirut between 1987 and 1991 like which are not literally true but are based (more than 20 years ago). He was held on the writer’s experience. There is the clue. If captive for 1763 days; the first four years you are going to write a novel, write about of which were spent in solitary confinement. something you know or have had experience
A Rusty Gun Noel Smith
vidual has a unique life experience and thus has stories which will interest others. After serving a while in prison, life becomes very familiar with the same routine day in and day out but it is a life totally strange to the vast majority of the population. Who are you? How did your life unfold? If this is your first time inside what are your observations? What are the positive aspects of prison life and of course what are the negatives? Within this broad framework there are a wealth of experiences and stories to tell. If there is a creative writing group which you can access in your prison it may well be worth your while to attend, even if you have never written a word in your life. It took me years to enjoy writing for one very simple reason. When I was in my first school, just after the war, we had to write with steel nib pens and real ink which was in an inkwell on the desk. I am left handed and my teachers tried to convert me to the right hand without success. I could not manage this as I constantly smudged my writing across the page and writing became a terrible burden. Apart from
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of. If you are very widely read and have gone deeply into sides of life that you have not actually experienced then you may be able to write about that but a good rule of thumb is to start with what you know and weave a story out of that. You don’t necessarily need to sit down and wonder what on earth you are going to say in the first sentence. Spend time working things out in your head. Daydream. Let your mind explore different situations. Travel across the world and take yourself into other worlds. It’s possible even though you will be constantly disturbed by the never ending din of prison life.
Contact James O’Hara or Balvinder Gill on 0207 404 3004 or freephone 0800 012 4498 We specialise in all prison law matters including: Parole Hearings, (IA) Adjudications, Recalls & Appeals.
If your matter no longer falls under legal aid, we can still assist you for a small fixed fee. If you feel that you have been treated unfairly within the prison system or have been the subject of an irrational decision made against you, call us now to discuss your possible claim in judicial review.
Contact Niall Brooks or Kirsty Neill
Almy & Thomas Solicitors 71 Abbey Road Torquay TQ2 5NL
01803 299 131 or Freephone 0808 178 9060
47 Theobalds Road London WC1X 8SP www.ikandp.co.uk
Valentine’s
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org Robert, Aaron, Emma, Mum - love & miss you all so much. I’ll be home soon. Love Lisa Mum, I low you, I miss you always, thanks for everything you have done for me in my lifetime. Love Maria xxx To Leanne the love of my life, happy Valentine’s. I love you with all my heart xxxx Love always from Alan xxx Nikki, you have done every day with me, without you this would have been so hard, you’re so special to me. All my love Mark O xxx For my sexy hubby, Simeon, happy Valentine’s day my baby. A love like ours gets even stronger with these days we have to spend apart. You are my lover, my soul mate & my best friend. I love you with all my heart. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together. Miss you like crazy too. Love your wifey Ellie xxxx Jessy, you’re my girl & I love you loads. Love Kellie xx Dannkia Brown happy Valentine’s day, I love you millions with all my heart forever & ever. Love your wifey Vicky xxxxx Spud, loving you is everything I could wish for. I love you with all my heart. Always & forever Emma xxx From the very first time we met I knew we would be forever. Happy Valentine’s day babe. All my love Lauren xxxx To my soul mate Emma, I love you more with each breath I take. Always yours Ellen aka Spud xxx Aiden, good times ahead. Looking forward to May. Love you loads & loads Rainbow xx Twinkle, no distance or time can stop our true found love. My love for you is beyond words. A bond so close however far apart we are, I love you today, tomorrow, always & forever. Happy Valentine’s. Your Sparkles x
you. Vicky xxxx To my Lauren I love you so much. I dream of your beauty. I will be back with you soon. Your dearest Richard xxxx Warren I love & miss you more than ever, please be my Valentine. Your girl Kellie aka Ferret Face xxxx Thinking of you all the time. miss you millions, you are my world. Love you always your Khanny AKZ4LYF xxx Amreen, the new year was not right without you. Seni seviyorum, thinking of you always. see you soon Mwah xx To my very much loved one, sorry I’m not with you today, but baby I promise you I’m home soon. Love you always your hubs Richard xxx To my wife Margaret, thank you for all your love & support. Together forever & always, your devoted husband Craig xxxxx Donna, thanks for standing by me. I love you a little bit & no more from Mark xxx
To my dearest darling Naomi, happy Valentine’s day bubs, I love you with all my heart forever & always. Andy xxxx Happy V day Damini, words can’t express how much you mean to me. Thank you for always being there for me. 143 until the end. Love from Raj Natalie, I want you to be mine forever. You are my one true love. Love you always Adz xxxx Michelle Latimer I love & miss you so much stay strong. Love Lee xxxx Lucy you complete me, I will always love you & forever be your baby boy & best friend! Adey Soko xxx Vicky Byron love you always & forever my stunningly beautiful & sexy iccl wifey. Cuddles n kisses your Richie xxx To my beautiful Mandy, you mean the world to me happy Valentine’s day. All my love today & always Matt xxxx
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my wife this year, in my heart always. Love Charles Lisa, my sexy lady I was meant to come to prison to meet you, I even timed my visits to meet a wonderful person. I love you x Tanya xxxx Madelena one dream what always try draw for my heart, but now draw exist in my life. I love you Huguinho x To Gail, roses are red, violets are blue, great for us both, cause I’m home soon. Love Ken xxx To Jackie G; Roses are red, violets are blue, Elvis rocks and so do you. Love you always Stu xx To my darling Carrie (Caz), thank you for coming back into my life and making me the happiest man on earth. You are my Valentine’s love every day. I love you with all my heart. Your darling Graham (Taz) xxx The only person to really love me, support me and always be there for me through all the hard and good times. You’ll always be my Valentine Mum. Love always Thomas xx Nicola Johnson make me the happiest, proudest man ever by agreeing to become my wife. Love you baby Grant xxx c c c To my darling wife Elaine, love you always no matter what the future holds, all my love Paul xxx To my beautiful girlfriends Sha Niu and Xiao Xin have a good Valentine’s day. Da Shi Xiong loves you two xx Happy Valentine’s day Richard, sending you all my love today, tomorrow and forever. You complete me. Love you babes. Jane xxx To my hubby John Maughan, happy Valentine’s day baby. Love and miss you always, your wife Jane xxx
Dear Jessica I’m thinking of you always. Madly in love, can’t get you out of my mind. Love you forever Stephen xxxx Syl, pleae be my Valentine, I love you with all my heart & always will. Keep strong babes, love Karl xx
Happy Valentine’s day babe, I love you more than words describe, next Valentine’s day we will be together. All my love Gemma
Vicky Lamb; for my angel princess, I love you unconditionally & that will never change until the end of time & longer. Love Dannika xxx
To my darling wife Katie, happy Valentine’s day - we have so much to look forward to Princess! Love you Darri xxx
Tash, you’re my lover, best friend, my soul mate, my one, happy Valentine’s day, forever and always for all eternity. Love Sarah xx
Jodie Lee, my one & only, my heart belongs to you & yours to me, I love you baby. Happy Valentine’s, snuggles & cuddles Karl xxxx
Roses are red, violets are blue, can’t wait to come home, just to be with you. I love you BBE xxx
To my sexy babe Sheree, you’ll always be my one and only Valentine. Missing you, loads of love Dean xxxx
My baby Clare, happy Valentine’s. I love you all the world, only 8 months Babe. All my love your angel JM xx
Rachel, I’ll never forget you was there for me when nobody else was. Happy Valentine’s day my queen. Love Kyle xxx
Dawny D my princess, happy Valentine’s day. This is our year babe. All my love your husb& Gary D xxxx
Chelsea, you mean the world to me, I love you. Love from Baby Kini xxx
Simeon you are my life, my light, my sunshine. Happy Valentine’s day. Love you always & forever. Nicole xxx
Evette since you came into my life you’ve brought a new happiness & a world where all my dreams become possible. Love Lofton xxxx
Happy Valentine’s day, I lus you pink pinks, bum bum, balls balls love from Sophie Deano, thanx for the Christmas card. Soz for not being in touch. Take care & happy Valentine’s. Love Lisa xxx
To my little sexy Minx Amanda, happy Valentine’s day my princess. Lots of love your big strong sexy man Gary xxx
Hi Mr Handsome! Happy Valentine’s babe. Hope you are ok. I love you with all my heart S xxxx
You & our kids have given me the strength & courage to change our lives. I am nothing without you. With love xxx
Hey Jarhead! Just wanna say happy Valentine’s! Well gorjus keep that schmile on yer dial, no matter what! Lee xxxx
I love you Darren Noel, will you marry me this year? I’m home March little Monkey baby your looney tune xxx
To all you beautiful dames of jail all Cheery Valentine. Luv right - C Davison HMP Exeter Sweetheart, I love & adore you. My heart will always belong to you. Forever yours, love your sexy little numskull xx My drillmaster, our love will last forever, we’re meant to be together, it’s written in the stars, love always Chantelle xx
Well my sexy princess happy Valentine’s day Paigey. I love you with all my heart. AAF love your baby boy Darren-Mark xxxxxxx c c c
To my darling wife Vicky, I truly love you 100% with all my heart & soul forever together. Love Noel. Xxx Happy Valentine’s Kayleigh I’ll love you always, I’ll never forget the amazing times we had together, thank you for everything. Xxx You mean the world to me Ms Molly B love you with all my heart Mwah Mwah xxx My dearest princess Samantha, I’m yours forever, can’t wait to ‘fabuyrtc’ happy Valentine’s day Babes. Love you always Pete xxxx To my baby Courtney, I love you with all my heart, I’ll be home soon. You’re my life, happy Valentine’s day. Love Shane xxx Holly Huxford, I love you c I don’t wanna miss a chance with you. Will you marry me baby? Love Clint xx
Dipsy, wifey, KJ, Kirsty, my wife to be, I really can’t wait to have you next to me. Love AJ
Roses are red, the sea is blue, I can’t wait one day to be back home with you. Be my Valentine’s you’re very special to me Diane Burgess. From your loving husb& Barry xxxxxxx
Babes, you are my angel. A beautiful wife, a caring mother, my best friend. I love you always & forever. Xx
High tension, true love is hard to find but we found it. My heart belongs to you forever! Floopies forever! Xxxx
Happy Valentine’s day Sissy Girl. I love you baby girl & I will see you soon, with love Steve xxx
Gaynor, the most gorgeous, loving wonderful sexy Valentine you make me feel wanted, loved & happy. Your future husb& Wayne. xxx
Jason, you are my world & I love you more than you know. Happy Valentine’s day. Love from R xxx
To the love of m life & soon to be wife. I loves ya tons Gail Wilson. Happy Valentine’s day xxxx
Katrina, you’re my lover, friend & soul mate. I couldn’t imagine life without you. Happy Valentine’s day, love always Gareth xxxx
Andrea you are my soul mate & the love of my life. Love Simon xx
Craig, Roses are red, prison wife is blue, Memphis, kettle, Dickens & Gym, look to our future, just me &
You are not just my fiancé, you are my world. Happy Valentine’s day Han, I’ll always love you unconditionally. Ben xx
Nicola Hendy, I loved you then, I love you still, I always have, I always will love Dean xxx
Lydia, you’re my reason for getting up every morning. You give me the strength to survive. Thank you, love you xxx My stunning wife Gail, I’ve loved you from day one and I will always love you, you’re gorgeous Love Lee xxx Dear Carol baby, my love, my life, my soul mate; be
To my baby Helen Cooke, I love you more than words describe. You’re my everything, my number one now and always, your wifey Emma xxxx Happy Valentine’s day xx I love you Peter Riley, you’re my soul mate. I couldn’t imagine my life without you. Marry me please. Love always Shane Peake xx To Sparkles, missing you more every day. Happy Valentine’s day, lots of love Kevin xxx Kieran G. You’re my strength. My love. Amazing You! E x I asked God for a flower and he gave me a meadow, I asked God for water and he gave me sea, I asked God for love and he gave me YOU. Happy Valentine’s day! I love you Patty! Your Concha xxx To Becky you’re my life, you’re my rock, happy Valentine’s day. Lots of love yours forever love John Hoe xxx Princess Vicky, happy Valentine’s day. Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet but not as sweet as you c love you from the bottom of my heart. Martina xxxx Adele Black, you’re my life, my soul mate & everything else babe! Happy Valentine’s day. Lots of love Tushy xxxxx Dods, happy Valentine’s day. You mean everything to me & I can’t wait to be your wife. Yours forever Dumps xxxx Sarah, my princess, happy Valentine’s. Thank you for being there. I love you so much. All my love Budge xxx Harley-Jane, in my darkest moments you are always at my side. You’re my Valentine guardian angel. Love Big Daddy x Jordan, my first, my last, my everything. You will always be my Valentine. Love you millions Samantha xxxx
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News from the House
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Parliamentary Questions Highlights from the House of Commons Prison Accommodation
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what new additional capacity in the adult prison estate is (a) planned or (b) under construction; which prisons are so affected; how many additional units are being created through such work; and when each additional space will come on stream. Andrew Selous: This Government will always ensure that we have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and we continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer. We have a long term strategy for managing the prison estate which will provide more adult male prison capacity than we inherited from the previous Government. We also have a range of contingencies available to manage temporary or unexpected increases in the population. Four new house-blocks (which will be completed by May 2015) consisting of a total of 1,250 new places are being delivered at HMPs Thameside, The Mount, Parc and Peterborough. These places will open when they are required. We are also delivering around 500 places by April 2015 through small scale investments at the following prisons: Cardiff, Chelmsford, Deerbolt, Hatfield, Hewell, Hollesley Bay, Humber, Kirkham, Lancaster Farms, Littlehey, The Mount, Norwich, Standford Hill, Stoke Heath, Swansea, Thorn Cross, Wandsworth, Warren Hill, Wymott. We are also constructing a new, modern 2,106 place prison for North Wales in Wrexham, to be opened in 2017.
