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A thirty year stretch Stephen Shaw interview Pages ......................... 24-25

Who gets your vote? A ‘not for profit’ publication /46,000 copies distributed monthly / ISSN 1743-7342 /Issue No. 131 / May 2010

The Labour Government has failed to implement a ruling made 6 years ago by the European Court to give sentenced prisoners in the United Kingdom the vote. Despite this deliberate defiance of the rule of law by the Government, we invite prisoners to exercise their civil and political right to vote by using the Inside Time ballot paper in the Prisoners Vote! section

That the Government had used delaying tactics for the past 6 years - a period of time longer than the Second World War - ‘was a disgrace’ Lord Ramsbotham, a former Chief Inspector of Prisons, told the Lords. The Government’s ducking and diving on prisoner voting rights, he said: ‘amounted to nothing less than a deliberate and inexcusable defiance of the rule of law ... At the same time, they have gone to extreme lengths to punish

those who do the same thing, as demonstrated by the record numbers in all prisons, the fact that we have more life sentence prisoners than the rest of Europe added together, and that more than 3,000 new criminal offences have been introduced. What message does this attitude to the law send, not just to prisoners but to young people who may be tempted to turn to crime?’ .......................................................................... Her Majesty the Queen gave her assent to twenty Bills before the close of this session of Parliament on 12 April 2010, including the Sunbeds Regulation Act, the Anti Slavery Day Act, the Equality Act and even the Bournemouth Borough Council Act.

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t’s not often you can get the House of Lords to rock with laughter, particularly at 2.30 in the morning. But it did so when the lugubrious Lord Bach, the Justice Minister, stood up to tell their Lordships that the Government hadn’t enough time to consider an amendment to allow prisoners the vote.

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can explain why currently (12 April 2010) I have a foul smelling bucket in my cell? David Howarth MP, who raised the question in the House, might like to know that this practice is indeed against Article 8 and 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

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a voice for prisoners since 1990 the national newspaper for prisoners published by Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of New Bridge, a charity founded in 1956 to create links between the offender and the community.

On a final note, there are a further six prisons which still use buckets and a lot of prisoners, myself included, who have lodged claims to the County Courts.

Inside Time is wholly responsible for its editorial contents. All comments or any complaint should be directed to the Managing Editor and not to New Bridge.

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a not profit

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Serving to humiliate ....................................................

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Louise Shorter - Former producer, BBC Rough Justice programme. © © a E. Smith B.Sc F.C.A. a Alistair H. not not - Chartered profit profit Accountant, Trustee and Treasurer, New Bridge publication service Foundation.

I have just received a copy of Inside Time (March issue) and as I was flicking through the pages, I came across the ‘News from the House’ section and two words jumped out – Prisons: Sanitation. ‘Slopping out for normal prisoner accommodation, ie. using a bucket to urinate/defecate ended as official Prison Service practice on 12 April 1996’ claims Maria Eagle MP. Has she ever actually visited a prison, or is she just another Labour luvvie with her head in the collective cloud cuckoo land?

Trevor Grove - Former Editor Sunday Telegraph, Journalist, Writer and serving Magistrate. Geoff Hughes - Former Governor, Belmarsh prison.

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Slopping out is a reality and we still have to use buckets. We also have a night sanitation system which is like a lottery – it can take up to two hours to get out of our cells. Here at Long Lartin, A, B, C and D wings have slop-out buckets, including disabled prisoners. So if slopping-out ended as official Prison Service practice on 12 April 1996, perhaps Maria Eagle

n I am in a prison that has no in-cell sanitation and we are on the electronic unlocking system, but this does not resolve the issue as we still rely frequently on chamber pots/ buckets issued to us to use and have to slop-out when we finally get unlocked. Sometimes we can be unlocked straight away. But often you can’t even get into the queue to wait to be unlocked for 4–5 hours. This is further exacerbated when the ‘night san’ system is suspended by officers responding to situations where they have to enter a cell for some reason, e.g. a prisoner requesting a Listener; the system then remains suspended until the Listener is returned to their own cell. That is why prisoners are still throwing ‘shit parcels’ out of their windows. It may cause a health issue for the yard cleaners, but what of the health risk to prisoners having to be locked in with used pots? As David Howarth MP said, ‘the lack of in-cell sanitation only serves to humiliate rather than rehabilitate offenders’. It is for this reason that I have put in my claim against the Ministry of Justice as this is a health issue they should be addressing as a matter of urgency. News from the House page 38

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I write referring to the letter published in your April issue: ‘Putting the record straight’ by Max Szuca who says that he deserves compensation and that he has mixed feelings about abuse suffered in childhood. Maybe he is 100% innocent and maybe he is one of the unlucky ones, yet how does Max feel about those of us who are honest and true and seek compensation for totally f**ked up lives? I went to school to learn yet left with nothing and bounced from job to prison, prison to prison, because I was never able to put what happened to me to rest. Does anyone really think I am able to pull the wool over a psychologist’s eyes, a solicitor’s eyes, and if the defendant’s solicitor asks, over their professional eyes too? It’s not just about me finding some random solicitor offering to take on my claim, the solicitors who act for me (Abney Garsden and McDonald) have been very professional and in depth in their investigations. At first I wasn’t interested in the money that would get paid if I was successful. I wasn’t interested in criminal prosecutions. I wanted someone to own up and actually have the balls to admit it was their fault but the more they tried to slime out of it, the more determined I have become to seek justice and to get what is owed to me. Some children probably do lie about what happened to them and I have on many occasions been asked by people what they should say to get a claim, or what I said. I honestly don’t believe that anyone who is lying would ever get past the solicitors and I am sure any solicitor worth their salt would not pursue a claim they thought was not correct. I would never encourage anyone to make a false claim about childhood issues, due to what I went through as a child.

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Star Letter of the Month

conduct of MPs reference luxury jaunts to foreign countries serve to compel me to concur that Guy Fawkes was probably unique in entering Westminster with truly honourable intent!

Congratulations to Gerard McGrath who wins our £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter

‘By their fruits ye shall know them’ ...................................................

I venture to suggest that many fellow prisoners share my resentment that the like of Byers and Hoon have presumed to pontificate, legislate and judge. These serpentine self-evident crass hypocrites have less integrity than Attila the Hun. That they are not seeking to be re-elected does not speak to their lack of temerity, rather to their being compelled to conclude that for them the gravy-train has hit the buffers. Amen to that.

Gerard McGrath BA - HMP Haverigg I write this missive towards the end of March, in fact on the day following the expose by Channel 4 TV of politicians Byers, Hoon, Hewitt, et al in the matter of ‘Cash for Influence’, for if further empirical evidence was needed to demonstrate the avarice, paucity of ethics and sheer lack of integrity of these elected representatives of the people, Channel 4 journalists provided it. Ex-minister Byers quoted £3,000 to £5,000 as the daily fee for his services! He described himself as being: ‘A bit like a taxi for hire’. I can think of a more apt analogy but I do not wish to appear to impugn the comparative integrity of sex workers. Further revelations regarding the unethical

What might have been …

..................................................... Roger Stevenson - Sheffield In August 2009 I became involved again, after many years, with an old pal; a good man, a family man, a hard working individual, a guy who lived his life with care for his family and friends. I started visiting him in prison where he was on remand for murder. He then went to trial and was found guilty and I was there for the entire proceedings. Whilst visiting him in prison he recounted all the details of his story. It became obvious that although he had made an incredibly stupid decision, to which he readily admitted, there was no way he was guilty of murder. Absolutely no way he had killed anyone. Guilty by association of manslaughter, yes, but bludgeoning a man to death and then removing and burying the body, well no, a thousand times no. I had hoped that 12 good men and true would give a verdict ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’. I asked myself a hundred times, ‘did he do it’? Was my opinion of him biased because of our friendship? I analysed every thread of the situation. He was imprisoned initially on circumstantial evidence. No witnesses, no DNA, lots of issues that didn’t make sense and considering the physical aspects of the crime, and the time period involved, it was obvious he wasn’t the man responsible. Yet he is now at HMP Doncaster serving life for a murder allegedly committed in January 2009. An appeal is in progress and we are all praying for a successful outcome and therefore a hefty reduction in his sentence. In a way I feel ashamed that in the past, when I have read newspaper reports, I have condemned someone because of what I have read and I feel ashamed not to have given an ounce of thought towards the many individuals who have been wrongly convicted and are now in a prison cell with their thoughts of what might have been …

appended beside the name of any would-be MP of any party. Such is the extent of the disillusionment and cynicism politicians have engendered in me; and I’m a convicted felon! With no intended religious connotation, the biblical quote: ‘By their fruits ye shall know them ‘is something of a truism. Until such time as there is a root and branch reform incorporating an unambiguous, clearly defined, legally enforceable Parliamentary Code of Conduct and effective policing of it, I loudly echo: ‘A plague on all your houses.’

Image courtesy of The Week

By the time this (hopefully) goes to print in May, people will be on the verge of electing a new Parliament. In flagrant violation of the ruling of the European Court that, as a serving prisoner, I be allowed to vote, I remain denied the right to do so. However, had the outgoing government enacted the ruling of the European Court enabling me to vote, I doubt my ‘x’ would be

In President Abraham Lincoln’s brief but nonetheless erudite ‘Gettysburg Address’ he gave wise counsel as to governance. I deliberately do not quote his words in the probably vainglorious hope that any prospective MP, indeed any reader, who might peruse this letter can be troubled to refer to it and having given of their time what he/she reads will be indelibly imprinted on their social conscience. Of course this pre-supposes that prospective MPs are possessed of a social conscience; if Messrs Byers and Hoon are a yardstick, it is a forlorn hope.

If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (concise and clearly marked) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, if you have a query and for whatever reason do not wish your letter to be published in Inside Time or appear on the website, or yourself to be identified, please make this clear. We advise that wherever possible, when sending original documents such as legal papers, you send photocopies as we are unable to accept liability if they are lost. We may need to forward your letter and /or documents to Prison Service HQ or another appropriate body for comment or advice, therefore only send information you are willing to have forwarded on your behalf.

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Mailbag Contents

Mailbag ......................... pages 2-9 Newsround .............. pages 10-17 Health ....................... pages 18-20 Month by Month Rachel Billington ........... pages 21

Astrology .......................... page 22 Religions .......................... page 23 Interview .................. pages 24-25 Comment ................. pages 26-36

Benefits ... or lack of ‘em by Andy Thackwray ................................ pages 30-31

Short Story ................ page 37 News from the House .................................... pages 38-39 Legal Comment .. pages 40-42 Legal Advice .................... page 43

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enabling regime Behaviour and crimes influenced by Call ..................................................... Howard Woodin - HMP Wayland childhood abuse? ..................................................... Chris Denning - Slovakia I was surprised, if not shocked, to read solicitor Peter Garsden’s so called ‘response’ in the March issue of Inside Time (Influenced by Inner Anger) to my earlier article containing, in my view, blatant discrimination. He claims that it is a ‘fallacy’ that advertising for child abuse cases provokes false allegations. How on earth could he know? False claimants presumably don’t turn up and announce they’ve come to perjure themselves! They just need to make accusations. Indeed Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, himself once warned that child abuse allegations ‘were easy to make and might be motivated by claims for compensation’. In fact I know of one such notorious case personally, in which two men claimed to the police that, as boys, they took part in an ‘orgy’ at my house with me and numerous other famous men. However, the orgy was alleged to have taken place two years or so before I actually bought or moved into the house in question. I also had never met the majority of the supposed participants – and mostly they hadn’t met each other either. Therefore on this occasion it was easy to disprove the accusations and the police threw the case out. But what if I had already moved into the house? And what if the other men and I did know each other, albeit innocently? What’s the betting we would have been convicted? British juries are not known for generously acquitting historic sex case defendants, whether there is evidence or not. In my own case, the Judge specifically stated that it was to my credit that absolutely no threat, violence or coercion of any kind was ever used; and in the Czech Republic in 2000, the Judge at the Prague District Court referred to the youngsters involved as my ‘accomplices’. Today, as adults, they still remain my friends. Another point I would raise is how anyone can possibly ‘realise’, as Mr Garsden apparently believes they can, that a lot of their behaviour and crimes are influenced by childhood abuse? This is an oft quoted but absurd and impossible claim to substantiate, for who can possibly say whether any given psychological problem, if one actually exists, has been caused by any particular set of circumstances, e.g. rape, sexual assault, the break-up of a loving relationship, the death of a parent, the parent’s divorce, bullying or whatever and, if so, which one is a pre-existing internal problem? Finally, in an outburst which gives away what I suspect is Mr Garsden’s homophobia, he goes on to state that disclosing ‘in intimate detail, homosexual activity between two men is not a pleasant experience’. As someone who has been happily and openly homosexual since before I was even a teenager; despite the behaviour being viciously suppressed by the State for most of my life; I find this a deeply insulting remark.

Whilst at both Swaleside and Gartree in 2005-2006 I asked to go on call barring instead of call enabling ; the difference being that on call enabling you have to give phone numbers on a list to go on a pin, yet with call barring you can ring all numbers except barred ones.

Here at Wayland I have been informed that if I wish to add numbers on call enabling more than once a month I will be charged a pound; therefore I would like to know whether I can return to call barring as I am under none of the restrictions as in PSO 4400 not to go on call barring. I also question the decision to place a restriction (ten minutes) on the length of a call to my legal adviser.

Writes >> Mr Woodin wishes to be placed on call barring pinphone regime rather than the call enabling regime which is in operation at Wayland. The Prison Service Order does allow for an entire establishment or parts of the prison to be placed on a call enabling regime where there is an operational need to do so. Wayland have confirmed that the application of call enabling across the prison has played a significant part in achieving its current position in terms of reduced illegal drug supply and in addressing public protection issues. A call enabling regime ensures that the numbers being dialled are both approved and appropriate for that prisoner. Wayland has seen a recent and significant increase in prisoners serving indeterminate public protection sentences, which further strengthens the argument for adopting a universal call enabling regime. Furthermore, it is the strongly held view of Wayland that any move to introduce call barring would lead to a significant increase in the level of bullying - with prisoners intimidating others in order to gain unrestricted telephone access.

Digital TV targets

..................................................... Kevin Skaith - HMP Whatton I read with a sense of regret, but no real surprise, the response by the Ministry of Justice to the letter ‘Access to digital system’ (Inside Time March issue). It would appear that the introduction of digital TV to the prison estate is to be targeted at the tabloid-generated stereotypical convict, whose sole interests consist of sport, soap and sex. It is clear that the four additional channels we are to receive have been selected to keep the noisier element of the prison system happy, whilst avoiding the damaging tabloid headlines of a multi-channel ‘life of luxury’ enjoyed in prison. Sky Sports News will provide up-to-date sporting stories.TMF will keep the younger element of the prison population visually entertained. Film 4 will supply a diverse selection of movies; cutting out the need for prisons to provide DVDs, while ITV3, which is ITV’s tame repeat channel, will provide vintage comedy, drama and cheap US imports. While acknowledging that to allow all the Freeview channels would be a step towards a couch potato prison population, there are several available channels that meet the criterion of being ‘educational’, and would be welcomed by the ‘non-average criminal’.

As part of the case in support of call barring, Mr Woodin states that he will be charged an administrative fee for adding numbers to his pin account. However, Wayland does not charge any prisoner for changes to their pin account numbers.

As a prisoner who picks up a book rather than a TV remote, I would welcome a channel like ‘Yesterday’ or BBC4. Having had my education course cut and the facility to order educational DVDs through the library curtailed; access to one or two educational TV channels would have helped fill the gap created by the financial failures of the prison system.

Finally, Mr Woodin questions the decision to place a restriction on the length of a call to his legal adviser. NOMS policy is to ensure that as many prisoners as possible who wish to use the telephone are able to do so. To achieve this, the pinphone system can be configured locally in such a way that restricts the maximum length of one call, the time between successive calls, and the maximum number of calls or total call time in any single day.

I would also remind politicians reading this letter that their popularity with the public is at an all time low. Surely the inclusion of BBC Parliament into a system that offers limited choice would increase the likelihood of their work being viewed and, ultimately, their contributions to the country acknowledged. After all, ex-cons do have the right to vote although many (myself included) will need a great deal of encouragement to exercise that right.

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‘Prisoners the golden nuggets’

..................................................... Brian Hosie - HMP Glenochil In November 2006 I was remanded to HMP Barlinnie for essentially a verbal ‘breach of the peace’ with the usual hyperbolic wordplay designed to demonise. Suffice to say my lifer licence was revoked and it was while in Barlinnie I began to see my predicament and that of other prisoners in a different light. I started to see the penal system from an economic perspective. The man who shared my cell in Barlinnie was serving six months for a £3 jar of coffee. This one cell of two men alone cost around £1,600 per week to the taxpayer. As I looked closer at the men all around me, I found that my cell-mate and myself were not exceptional cases. Everywhere there were men serving time for the most trivial of offences. The place was also bursting with men having had their licences revoked for nothing other than arousing the ire of some chinless social worker. As it costs only £12.50 weekly to feed a prisoner (official figure), one can be excused for asking, in these harsh economic times, exactly into what black hole all this money is vanishing? Having served over three years for my verbal indiscretion (while inebriated) I was on leave from Castle Huntly open estate to a Glasgow hostel. I was reported by the worthies who run this place of smelling of alcohol and being forty minutes late on my 11pm curfew - hardly a hanging offence! To my peril I have incurred the wrath of the penal managers. I have been told I’ll not be eligible to return to the open estate for another six months, which in reality means this non-crime misdemeanour will cost me around another year. By the time I am released, if all goes well, I’ll have served over four years for a verbal indiscretion at the cost of well over £100k to the exploited long-suffering taxpayer. I emphasise the point I am only one prisoner and there are very many like me. The man I presently share with is also a recall and he’ll serve out the rest of his sentence. This man’s index offence was a tragic car accident. I am no economist but it seems the penal system is nothing other than a form of degenerative communism where the private and state sectors collude to earn money out of people’s misfortune; partly the reason for Britain’s bulging prison numbers. The penal system in reality is a multi-billion pound business scam, and prisoners the golden nuggets.

‘Fighting violence with violence!’

I have been told that I can’t see my page 16 for some reason, is that right? If so, how do we know what has been written on our wing history?

Ross MacPherson - HMYOI Swinfen Hall Following on from the excellent letter by John Bowden in your March issue (Institutionalised Child Abuse) it is a sad fact that a high number of juveniles can’t read and write and have no faith whatsoever in the internal complaints system or so-called ‘concerned’ bodies; IMB, YJB etc, and I don’t blame them. They always thought I was lying and that staff wouldn’t assault me, or I’m just getting back at them for doing their job. Most staff I came across (over ten establishments) in the juvenile estate (15– 18 year-olds) were in my view nothing but bullies whose sole purpose seemed to be to come to work and abuse children; knowing they could hide behind the uniform. I spent a lot of my time, and still do, in care and separation units (not sure where the ‘care’ comes into it) being ‘restrained’. On just about every occasion the ‘nose distraction technique’ was used, which does nothing but give staff the right to stick a finger up each nostril, pull your nose back and punch you in the face while six fully grown men pin you down; and this in the name of ‘control’ and ‘for my safety’. These ‘techniques’ are supposed to be reserved safety techniques. So from my personal experience, using them on a regular basis did nothing but make me immune to them. Today they can use them all they like, I just laugh. I can only breathe out of one nostril as a result of these techniques and looking at the FOI requests made by John Bowden it’s getting worse. All it does, as John so rightly pointed out, is reinforce the lesson that power equals violence and brutality. And the same institution that teaches this lesson wonders why there is such a high level of youth knife crime. I’m not surprised these kids go on to join gangs and participate in acts of extreme violence and see no wrong doing. The screws have been getting away with it for years and let’s not forget it’s the POA who have been calling for batons to be used on kids because staff are getting assaulted. What do they expect? They are doing what they teach them - fighting violence with violence. It’s about time someone stuck up for these kids. I’d like to thank John for his article and urge anyone to express their thoughts on this subject; I would be interested to hear from them. Please write to: Ross MacPherson A6791AD HMYOI Swinfen Hall, Lichfield, WS14 9QS

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Writes IPP transfers ..................................................... Name supplied - HMP Wealstun I’m an IPP prisoner and want to know if it’s true that all IPP transfers have got to be passed or go through the Home Office before you can be moved, unlike normal prisoners who can be moved straight away. If it’s true then why have you got to have prior approval from the Home Office? Also, whether prisoners are allowed to see their electronic wing history files and, if not,

>> In most cases, there is no requirement for the prison to consult with the Public Protection Casework Unit (PPCS) or other agencies prior to any transfer. However, the PPCS and Parole Board are regularly updated regarding an IPP prisoner’s situation, regardless of any movements. An IPP prisoner’s offender manager would, however, be routinely consulted and involved in arrangements related to a transfer. All prisoners have the right to access their wing records. They can request a hard copy from their personal officer or wing senior officer. The wing staff will print the relevant information from the NOMS computer system, sanitising any sections that identify a third party or necessarily confidential information.