Secure Training Centres
Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average distance from home of young people accommodated in secure training centres in each year since May 2010. Andrew Selous: Overall crime and proven offending by young people has fallen in recent years. Fewer young people have entered the criminal justice system and as a result fewer young people have ended up in custody. To deliver the best value for taxpayers we have reduced the number of youth custody places. The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is responsible for the placement of young people in custody. Young people are placed in establishments that can most effectively manage their individual needs. While every effort is made to place young people as close to home as possible, other factors are taken into account in placement decisions, such as age, suitability of regime, risk of self-harm and the risk of harm to other. The YJB holds data on the distance from home of young people accommodated in Secure Training Centres and Young Offender Institutions. “Home” is defined as a young person’s address at the time of placement. If no address is recorded, the address of the Youth Offending Team overseeing the young person is used as a proxy. Table A: Average distance from home (in miles) for young people in Secure Training Centres and in Under 18 Young Offender In-
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Average Distance from Home (miles) for Young Offenders 1 2 May 2010 - April 2011 49 45 May 2011 - April 2012 52 50 May 2012 - April 2013 51 51 May 2013 - April 2014 54 50 1 Secure Training Centres 2 Young Offender Institutions
Prison Accommodation
Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders held in a cell designed for one inmate shared it with (a) one other and (b) more than one other inmate in each of the last four years. Andrew Selous: Figures for the number of prisoners held two to a cell designed for one (known as ‘doubling’) are set out in the table below for the years 2008-09 to 2013-14. % of average prisoner population held two to a cell designed for one 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
A difficult
situation needs a lawyer who
will
fight Humanity, Expertise and a Fighting Mentality
23.1% 22.7% 22.7% 23.3% 22.2% 21.9%
While the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) collects the total number of prisoners held in crowded conditions (e.g. two prisoners held in a cell designed for one, or three prisoners held in a cell designed for two) it does not centrally record how many prisoners were held in a cell designed for one prisoner and shared it with more than one other prisoner. To identify the number of prisoners who were held in a cell designed for one but shared it with more than one other prisoner in each of the last four years would require manually going through individual prison cell certificate records in each prison, followed by a manual trawl of prisoners’ individuals records to identify each prisoner’s cell location in each of the last four years.
Secure Training Centres
Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which of the four secure training centres currently operating in England has received the best rating from Ofsted. Andrew Selous: All currently operating Secure Training Centres were rated ‘good’ in their most recent Ofsted reports.
Prisons: Publications
Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the decision by Mr Justice Collins of 5 December 2014 on the legality of a ban on sending books into prison, when he plans to amend the rules of the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme in line with that judgement.
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CRIMINAL DEFENCE SOLICITORS FREEPOST: RSJS- SHTS- HHGB 227/228 STRAND, LONDON, WC2R 1BE Tel: 0800 051 1069
News from the House
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org Andrew Selous: We need to await the terms of the Court Order before we can decide how best to fulfil the ruling of the Court. The judgment in this case was surprising, as there was never a specific ban on books. The restrictions on parcels have been in existence across most of the prison estate for many years and for very good reasons. Prisoners have access to the same library service as the rest of us, and can buy books through the prison shop.
Prison Sentences
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection handed down before 14 July 2008 are beyond their minimum tariff; and what offences each such prisoner committed. Andrew Selous: The indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was abolished in late 2012, but not retrospectively. It is for the independent Parole Board to determine whether a prisoner serving an IPP should be released once he has completed the minimum custodial period set by the Court for the purposes of retribution and deterrence - commonly known as the “tariff”. Under the statutory release test, the Parole Board may direct the release of an IPP prisoner only if it is satisfied that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for the prisoner to be detained in custody. It is right that IPP prisoners should remain in custody until it is safe for them to be released. Some short tariff IPPs who were sentenced prior to the 2008 changes are achieving release, where they engage with opportunities provided to them to reduce their risk. As the table below shows, a total of 594 of these prisoners remain in custody as at the end of September 2014. This compares to 650 at the end of March 2014. The first table shows the number of IPP prisoners whose tariff length was less than 2 years and who were sentenced prior to 14 July 2008, by offence, as at 30 September 2014. Violence against the person Sexual offences Robbery Burglary Theft and handling Other offences Offence not recorded Grand Total
fisher meredith
163 159 161 6 1 103 1 594
The second table shows the number of IPP prisoners whose minimum tariff expiry date has passed and who were sentenced on or after 14 July 2008, by offence, as at 30 September 2014. Violence against the person Sexual offences Drug offences Robbery Burglary Theft and handling Other offences Offence not recorded Total
480 411 2 286 43 2 172 3 1399
52.2% of the total number of IPP prisoners, who were sentenced on or after 14 July 2008, have passed their tariff expiry date. The third table shows the number of IPP prisoners whose minimum tariff expiry date has passed, by offence, as at 30 September 2014. Violence against the person Sexual offences Drug offences Robbery Burglary Theft and handling Motoring offences Other offences Offence not recorded Total
1204 1026 4 902 93 3 1 396 4 3633
72.4% of the total number of IPP prisoners have passed their tariff expiry date. The fourth table shows the number of IPP prisoners whose minimum tariff expiry date has passed and who were sentenced prior to 14th July 2008, by Offence, as at 30 September 2014 Violence against the person Sexual offences Drug offences Robbery Burglary Theft and handling Motoring offences Other offences Offence not recorded Total
723 615 2 615 50 1 1 224 1 2232
95.4% of the total number of IPP prisoners, who were sentenced prior to 14 July 2008, have passed their tariff expiry date.
House of Lords: Secure colleges where others have tried and failed? Why has he not released any research, scientific or otherwise, proving that he is right and that every single organisation and individual in the country who knows anything about dealing with troubled young people is wrong?
Lord Ramsbotham (CB): I have a confession to make about the whole secure college proposal. For the first time in my life, I feel ashamed to be British because I am so appalled that anyone should have dreamt it up, let alone tried to blandish Parliament with spurious claims that an entirely untested and unevaluated proposal involving increased education will reduce children’s offending. All the available evidence, not least that the smaller the establishment the better when children and young people are detained - which I recognise from my experience when inspecting young offender institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes - points to the proposal to establish the biggest children’s prison in the western world being far more likely further to damage some of the most vulnerable and damaged children in our society with their multiplicity of problems and needs, not just lack of education. In his letter dated 4 December, the Minister described the secure college proposal as a pioneering approach to educating young offenders and tackling stubbornly high reoffending rates. He is absolutely right to describe laying a proposal before Parliament about which no one, not even the proposer, knows any details, as a pioneering approach, but I hope that it is one that will never be repeated. I fear that those in both Houses who have voted for the proposal thus far have done so because they are attracted by the word “pioneering” and seduced by the blandished prospect of past failure being swept aside. But if anyone who voted in favour bothered to probe deeper into what the proposal actually meant other than the provision of more education, they would find nothing other than the assertion that the market will find the solution. Of course reoffending is too high and too many of our young offenders have appalling educational records, but on what evidence does the Secretary of State base his belief that a commercial contractor can succeed
I mentioned the need for healthcare, particularly mental health care, to be of equal status with education in deciding the ethos of the secure college. Since then, I have heard yet more evidence that healthcare provision is imperfectly understood in the Ministry of Justice. I have told the House of the number of children in custody with speech, language and communication needs, and the remarkable results that speech and language therapists can achieve with them. When the time comes, I invite the whole House, both those in the Chamber and those waiting to be whipped, to cast aside party politics and approach this issue from the point of view of a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, close relative or friend of a child with a multiplicity of problems, whom the Secretary of State for Justice intends to detain in his proposed secure college. I ask your Lordships to ask yourselves whether, knowing what you do about the proposal, you could live with yourself if an errant child in your family or of your acquaintance was to be detained in such an establishment. I realise that there is no exact parallel, because while we all know children with learning difficulties or disabilities, or mental health or behavioural problems, I doubt whether anyone in our immediate ken has been subjected to unspeakable parental neglect, or sexual or domestic violence, or to a lifestyle at what passes for home is best described as chaotic and dysfunctional. Of course these children have committed crimes, but that does not mean that they should not be decently treated. Therefore, when your Lordships vote, I ask you to follow your conscience as opposed to party diktat. This is the last chance that we have of preventing something that I would contend to be a stain on our nation, whether or not it contains boys under 15, and girls. Editorial note: It is reported that 100 Parliamentary Bills have been rejected by the House of Lords since the start of the Coalition government.
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Is anyone listening to your privileged and confidential access calls? David Wells & Jason Elliot
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n 28th November 2014 HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, reported his findings in relation to the interception of prisoners’ telephone calls to Members of Parliament - the “Prison communications inquiry”. The report was issued ahead of a “detailed investigation” to take place in early 2015. PSI 49/2011, 13.2 says that “In signing the Communications Compact and accepting the terms and conditions of PIN phone use prisoners will be aware that, with the exception of legally privileged conversations and calls made to confidential access organisations, all calls will be recorded and may be monitored by prison staff…” Members of Parliament fall within the definition of Confidential Access (PSI 49/2011, 14.1(b).) It follows that, if you need to call your MP, that call should not be recorded. Surveys conducted on behalf of the Chief Inspector in 2013-2014 revealed that an average of 41% of prisoners said mail from their legal representatives was being opened by staff in their absence, contrary to Prison Rules, r. 39(4). The Chief Inspector commented that “In my view, the attitude to confidential communication in some establishments is too casual and it is not surprising that in some cases this has included communication with MPs.” [2.3]. Investigations by NOMS concluded in November 2014 that telephone calls made by prisoners to MPs had been both recorded and listened to since 2006, the earliest date from which data is available. [2.5]. The investigation found that 358 calls to 32 separate MPs had been recorded and listened to between March 2006 and October 2014. [2.20]. Calls to legal advisors and MPs can only be recorded or listened to if there is a belief that the communication is being made to further a criminal purpose. There has to be authorisation from the Chief Executive Officer of the Prison Service. The Inspector has also suggested that the list of organisations to which the Confidential Access procedure applies is not up to date and should be broadened to include, for example, the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner. SERCO run prisons operate a different PIN
V ells Burcombe LLP Solicitors
phone system to the one that exists in the rest of the prison estate. This appears to have resulted in some difficulties - “We were told by NOMS and BT that recordings were automatically deleted after 90 days, but in one of the Serco prisons recorded calls were apparently ‘archived’ after 90 days.” [2.13] The Inspector has vowed to examine this issue further in stage 2 of his inquiry. The Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office have alleged that the authorising documents governing the recording of and listening to prisoners’ calls are “fragmented and contradictory” making it difficult for prison staff to understand the regulations. [2.19]. On 10th November 2014 NOMS globally registered all MPs’ office and constituency numbers as confidential on the PIN phone system. [2.23]. Recordings of some calls to MPs’ employees had not been destroyed, prompting the Inspector to state - “in my view, calls to MPs’ offices should evoke the same considerations of confidentiality as calls to MPs themselves.” [2.23]
Parole Board delays Laila Smith of Blavo & Co Solicitors
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ndeterminate sentenced prisoners are experiencing delays waiting for their Parole Board oral hearings to be listed.