A contributor not a destroyer ........................................................................................................ Ross Faulkner - HMP Guys Marsh I’ve served three years and eight months of an IPP with a three-year tariff. I actually support the IPP idea and needed something like this to stop my insane behaviour involving social anger, drink driving and drug abuse. I hated my life and being angry all the time and lying to myself to justify things. Most of us are selfish or angry individuals who have lied to justify damaging behaviour and caused misery and suffering. There is a lot of ignorance but also a lot of enlightened individuals who have actually found freedom by going to prison. Freedom from a life they could not see beyond; from denial; from anger and suffering and destructive living. Prison has given me and many people freedom. That is what prison is giving us today, not the Gulag style dungeon that Mr Harrington (March issue) professes we deserve. Beating a dog will not make the dog or the beater of the dog live in harmony. ‘Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding, compassion and love’. (Albert Einstein).

.................................................................................................................. Douglas Finden - formerly HMP Elmley

n In May 2007 I was charged with GBH after an argument with my neighbour and sentenced to 19 months IPP. My sentence plan included two courses (ETS and CALM), and I went on the waiting list. In the meantime I put in for other courses to fill my stay. I was running round filling out applications for all the courses going. In all, I had about ten certificates to present to the Parole Board. I had a job and worked hard and because the officers saw that I was enthusiastic and hard working they put me forward for a red band job. I had regular negative MDT and VDTs which were all logged. Eventually, after serving 34 months, I went before the Parole Board and they admitted that I had done very well and would let me know their decision within 14 days. Nearly three weeks passed and I got my result … release in ten days, no D cat! So I am saying to all IPP prisoners that if you want to get out you must not waste any time: do all you possibly can and then some more - it certainly worked for me. The Politics of IPP page 13

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Mailbag

If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.

‘Cast from a different mould they say’ .......................................................................................................

word, we merely have a way that works for us. If anyone can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him.

Matthew Chadwick - Lancashire

Finally, Mr Hanson claims that …’An AA meeting is essentially a devotional service. The Higher Power receives worship, confession is heard, and the group invokes the serenity prayer and the Lord’s Prayer’.

Isn’t it nice being able to walk around the prison being yourself and not having to hide behind a mask? Looking fellow prisoners in the eye and exchanging pleasantries as you pass and not having to keep your head down as you shuffle through the corridors; dreading that you might be singled out and bullied, or at worst attacked. This is all very well if you conform to the stereotype of a ‘normal prisoner’. However, this is largely a dream scenario for many of your peers. Why? They don’t conform … they are cast from a different mould… they are gay. If you are openly gay, the likelihood in most prisons is that you will be advised to go under the protection of Rule 45. Although the comparative safety this affords may allow prisoners to feel secure being themselves, it does nothing to combat the bigotry and prejudice that is inherent in every establishment around the country. Only integration and a zero-tolerance stance on any form of bullying (including perceived) from prisoners and staff will break down barriers. Just because the prisoner may be gay that should not automatically make them vulnerable. Rule 45 should be on offer but not a necessity.

‘Bad character’

Ban Catholic priests

Alan Gatenby - HMP Leeds

David Baker - HMP Frankland

I was watching ‘This Morning’ on TV and saw poor James Bulger’s mother saying the Government won’t tell her why Venables has been recalled in case it prejudices the jury and gives him an unfair trial. Well, can I just say two words; ‘bad character’. Surely this applies to this case more than any, or do psychopaths get anonymity from this law too?

I write in response to the contribution that features in your March issue by David Palmer, co-ordinating Catholic Chaplain at HMP Lindholme, who advocates the banning of all pornographic magazines within HMPS because in his view, ‘they turn human beings into sex objects rather than recognising their humanity’.

.....................................................

I have been arrested for a few things where there has been very little evidence but I’ve pleaded guilty because they did ‘bad character’. Now I’m not complaining, because most of the time I was guilty, but I just want to know if they are going to use it and if not, why not? On a final note about people who say Thompson and Venables were aged ten and didn’t know it was wrong; well, I was about eight and knocked off school and was scared to go home because I knew I’d done wrong and I knew if I got a smack it would hurt – so they knew what they were doing. When I finish my sentence I’ll get £48 discharge grant; Thompson and Venables got new lives, bank accounts and new identities. James Bulger’s mother got a life sentence of pain. I think she has earned the right to know why Venables has been recalled to prison.

.....................................................

People who pose in pornographic magazines have a clear choice, to pose or not to pose. They are adults and if they so wish, can say ‘no’; just like we have the choice to view or not to view. If Mr Palmer is truly concerned about humans being turned into sex objects then he should tackle his own church because as we now know, thousands of children worldwide have been abused by Catholic priests who never had the choice about being turned into sex objects. And when this abuse became known to the Catholic hierarchy it was blatantly covered up. Mr Palmer says that the Director of Dovegate should ban all porn magazines. Personally, I would ban all Catholic priests - as they have proven to be far more dangerous than any magazine!

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Embracing hope with open arms .................................................... Laurie Andrews - Essex I write in response to the article by Charles Hanson that features in your April issue: ‘A purveyor of myths and propaganda’, wherein he asserts that AA is not what it claims itself to be and disputes the concept by AA that alcoholism is a disease. The AA position is in fact that the issue of a medical determination of a disease is something on which AA could not have a position. Many AA members lazily call alcoholism a disease, but they’re amateurs. AA’s General Service Conference does not; so why look in the crystal ball when you can read the book? Charles Hanson says …‘Nowhere has it been proven that a disease exists’. Alcoholism is not a disease; it is a series of linked events regarding the problems caused by alcohol … the diseases (sic) where alcohol is the causal process and those diseases where it is part of the causal process. He then goes on to say … ‘AA’s outlandish claim that the 12-Step programme is the only true and effective way to bring about sobriety’. The AA position is that upon therapy for the alcoholic we surely have no monopoly. By no means do we offer (our approach) as the last

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The AA position is that the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. It follows that any group that required attenders to worship God, ‘confess’ (as in religion) or say prayers is not an AA group. The prayers are optional; I’m a life-time agnostic and don’t say them. Charles, who’s the purveyor of myths here? Clearly AA is not what you claim it to be!

....................................................... Kirsty Lacey- HMP Send n The more I read of Charles Hanson’s article on the AA the angrier I became. He is of course fully entitled to an opinion, however it’s apparent that he has no idea of addiction nor does he fully understand what is involved; so what qualifies him to write such an article?

....................................................... David Southern - HMP Preston

n Can I offer my appreciation to Charles Hanson for his painstaking yet totally fruitless investigation of Alcoholics Anonymous? I am one of those responsibility shirking addicts with the ‘disease’ and was intrigued by his write-up and lack of understanding. Hopefully, life experience makes us more than qualified to voice a view and my comments are for those who have had the guts to attend 12-step, cognitive or even religious programmes designed to enable them to transform their lives. We are all individuals with powers of choice and if a person finds a solution then good luck to them; and if it gives them hope and encourages change then let’s embrace it with open arms.

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Mailbag

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7

complainers ‘I wish the State Prolific ..................................................... Roger Gleaves - HMP Maidstone to kill me’ ..................................................... Name Supplied - HMP Albany I am a discretionary lifer halfway through my tariff. Rather than plod on as one of the ‘walking dead’, or further fuel the retribution brigade, I offer, as others have done, just kill us outright. Make it voluntary, after the tariff is served.

Travel restrictions .................................................... Peter Venables - HMYOI Swinfen Hall Please could you tell me if, when I’m out of prison on licence: 1. There is ever the possibility of me living or going on holiday to America? 2. I am an IPP prisoner but should have received a DPP due to being aged 17. If I receive a DPP sentence, does this give more sway as it is a juvenile sentence? 3. If I invested £125,000 in America does this allow me a business visa, despite my criminal record? 4. If I married an American woman, would I be allowed to live over there?

Writes Mr Venables is currently serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), with a minimum tariff of 1 year and 359 days to serve before he can apply for release on licence. An IPP sentence means he will remain in custody until the Parole Board are satisfied that his risks can be safely managed in the community. Once granted release by the Parole Board, Mr Venables will be supervised by an Offender Manager under the conditions of his release licence. Release licence for all IPP prisoners will remain in place for a minimum of 10 years, after the minimum 10 year supervision period an offender can apply to the Parole Board to have the licence removed. A standard

condition of any IPP release licence would be not to travel abroad without the prior permission of the offender manager; this may only be granted in exceptional circumstances. Mr Venables may face restrictions on his travel abroad whilst he is on licence supervision in the community, this will be decided by his offender manager. Even if he is successful in getting his licence removed after the minimum period of 10 years, some countries may have entry restrictions upon ex-offenders for certain offences and this may affect his application for a travel visa to that country. For further advice/ information we would suggest that he write to or contact the US embassy in London: 24-31 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 1AE. He may continue to appeal against his sentence or conviction regardless of whether he has been released from custody or not and this should have no bearing on his appeal. Should his sentence be quashed, Mr Venables would no longer be subject to licence supervision and be free to travel abroad. Mr Venables’ sentence may also be reduced to a determinate sentence for public protection (DPP) following appeal. A DPP sentence is made up of a custodial element, which must be served in custody in full before being automatically released. It will also comprise of a licence period, both elements to be set by the Judge. During the licence period the same travel restrictions apply to both IPP and DPP licences. The difference being that a DPP licence will have a set sentence expiry date, when the licence will no longer be in force and the travel restrictions will no longer be in place.

I accept there are lifers who still follow the promise of release sometime in the future. Ditto some, and I stress some, will get released, usually past their tariff, sentenced by the back door and having served at least double the tariff served up by the judge. Everyone knows prison does not work and never will, so why mess about with false, malicious lies of release that may never occur and instead allow what is in effect voluntary euthanasia. The choice of a right to live is taken by the individual and the death carried out by the State. Or if one wishes to return to the spectacle of a good hanging then do so in public; possibly let loose on the vigilantes (understandable as their fears are) beforehand, when these ‘parents’ have not looked in the mirror to see who is the next ‘paedophile’ rather than this archetypal media myth creation. I will get released as a 60-plus year-old and as a lifer need ‘approved premises’; euphemism for a hostel. If I fart in a manner that ‘offends a third party’ I can be recalled under the general terms of my licence, i.e. ‘behaviour that is likely to cause concern.’ And we all know the reality of the 28 day review in theory. However, let us retain the ‘half glass full’ mentality and getting through the hostel and onto the next stage (accommodation). I am sure probation will place me in a decent neighbourhood; no drugs or needles in evidence and pleasant green areas full of trees and plants. I for one am refusing to ‘play the game’ any longer and simply wish the State to kill me and save the taxpayer thousands of pounds in the process.

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I write reference the ‘Restriction on Complaints’ contribution in the March issue from your indefatigable correspondent Howard Woodin and consider the response from the Ministry of Justice to be in part erroneous. PSO 2510 states that a restriction can be placed upon a prolific ‘complainer’ of only processing ‘one complaint from him …per day’. It does not state that this can include appeals, in fact I am quite certain that in 2004, the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman ruled that appeals do not constitute a complaint within the limits of PSO 2510; so when was this new interpretation devised by the Ministry of Justice, and when/how was it publicised?

Writes We can confirm that current policy as detailed in PSO 2510 gives authority to prisons to manage cases where prisoners continually abuse the complaints procedures on an individual basis. The PSO gives examples of how to handle such instances, subject to the proviso that a prisoner’s right to make a complaint is in no case completely withdrawn. One of the examples given is to restrict the prisoner to one complaint per day. The PSO does not state that in such instances, appeals to existing complaints would be exempt from this restriction. As such, governors are fully entitled to take account of the number of appeals that have been submitted when determining whether or not to impose restrictions. It is right that governors have the ability to place restrictions on those prisoners who persist in submitting an excessive number of complaints. Such an approach preserves the balance of a prisoner’s right to submit a complaint against a governor’s responsibility to ensure that the complaints system in his / her establishment is available, effective and that it offers a timely response for all other prisoners who may wish to use it.

Give yourself the best chance When it comes to seeking legal advice, give yourself an advantage and talk to one of the regions largest specialist Criminal Defence and Prison Law teams. With a wealth of experience and technical knowhow, we can represent you on Adjudications, Parole Hearings (Lifer, IPP, and Determinate sentence prisoners), Licence Recalls or Categorisation issues and claims for Unlawful Detention, as well as advice on claims for Judicial Review. Whatever the matter, we can provide you with excellent, effective advice or representation. Contact Rob Smith on 01782 324454 for a free, impartial consultation. 88-90 The Strand, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 2BP 25 Wardwick, Derby, DE1 1HA Offices in: Burton upon Trent Derby Leicester Stoke-on-Trent Swadlincote

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Mailbag

Punished twice for the same offence

..................................................... Dean Williams - HMP Holme House Are Holme House breaching our rights whereby when we get a positive MDT we lose days and get CC, and then when we come out of the block we are reduced to basic level regime. Should we be punished twice for the same offence?

Writes We can confirm that any award given as part of the adjudication procedures is completely separate from any action taken as part of the IEP policy, prior to automatic regression by one level where this involves Class A, Class B drug or Brupernorphine forming part of our IEP policy. We took advice from the policy lead who advised that the IEP policy is an administrative procedure and, as such, it runs separately from adjudication policy which is a disciplinary procedure therefore the double jeopardy rule does not come into force. Holme House prison is committed to reducing the supply and use of drugs within the prisoner population and to achieve this, various methods are used - the IEP policy being one of them. IEP Review Boards should view favourably those prisoners who demonstrate commitment to remaining drug free by repeated negative drug tests and participation with compliance testing. Adjudication for a positive MDT will automatically trigger a review board and may result in a prisoner being moved to basic regime if other negative factors accompanied by a behaviour warning are recorded in the prison’s wing file and Case Notes, regardless of their previous regime level. Where this involves a Class A, Class B drug or Brupernorphine, regression by one level will be the norm unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’. For Class C drugs, it should be considered along with the prisoner’s overall behaviour.

If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.

Life or death lottery The vanishing Private cash ..................................................... allowances Tina Cameron - HMP directive ..................................................... William McDonagh - HMP Belmarsh I would like to raise the issue of the amount of private cash that Standard and Enhanced prisoners are allowed here at Belmarsh. A notice was displayed recently that advised private cash now allowed is: Standard £12.50 and Enhanced £20. Surely this cannot be right and in keeping with prison policy? Canteen prices are always going up and now with this new development of a drop in private cash available it is going to cause a number of problems.

Writes The policy in PSI 30/2008 Prisoners’ Private Cash dated 4 August 2008 states that the mandatory private cash allowances (weekly amount) are set out below. The weekly amount relates to the three levels of the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme:

Unconvicted

Convicted

Basic Standard Enhanced

£22.00 £47.50 £51.00

£4.00 £15.50 £25.50

On behalf of Mr McDonagh, we contacted HMP Belmarsh who confirmed that the prison are adhering to the mandatory actions set out in the PSI 30/2008. However, if Mr McDonagh is still concerned that the correct weekly private cash allowance is not being transferred into his spends account then we suggest he raises this through the local complaints procedure.

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The inconsistencies which are prevalent, and indeed disturbingly frequent, that I have witnessed since entering a female prison for the first time in ten years is baffling.

Vincent King - HMP Gartree

Beginning with perhaps the most important, as it can literally be a matter of life and death, is the problem of healthcare. I have witnessed an array of incompetency and deliberate abuse of position which is staggering. One woman was overdosed to such an extent that her eyesight was affected. It is still not known if this will be permanent. Whilst at the same time, a doctor told a distraught prisoner he would not ‘poison’ her by giving her medication, which she had been prescribed by her own doctor for over ten years. When she protested he added, ‘You are just like all of them in here putting on the tears and laughing as you go out the door’. So much for treating each patient as an individual case with their own specific needs! Many women find the convoluted system of applications to be referred through nurses, in their own time, to the doctors as so frustrating as to not be worth the effort and are left to suffer as no-one with any modicum of human rights should have to. Also, whilst on the subject, the current policy in this privately run prison is that, whilst on remand, and therefore strictly speaking still not found guilty of anything, one is not entitled to any dental care and I was informed, when I applied to see a dentist, that as I was not entitled I should ask the nurse for pain relief if I really needed it. This turned out to be one paracetamol per day for a total of two days only. When women do try to follow procedure and put in written complaints, the replies would be pure comedy if not for the gravity of the situation. One nurse in particular, already sacked from a government run prison, was reported to approach two women on separate occasions in private in their cells and asked them not to continue with their complaint procedures. How is this unprofessional behaviour allowed to continue? There is no secret made of how people are treated and therefore left feeling. It’s a standing joke amongst prisoners and even many of the officers would agree. If such a degree of incompetence were shown in any other setting the majority of people would be appalled, but it would appear that it is not enough to lose our liberty as we expect, but also we must sit back and take part in a life or death lottery with our health. Is this just?

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Whilst located at HMP Manchester (20032006) I was paid one pound per week for being on and maintaining my enhanced status. I was given to understand that this directive had come from the Home Office. However, if this directive has indeed been decreed by the Home Office, and addressed to the Prison Service as a whole, then why, upon arrival here at Gartree, was I told by staff on the induction wing that there is no such directive or instruction in operation within this establishment? Was HMP Manchester given a different directive or PSO that allowed them to qualify for this incentive to prisoners to maintain enhanced status? Are all HMPS establishments to come under this Home Office directive umbrella, or is it a decision made by each individual prison?

Writes Current policy guidance is provided in Prison Service Order (PSO) 4460. The Prison Service sets the minimum rates of pay but pay schemes and rates of pay which operate in establishments are a matter for the local senior management team who must ensure their local pay policy is fair, open, balanced and affordable. The policy also allows governors to link pay to the local IEP scheme. Mr. King’s letter indicates that at his previous establishment the local pay scheme was linked to IEP. As already stated above, the way in which pay schemes are devised and managed is at the discretion of each individual Governor. In this instance, the senior management team at HMP Gartree have decided not to link IEP to the local pay scheme and this is permitted within the policy set out in PSO 4460.

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providing constructive regimes which address offending behaviour and improve educational and work skills; thus reducing the likelihood of re-offending upon release. NOMS is committed to helping prisoners to improve their literacy and numeracy by providing access to education and training to acquire new skills.

Use of computers ..................................................... Peter Barratt - Devon My son is currently at Isle of Wight prison (Albany) where it would appear they have stopped the use of computers for inmates; many of them are studying for Open University courses. Prisoners need the use of computers inside the prison and have been allowed to use them in the past, yet now no more using the computers despite some studying for their final year to gain a degree in their chosen subject. Certain prisoners are of course maintaining their innocence and it appears to me that this prison puts obstacles in the way of men who go all out to improve themselves and, without the prison’s help, successfully manage to gain these courses. Why stop the use of computers? It beggars belief. Of course these concerns will be sent to the Ministry of Justice for their input and doubtless Inside Time will receive the standard, preprinted report that ‘governors have the right to run the prison as they wish’. It is surely about time that someone, somewhere in government be given the power to investigate things that go on inside our prisons and right the wrongs that have been put in place.

Writes We should first of all explain that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) attaches the utmost importance to ensuring that prisoners are treated decently, humanely and lawfully within prison environments, and to

METCALFE COPEMAN & PETTEFAR SOLICITORS

We can confirm that prisoners undertaking OU courses at Albany do in fact have access to computers on the wings in addition to support sessions available in education during the week. There are plans in place to improve access to information technology (IT) for learners which will involve a number of internal agencies and peer workers. Furthermore, a group of prisoners have recently completed a course delivered by the Prisoners Education Trust that will enable them to support their peers in terms of OU courses. Albany is also in the process of extending IT facilities in the library area. Turning to the concern that prisons are not regulated, we can assure Mr Barratt that there are a number of ways in which prisons are monitored, with the welfare of prisoners a prime concern. Every prison in England and Wales has an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) in place to safeguard both the wellbeing and rights of prisoners and IMB members are allowed unhindered access to every prisoner and every part of the prison at any time and also to the prison’s records. Boards submit reports to the Home Secretary annually in which they raise any concerns they may have had during the previous year. In addition to this, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales independently scrutinises prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners, promoting the concept of healthy prisons in which staff work effectively to support prisoners to reduce reoffending in a decent, humane and lawful manner. As another safeguard, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigates complaints from prisoners and those subject to probation supervision. Prisoners are also permitted to correspond with their Member of Parliament or legal representative should they have any concerns. We hope that the above reassures Mr Barratt and Inside Time readers that staff at Isle of Wight prison (Albany) strive to offer a good service to all prisoners and that there are systems in place to ensure their just and humane treatment. Ben’s Blog page 33

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Double jeopardy Why the UK ..................................................... exception? ..................................................... Writes an In his letter in the February issue of Inside Time, Aaron Nicholls at HMP Full Sutton wrote that the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) had upheld his complaint because he had received an IEP warning and was subsequently placed on report for the same incident. Therefore, the PPO deemed that he had been subject to ‘double jeopardy’. It is important to clarify that the adjudication process and the IEP scheme are two separate systems. The adjudication process helps maintain order and discipline within a prison and the IEP scheme rewards positive behaviour and active engagement in the regime, and removes privileges where behaviour fails to meet expected standards. Legal advice was sought to clarify the situation and the advice received stated that the situation as described cannot amount to double jeopardy in law. The withdrawal of a level of privilege following an IEP review is different in nature from the imposition of a punishment for an offence. The policy on IEP is set out in PSO 4000, and the alteration of the prisoner’s status under that policy is not an outcome open to a governor/adjudicator when determining a disciplinary offence, even though a punishment for a disciplinary offence may be deprivation of one or more component elements of privilege listed in an IEP level. Alteration of IEP status involves a more rounded consideration of the prisoner’s behaviour with the aim of encouraging positive behaviour and discouraging negative behaviour. We cannot comment on the particular circumstances of Mr Nicholls’s case but what is clear is that the PPO’s recommendation in this case did not amount to a general view that the combined use of both the IEP and discipline schemes in relation to a single incident is necessarily an inappropriate response, as the appropriate action to take will clearly be dependent upon the circumstances of each individual case. We will be reminding Governors and Directors that they may, where it is appropriate and proportionate to do so, continue to consider utilising both the IEP and discipline processes in relation to a single incident.