One solution to this problem is for prisoners who wish to be considered for a progressive move to open conditions to make a Guittard Application. This allows for indeterminate sentenced prisoners to be transferred to category D conditions without a Parole Board review where ‘exceptional circumstances’ apply. Exceptional circumstances are defined as: • The dossier must contain evidence that the prisoner had made significant progress in addressing all identified risk factors. • All report writers must agree on the prisoner transferring to open conditions. • There must be no areas of concern identified by report writers which would require further exploration at an oral hearing. • The prisoner has demonstrated by their rep-
resentations that there are clearly benefits to being transferred to open conditions immediately. Therefore should a dossier clearly state that an inmate has successfully completed all of their sentence plan targets, all report writers are supportive of a move to open conditions, there are no outstanding concerns and a swift move to open would benefit to the inmate, then it would be beneficial in making an application. The application is considered by the Secretary of State on the papers, so inmates do not have to wait for a hearing to be listed. Nor would they have to go through the stress and ordeal of an oral hearing. An application can be made any time after the disclosure of your dossier and you can run your general parole review at the same time as a Guittard application. You therefore do not have to choose one review or another. Should you require any further information in relation to this Laila Smith of Blavo & Co Solicitors would be happy to assist you. See advert page 2
Assurances have not been obtained by the Inspector that recordings of calls made in SERCO prisons are being destroyed after 90 days. [2.23]. During test phone calls placed by Inspectorate staff, MPs numbers registered under ‘family and friends’ as opposed to ‘confidential access’ were recorded in SERCO prisons (but not in other prisons). [3.3] Calls made to the Samaritans (who are covered by the confidential access provisions) were also recorded in SERCO prisons. [3.3]. Unify Business Solutions, who run SERCO’s PIN phone system, said they were unaware that calls to the Samaritans were being recorded. [3.4]. NOMS said that MPs’ numbers had not been placed in the global list of confidential access numbers in SERCO’s PINphone system. [3.4]
Wrongly convicted of a crime?
Lost your appeal?
In 60 phone tests to MPs numbers, 5 calls were recorded. 4 of these 5 recorded calls were made from SERCO run prisons. [4.1]. Prisoners are entitled to communicate confidentially with their MPs. This right has not always been respected. The efforts of the Inspector have gone some way to ensuring that the issue is addressed but you may be wise to check that your confidential access numbers are appropriately listed before you assume that nobody is listening.
01727 840900 24 hr Emergency Number - 07592 034170
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Appeals against Conviction & Sentence, CCRC, IPP Appeals and Parole, Prison Adjudications & Discipline, Criminal Investigations, Confiscation & POCA proceedings. For advice and assistance anywhere in England & Wales, either in person or via video link, please call or head office:
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Winding roads to freedom and funding It has been 12 months since we reported on the launch of a new charity to work on appeals cases, so we thought an update was in order. What have we been up to, what have we learned and what have we achieved? By Sophie Walker & Emily Bolton Centre for Criminal Appeals
S
ince we last wrote, we have received 169 requests for assistance for appeals from prisoners all over the country. The consistent feature of these requests is how very difficult it is to find a lawyer to help with any sort of appeal. Our approach is different. Of course we read the paperwork, once we have tamed it. Some of the case files we have received are pretty wild. Think pile of random stacks of paper with post it notes clinging on at various angles, bundles held together with pink string, plus the prisoner’s own hard won treasure trove of documents, tinged with the aroma of old cigarette smoke, scraps of thoughts about the case scrawled on the back of medical call-out slips, names, phone numbers, on which all hope is pinned.
The Centre for Criminal Appeals aims to be the UK’s first freestanding nonprofit, publically funded criminal law practice. The Centre’s lawyers will work only on appeals, with priority given to cases where “boots on the ground” investigation can make a difference. The Centre will be taking only cases from England and Wales, where the prisoner cannot afford to pay for a lawyer him or herself. We will be tendering for a public funding contract this April, but in the meantime, we are continuing to conduct a pilot period of casework under the existing public funding contract of the law firm Scott-Moncrieff and Associates, a firm that is authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (596379). Please note that the Centre’s personnel are not yet engaging in casework for the Centre and are not yet regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
A number of prisoners have asked us how they can help the project. What would be really useful would be for prisoners to give us anecdotes about their own experiences of the system’s problems, and their permission to publish these. We are particularly interested in short, personal accounts of issues relating to quality of representation, access to the documents needed to fight your case before, during and after trial, and the difficulties associated with conducting a factual investigation for an appeal from behind bars. If you do send us something, please make sure you are happy for us to make the information public, and write “I give my authority for this information to be used by the Centre for Criminal Appeals in an anonymous form for publicity, fundraising and public education,” and sign your name.
and 9 minutes and in neither case is the job complete. We anticipate filing 2 or 3 more applications in the next couple of months. We think this caseload is about right, if we really are to give these prisoners the best possible chance of winning in the Court of Appeal. Of course, the Legal Aid Agency struggles to fund all this work. We estimate that about 50% of our casework is covered by Legal Aid - we must raise the rest from private grants and donations. In the course of our work on behalf of this handful of clients we have constantly had to balance “doing it well” against “doing it fast”. Not just because of the natural impatience of the wrongfully convicted prisoner client and the 72 weeks it takes for a case to get through the Criminal Cases Review Commission process just now, but because of the terrifying ticking clock of mortality, for prisoners themselves, and their loved ones. Losing a parent while you are in prison and not being permitted to attend the funeral is heartbreaking for the prisoner, and for us it is a salutary reminder that we are exacerbating the risk that a prisoner
Lewis Sidhu Solicitors All of this information is painstakingly scanned and sorted into our case analysis software, so that patterns and anomalies can be more readily identified and word searches conducted. This means that when name or issue comes up that is new to us, we can instantly work out whether it is new to the case. Then its time to move outwards from that core of information, onto the internet and into the streets. Its people and places that provide the breakthroughs in cases, not just pages. Of the 169 people we have committed to and directly represent 11 prisoners between the two of us, in 8 individual cases. We have two cases currently with the Criminal Cases Review Commission. One has involved 429 hours and 21 minutes of work and the other 268 hours
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faces such a tragedy the more time we take. It’s a grave and poignant responsibility. Contrary to the popular myth that “all prisoners will tell you that they are innocent,” our experience is that they don’t. But everyone who writes to us tells us that something is wrong with this country’s criminal justice system, and often they can give us specific and deeply troubling examples.
our prisoner clients are going through behind bars. Second, it stands for hope, and the importance of responsibly handling a prisoner’s expectations regarding when that last day might arrive. Third, it represents the bigger picture that our work seeks to expose - a tally or audit of the justice system’s mistakes, and the opportunity to provide black box data that can be used to prevent such catastrophes from recurring. We are a year in. We have a long way to go. So do our prisoner clients. But we are in it for the long haul. Stay tuned. Sophie Walker is a solicitor and Director of the Centre for Criminal Appeals (www.criminalappeals.org.uk). She previously worked on death penalty cases in the United States and around the world for the UK legal action charity Reprieve.
We have been asked about our logo. The idea of a tally-mark with a circled final mark came from a Fine Cell Work cushion cover. We think it captures many things about the work we are doing. First, it is a reminder that every day counts, for what we can achieve, and for what
Emily Bolton, also a solicitor, is the former director of Innocence Project New Orleans and co-founder of the Centre for Criminal Appeals. Contact address: Emily Bolton and Sophie Walker, c/o Scott-Moncrieff & Associates Ltd. 88 Kingsway, Holborn, London WC2B 6AA. DX 37969 Kingsway
Criminal Appeals Criminal Appeals
ledgisters
Ledgisters Solicitors Offices in London and Manchester
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An exclusively criminal practice offering a An exclusively criminal practice offering a nationwide service to those wishing to have nationwide serviceor tosentence those wishing to have their conviction reviewed. their conviction or sentence reviewed.
IfIf you a miscarriage miscarriage of of you feel feel there there has has been been a justice, /or justice ,are areconsidering consideringan anappeal appealand and/or require require a a second second opinion opinion on on your your appeal appeal prospects, call Roy Ledgister now on:on: prospects, call our Appeals Department
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Prison psychology The confusing, complex and often daunting subject of tackling psychological reports during the parole process and the danger of ignoring them by Emma Davies (partner) and Matthew Smith - Hine Solicitors
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n the last issue, we discussed parole reviews and identified some issues that prisoner’s should be aware of. One area which was touched upon in that article was psychology reports. This article aims to discuss the topic in greater detail and to provide some guidance on who may be subject to psychological intervention, when this intervention may take place and the impact this may have on an individual’s parole review. Will a psychological report be undertaken by the prison? A psychological report will often be commissioned by the prison when an inmate has completed a fundamental course such as the Sex Offender’s Treatment Programme (SOTP) or the Healthy Relationship Programme (HRP). Once an inmate has finished such a programme, a psychological assessment will
take place to determine the extent to which they have benefited from the course. This end of course assessment will seek to identify whether there is any further work that needs to be completed and will often provide a recommendation about the inmate’s suitability for progression. Such recommendations are particularly important when it comes to an inmate’s parole review process. What is a SARN/DARNA? The most common psychological assessments that appear in a parole dossier are the SARN (Structured Assessment of Risk and Need) and the DARNA (Domestic Abuse Risk and Needs Assessment). The SARN report is an assessment that is completed following completion of a Sex Offender Treatment Programme. The DARNA report is prepared following completion of a course such as the Healthy Relationships Programme and looks at work undertaken to address previous offending of violence in a domestic setting.
I have my parole dossier and there is no psychology report…. What should I do? A very common cause of delay in an inmate’s parole review is the realisation that there is no psychological report within their parole dossier. It is therefore essential that an inmate takes time to read their parole dossier carefully and check its contents. If you think your dossier should include a psychological report then you should raise this with your solicitor in the first instance. Enquiries can then be made as to why your dossier does not contain the report. If, through enquires, it transpires that a report that was expected has not been prepared, it may be advisable to consider drafting representations to the Parole Board enquiring when the report is expected to be available and highlighting the difficulty that the Parole Board may have in accurately assessing risk without a copy of the psychological report. A prison law solicitor can assist with this. I don’t agree with what the report says about me. What should I do? Inmates should make sure that they carefully read all of the reports in their parole dossier. Particular attention needs to be paid to psychology assessments due to the reliance the Parole Board can often place upon them. Many inmates will find the contents of the SARN and DARNA reports daunting due to the way in which they are written and how long they usually are. However, it is important to ensure that what the report says is correct. There will often be information in these reports that only the inmate themselves will be able to say is wrong. A prison law specialist will be able to assist inmates on any legal issues arising.
Our open, friendly solicitors working in Criminal Defence will help you with all aspects of Prison Law including: Licence recall • Adjudications Parole hearings • IPP queries Judicial review • Sentence planning issues
Call us on 01865 518971 or visit www.hinesolicitors.com Oxford Freepost address FREEPOST RTHU - LEKE - HAZR Hine Solicitors | Seymour House 285 Banbury Road | Oxford | OX2 7JF
Once the facts upon which the report is based have been considered, it is important to look at the conclusions and whether there are any recommendations about the inmate’s progress or need for further work. Recommendations can range from suggesting that an inmate remain in closed conditions for further work to be completed, or to consolidate the work they have undertaken in closed conditions or do this is open conditions. Alternatively the report may say that an inmate is ready to be released on licence. Often the recommendation arrived at will not be one that is supported by the inmate concerned. They may disagree and it may be contrary to the application that they wish to make to the Parole Board. Sometimes the content of the report can be challenged. This is something that an inmate would need to carefully consider with a prison law specialist who will be able to advise as to whether there are grounds to obtain a report from a psychologist who is independent from the prison. These reports are commonly referred to as independent psychological reports.