Christopher Pollock - HMP Birmingham

I would like to know why prisoners in England and Wales are not permitted conjugal visits when this practice is widespread in other European countries. Indeed, whilst spending some time in a Spanish jail, such visits were recognised as being important to the family unit. I do not agree that public confidence would be affected by untried prisoners being granted conjugal visits, nor that major cultural and practical changes would be required, which has been the stance adopted by the Ministry of Justice. It would however pave the way for when the prison service in England and Wales finally has to come into line with Europe.

Writes While we can understand Mr Pollock’s frustration over this subject, we must inform your readers that prisons here in England and Wales do not permit private or conjugal visits and there are currently no plans to change this position despite the approach taken by other European countries. Our position on this is due to the need to restrict prisoners’ activities and freedom of association in a way which maintains the effectiveness of imprisonment and the criminal justice system and sustains public confidence. Moreover, the introduction of conjugal visits would require major cultural and practical changes at a time when resources are directed at providing for an increased prison population and activities and programmes which impact more tangibly on objectives set by the National Offender Management Service.

Rest in peace

................................................. Ken Watson - HMP Maidstone An insert in your May issue please as a tribute to James Ingram, known as ‘Belfast Jimmy’, a prisoner at Maidstone who passed away on 8th April at Kings College Hospital in London after a long illness and who will be sadly missed by his friends, family and prison staff.

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If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB.

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Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org Inspectors were also concerned that first night arrangements needed improvement; it was unclear that staff were properly implementing violence reduction and suicide prevention procedures, although their overall management had improved considerably.

The Inspector calls ... Taken from the most recent of Chief Inspector of Prisons Dame Anne Owers’ inspection reports, Inside Time highlights areas of good and bad practice, along with a summary of prisoner survey responses, at HMYOI Hindley, HMP Durham and HMP The Mount

Relationships between prisoners and staff were easygoing but with little evidence that staff were proactively dealing with or engaging with prisoners; and there were not enough activity places and those that existed were not effectively utilised, with only two-thirds of work and education places filled.

Hindley indicate that:

HMYOI Hindley

Inspection 19-23 October 2009 Report published 26 March 2010 Hindley, now the largest closed children’s prison in Western Europe, had made impressive progress in its first six months, though more remained to be done. Inspectors found that safeguarding arrangements were among the best and most innovative seen, with strong support from Wigan Social Services, though progress was at risk due to uncertainty over future funding of in-house social workers. Support for young people at risk of suicide or self-harm was described as ‘caring’, though processes required improvement; and approaches to address bullying and behaviour management required further development, but there were good initiatives to deal with gang issues and the small living units helped supervision. Inspectors were pleased to see that staff interacted well with young people, with an impressive personal officer scheme for work with the youngest boys; race issues were well managed and work on learning disabilities was outstanding, though other aspects of diversity needed development. Healthcare was excellent; most young people spent plenty of time out of cell and had good access to educational and vocational training opportunities; and resettlement services were good, particularly work to maintain family ties. Prisoner survey responses to questionnaires returned by 97 prisoners at HMYOI

38% have no religion; 90% can shower every day; 60% said their cell call bell was not normally answered within five minutes; 23% said they don’t know how to make a complaint; 58% had been placed on adjudication since arriving at Hindley; 57% had health problems upon arrival: 78% said there was a member of staff they could turn to for help with a problem; 77% were given information about the PINphone system upon arrival; 36% had problems with drugs when they first arrived; 90% said it was easy to make an application.

Prisoner survey responses to questionnaires returned by 116 prisoners at HMP Durham indicate that: 16% were being held on licence recall; 19% considered they had a disability; 46% had been in prison more than five times previously; 62% have children under the age of 18; 30% said it was difficult to communicate with their solicitor or legal representative; 35% said the food was bad; 28% had no religion; 46% had been in prison more than 5 times previously; 62% said they had been treated fairly in their experience of the IEP Scheme; 19% said they had been victimised by a member of staff or group of staff.

HMP Durham

Inspection 12–16 October 2009 Report published 25 March 2010 HMP Durham was described by inspectors as ‘relatively safe’ but illicit drug use was high and arrangements for the high proportion of prisoners on the integrated drug treatment programme were unsatisfactory.

.....................................................

Over a quarter of prisoners were on IDTS and receiving methadone. Methadone administration dominated the prison’s regime, with insufficient administration points, difficulties for those on IDTS to attend activities and problems in moving those prisoners on to training prisons. In spite of IDTS, the availability of illicit drugs was high, with nearly one in four prisoners testing positive.

HMP The Mount

Inspection 19-23 October 2009 Report published 30 March 2010

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However, inspectors were pleased to see that the supply of drugs into the prison had been reduced and there was good support for prisoners who had used drugs; procedures for supporting those at risk of suicide and self-harm were good; staff-prisoner relationships at a one-to-one level were relaxed; there was sufficient work and education for the population and it was generally high quality with opportunities for prisoners to gain vocational qualifications; and resettlement provision was reasonable, with good work on accommodation, pre-release and substance use. Prisoner survey responses to questionnaires returned by 108 prisoners at HMP The Mount indicate that: 47% were aged 21-29; 31% were Muslims; 61% said they had health problems upon arrival at the prison; 86% went on an induction course within the first week; 44% had letters from solicitor or legal rep resentative opened by staff when they were not present; 24% said it was very easy to get illegal drugs within the prison; 96% were seen by a member of health services at reception; 62% had children under the age of 18; 54% said applications are not dealt with promptly, i.e. within 7 days; 96% can shower every day.

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Inspectors were concerned that a high proportion of prisoners had felt unsafe in the prison; there was a significant amount of bullying, usually related to drug debt; there had been a number of serious assaults and a recent death in custody was linked to drug debt; there were no formal interventions for bullies; some staff found it more difficult to deal with prisoners in groups and were not confident in challenging poor behaviour; and black and minority ethnic prisoners, who made up nearly 60% of the population, reported poorer prison experiences than their white counterparts.

Inspectors did however find improvements in that most prisoners felt safe; healthcare services, particularly mental health services, were good; the quality of education and training was good, with a strong focus on employability; and resettlement work had improved considerably, with reasonably good offender management and better arrangements for indeterminate-sentenced prisoners.

.....................................................

CRIMINAL DEFENCE & PRISON LAW SPECIALISTS

There were underlying safety concerns at The Mount, but the amount and quality of purposeful activity was described by inspectors as ‘commendable’. The prison’s older wings are hard to supervise effectively, and the extensive perimeter requires constant policing to prevent the entry of drugs and other illicit items.

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Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Release denied after fears of public backlash The Chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales has said that large numbers of prisoners are being held behind bars despite posing no threat to society. Sir David Latham said the fury prompted by the release of prisoners such as Jon Venables was making Parole Board members and politicians overly wary of the risks of letting inmates out on licence. He said the risk of them reoffending has been overstated.

Sex offenders win legal challenge over register

Sir David told The Guardian that large numbers of prisoners may be being needlessly detained as a result of ‘skewed decisions’ founded on incorrect perceptions of the threat they could present if released. He said: “Our release rates have reduced in the last few years in a way which is arguably an over-reaction to public concern about the reoffending by released prisoners”. He warned that ‘real injustices’ could happen unless society adopted a more sophisticated attitude towards the danger of prisoners released on licence.

Public law specialist Mike Pemberton, an associate solicitor at Stephensons Solicitors, who acted for ‘F’ told Inside Time: “The Supreme Court has upheld earlier decisions at the High Court and Court of Appeal that lifelong registration on the sex offenders register without any right of review breaches article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights”. The UK Supreme Court ruling paves the way for other offenders to seek to have their details removed. Lord Phillips, president of the Supreme Court, said: “It is obvious that there must be some circumstances in which an appropriate tribunal could reliably conclude that the risk of an individual carrying out a further sexual offence can be discounted to the extent that continuance of notification requirements is unjustified.”

Review urged as prison governor quits

Her remarks coincided with scathing criticism from a member of a Government appointed watchdog tasked with inspecting the Dublin jail, who branded conditions in the men’s wing ‘appalling’. Fine Gael said the frustration expressed by Ms McMahon confirmed the prison system was crumbling, while Labour said the reasons behind the resignation were of ‘grave concern’. Charlie Flanagan, Fine

He also reserved criticism for John Reid and David Blunkett, the former home secretaries, for allegedly attempting to meddle in the affairs of the Parole Board. He said Mr Reid’s criticism of the board for release rates in 2006 had a ‘significant effect’ on the numbers freed, adding: “The proof is there in our release rates, there’s no getting away from it.”

Coninghams Solicitors Will help you protect your human rights while you are in prison. Will advise you on taking legal action if necessary and obtain compensation where appropriate. If you have a complaint about any aspect of your treatment, please contact

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Gael justice spokesman, said: “It is very significant for a person of Kathleen McMahon’s standing and experience within the Irish prison system to be so explicit in her criticism of conditions that staff and prisoners are being subjected to. “I have consistently made the point that unless radical action is taken and prison capacity is increased, fatal incidents inside our prison walls will become inevitable.” Ms McMahon said there were 137 women being housed in a centre built to cater for 85. She also claimed women were being jailed for offences too minor to warrant a prison term and launched a withering attack on the prison service, claiming it was ‘characterised by a lack of consultation’.