How do I request an independent psychological report? Inmates who have decided to represent themselves during their parole review may find themselves in the position where they wish to challenge a psychological assessment. If this is the case it is advisable to consider your position and decide whether to contact a prison law solicitor. If an inmate is eligible for representation under the legal aid scheme then it may be possible for the costs of instructing an independent psychologist to be met by the Legal Aid Agency. Any applications for funding for a report would need to be made by a prison lawyer, and simply because an inmate wants an independent report does not always mean that the Legal Aid Agency will pay for it. In order to apply for funding, quotations will need to be obtained from a number of independent psychologists with the requisite experience and expertise. Once these quotes have been received an application will need to be made to the Legal Aid Agency for funding for this report. Funding is not guaranteed and an argument as to why the request is justified will need to be made. This justification will need to be carefully drafted, as often the Legal Aid Agency will refuse applications for funding without a well set out argument. If the Legal Aid Agency gives authority to instruct an independent psychologist, then arrangements would be made for the expert to see the inmate before they prepare a report. Upon receipt of the report, a prison law solicitor will consider the content of the report and advise the inmate concerned as to whether the report should be disclosed to the Parole Board and other parties. What is important to understand is that simply because a report has been requested the contents are not guaranteed to be positive or support an inmate’s parole application. If an inmate finds themselves in position where the independent report is not beneficial then the report does not have to be disclosed to the Parole Board. Therefore, it could be said that there is no real detriment in an inmate obtaining an independent psychological report as if it is negative they can simply choose not to rely upon its contents. What do I do when my independent report says something different to the prison’s report? In some cases inmates will receive an independent report that is wholly beneficial and counteracts the conclusions drawn by the prison psychologist. In such cases it would be advisable to serve the report on the Parole Board as soon as possible and request that the writer of the independent report be required to attend any Parole Hearing to give evidence as to the reasons why their report should be followed as opposed to the prison psychologist. Parole reviews are a confusing and complicated process even for individuals who have not had any psychological input during their sentence. The key to being prepared is to tackle the issues head on and be proactive by contacting a prison law specialist who will be able to help guide you through the process.
If you need any help or advice with any prison law issues please contact the prison law department at Hine Solicitors; Telephone - 01865 518973 or FREEPOST - RTHU - LEKE - HAZR Hine Solicitors, Seymour House, 285 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7JF.
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CONFISCATION: Taking the profit out of crime, or just taking the Mickey? Pro-active defending in confiscation proceedings Aziz Rahman, Solicitor and Jonathan Lennon, Barrister
Introduction It’s impossible to do justice to the topic of confiscation in a short article such as this. We’re not going to even attempt to explain the law on, for example, tainted gifts, criminal lifestyle, hidden assets and so on. Instead we’re going to try to rise above the black letter of the law, so far as is possible, and look at strategy, tactics and the real mechanics of confiscation litigation in practice. Why the unfairness? All criminal defence practitioners will tell you that the confiscation process is capable of producing unfair and sometimes absurd results. After many years dealing with asset forfeiture and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) issues we are convinced that the unfairness in the system is not just down to the Act beings deliberately ‘Draconian’, as it has been described. There is also an inbuilt unfairness on the battleground itself. Prosecution applications for confiscation are generally not in the hands of the prosecution Barrister, or even the CPS lawyer, but the police/ HMRC Financial Investigator (“FI”). Straight away you have lost the impartiality, or at least the appearance of impartiality, that should be present in any sentencing exercise. The FI is the person that will normally produce the s16 ‘prosecution statement’ - the document that sets out the prosecution’s case on benefit and available amount. A good FI is needed in almost every confiscation case. Some FI’s are meticulously fair but it has to be said that many are less so. It is an oft cited compliant of the defence that the estimates of benefit and the available amount are unfair exaggerations and bear little resemblance to the reality. So why do some FI’s behave this way? Well for a start they are not meant to be impartial. Of course they have a duty to the Court to be accurate and to be fair but many defence lawyers will tell you that the incentivisation scheme is where the risk of injustice starts.
fighting back. For example, the prosecution might make those bold assertions in their prosecution statement because they see no down side - but what if there was a down-side? In 2013 the authors were involved in a case where we successfully reduced the size of one confiscation claim before it came to Court by reminding the prosecution about the very little used provisions on costs. Section 19 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 provides for awards of costs between litigation parties, in respect of unnecessary or improper acts and omissions; see also Costs in Criminal Cases (General) Regulations 1986/135. This is not the high test of ‘wasted costs’ that suggests negligence that professional lawyers fear, but a lower test of just effectively wasting time and money by not doing the job right. This is rarely utilised for some reason yet this is how civil cases are fought all the time; i.e. the tactic of using costs as a weapon that turns the litigation into a real gamble. In that case the target was specifically the prosecution who relied on the FI’s s16 Statement whose original claims were spectacularly unreasonable. So it can be seen that, with careful tactics it is possible that the defence can make the prosecution review their “nothing to lose” attitude. Third parties The same is true in the case of third parties; i.e. those non-defendants affected by a potential Confiscation Order. Typically this might be a wife in a family house that the Crown have placed a value on. It maybe that the prosecution apply the standard 50%; i.e. they will only suggest that 50% of the value of the house is available to go towards the Confiscation Order as the wife has a 50% interest. Of course that still means the house has to be sold and the wife may be in real difficulties at that point. What if the truth is more complicated - what if the defendant husband’s real interest in the house is in truth much less that 50%? The standard mantra is that third parties have no right to be heard during the actual confiscation proceedings; they can only asset their right at the enforcement stage. This makes confiscation cases much more difficult to settle and greatly increases costs - just to avoid the Court hearing from third parties; see e.g. R v Ahmed & Qureshi [2005] 1 WLR 122.
Since 2006 the Home Office has run the Assets Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS), which apportions all asset recovery monies. Of money recovered in confiscation the Home Office keeps 50%. The rest is split 3 ways; between the, the investigators (usually police or HMRC), the prosecution agencyand the Court Service. In these cash-strapped times one can see the benefit of maximising confiscation claims. Conversely however, the defence will often be funded by legal aid but the Legal Aid Agency, which is strapped for cash like all public bodies, sees none of the revenue generated from confiscation despite having to pay for its process just as the Courts, CPS and investigators do. Also, confiscation proceedings are notoriously badly paid in legal aid cases. This is so even though the work can often at times be much more time-consuming and complex than the main criminal litigation. The authors of this article are experienced practitioners recognised in, for example, the legal guide ‘Chambers & Partners’ section on ‘POCA and Asset Recovery’ which only ranks a handful of Solicitors and Counsel.. We do not say that to grandstand but to highlight the fact that this area often demands a commitment and an expertise not always matched by the limits of legal aid.
In fact, with careful strategising third party scenarios can work well for the defence.Just because there is no ‘right’ for a third party to be heard at the confiscation stage does not mean he or she cannot be heard. This may be especially important where it is alleged that the third party is in receipt of a ‘tainted gift’ from the defendant. Given there is no legal aid for third parties at the pre-confiscation order stage it is often only those third parties with access to private funds that can put up a proper fight. For example, the Court could be asked to list the case for mention to argue for third party participation in the main hearing where the Judge will determine the ‘available amount’. The argument being that that confiscation raises issues of fact that need to be determined and, to make those findings, the fact finder needs to hear all the relevant facts. If a Judge chooses to shut out a deserving third party at that stage then there may be routes of redress following from that decision. Even if the application is refused at least that pro-active defending puts before the Court arguments and/or evidence that it might not otherwise have had until after an Order was made. It might also influence the prosecution as they will see that there will be troubles ahead after the Order is made, and perhaps it might be better to grasp the third party nettle earlier than they might otherwise have done.
These background factors can serve to create a toxic mix for the un-witting defendant. But knowing the ingredients of the mix can at least give some hope of
Restraint orders Similarly Restraint Orders also present potential opportunities. There is an absolute right for a third
party affected by a Restraint Order to be heard before the Confiscation Order is made as the Order starts ‘biting’ immediately. Arguments can then be put forward that, e.g. the 3rd party’s interest in the property can and should be severed from the Restraint Order. Depending on the facts this may be an early argument for, in effect, a reduction of the claimed final Order figure. Again, this process will have the effect of putting those issues in the mind of the Court at an early stage. This is so even if the Restraint Order is not in fact varied. The variation application also serves to flush outthe Crown’s arguments very early on, well before the main battle. Proportionality The essential problem with the POCA regime is the apparent lack of judicial discretion it permits. In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled in an important case which addressed this apparent lack of judicial discretion; R v Waya [2012] UKSC51. The Supreme Court considered the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998, specifically Article 1 of the 1st Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights; this is the right to peaceful enjoyment of property. The Court found that applying Convention principles a Confiscation Order had to be ‘proportionate’ and therefore the final Order had to “bear a proportionate relationship to 2002 Act’s purpose” - i.e. to strip criminals of their proceeds of crime. The Court specifically noted that this proportionality argument was not applicable in ‘criminal lifestyle’ cases; see R v Morgan [2014] 1 WLR 3450. This is where, in certain circumstances, the Court will make assumptions under s10 of the Act; e.g. the assumption that the defendant’s past 6 years earnings have all come from criminal offending. These assumptions must apply unless proven to be factually incorrect or liable to produce
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a “serious risk of injustice” (see s10); this was always very difficult to establish. But, despite the Waya case being limited to non-lifestyle cases it has, we suggest, influenced criminal lifestyle cases too as proportionality arguments can be brought to bear in submissions that s10 ought not to apply as a disproportionate outcome would produce a ‘serious risk of injustice’. R v Ahmad & Ahmed [2014] 2 WLR 2335 This case is the latest seminal case on confiscation from the Supreme Court, handed down last summer. The case related to how to deal with joint findings of benefit. The Courts in conspiracy and joint enterprise cases had been handing down Confiscation Orders where the full value of the offence, e.g. a fraud, would be regarded as the benefit amount for each individual defendant. This was clearly capable of producing real injustice but nevertheless remained good law for years. The solution, according to the judgment, is for each Order to contain a condition that it should not be enforced if the sum has already been recovered from another defendant. Finally, the Court briefly considered the issue of inequality of outcome between defendants, for example if the full amount were to be recovered from one, and the others were therefore released from their obligation to pay. The Court held that this was an inherent feature of joint criminality, and that in such cases the ‘losses must lie where they fall’ - it seems the potential for injustice remains.
Jonathan Lennon is a Barrister specialising in serious and complex criminal defence cases. He is based at 33 Chancery Lane Chambers in London. He has extensive experience in all aspects of financial and serious crime and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. He is ranked by both Legal 500 Chambers &Ptnrs& is recognised in C&P’s specialist POCA and Financial Crime sections; ‘he is phenomenal and is work rate is astonishing’ (2015). Aziz Rahman is a Solicitor- Advocate and Partner at the leading Criminal Defence firm Rahman Ravelli Solicitors, specialising in Human Rights, Financial Crime and Large Scale Conspiracies/ Serious crime. Rahman Ravelli are members of the Specialist Fraud Panel and have been ranked by Legal 500 as an ‘exceptional’ firm with Aziz Rahman being described as ‘top class’’. The firm is also ranked in Chambers & Partners. Rahman Ravelli are a Top Tier and Band 1 firm.
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Legal Q&A
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If you have a question you would like answered please send to: ‘Legal’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. (including your name, number and prison)
A
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. Carringtons Solicitors, Cartwright King Solicitors, Crown Solicitors, Henry Hyams Solicitors, Hine Solicitors, Olliers Solicitors, Rhodes Law (Scotland), Wells Burcombe Solicitors Send your Legal Queries (concise and clearly marked ‘legal’) to: Lorna Elliott, Solicitor c/o Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. For a prompt response, readers are asked to send their queries on white paper using black ink or typed if possible.
PS - HMP Maidstone
Q
In 2012 I was arrested for kidnapping and robbery. After spending 5 months on remand I was released after 7 days trial because I was found not guilty. So I spent 5 months in HMP Winchester and I’ve been trying to get compensation. How can I apply for compensation?
The law relating to compensation following an acquittal by a jury is complex. The burden of establishing that the compensation should be paid is on the applicant, and it is not sufficient to argue that compensation is due simply because a jury found the defendant not guilty. Compensation following a recent change in the law is now reserved for cases where it is clear that the defendant in criminal proceedings is innocent. The law as it presently stands is, that anyone who overturns their conviction on appeal must demonstrate that they have shown to be conclusively innocent before compensation is considered. Defendants acquitted after trial will have to show that the evidence on which they were cleared was so compelling, that no conviction could possibly be based upon it. This is going to prove very difficult and there are few examples that I have heard about where compensation has been awarded, even in cases where the jury has returned a verdict or verdicts of not guilty. Response supplied by Wells Burcombe LLP
..................................................... LT - HMP Isle of Wight
Q
In 2010 after pleading not guilty to all charges I was found guilty on 12 counts for sexual offences and acquitted of any wrong-doing on 5 counts with another charge being withdrawn by the CPS, stating that this complainant was ‘incapable of belief’. However, during the trial after I adduced evidence that discovered the allegations made were an impossibility, consistent with that the complainant testified that the alleged offences supposedly occurred on a ‘new sofa’ on 5 November 2008, the evidence adduced was a receipt of delivery and purchase that showed that this ‘new sofa’ was not in situ at the relevant time, and hadn’t been delivered until 16th December 2008. The CPS not happy with this proposition were permitted to amend the dates on the indictment, extending the date to 21st July 2009. As a consequence I was found guilty on 3 counts at the time it was
not realised by defence counsel or by myself, that if given the time and facilities I could have prepared a good defence and can rebut the allegation in its new guise. My current solicitor in one breath has stated that this led to injustice and that I have a prima facie case but now says that there is no remedy. Could the outcome have been different if the amendments were not made so late in the trial after all the evidence had been heard? Could it be considered that I was denied the right to a fair trial? Is there no remedy?
A
From what you say, there are a number of enquiries that could have been made during the course of the trial process which could have assisted you with your defence. If those enquiries are still able to be made, then I would advise that you contact a solicitor specialising in criminal appeals to make them on your behalf so that you can be advised on the merits of appealing against your conviction once the fresh material has been obtained. It will be particularly important for your original lawyers to confirm that the new lines of enquiry were not known during the original proceedings. This will be one of the hurdles that you need to overcome when submitting your case to the appeal court, should you reach that stage. I suggest that you write to a new solicitor setting out precisely why you feel that more could have been done originally and to set out clearly what lines of enquiry you feel should now be made and what you hope to be achieved by these enquiries. If material is obtained which is capable of undermining the safety of your conviction, then you are likely to receive positive advice on the merits of an appeal. Response supplied by Wells Burcombe LLP
..................................................... JR - HMP Highdown
Q
My re-categorisation was considered in January 2014 and they declined to reduce my category. On appeal, the deputy governor said that the sentence plan upon
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which I was considered required changes by my OM. She then instructed my OM to change my sentence plan, which my OM did. This removed SOTP from the plan. I requested a ‘de novo’ re-cat review based on my corrected sentence plan, but was told I had to wait until next January. I put in a COMP1 about this around 3 months ago, to which I received no reply. The IMB confirmed that this COMP1 had been logged and was overdue for a response. A month ago I put in another COMP1, but have had no reply again. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has said that they can’t get involved until I have a reply. The IMB have sent me back to the PPO because they can’t get a reply either. My solicitors say that they will write to the Governor and Complaints Clerk for £150 which I am very apprehensive to pay if a response is still not necessarily going to come. PAS have said I need to ask the IMB again but they can’t help. Could you please advise me?
A
I would advise you to involve the IMB and the PPO once again and explain that their response is not helping to resolve the issue and that someone must be held accountable. I suggest the PPO is reminded of their Terms of Reference which, at paragraph 10 states: 10. The Ombudsman will investigate complaints submitted by the following categories of person: (i) prisoners who have failed to obtain satisfaction from the prison complaints system and whose complaints are eligible in other respects; Under paragraph 12 ‘matters subject to investigation’ it clearly states: (ii) decisions and actions (including failures or refusals to act) relating to the management, supervision, care, and treatment of prisoners in custody, by prison staff, people acting as agents or contractors of NOMS and members of the Independent Monitoring Boards. Response supplied by Carringtons Solicitors
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If you have a question you would like answered please send to: ‘Robert Banks’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. (including your name, number and prison)
Banks on Sentence Robert Banks, a barrister, writes Banks on Sentence. It is the second-largest selling criminal practitioner’s text book and is used by judges for sentencing more than any other. The book is classified by the Ministry of Justice as a core judicial text book. The book is available for tablets and computers and costs £80 + VAT. The print copy costs £102 on the web and there are regular updates on www. banksr.com. If you have access to a computer, you can follow Robert on Twitter: @BanksonSentence and you can receive his weekly sentencing Alerter.
Q
I was convicted of a drugs conspiracy and the amount of heroin was 2.2 kilos with between 51% and 65% purity. There were three of us and all our barristers said it was a Category 2 offence. My barrister said I would receive 4-6 years. During the trial, the prosecution said we were ‘foot soldiers’ and ‘fetchers and carriers’. The Judge said it was a Category 1 offence and that we were ‘trusted lieutenants’ and sentenced me to 11 years. He said I had a significant role due to the nature of the operation, the high purity and thus the value of the drugs. Category 1 in the guideline is for weights of 5 kilos and Category 2 is for weights of 1 kilo. The Judge said there were no mitigating features but it was an isolated incident and I have no recent or relevant convictions. The barrister never came to see me afterwards, but has drafted grounds of appeal. I feel let down and your view would be greatly appreciated.
A
I would not normally give legal advice when you have a legal team acting for you in a continuing appeal. In your case I can, because your letter was sent to Inside Time by your solicitor so I cannot be ‘treading on your legal team’s toes’ (which is not permitted). I have no access to your papers so cannot advise fully on an appeal but from what you say, there are a number of issues, which I will divide up. What category does 2.2 kilos of heroin fall into? It is important to remember that the category will sometimes reflect the amount of drugs traded which may be greater than the amount that was seized. However, reading about the facts in your case, it does appear the Judge had to take 2.2 kilos as the weight for sentencing. In your case the weight of drugs was nearer the Category 2 weight. There are two ways to deal with cases where drug amounts are in between these two category weights. The first is to treat the case as Category 2 and make an upward adjustment. The second and better approach is to choose a figure between the two starting points. These approaches, however, amount to much the same. A significant role Category 1 starting point is 10 years and a Category 2 starting point is 8 years. Using the second approach, 9 years would be for a weight halfway between the two category weights. Your weight is nearer the Category 2 weight. The appropriate starting point would be 8 to 8½ years. When the sentence is over 5 years, courts invariably pass a sentence which is either a whole number or one with a half year in it. Was the Judge able to place you as having a significant role? The Judge does not have to accept the role agreed between the prosecution and the defence.
www.banksr.com However, if he or she departs from the suggested role, he or she must give reasons. An appeal should succeed when it is shown that his or her assessment was outside his or her discretion. Considering the reasons given, the nature of the operation cannot be a reason to put you in a significant role because within all operations with a number of people in them, one would expect the three role categories to be present. The high purity and value cannot be used to support a significant role for the same reason. In any event, the purity of the drugs was not high for quantities of that amount. 51-65% purity is just the purity drugs weighing 1 kilo or more are. So the Judge’s reasons didn’t justify the finding of a significant role. Will the Court of Appeal therefore reduce the role because the Judge’s reasons were faulty? This is more difficult. The Court of Appeal is normally very reluctant to disturb the findings of sentencing judges particularly when the judge has conducted a trial (as opposed to sentencing after a plea of guilty). If the judge’s reasons for a particular role are inadequate, the Court is likely to look at the telephone traffic which I understand there was along with everything you did. The Court of Appeal looks for reasons not mentioned by the sentencing judge to support the role the sentencing judge found. The Court of Appeal frequently supports a higher role than the one the facts suggest. The descriptions for the categories are also very poorly drafted. Without clear boundaries between the various categories for the roles, I would be surprised if the Court of Appeal altered the role ascribed to you. You have probably already discovered that the law and its application are not always fair. What about the mitigation? I see your counsel listed the mitigation as: a) letters from your mother and partner, b) the effect on your 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, c) your gambling addiction, d) the short length of the conspiracy, e) your lack of any drugs convictions other than possession of cannabis and f) there was no other link to drug dealing. Matters a) to c) are routinely ignored in drug supply cases as the overriding consideration is the offence, not the personal details of the offender. This can be shown where three defendants with the same involvement but different mitigation are sentenced. They invariably receive the same sentence. Matter d) would normally make little or no difference. However in fact, ‘Isolated incident’ is mentioned in the Drugs Offences Guideline 2012 as a ‘factor reducing seriousness or reflecting personal mitigation’. Matter e) may be a mitigating factor. ‘No previous convictions or no relevant or recent convictions’ is mentioned in the Drugs Offences Guideline 2012 as a ‘factor reducing
seriousness or reflecting personal mitigation’. Matter f) cannot be mitigation as it cannot reduce the seriousness of the drugs conspiracy. Therefore, the Judge may have been wrong to say there was no mitigation, although the factors above are unlikely to have made a significant difference. So what does all that mean? If the Judge was able to ascribe a significant role to you with the lack of mitigation, that would mean that the starting point of 8 or 8½ years would also be the actual sentence. If the Judge was wrong to ascribe a significant role then the sentence should be less than that. From what I have seen your barrister was right to draft an appeal. What about the barrister not coming to see you? The Guide to Commencing Proceedings in the Court of Appeal 2008 para A1.1 states that, ‘Immediately following the conclusion of the case, the legal representatives should see the defendant and counsel should express orally his initial view as to the prospects of a successful appeal (whether against conviction or sentence or both).’ Your barrister breached that requirement. Unfortunately with the minimal fees paid to advocates this breach is more common than it should be. Some advocates consider they have more important things to do. I consider seeing a defendant after he or she is sentenced is one of the most important things an advocate does. Defendants especially need advice at this stage. I wish you luck with your appeal.
Q
Before I was sent to jail I was on a tag on and off. After I was sentenced I was told the tag days should have been taken off. Is this true? I wrote to my solicitors but they don’t respond to my letters. Can you help?
A
I hope I can. If the tag time qualifies, as it invariably does now, half the number of days should be deducted. The first Court of Appeal case of the year, R v Thorsby and Others 2015 EWCA Crim 1, which was published by the Court of Appeal yesterday, deals with tag time. The Court considered four cases where counsel and others had failed to ask for tag time to be taken off and appeals were launched long after the appeal time limits had expired. The Court identified five steps for the Crown Courts and Magistrates’ Courts to take when sentencing defendants with tags: Step 1 Add up the days spent on qualifying curfew including the first, but not the last, if on the last day the defendant was taken into custody. Step 2 Deduct days on which the defendant was at the same time also: i) being monitored with a tag for compliance with a curfew requirement, and/or ii) on temporary release from custody. Step 3 Deduct days when the defendant has broken the curfew or the tagging condition. Step 4 Divide the result by two. Step 5 If necessary round up to the nearest whole number. They added that: 1) It remains essential that every court which imposes a curfew and tagging condition uses the Court Service form
Legal Q&A
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entitled ‘Record of Electronic Monitoring of Curfew Bail’ which is required to follow the defendant from court to court. When a defendant is sent or committed to the Crown Court, the form (properly completed) must go with the papers to the Crown Court. If the defendant has never been subject to curfew and tagging, the magistrates are required to say so, or to send a copy of his bail conditions. If on receipt of a case involving a defendant on bail there is no such form and the question of his status is not clear, the Crown Court must ask the magistrates for clarification and get hold of the form if it exists. 2) Solicitors and, if they have not done it, counsel are required to ask the defendant whether he has been subject to curfew and tagging. If he says that he has, they are required to find out, from the court of record, for which periods. It is also the responsibility of the CPS to have a system for ensuring that such information is available. (I have missed out paras 3 to 7 through lack of space.) 8) Save in a case where it is clear that there is no possibility of crediting a period of remand on bail, the order of the court should, in accordance with R v Nnaji 2009 2 Cr App R (S) 107 (p 700), be along the following lines: “The defendant will receive full credit for half the time spent under curfew if the curfew qualified under the provisions of section 240A. On the information before me the total period is … days (subject to the deduction of … days that I have directed under Step(s) 2 and/or 3 making a total of … days), but if this period is mistaken, this court will order an amendment of the record for the correct period to be recorded”. 9) It remains the case that it ought not to be expected that this Court will routinely grant long extensions of time to correct errors when no one has applied his mind to the issue until long after the event. The Court noticed that their instructions to the courts and to advocates had not been heeded. The Court of Appeal wants to restrict late appeals. The lengthy judgment includes the observation that none of the responsibility for the failure to deduct tag time lay with the four defendants personally. No one suggested that there was a long gap between the discovery of the error and the lodging of the appeal. In the circumstances, the Judges thought they were obliged to grant permission to appeal out of time and they ordered that the tag time for each should be deducted. So what about your case? It appears that your advocate failed in his or her duty to you. The prosecution failed in their duty to the Court. The CPS failed you in not having the procedures in place to stop this happening. The Crown Court failed to have their paperwork in order. I expect the Judge failed to make the order (detailed above in para 8) for the flexible approach to the days in his sentencing remarks. Having read your letter, I am sure you are blameless. Justice requires that your days on a tag should reduce your sentence. As your solicitor appears to have no interest in helping you, I will ask David Wells to write to you.