Methadone treatment for prisoners

“Actually, the serious further offending rate of released prisoners is just 1-2 per cent, a level that has remained stable for many years.” Despite the fear his message would be ‘distorted’ by tabloid newspapers, Sir David said it was crucial that the debate took place publicly. “Society needs to realise that we can’t create a world which is free of risk. What society has to determine is what level of risk it is prepared to accept; we’re a riskaverse society. Don’t let that skew us when making decisions and don’t let hard cases make bad law.”

The things people say…

Two convicted sex offenders, teenager ‘F’ who was convicted of rape aged 11 and a man in his 50s guilty of indecent assault, have won the right to challenge their inclusion on the UK’s Sex Offender’s Register. They argued the register breached their human rights because they could not have their inclusion reviewed, even if they had evidence they had reformed. Both had been included on the register indefinitely because of the severity of their offences.

A review of Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison has been urged after its governor resigned, citing overcrowding. In a damning critique of the Irish Prison Service, Kathleen McMahon, who heads the Dochas women’s facility in Mountjoy, also claimed she was being undermined.

1st April 2010

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Following concern about the over-prescribing of heroin substitute methadone in jails in England & Wales, with almost 20,000 inmates being put on methadone in 2009, a rise of 57% on the previous year, jailed heroin addicts are to be told they must try to become drug-free under new guidelines issued to prison governors and healthcare staff. The guidance admits that some prisoners are kept on methadone longer than necessary and points to concerns that the prescribing of methadone is being started

trapped? Need help? Contact Michael Robinson:

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‘I will come down on any MP like a ton of bricks who has sought to profit for personal gain’ Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg claiming the moral high ground over the expenses scandal, which has dominated the election campaign. Yet Mr Clegg is reported to have received up to £2.5 million in pay, expenses and personal allowances from the taxpayer during his ten years work-

in jails without the required three-monthly review arrangements. As a result, some prisoners may be kept on methadone longer than is clinically appropriate.

ing in Brussels – five as an official at the

Mike Trace from RAPt , the charity that runs drug rehabilitation in jails, said: ‘It is important that methadone-prescribing in prisons is carefully implemented and closely linked with recovery services. That is why this new guidance is welcome, particularly as it is produced by both the Department of Health and Ministry of Justice’.

business class air travel while actually

A Department of Health spokesperson told Inside Time, ‘The guidance allows for the full range of evidence-based drug treatments for medical experts to use with their patients. The update is to restate and reinforce the original guidance to take account of developments in the field, clarify expectations of prisoners and clinicians and reinforce good clinical practice. It makes clear that there should be a review process and that prisoners should not be left on methadone treatment indefinitely’.

get it.’

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EU and five as an MEP. He also claimed for 5 years, as an MEP, flying economy class. He recently attacked the former Conservative MP Nicholas Winterton when he complained about MP’s being forced to travel second rather first–class. Mr Clegg said on Twitter: ‘Sadly, some MP’s still just don’t

Certainly Nick Clegg, who says he wants to be Prime Minister, did get it. £2.5 million of taxpayers money to be exact while he was on the ‘EU Gravy Train’ - a train on which he was only too pleased to travel without ever once campaigning for the system to change.

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Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Murderers should not be allowed emailaprisoner.com!

The things people say…

murdered our close ones? Is there anything to ease the pain for us??? No!!

”

A member on the site, refers to the ‘email a prisoner’ service as ‘email a scumbag’. Clearly, from his comments he takes the view that family members, solicitors and the various help organisations needing to contact people in prison should be denied the convenience and cost savings of the service, and be forced to use expensive and slower conventional snail mail services. This is the title of a campaign group launched on Facebook, the social network site. The ‘aims and information’ on the group page reads: Aimed at victims families/people disa“ greeing with the fact that murderers can

use this facility, not any other criminal ... So if this is you, join this group and have your opinions heard! If this is not you, don’t bother! Basically there is a site where you can email prisoners, to a large location of prisons! The email will be delivered to them, to help to ease the pain of a loved one being away from home. But!!! What about people like my family, where these prisoners have

Facebook grows in popularity as a tool for campaigning groups; helping to elect the US president and perhaps our next prime minister - and to some, more importantly, stopping ‘X Factor’ winner Joe McEldry making the No. 1 spot at Christmas. Now we see it can be used to whip up hysteria in the tabloid press and twist facts to make s e n s a t i o n a l headlines. Perhaps trial by Facebook is on the way?

›› SERVICE UPDATE: The emailaprisoner (EMAP) service continues to become established in more and more prisons in the UK and Southern Ireland. It is a ‘not for profit’ company and used by Court Services, Legal Firms, Probation Services, Drug Counsellors, Housing Advice, Youth Offending Teams, Official Prison Visitors, Social Services, Resettlement organizations, Self-Help organisations, Family help/support Agencies, Employment Services, Educational Bodies and the Police; plus of course the family members of serving prisoners.

Charles Bronson artwork on London Underground A victims’ charity has expressed ‘astonishment’ that artwork by armed robber Charles Bronson has been put on display on the London Underground. The drawing, which depicts a head with three faces poking out of a straitjacket, went on display at Angel station in north London on 26 April. Benjamin Moore, from Art Below, which displays art on the Tube, said the artwork was ‘unique’, “there’s a lot of madness and sadness in his work but what struck me was the humour”, however the National Victims’ Association said it was ‘depressed’ the work was put up. The artwork was among only a few that made it through copy approval by Transport for London.

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Prison population reaches 85,000 With a jump in the prison population of almost one thousand in just six weeks, there are 85,076 prisoners in jails in England and Wales, topping the 85,000 mark for the first time. The increase has been a result of the end of an emergency early-release scheme, under which low-risk inmates serving fewer than four years were let out 18 days early. Numbers are projected to reach almost 94,000 within five years.

PEN: 50 years defending freedom of expression

The facts are: Since 1997, net foreign immigration to the UK has been around three million (equivalent to 12 cities the size of Southampton). That is the number of migrants who have arrived, minus the number who have left – but it doesn’t include illegal immigrants estimated at more then 1 million.

To mark 50 years of defending freedom of expression, PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee is running a year-long campaign: ‘Because Writers Speak Their Minds’. One strand of the campaign highlights the cases of 50 writers PEN has campaigned on behalf of in the 50 years that the committee has operated. Each of the oppressed writers, who include Mamadali Makhmudov from Uzbekistan, poet Angel Cuadra from Cuba and Bangladeshi novelist, poet and journalist Taslima Nasrin, has been paired with a writer from a UK writing group, with the task being to write exactly 50 words inspired by the life and work of the writer. For further information about the work of PEN contact: English PEN, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA. Tel: 020 7324 2535.

The proposed Lib Dem amnesty for illegal immigrants would add a further 1 million to the population because each of the 1 million ‘regularized’ illegals would be entitled to bring at least one other family member to the UK.

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Gordon Brown announcing that net inward migration had fallen from 237,000 in 2007 to 147,000. Shortly after his statement he was criticised by the UK Statistics Authority for misusing immigration figures.

Since 1960, the PEN Writers in Prison Committee has been campaigning on behalf of writers who have been threatened, suppressed or imprisoned for their work; for speaking their minds.

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“We should not allow people to scaremonger with unsubstantiated claims about rising net inward migration today”

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) projects that the population of 61 million will grow to 70 million by 2029 and about 70% of those extra people will be immigrants. One other little known fact is that it takes three and a half ‘UK’s’ to feed, fuel and service our ‘current’ population. Economists and most politicians forget that you can’t have an economy without an environment.

Email a Prisoner ›› Faster than 1st class post ›› Cheaper than a 2nd class stamp ›› No cost to HMPS ›› Anyone in establishments using the service can receive emails from their family and friends, solicitors and other organisations registered. ›› Solicitors and organisations registered can provide clients with a fast and efficient service and keep them fully updated with progress. Note: Not suitable for Rule 39 correspondence. ›› Over 60 UK prisons and IRC’s are using the EMAP service and more are being added each month. Prisons and Solicitors should call Derek Jones on 0844 873 3111 for further details or visit the website

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Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

The Politics of IPP New abuse guidelines

HMP Styal

Michael Robinson With ‘fairness’ and ‘change’ being this election’s buzzwords, what do the two main political parties have to say about IPPs? (Michael Robinson, partner at Emmersons Solicitors writes)

DNA profiles Another Criminal Justice Act, the ‘Crime and Security Bill’, has become law. The Act includes new powers to hold DNA profiles of convicted people indefinitely and keep the DNA profiles of those who are arrested but not convicted of a recordable offence for a fixed amount of time. The police will get new powers to retrospectively take DNA samples from people convicted of violent and sexual offences returning to the UK following a conviction overseas; and to collect DNA from them even if not still in prison. There are also new Domestic Violence Protection Orders, requiring an alleged domestic violence perpetrator to leave home for a fixed period of time and the Act also includes powers for police and local authorities to apply to a County Court for an injunction against young people over 14 to prevent gang related violence .

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Cr

Labour, which introduced the IPP sentence, is keen to maintain the status quo and has said that the IPP is, and will remain, a major plank of the Government’s public protection policy. The sentence was introduced for only the most serious dangerous offenders, and was not intended for offences that attract a very short tariff. “The fact that large numbers of IPP prisoners are held in custody post-tariff is not evidence that our system of assessment and management is not working.” The Conservatives intend to undertake what they call a ‘wholesale review’ of IPPs. Their proposals to introduce ‘mini-max’ sentences will help to address the fact that more offenders are being given IPP sentences than the system can cope with. The idea is to enable prisoners to earn their release before the maximum tariff through good performance in prison, while still allowing longer periods of rehabilitation for those prisoners who need to be ‘particularly carefully monitored.’ With an estimated 70 IPP prisoners entering the prison system every month, and only 75 IPP prisoners who have stayed out of prison since the sentence was introduced, the IPP is clearly unfair and in need of change regardless of who wins the election.

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The Catholic Church released guidelines on April 12 instructing church officials to notify local police about cases in which sexual abuse is suspected. Posted on the Vatican’s website, the rules instruct bishops to follow ‘civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities.’ The church claims this has long been its policy, though it was never explicitly documented. Critics say the measure - a suggestion, not a requirement - is not strong enough. Meanwhile the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales have published an unprecedented mea culpa for child sex abuse. The ‘expression of deep sorrow’ acknowledges the harm done to hundreds of children by priests and lay officials.

13

News in Brief

The political version of Britain’s Got Talent attracts an audience of less than 5 million ...