Asking Robert and Jason questions: Please make sure your question concerns sentence and not conviction and send the letter to Inside Time, marked for Robert Banks or Jason Elliott. Unless you say you don’t want your question and answer published, it will be assumed you have no objection to publication. It is usually not possible to determine whether a particular defendant has grounds of appeal without seeing all the paperwork. Analysing all the paperwork is not possible. The column is designed for simple questions and answers. No-one will have their identity revealed. Letters which a) are without an address, b) cannot be read, or c) are sent direct, cannot be answered. Letters sent by readers to Inside Time are sent on to a solicitor, who forwards them to Robert and Jason. If your solicitor wants to see previous questions and answers, they are at www.banksr.com.
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H
Valentines Poetry
If you would like to contribute to the Poetry section, please send your poems to ‘Poetry’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
I Hope It Snows
Star Poem of the Month
Carl Mason - HMP Kirklevington Grange
Love is Life
I hope the snow falls this year You know I really do Because at this time of year When it snows It makes me think of you I know that many years have passed And this year she’s found another But in my heart it doesn’t change a thing I can’t help it, I’ll always love her
Suguru Gomi - HMP Dovegate What is a life? People wake up, they work, they eat and they sleep If that is life, what is a life? Locked behind walls nothing to do How do they find the will to live? What is a life? He did it for his family He did it for pride He did it for a precious memory He lives for pleasure He lives for money What is a life? He wakes up to the same routine, same faces, same places People go through life thinking what? What do you live for? Not for any reason, not any more.... what is a life? I live for love, where there is love I can live on, for love is life What is this pain deep in my chest? Bit by bit love is changing me If God can let me live again I know I can change, I will, right now, forever, march on I live for love For you and only you I want to live again Love is life I give myself all to you, I want to live Love is life To hear your voice again, I’ve kept my heart alive So say to me, “Dear welcome home” Then I will return back to my life with you and say to you “I’m home” Love is life Congratulations to this months winner who receives our £25 prize for ‘Star Poem of the Month’.
On Moving Wing
John Gowers - HMP Wandsworth Pigeons make prison sounds My swift thoughts soar like birds In a sky fleeted with words But those dull British clowns Build their nests in the eaves Of the dim prison wing And content not to sing They conspire like thieves Behind bright razor wire Where they choose just to sit And to gossip and sh*t Ah my heart is a choir That sings for you My love
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
© aliasching - Fotolia.com
Butterflies
Muir Taylor - HMP Barlinnie Crazy butterflies Flying all around inside What is this feeling I can’t seem to hide? Perhaps the beef enchilada I enjoyed late last night Or a side effect Of sucking in my abs too tight No, I’m pretty darn sure It’s neither of those I think it’s something BIGGER I need to expose I’ve fallen hard for you And not from just a couple of feet I’ve fallen from the tallest building And splattered all over the street
Pushing the Right Buttons Craig Burger - HMP Lewes
I stand at the blue box on the wall Punch the numbers, making my daily call Stomach gurgling, waiting to talk to you Will it be joy or will you be blue? “Hi, it’s only me, how’s your day been? What have you done, who have you seen?” Trying to imagine the life of the free Always knowing you are struggling without me ‘I’m fine, doing my time’ You don’t need to hear my sobs or me whine I’d rather be positive and give you hope It eases the pain and helps you cope You’re serving my sentence from a different place With strength, character and ultimate grace You’re my rock, my gem - the fabric of my life I know I am blessed to have you as my wife There are not enough words for me to say I will have to continue, my love, another day Until tomorrow when I rejoin the queue Just know that I am sorry and I love you
Yes I would walk forever in the snow I would embrace every single shiver There’s no distance I would not go If it only meant I could be with her Well every man needs a dream So you’re at the top of my Christmas list In second place is a sprig of mistletoe Under which we can share a kiss Now I know that I am only dreaming So I’ll wish you all the best I hope you get all you want And it’s better than all the rest I hope the snow falls this year You know I really do Because at this time of year When it snows I always think of you
A Radio Four Girl and a Radio Six Boy Gordon Chorlton - Guernsey Prison Lolly, lozenge, lollapalooza This is a poem just for yousa I couldn’t hope to be as funny as Matt Harvey Though I am now resident in Guernsey I have a terrible short term memory But I recall the day we went to Jersey And all the films and all the coffees Wells and Exeter and Totnes That sculpture park what a surprise And all the times we met at The Hive Dorchester Gardens, Paris and Lyme And how could I forget the times We went swimming at the pool and Eype And all the art in Dorset Arts Week Sometimes you say you feel kinda blue Which is one of many things I really like about you It seems like ages since we would meet at Spoons And listen to Jack Johnson and other tunes So enjoy this day, it’s all we’ve got One minute we’re here, the next we’re not
If you would like to contribute to the Poetry section, please send your poems to ‘Poetry’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
It’s True
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Evergreen
Alex Carr - HMP Wandsworth
Mark Hogg - HMP Peterborough
I’d never really get it, or know how you’re feeling I can’t really empathise, I don’t know that demon Getting held down and raped, how could I relate? I could tell you it’s destiny, I could say it’s fate You could pray to a deaf God, or cry on invisible shoulder Most the time it rains stones, sometimes they’re boulders I guess I could tell you that I understand But all that would be, is another lie from a man I can tell you something though, and believe me it’s true That shame belongs to them, it doesn’t belong to you I’m sorry you felt you couldn’t tell, it wouldn’t matter to me I would never think you’re damaged, it’s not like you’re my property You can feel ashamed if you want, or feel contaminated It’s your right to feel like that, and sit around devastated I have to say something though, and trust me it’s true That shame belongs to him, it doesn’t belong to you I’m a very honest person, it causes me trouble I bite off more than I can chew, I burst people’s bubbles I think you’re hard as f**k, I think you should be proud Coz you’re stronger than an Angel, who’s fallen from a cloud Look at what you’ve got through, most people would break But you keep your head held high, and a smile on your face I think you’re an inspiration, so please don’t cry Maybe I should just stay quiet, and try catch the tears from your eye I’ll tell you something though. And believe me it’s true That shame belongs to them, it doesn’t belong to you
I wonder where I’m going, where does my future lay Failed promises of rehabilitation, the devils imps have come out to play So as a scholar I have become, a graduate of a human sewage farm As I’m set to be released soon, I’m sure it can do no harm I peer out of my window, as that fateful day slithers closer At the weak winter’s sun, shining above towers of conifer and pine They cause my mind to wander, the plane of past and future As those evergreen towers are defiant of time I wish I could be evergreen and tower above these walls of wire To make my enemies fear me, as they try to look me down If I had but one more wish, I’d wish also to be defiant of time And I would move deep into my past and refrain from causing crime
© pupes1 - Fotolia
The Looking Glass
Cathy Conway - HMP Hydebank Wood Mirror, mirror, on the wall When will the mighty ever fall? Round and round in circles I run Most of life has lost its fun Mirror, mirror, who am I? Many thoughts float in the sky Up above like long lost friends It’s funny how the river bends
Escaping the Shadow
Mirror, mirror, where do I go Time is moving really slow Future plans are seldom made Life dwelling mostly in the shade
Kevin Follis - HMP Magilligan Round and round the yard I go Escaping the shadow and its relentless flow Walking in the shade holds no interest for me I’m mostly out here for some vitamin D I just want some sunlight, there’s little to be had As my days are jam-packed in the pen for the bad The evenings come near and the silhouette creeps Reflecting the wire mesh of the surrounding keep I look a bit odd as I edge from the side Keeping pace with the sun as the shadow abides Striding anti-clockwise to gather some fitness Though all I want, really, is to be a witness To the glory of the sun and all it entails And to possibly avoid looking a deathly shade of pale
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Voices from prison
Inside Poetry
Copies are available at a special discount price of £7.50 +£1 p&p for Inside Time readers, family & friends. Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB Tel: 0844 335 6483
© Antonio Gravante - Fotolia.com
My Body the Temple Mat Rogers - HMP Chelmsford These old church walls are broken down Years of neglect can do that Tramps piss in the corners while drunk Then nestle with the rats so fat Forgotten things roam these dirty halls Ghosts of self worth and pride Damp attracts mould and disease And the darkness helps the junkies hide I stagger from pillar to altar of stone Tears fill the cup I offer On my knees I feel alone And on my own I suffer I pray the Lord my soul to take But will he hear these psalms When all I do is drink and drink Then put needles in my arms
Mirror, mirror, see me now The furrowed lines across my brow The shifts and changes do not bring any news To make my heart sing Mirror, mirror, gently treat Within dwells parts that are almost dead We will award a prize of £25 to the entry selected as our ‘Star Poem of the Month’. To qualify for a prize, poems should not have won a prize in any other competition or been published previously. Send entries to: Inside Time, Poetry, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire, SO30 2GB. Please put your name, number and prison on the same sheet of paper as your poem. If you win we can’t send your money if we don’t know who or where you are! By submitting your poems to Inside Time you are agreeing that they can be published in any of our ‘not for profit links’, these include the newspaper, website and any forthcoming books. You are also giving permission for Inside Time to use their discretion in allowing other organisations to reproduce this work if considered appropriate, unless you have clearly stated that you do not want this to happen. Any work reproduced in other publications will be on a ‘not for profit’ basis. WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR WORK PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING PERMISSION: THIS IS MY OWN WORK AND I AGREE TO INSIDE TIME PUBLISHING IT IN ALL ASSOCIATE SITES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS AS APPROPRIATE.
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Reading Groups
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Reading group round-up Image courtesy of Matthew Meadows
The review this month comes from Wandsworth prison where Charlie Bland and David Jeffs report on Melanie McGrath’s book ‘Silvertown’ This month provided us with a special guest. After reading Melanie McGrath’s best-selling book Silvertown, the group were bursting with questions. Thanks to Sarah from Prison Reading Groups we were able to have Melanie in to answer all that we
Melanie hadn’t mentioned all the love and care for one another people showed. Melanie was happy to listen to everybody’s views and meeting her really gave us an understanding of where she was coming from when writing the book. A lot of emotion was put into the book and you could feel it when speaking to Melanie, especially when she enlightened us about how her mother felt about her writing the book.
wanted to know. Silvertown is the story of an East End family from before the Great War stretching through to more modern times, seen through the eyes and recollections of Melanie McGrath’s grandmother, Jenny Page. It shows deep and at times dark memories of the struggles that took place in London. Throughout the book we meet some flamboyant characters, but there is also a real sense of the pain and sadness that went on behind the doors of families in the historic East End of London. Melanie describes what life was like, including the impact that the docks had on the locals and the effects on their lives when the docks closed down. The landscape is very fertile and productive in the East End but also unlovely and deprived, mirroring a lot of the people in the book. A particularly horrific story was when Jenny’s teeth were all pulled out at the age of 17 so that her future husband would not have to bear any future dental costs. The group felt that the bombing in the Second World War affected the whole of London. But Melanie quite rightly stated that East London was more seriously affected because the docks were targeted, not only stopping any way we had of supplying our troops and putting many out of work, but more importantly lots of homes were destroyed and many lives lost. Jenny and her husband Len were like many other families in the East End, struggling to make do. Len dipped his hand into the evergrowing Black Market and always had his eye out for new ideas. Melanie writes: “The press of his business, of his businesses (there seem to be a new one every week) left him irritable and tightly wound”. Just after the war Len bought The Cosy Café, which introduced many colourful characters to the book. But when Len eventually leaves Jenny and the café is closed down, Jenny seems to become more bitter and keener to have a moan to whoever will listen. Some of the group felt that the book was all doom and gloom, a constant reminder of how poor and miserable times were, and that
Overall the group would advise reading this book whether you’re from East London or not. It’s a great insight into the life and story of those who struggled through some of Britain’s most tragic periods. Melanie was absolutely wonderful and a real pleasure to meet. She took time in answering everybody’s questions and even signed books for us. An inspirational women with a wonderful story. The Wandsworth Heathfield group is part of the Prison Reading Groups network (PRG), sponsored by the University of Roehampton and generously supported by Give a Book www.giveabook.org.uk, Penguin Random House and Profile Books. If your prison doesn’t have a reading group, encourage your librarian to have a look at the PRG website www.roehampton.ac.uk/ prison-reading-groups. PRG has also worked with National Prison Radio to start a radio book club. If you have access to NPR, listen out for details and ways to take part.