China - executions In 2009, Chinese authorities likely executed thousands of people - more than any other country - according to an Amnesty International report published on March 30. The human rights organization said it was unable to give an exact figure, citing China’s ‘lack of transparency,’ and it called on the government to end its secrecy surrounding capital trials and state executions. China was one of 18 countries Amnesty listed as ‘known to have carried out executions’ in the past year. Iran executed at least 388 people, Iraq at least 120 and Saudi Arabia at least 69. The total of 714 documented judicial killings outside China - a low estimate, Amnesty says - includes 52 in the U.S. The anti-death penalty group also reported that for the first time since it started keeping track some 30 years ago, there were no executions in Europe.

… but at the flick of a switch increases to 14 million.

HENRY HYAMS

SOLICITORS 7 South Parade, Leeds LS1 5QE 0113 2432288 Categorisation Parole/Recall HDC Progression Adjudications Appeals/CCRC Lifer/IPP issues Judicial Review

Police are unsure what to do when a man is spotted in Downing Street just days before the Election with an iron bar.

Contact our Prison Law Team Katy Cowans - Rebecca Seal Rachel Jamieson ›› Registered with EMAP ‹‹

ZMS SOLICITORS SERVING TIME IN THE EAST MIDLANDS? NEED LEGAL HELP?

With the prospect of losing her parliamentary seat, the Former Home Secretary makes a last minute appeal and sends voters a family postcard.

Want to challenge an unfair decision? Independent adjudication? Recalled to Prison and don’t know what to do? Missed out on recategorisation again? Parole hearing coming up? Don’t wait...! Contact Simon Mears 6 yrs PQE experience Prison Law Specialist 11 Bowling Green St, Leicester LE1 6AS

0116 247 0790

Free advice & representation under legal aid

As the Election Campaign gets more hostile, two BNP parliamentary candidates stray into unfamiliar parts of South London.

14

Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Prison lawyer goes behind bars!

Victorian Prisoner

A solicitor who represents prisoners has spent time in a Victorian police cell to raise funds for The Christie in Manchester. Mike Pemberton (pictured), an associate solicitor and manager of the Prison Law team at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, gave up his freedom for half a day to raise more than £1,000 for The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, one of Europe’s leading cancer research centres. He was summoned to appear at ‘The Court of Justice’ on April 22nd at 9am, along with nine other professionals from the region, to have his ‘case’ heard at the Manchester Police Museum. Upon arrival, he was charged, had his mug-shot taken and stood trial before The Christie’s very own ‘Judge Howard’. Mike and the other prisoners were then led to their cells to experience life as real Victorian prisoners with only a chamber pot and a hairy blanket for company. Mike told Inside Time: “This was a fantastic opportunity to raise vital funds for The Christie, but naturally I maintain my innocence of all charges. Ironically, I was supposed to be speaking at a prison law conference but managed to re-arrange for the afternoon!”

Prison officer scales Mount Kilimanjaro Isle of Man prison officer Jan Coleman (right) with her friend Rosie O’Connor, has successfully scaled the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

George Stevens 5550 Age (on discharge): ............................ 30 Height: ....................................... 5ft 5½” Hair: ..................................... Dark Brown Eyes: .............................................. Grey Complexion: .................................. Fresh Born: ............................................. Surrey Married or Single: ...................... Married Trade or Occupation: ............... Engineer Any other distinguishing marks: Scar on forehead & left wrist Address at time of apprehension: None Date of Conviction: ....................... 1873 Offence: ......................... (felony) Bigamy Sentence: 4 calendar months hard labour Address on Liberation: 88 King Street, Boro Researched by Louise Shorter at the National Archives

She expects to raise £1,200 for two local charities through her achievement, with sponsorship divided between Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the MGP Helicopter Fund. Despite rigorous training on the island’s hills prior to departing, Jan struggled to complete the climb. She explained: ‘I was certainly fit enough but nothing can prepare you for the altitude. It is totally debilitating!’ Jan added: ‘It was a truly amazing trip of a lifetime but it will be a while, if ever, before I consider a hike like that again! I’m thinking of white water rafting instead next year.’

Centre launches financial advice scheme for prisoners A pilot project which helps prisoners with money matters in a bid to stop them re-offending and possibly returning to jail (76 per cent of people serving sentences of 12 months or less re-offend within three years) has started at three prisons. The scheme involves advisers at the Citizens Advice and Law Centre in Derby giving advice and acting on behalf of inmates at Sudbury, Foston Hall and Nottingham. Bill Price, who works at the centre, told Inside Time: “With many in prison for drink or alcohol abuse they are vulnerable to feeding their addiction and then re-offending to pay for it. We help them get over the barrier of realising that they must plan to manage their finances as opposed to having their food and lodgings free inside”.

Mailbags to Morsbags Inmates from the Isle of Man Prison have started sewing bags again, only this time it’s not mailbags they are sewing but Morsbags – an initiative founded in 2007 by Claire Morsman who was outraged at the number of wild animals harmed by plastic bags after mistaking them for food. Material such as old curtains, quilts and bedding is donated by the public to Zero Waste Mann, a charity organization focusing on green issues, recycling and resource recovery, who then pass this on through the Prison’s education department and prisoners Dianne Watterson, Vicky Sinclair and Sarah Edwards set to work measuring, cutting and sewing the bags together. Once completed, the bags are then collected from the prison and distributed to the community at fund raising events, awareness days, outside supermarkets and from the charity’s base in Douglas town centre. Pictured above (left to right) Deputy Education Manager Val Lace, Dianne Watterson, Sarah Edwards & Vicky Sinclair, Officer A Rogan, Hilary Cairns & Muriel Garland (Zero Waste Mann).

London Marathon Former prisoner Alex Percival (pictured) fulfilled a  long-term  ambition  and completed the London Marathon in 3 hours 19 minutes, raising £3,000 for The Prison Phoenix Trust to support inmates with yoga and meditation.

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Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Inside Drink and Drugs News Drink and Drugs News (DDN) is the fortnightly magazine for all those working with drug and alcohol clients, including in prisons. In a regular bi-monthly column, editor Claire Brown shares stories of interest with Inside Time readers culture that has stifled their development.’ McCartney has had plenty of chance to study this. Many of the people who arrive at his service for treatment (he is chief executive of a drug and alcohol service known as THOMAS, which stands for Those on the Margins of a Society) have had a long relationship with the criminal justice system alongside a prolific history of drug and alcohol misuse. He has realised during 20 years of working with socially excluded people that his service needs to produce a culture that ‘can act as a mediator between past and present, creating new intelligence for reprogrammed functioning’. In other words, he’s realised he needs to tackle the legacy of all kinds of negative life events.

u

‘Neuroscientists have long understood that the brain can rewire itself in response to experience – a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity,’ writes James McCartney in

our latest issue of DDN. ‘The structure of the brain’s neural network changes during an individual lifetime in response to external stimuli, experience and activity.’ He goes on to explain: ‘Therefore environmental conditions are critical to the whole process of reprogramming the mind and key to sustainable recovery and long term success with some of the most complex drug and alcohol misusers, many of whom have become programmed by a negative

‘What’s extraordinary is that most of these people have been prolific offenders who have gone on to climb a professional ladder embracing training, university and sustainable employment,’ he says. ‘Reprogramming the subconscious mind with the right environmental conditioning strengthens the retrieval process and makes change possible. Placing people in the wrong environmental conditions – and the workplace is full of them – can trigger unconscious sources of emotion and functioning, not yet reprogrammed, leading people back to a life of addiction and offending.’ He adds: ‘Ecology of soul is needed, where we begin to understand the deep and holistic relationship between the worker and the work environment… As we develop our service users our ultimate aim is that they can enjoy social mobility – greater opportunity for all, moving from disaffection to a meaningful and liberated life of empowerment and sustainable employment. For many, tackling their drug and alcohol addiction is just the beginning of a long process that involves a radical change of functioning.’

......................................................

‘How do you begin to prepare someone for work when they have spent most of their late adolescence and early adult life institutionalised within the prison system?’ he asks – particularly when they have anaesthetised the way they function outside prison by using drugs and alcohol. The process of change can be a long drawn out event, involving skilled workers who are capable of understanding what can make or break the resolve to stop using drugs. The outlook for change is good though: ‘Social intelligence can be profoundly developed when cultivated by the right people in the right culture’, he says, mentioning that they have had ‘great successes’ with people who have stuck with their treatment and continued their social development in the post-treatment phase.

u

Rebuilding self-confidence can be one of the biggest obstacles faced by long-term drugs users. We

were reminded of this when talking to the ‘Natural Highs’ project in Selby, Yorkshire. Anthony Nevens, a drugs worker from Yorkbased drugs charity Compass, had set up a pilot project to boost his service users’ selfesteem. It involves canoeing, kayaking, climbing and archery, among other activities – and seems to be working.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PRISON? YOU NEED

15

‘One of the guys, Simon, is training to be a climbing instructor,’ says Nevens. ‘He’d never climbed before in his life but he just had a natural ability and loved it. He was 12 years on crack and heroin but he’s completely drug free and out of treatment now.’ ‘It is fair to say that we were all a little nervous on the first day,’ says Andy, another participant. As well as learning about teamwork and trusting others, it helped people discover their inner strengths, he says, as well as providing a sense of achievement through doing something that felt ‘out of reach for people in our situation’. The charity is now looking at building the courses into its treatment structure. Service users need to be able to show that they are making some progress with their treatment, to be eligible. ‘There are conditions,’ says Nevens. ‘You can’t take drugs, obviously, and you can’t drink either.’ Andy has found the course has helped him put his 15 years of heroin use behind him. ‘He was coming to the end of his treatment and it really inspired him to move on from it,’ says Nevens. ‘He now helps run the activities and he’s training to be a kayak instructor himself so that he can pass on what he’s learned to other people as a mentor.’ ‘It has helped us to re-adjust to life and to give something back by supporting each other,’ says Andy. The project is the ‘next step in moving out of services’, he says, putting people in charge of their future. ‘The group members’ mutual support helps maintain our new substance free lives and believe that anything is possible, no matter how crap your life was.’

To order copies of Drink and Drugs News contact t: 020 7463 2085 e: [email protected] www.drinkanddrugsnews.com

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16

Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Are you old? Well, that depends

Why we walk the way we do Few would disagree that John Cleese’s silly walk in the famous Monty Python sketch marching along with both arms fixed firmly at his sides – was very silly indeed. Yet only now have scientists worked out why. It seems that to walk in such a way requires more energy than the practice of swinging the arms while walking. Previously, some had speculated that the normal walking style might be a vestigial remnant from a time when our animal ancestors went about on all fours. But when researchers from America and the Netherlands asked a group of volunteers to walk around in a variety of ways, while they measured their metabolic rates, they found a more likely reason. “Holding the arms (fixed) at one’s sides increased the effort of walking by 12% - about the same as walking 20% faster or carrying a 10kg backpack,” said Steven Collins, who led the research.