ShannonTrust
Do you, or anyone you know, struggle with reading? The Shannon Trust Reading Plan (Toe by Toe) is a simple & efficient way of helping people to learn to read. Prisoners who can read teach prisoners who can’t. If you would like more information on how to become involved, as either a Mentor or a Learner , contact the Reading Plan Lead in your prison (ask a Shannon Trust Mentor who this is) or write to: Shannon Trust, Freepost RTKY-RUXG-KGYH The Foundry, 17-19 Oval Way, LONDON SE11 5RR
Shared Reading Amanda Brown and the Shared Reading group in the Healthcare Centre, HMP Liverpool, are reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. “I am not mad,” I cried energetically; “the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race.” “The conclusion of this speech convinced my father that my ideas were deranged, and he instantly changed the subject of our conversation and endeavoured to alter the course of my thoughts. He wished as much as possible to obliterate the memory of the scenes that had taken place in Ireland, and never alluded to them, or suffered me to speak of my misfortunes.”
voured phrases are repeated. Then the conversation shifts and Elizabeth’s generosity is in dispute. “How can he leave her now? Even if he does love someone else. He couldn’t after getting this, could he?” “She’s giving him the choice.” “She’s being highly manipulative!” “’One smile,’ and ‘I shall need no other happiness.’’ She’s saying she’ll be happy. He can walk away.” “That’s what she’s saying to him - ‘Be happy.’ She’s telling him to do what he wants, because that’s what she wants. So she still wins. “ “That’s true: it’s win-win for her.”
“If he doesn’t want to be ‘supposed mad,’” says J, “then what’s he doing? What’s his dad supposed to think?”
“So through this act of selflessness, she’s actually gaining self-satisfaction. Is it possible to be entirely selfless, then?” I ask.
“They don’t have a proper relationship, though, do they? I mean, his father can’t cope: ‘he instantly changed the subject of our conversation.’ He just wants to sweep it under the carpet and forget about it,” says P.
N, who arrived late group (the others have told me he is not feeling so good) now speaks. “How it’s done - so persuasive - that’s what what’s interesting. We’ve got to remember it’s Mary Shelley writing this. Remember what it was like for women then. And she was married to Shelley: she’s got to prove herself as a writer. This is Mary Shelley’s way of showing how good she can be.”
“Don’t you think he feels guilty - his dad because he’s responsible for bringing Victor into the world?” asks D. We embark on a long nature/nurture debate. P is new to the group. He tells us about his parents sending him to Sunday school when he was a child and how this set him apart from the other children. We return to the text. M reads the letter Victor Frankenstein receives from his sweetheart, Elizabeth. “It is your happiness I desire as well as my own when I declare to you that our marriage would render me eternally miserable unless it were the dictate of your own free choice. Even now I weep to think that, borne down as you are by the cruellest misfortunes, you may stifle, by the word “honour”, all hope of that love and happiness which would alone restore you to yourself. I, who have so disinterested an affection for you, may increase your miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your wishes. Ah! Victor, be assured that your cousin and playmate has too sincere a love for you not to be made miserable by this supposition. Be happy, my friend; and if you obey me in this one request, remain satisfied that nothing on earth will have the power to interrupt my tranquillity.
We segue into a discussion of the genesis of the text, flipping back to the introduction for confirmation. We marvel afresh at this feat - a young woman writing in this way in the early 19th Century. The Reader Organisation is an award-winning charitable social enterprise working to connect people with great literature. Our groups meet weekly to listen to a short story or an extract from a novel and a poem being read aloud by a trained practitioner. No one else has to read aloud, although some choose to do so. There are pauses in which we discuss how we feel about what we’ve read.
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“Do not let this letter disturb you; do not answer tomorrow, or the next day, or even until you come, if it will give you pain. My uncle will send me news of your health; and if I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness.” “Why can’t I get a letter like that?” says S. Elizabeth’s choice of words is discussed - fa-
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Book Reviews
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Broadmoor: My Journey Into Hell by Charles Bronson - Review by Noel Smith
A Quiet Belief in Angels R J Ellory
This book covers the Broadmoor years, when the prison system had had their fill of Charlie and decided that ‘nutting him off’ was the best way to get rid of their problem, and is probably his best book yet. It benefits from being well laid out and easy to read, far from the chaos of some of Charlie’s offerings. It gives a real feel of the misery and desperation that pervades an institution like Broadmoor. The killings, brutality and wholesale abuse of ‘patients’ is horrifying and well-documented here. In Broadmoor the ‘liquid cosh’ reigns supreme. The book is dedicated to Michael Martin, a young inmate who came to Broadmoor as a healthy fella and was dead within a short time in mysterious circumstances. A lot of people have died at Broadmoor and not always from natural causes. As Charlie points out, this place is not a ‘hospital’ and those big lumps walking around in white smocks are not ‘nurses’, they are all members of the POA (Prison Officers Association) and, in reality, Broadmoor is nothing but a prison. There is a chapter on the history of Broadmoor and another on the famous and infamous prisoners who have been held captive there over the years, but the story is mainly concerned with exposing the brutal and illegal practises of Broadmoor in the 1980s. I would hope that this prison has changed since the days when Charlie and others were druggedup and housed like mad cattle because if this regime is still in place then I feel for those incarcerated there. Charlie has gone down in the record books as being the only man (and I doubt this will ever be bested) to get on Broadmoor’s roof, not once, not twice but THREE times! An amazing feat for an extreme climber, but Charlie was under ‘close supervision’ and pumped full of mind-altering drugs. And it is these victories that manage to alleviate the extremely depressing story of men being crushed by the weight of a corrupt and brutal institution.
Say what you like about Charlie Bronson but there can be no doubt that he is a very talented man. His artwork sells all around the world, sometimes for silly money, and his books are always great sellers. The most amazing thing is that he does it all from a virtual hole in the ground! A lot of people forget that Charlie does not even have the basic liberties afforded to most of the prison population, and yet he still manages to reach out from behind cell doors, iron bars and stone walls and touch people in the outside world. That is true determination and self-belief (which the authorities have been trying to strip him of for decades, with little success) driving him on. And his last book as Charlie Bronson (he has changed his name to Charles Salvador) is a perfect illustration of that determination and self-belief. Broadmoor is a frightening and secretive place and this book opens the gates and doors so that we may see something of what has gone on there. A great read and highly recommended. Broadmoor; My Journey Into Hell by Charles Bronson Published by John Blake Publishing RRP £9.99
Late News
A piece of art has been stolen from the ‘Death of Bronson’ Art exhibition Show, being held at Apiary Studios, Hackney. The exhibition was targeted by a thief, who made off with a large piece on card (pictured below).
Reviewed by Douglas Chadwick Prison Supplied Eleven year old Joseph finds a white feather in his room and is convinced it has been left by a visiting angel. The untimely death of his father later that day leaves Joseph struggling to make sense of a painful and mysterious world. His secret love for Miss Webber, a teacher who encourages him to develop his skills as a writer, is contrasted with his hatred for an unknown assailant who brutally murders a local young girl. Joseph and his friends pledge to protect their classmates from the killer, but are left feeling powerless as one child after another is murdered. The resulting sense of failure and fear overshadows Joseph’s life long after the murders have ceased, and he never wavers in his determination to bring the killer to justice. Fifty years later, he finally finds himself face to face with the man who has blighted his entire life. Joseph is critically wounded in the confrontation, and as he calmly waits for the angels to come and collect him, he reflects on the nightmares and ghosts that have haunted
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him for so long. This novel can be enjoyed on several levels. It is much more than your average ‘whodunnit’, although its power as a straightforward thriller was enough to make me want to re-read it once ‘all was revealed’, discovering with the benefit of hindsight the clues I had missed. It also succeeds admirably as a ‘rites of passage’ insight into the mind of a confused young man who is desperate to find his identity whilst at the same time longing to run away from it. However, the most powerful aspect of the novel is its philosophical reflection on questions such as truth, words, value and choices, and it is this which raises the book on to a par with literary classics. Tales of child murders do not generally lend themselves to ponderings on the meaning of life, but it is a combination which works well here. Ellory interweaves the various threads with supreme skill, resulting in a novel which is both enjoyable and thought provoking. Fans of traditional thriller fare will find themselves drawn into deeper waters, an unexpected but enriching journey. Try it and see for yourself.
A Quiet Belief in Angels by R J Ellory Published by Orion ISBN 978-0-7528-8263-5 RRP £6.99
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Jailbreak
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Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Crossword
TWENTY QUESTIONS TO TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 1. Which US author wrote the horror tales ‘The Telltale Heart’ and ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’? 2. Which 2000 Tom Hanks film is mainly set on a deserted island? 3. The Wallaroo is a large, stocky variety of which Australian animal? 4. Which British comedian and actor published his book of Flanimals in 2004? 5. Publicly voted the greatest painting in Britain in 2005, The Fighting Temeraire is by which artist? 6. With which sport is Steve Davis most closely associated?
1. Brian —, English novelist whose works include “The Helliconia Trilogy” (6) 2. Planet with an orbit between those of Saturn and Neptune (6) 3. Author of “The Scarlet Letter” (9) 4. Veins and arteries (5,7) 6. “The Secret —”, a novel by Joseph Conrad (5) 7. Lineage (8) 8. Italian resort on the peninsula between the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno (8) 11. An oval or circular building with seats rising in tiers around a central open space (12) 15. A complex situation or muddle (5,4) 16. Italian bread with a sponge-like texture, made with olive oil (8) 17. The southernmost point of South America (4,4) 20. “Full many a flower is born to blush —”(Gray: Elegy) (6) 21. Lauren —, American actress (6) 23. A male duck (5)
David Anthony Shaw A9834AA HMP North Sea Camp U N O O M G F E C A P A R I M O O N K D
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Amy Adams Anna Faris
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H A D N B H D F S G D G V C G A E F S T
U L D N U M A N H D D N H Z N R M K C A
Hollywood Women R M A N I R A V E O N I M E G A G D H E L E N M A M E I L S E L M L S V E R A H Y E U L I V T Y A S C B G E C D D L K B Z O E S A I E I L E O V M F L A N N E R S R R T H G F S A O M I W A T T P E N E L O T D U R C E P O L E I N W O R B Y L A F I T Z G E R A R I E D U F F C O L L U B A R O D E L A R I O F A N N I N G N
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13. Which screen legend founded the Sundance Institute? 14. What nationality is Heath Ledger, the actor and star of Brokeback Mountain? 15. What was the first name of journalist Carol Thatcher’s father? 16. In the TV cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, what was the name of He-Man’s alias? 17. The French writer Victor Hugo spent the majority of his years of exile living on which Channel Island?
8. What type of animal is the title character in the children’s TV series Arthur?
18. In the Superman films, what colour is Superman’s cape?
9. Traditionally, which UK country celebrates Hogmanay?
19. In the traditional children’s song about London church bells, what do the bells of St Clements say? 20. Who played the character John Shaft in the 2000 remake of the film Shaft?
11. In 1968, which Czech leader’s reforms
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1. Largest of the United Arab Emirates (3,5) 5. French seaport with a ferry service to Dover (6) 9. Town in South Dakota associated with Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok (8) 10. Johnny —, highly successful American lyricist and co-founder of Capitol records (6) 12. Partially melted snow (5) 13. A small coffee-cup (9) 14. Part of a gun that can be opened for loading (6) 15. French revolutionary leader assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday (5) 18. Complacently foolish (5) 19. The stitching of a wound (6) 22. Singer who had a hit in 1963 with”Losing You”(6,3) 24. Father Christmas (5) 25. First name of the poet T. S. Eliot (6) 26. And so forth (2,6) 27. English mystic who took the Shaker sect to America (3,3) 28. A person assigned to keep guard (8)
12. In 1963, which Conservative politician renounced his earldom before becoming prime minister?
7. Which city in French Guiana shares its name with a type of pepper?
10. Pop star Kylie Minogue came to fame in which Australian TV soap?
Across
led to the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia?
M G N D V E R A F A R M I G A M A Y R M
AmyACTS Adams COLOSSIANS Anna Faris CORINTHIANS Anne-Marie DEUTERONOMY Duff EPHESIANS EXODUS Anne Reid GALATIANS Charlize HEBREWS Theron ISAIAH Dakota JAMES JEREMIAH Fanning JOB Ellen Page JOHN Emily JOSHUA LUKE Browning MALACHI Eva Green MARK Helen Mirren Hilary Swank Kaya Scodelario
Leslie Mann MATTHEW NAHUM Liv Tyler PETER Megan Fox PHILIPPIANS Meg Ryan PROVERBS PSALM Mena Suvari REVELATION Michelle ROMANS SAMUEL Williams THESSALONIANS Naomi TIMOTHYWatts TITUS Noomi Rapace Penelope Cruz Sandra Bullock Tara Fitzgerald Tea Leoni Tilda Swinton Uma Thurman Vera Farmiga Zoe Saldana
Thanks to David Anthony Shaw - HMP North Sea Camp for compiling this word search. If you fancy compiling one for us please just send it in max 20 x 20 grid & complete with answers shown on a grid. If we use it we will send you £5 as a thank you!
Inside Chess
8
by Carl Portman
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I realise that you only get one chess problem a month folks (that’s what space allows) so I have to try to aim it for all levels. That’s not easy when you have beginners at one end of the scale and some very strong players at the other. This month I will give you a difficult but fantastic puzzle from a problem set by a Polish player called David Przepiorka. He perished in a concentration camp during the Second World War and his collection of chess books was looted by the occupiers. More on the chess problem shortly. I wanted to thank the Staff and inmates at HMP Full Sutton for inviting me before Christmas and for playing their part in making the day a very special one. As usual I gave a brief introduction about why I am doing this voluntary work, followed by a short Q&A session. The questions were very interesting especially the one about who was my favourite ever player. I gave the answer as Capablanca but there are so many reasons for choosing others as I am sure you agree. I then gave a simultaneous display against inmates and a very good time was had by all. To be honest, they are the strongest group of players I have met yet and I lost on a few boards due to their skill, perseverance and preparation. I take my hat off to them and wish them well for their chess club in the coming months. Not only were they of a very strong standard, they had used the prison resources available to them chess books from the library - to study and prepare lines which clearly paid off. In that sense they had made their moves before they even got to the board. Naturally, now that we all have the measure of each other, I will be keen on a return visit some time in 2015 to try to put some of my own preparation into play.
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Now to that chess problem. It is white moving up the board to move. The question is how does white win? This will take the majority of you a good while to solve, so be prepared for a sore head after so much cogitation. You can write to me with your answer care of The English Chess Federation at The Watch Oak, Chain Lane, Battle, East Sussex TN33 OYD or you can email me at
[email protected] and they will forward it to me. Please note that you should always write to me at the ECF not via InsideTime. The winner to be announced in the April edition of Inside Chess. The answer to January’s puzzle was 1.Qe6+ Kh8 2.Nf7+ Kg8 3.Nh6+ Kh8 4.Qg8+! Rxg8 5.Nf7checkmate. (Please note that a + sign means check. An exclamation mark means a good move and # means checkmate). The winner to be announced. The winner of December’s problem was Carl from HMP Standford Hill. A chess magazine donated by Chess and Bridge of London is his prize.
Jailbreak
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
“QUOTES” Very little seems very funny today
I can understand why people are into S&M, but standing outside Heathrow’s Terminal 5 waiting for Ryanair to come in?
Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, reacts to the murders at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Plane spotting is much odder than sadomasochism, says the actor Jamie Dornan, star of Fifty Shades of Grey.
He’s the greatest man there is Sarah, Duchess of York sticks by her former husband, Prince Andrew, who denies having had sex with an underage girl.
If you don’t like it here because some humorists you don’t like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can f**K off.
Ladies, I’m very flattered, but has this not set feminism back a little bit?
A message to fellow Muslims from Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Moroccan-born mayor of Rotterdam
The actor Benedict Cumberbatch takes issue with his female fans’ decision to style themselves ‘Cumberbitches’.
Sarah, Duchess of York
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Pathfinder Grid 50s & 60s & Hits 50s
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Ahmed Aboutaleb
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Specialists
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The latest video link interview facilities are available to speed up the http://www.dailysudoku.com/ processes and avoid delay in having your concerns addressed. Write to Mark Bailey Bailey Nicholson Grayson Solicitors 15 Bourne Court Southend Road Ilford Essex IG8 8HD or call
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Submitted by Kaya Duncan - HMP Peterborough. Start on the left with the first number and work your way across following the instructions in each cell. See how quickly you can do each puzzle and how your times improve month by month! Answers on page below. If you would like to submit similar puzzles we will pay £5 for any that are chosen for print. Please send in a minimum of three puzzles together with the answer!
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PROBLEM? WE CAN HANDLE IT!
4 2 5 9 8 6 1 7 3 6 1 7 2 5 3 4 8 9 9 8 3 4 1 7 5 2 6 5 6 8 a 7prompt 2 1 response, 3 9 4 friendly We guarantee advice 1 3 4and8 thoroughly 6 9 2 5reliable 7 representation from an experienced team. 7 9 2 3 4 5 6 1 8 Parole 2 7Hearings, 9 5 3 Judicial 4 8 6 Reviews, 1 Recalls, Adjudications, & Categorisation 8 4 6 1 9 2 7 3 5 reviews 3 5 1 6 7 and 8 9Prison 4 2 Law We are Criminal
• • • • • • •
If you would like to win £5, please submit your Pathfinder - grids should either be 15 x 15 or 12 x 12 squares. Remember when you send us your Pathfinder to include your name, number and prison - otherwise you will not receive your prize money.
Neil Speed is a former prisoner who came up with the concept of GEF BAD CHI whilst in prison. Inside Time features a GEF BAD CHI puzzle on this page. GEF BAD CHI by Neil Speed is published by Xlibris. RRP: £12.35 Using the letters G,E,F,B,A,D,C,H & I fill in the blank squares. Each letter A-I must appear only once in each line column and 3x3 grid.
Daily Sudoku: Sat 3-Jan-2015
Daily Sudoku: Sat 3-Jan-2015
60s Hits
Answers
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8 2 7 8
S➢
Albatross Bits and pieces Concrete and clay Delilah In the ghetto W Little red rooster Puppet on a string O Revolution Rock around the clock O She loves you Shout D Son of a preacher man Twist and shout R Walking back to happiness E Wooden heart World without love M You were made for me
MIND GYM
9
Benedict Cumberbatch
(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2015. All rights reserved.
SUDOKU & GEFBADCHI
Ian Hislop
Pathfinder
53
Indeterminate / Life Sentence issues Lifer, ESP & IIP Panels Recalls & Oral Hearings Adjudications (North West region) Parole Representations Extensive Judicial Review experience Appeals / Criminal Cases Review Commission
Accreditations include: • Members of Criminal Appeal Lawers Association • Association of Prison Lawyers • Manchester Prison Law Practitioner Group
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54
Jailbreak
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
Read all about it!
CAPTION COMPETITION Peter Smith HMP Wakefield
December Winner
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Answers to last months News quiz: 1. Lindt, 2. Ben Haenow, 3. 132, 4. TBA, 5. Stockport, 6. Jo Pavey, 7. Dressage, 8. Canada, 9. Carl Foggarty, 10. Candy Crush
insideknowledge The prize quiz where we give you the Questions and the Answers!
All the answers are within this issue of Inside Time - all you have to do is find them!!
?
The first three names to be drawn with all-correct answers (or nearest) will receive a £25 cash prize. There will also be two £5 consolation prizes. The winners’ names will appear in next month’s issue. 1. Which hip-hop artist has a family reality show and new album on the way? 2. Which actress has said that being a Quaker is essential for her life and work? 3. Who has increased their self confidence through distance learning? 4. How many years did Charlie Bronson spend in Broadmoor Mental Hospital? 5. Which album is a dancehall album for Jamaica and beyond? 6. When will NPR’s new schedule be launched? 7. Whose art work sells all around the world for silly money?
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8. Which rehabilitation programme teaches prisoners to train dogs? 9. Who is Spud’s soul mate? 10. Which ‘anti smoking aid’ is the complete package? 11. Which awards show was originally called the Daily Mirror Rock and Pop Awards? 12. Who has spent 25 years as a volunteer giving bereavement counselling at HMP Bullingdon? 13. Which novel can be enjoyed on several levels? 14. Which project was awarded £280,000 two years ago? 15. Who admits to being a dreadful speller?
Answers to Last Month’s Inside Knowledge Prize Quiz 1. Nayirah, 2. Mark Banner, 3. Catholic Prisoners Aid Society, 4. 173,000, 5. 9000, 6. Glass 7. Edie, 8. Rum Ration, 9. EFFRR (Employers’ Forum for Reducing Reoffending), 10. The Voyage of the Golden Handshake, 11. 4, 12. How I Live Now, 13. Simon Short, 14. The Serious Crime Bill, 15. 27% December Winners
Our three £25 Prize winners are: Jamie Netherton HMP Hull, J Lench HMP Littlehey, Troy Mason HMP Wormwood Scrubs Plus our £5 Consolation prizes go to: Badshah Khan HMP Moorland, Shane Cope HMP Oakwood.
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7. The Royal Air Force will be commemorating which anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015?
Did I pack my own bags... REALLY!
We will be extending the closing dates for allcompetitions, quizzes and poetry contributions. This will mean we will have to publish the names of winners two issues later but prizes and notifications will still be sent out on time. All answers will appear in the next issue as usual so you won’t be kept waiting to find out if you got them right.
Jailbreak
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
ROCK & POP QUIZ
PLEASE ENJOY THIS CULTURALLY, ETHNICALLY, RELIGIOUSLY AND POLITICALLY CORRECT CARTOON RESPONSIBLY. THANK YOU.
1. Achtung Baby was the biggest selling album (eight million units) in America for which band?
Queen Victoria married Prince Albert.
26 Feb 1935 // 80th Anniversary
Adolf Hitler re-established the Nazi Party in Munich, Germany after a ban on its existence was lifted.
4. What is the title of the 2006 music reference book by Robert Dimery which lists a multitude of recommended albums from Frank Sinatra to White Stripes?
28 Feb 1935 // 80th Anniversary
Nylon was first produced by a team led by Wallace Carothers at DuPont’s research station in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
5. According to the title of Neil Young’s 1979 album, what doesn’t rust do?
10 Feb 1940 // 75th Anniversary
The cartoon characters Tom and Jerry made their first appearance in the Hanna and Barbera cartoon Puss Gets the Boot. (Tom the cat was named Jasper, and Jerry the mouse was named Jinx.)
6. Whose Bigger Bang Tour’ was the subject of a 2008 documentary movie directed by Martin Scorsese? 7. Which musician founded the Area Festivals, the first of which took place in 2001?
8 Feb 1950 // 65th Anniversary The first-ever payment by credit card: the founders of ‘Diners Club’ paid their restaurant bill at Major’s Cabin Grill in New York.
8. Which theatrical act produced the satirical Rock Concert Instruction Manual?
24 Feb 1955 // 60th Anniversary
Britain’s Big Freeze. Deep snow and freezing temperatures caused havoc in 60 counties, with many parts cut off. The RAF dropped food and medical supplies to affected areas. Thousands of sheep died from exposure.
9. Which female singer’s hit albums include Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes? 10. Where do the alternative rock band The Cranberries originate from?
15 Feb 1965 // 50th Anniversary
Canada adopted its national flag, the red-and-white maple leaf design.
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11 Feb 1975 // 40th Anniversary
Margaret Thatcher became the first female leader of the Conservative Party in the UK.
19 Feb 1985 // 30th Anniversary
The first episode of the BBC TV soap opera EastEnders was broadcast.
Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. (He became President of South Africa in 1994).
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Assassination of Malcolm X, controversial African American Muslim leader and human rights activist.
11 Feb 1990 // 25th Anniversary
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3 Feb 1815 // 200th Anniversary The world’s first commercial cheese factory began operating in Switzerland.
10 Feb 1840// 175th Anniversary
3. Which classic album spent over seven months at the top of the American charts and received a Grammy in 1977?
PRISON LAW EXPERTS LEGAL 500 RECOMMENDATION
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1 Feb 1840 // 175th Anniversary Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was founded in Maryland, USA. It was the world’s first dental college.
2. Which road did Elton John say ‘goodbye’ to in 1973?
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2 Feb 1995 // 20th Anniversary Death of Fred Perry, British tennis player, commentator and co-founder of Fred Perry sportswear. World number 1 for four years in the 1930s. Won Wimbledon three times in succession. 14 Feb 2005 // 10th Anniversary
The popular video-sharing website YouTube was founded.
56 National Prison Radio
Insidetime February 2015 www.insidetime.org
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She loves you Albatross Wooden heart 1 7 3 You were made for me 4 8 9 Shout 5 2 6 Rock around the clock 3 9 4 2 5 7 Bits and pieces 6 1 8 In the ghetto 8 6 1 World without love 7 3 5 Delilah 9 4 2 Little red rooster Concrete and clay http://www.dailysudoku.com/ Puppet on a string Revolution Walking back to happiness Son of a preacher man Twist and shout
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