An artistic lie detector test If you think someone is lying, ask them to draw a picture: it may be as likely to give them away as a lie-detector test.

The bacteria you leave behind Could police one day identify criminals from the bacteria they leave behind at the crime scene? That is the intriguing possibility raised by the discovery that we each have a personalised community of bacteria living on our hands, and that this “cocktail” barely changes over time, regardless of how well we scrub. According to Noah Fierer, who led the research, a human hand contains on average about 150 different types of bacteria, and only about 13% of that makeup is shared between any two people. In tests at Colorado University, researchers swabbed bacteria DNA from three computer keyboards and compared them with the bacteria on the fingertips of their owners. They found the bacteria on the keyboards were much more like the ones on their owners’ hands than bacteria on keyboards they had not touched or bacteria taken from randomly selected people. Further tests revealed that bacteria survives on a computer for up to two weeks. “That finding was a real surprise to us,” Prof Fierer said. “We didn’t know how hearty these creatures were.”

Researchers at Portsmouth University tested the theory by sending a group of volunteers on a cloak-and dagger mission to pick up a package from an unknown individual at a given location. They were then asked to tell a second agent what had happened at the handover, and to draw a sketch of the place. Half of the volunteers were instructed to lie about where the exchange took place; the others to tell the truth. Most of the liars gave a convincing verbal account of the handover, but they could be identified by crucial differences in their drawings. For instance, only 3 of the liars included in their sketch an image of the person from whom they had collected the package, compared with 80% of the truth tellers. Prof Aldert Vrij, who led the research, suggests this is because the liars visualised a place they knew and simply drew that, neglecting to include the agent. The liars also tended to draw their invented location from an aerial perspective, whereas most truth tellers drew the scene from shoulder height. This said Vrij, might be because when drawing a made-up scene, people find it difficult to visualise the spatial differences from a first-person perspective.

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There’s a popular belief that the elderly need less sleep that young people. It’s a fallacy. Old people often do sleep less than they used to, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they are kept awake by health problems, while age-related changes in circadian rhythms mean they are more likely to wake up during the night (and fall asleep during the day). But their mental powers suffer as a result, just as they would if they were younger. In tests carried out at the university of California, San Diego, 33 adults with an average age of 68 performed less well in a memory test the less they slept. The pattern was exactly the same as that noted in a group of younger volunteers.

A nap can clear out the inbox in your brain If you need to absorb some new information in the afternoon, take a nap first, suggests Scientific American. A recent study has found that the hippocampus – the area of the brain that stores new material – can “full up” over the course of a day, but when you sleep, the brain moves the information into the prefrontal cortex for longer-term storage. “It’s as though the email inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact emails, you’re not going to receive any more mail,” said lead researcher Matthew Walker of the university of California, Berkeley. This process seems mainly to occur in stage two non-REM sleep.

“Domestic violence happened to me … it could happen to anyone. I want to give as much insight as I can to young women because I feel I represent a voice that really isn’t heard. Now I can speak for those women.” Singer Rihanna after she was attacked in February last year by her then boyfriend Chris Brown. A police photo of Rihanna’s bruised face was leaked to the press and widely published. Critics claim there is a mixed-message between her admirable supportive words on domestic violence and her recent record ‘Rated R’, released in November last year. Rated R is packed with songs in which relationships are linked with violence and criminality. The video for the song Russian Roulette explicitly links sexual desire with abusive violence; noted The Guardian newspaper.

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If you want to be thought of as young and vigorous, start spending more time with older people. A recent survey of more than 40,000 people in 31 countries found that perceptions of age varied greatly depending on the age of the respondent. And – perhaps unsurprisingly – the ones with the “kindest” views turned out to be those over a certain age. Whereas 15 to 24-year-olds in the UK said they thought youth ended at 28 and old age began at 54, the over 80s felt that people remained young until they were 42, and that they only really became old at 67.

The things people say…

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Newsround

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

m Do you know...? • There were 924 anti-Semitic incidents recorded last year – a 69% increase on 2008 and the highest number since the Community Security Trust began keeping records in 1984. More incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2009 – following Israel’s January invasion of Gaza – than in any entire year since 1984 • 60% of British men say they know their wife or partner inside out; however, 30% don’t know her bra size, 11% don’t know her job title, 12% can’t name her best friend and 8% don’t know her natural hair colour. • The General Belgrano, which is the only ship ever to be sunk by a nuclear submarine when it was lost during the Falklands War in 1982, was formerly the USS Phoenix, affectionately known as the luckiest ship in the US fleet as it was the only ship to survive Pearl Harbor unscathed.

Plus wrote to reassure Chris Jarvis, 31, that they “respect a customer’s religion” or beliefs. “I am a Star Wars follower,” explained Chris Jarvis, 31. “The main reason is, I want to wear my hood up.” • A centuries-old cheese-rolling contest at the 1-in-2 gradient Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire was banned this year on crowd safety grounds. Until recent years, it was a small local event, but last year – in part due to TV publicity and online videosharing – it attracted 15,000 people, overwhelming the surrounding area. • Young women today have three times as many sexual partners as their counterparts in the not-so-Swinging Sixties. In the past ten years, women between 18 and 24 had an average of 5.65 sexual partners. In the 1960s the average was 1.67, in the 1970s it was 3.72 and in 1990s just under five.

• There are currently 61,175 EU students in British universities, accounting for 5% of the student total. The fastest-growing group of foreign students is from Lithuania. • Extra small condoms for boys as young as 12 are going on sale in Switzerland – and manufacturers are eyeing up Britain as their next potential market. The condoms, called Hotshot, were produced by Lamprecht AG, after studies showed that a growing number of 12 to 14-yearolds were sexually active, but that a quarter of boys aged 13 to 20 found standard condoms too large. The firm says Britain will be a “top priority” if it expands abroad.

17

News in Brief

In Surrey, the Neighbourhood Watch scheme proves to be very successful ...

• A pensioner was refused service in a pub in Portsmouth because he was too old. Bar staff at the Fleet and Firkin told Sam Jones, 72 that it only catered for students. A spokesman for the pub has since apologised.

• The annual average wage for full-time employees rose by 2.6 per cent to £25,800 in 2009; highest earners are directors, chief executives (£115,576) and medical practitioners (£78,366); the lowest are waitresses and bar staff (£11,930).

… while in neighbouring Kent it has been much less so.

• West Yorkshire Police is looking for 60 volunteers to assist its hard-pressed murder squad detectives. The 21st century Miss Marples will conduct door-to-door enquiries, and help proof-read statements and recover CCTV footage. • Research by Rentokil showed that on average, a single train carriage houses 1,000 cockroaches (which lurk in heating systems and behind ceiling panels), as well as 200 bed bugs, 200 fleas, 500 dust mites and 100 carpet beetles.

The Week

In Washington, President Obama’s photo opportunity at the French Embassy is interrupted when he accidently sits on a whoopy cushion.

• An airline passenger who scooped £8,765 on a Ryanair scratch card was so angry when crew wouldn’t pay up immediately that he ate the card. Staff members tried to explain that they didn’t have the cash “kicking around the aircraft”, and that the win had to be verified, but he wasn’t appeased, and swallowed the card, thus invalidating his claim. • 1.3 million people die from traffic accidents globally every year. In the developing word, more children aged 5-14 die on the roads than of malaria or HIV/Aids. • A job centre has apologised to a benefits claimant after staff belittled his Jedi “faith” by requiring him to remove his hooded top for security reasons. Southend’s Jobcentre

The Conservative Party are offering £150 annual tax-break to anyone who gets married. Unfortunately the average amount spent on a wedding in the UK is £20,000.

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News that Camilla has to get around in a wheelchair after breaking her leg keeps guests at the Highland Games entertained.

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Health

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Inside Health ...

diagnosis of the lump, the original injury and treatment and the cause and management of the pain you’re presently suffering.

with Dr Jonathon and Dr Shabana Providing this valuable service are Dr Jonathon Tomlinson and Dr Shabana Rauf, both GPs practising in East London. Dr Rauf is particularly interested in women’s health. If you have a question relating to your own health, write a brief letter (maximum one side A4 paper) to Inside Time (Health) Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. Everyone will receive a reply, however only a selection will be published each month and no names will be disclosed. (where they stop working and you need to take more to get the same effect) and addiction (where it becomes impossible to sleep without them) and withdrawal effects (where you get worsening of the symptoms you were trying to treat whenever you stop the drug).

Q I have been having problems here with trying to get the right medication. When I was not in prison I was using Nitrazapan to help me sleep as my psychiatrist had diagnosed me with insomnia. I also suffer with anxiety and stress. I am not depressed but the doctor here will not prescribe benzodiapines, he keeps giving me other medication like Stelazine. He has now put me on Mirtazapine 30mg for depression! He has also prescribed other medication for my sleep disorder, the problem is I keep getting nose bleeds with what the doctor gives me. Due to lack of sleep my stress and anxiety levels are high. What do you consider to be the correct medication in the circumstances? A Insomnia is a very common problem and is

often due to stress and anxiety. It leads to a vicious circle with the stress and insomnia making each other worse. Taking sleeping tablets is not recommended long term because they very commonly lead to tolerance

Insomnia is a symptom rather than a diagnosis which means that it really ought to be treated by trying to find out the cause and then doing something about the cause. In your case the psychiatrist ought to work out a plan to help you deal with the stress and anxiety and then the sleep will hopefully improve.

Q I broke my arm twelve years ago when I

was about 11. It was a bad break and afterwards I noticed a lump on the inside of my elbow. I went to the hospital and was told that I had a growth on the bone. However, it turned out a few years later that my elbow was dislocated. It causes me a lot of pain in the mornings and when I’m using my arms. I am concerned that as I get older my movement will be restricted and I will not be able to use my arm properly.

A It’s very difficult to give you an opinion on

a growth that experienced orthopaedic surgeons have said is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. I think it would be crazy of me to try to guess the diagnosis when you’ve got the specialists stumped! I guess you already know that you need to get advice from an orthopaedic surgeon about the

Q For the past few weeks I have had a sore throat. The pain varies in severity and can be located at either side of my throat. Sometimes I am aware of it when I swallow, it feels as though I have something lodged in my throat, and other times it is as though there is nothing wrong. The prison doctor did not investigate and said that he didn’t know what the matter with me was. I got a course of amoxicillin from a friend but that didn’t help at all. A Sore throats are usually due to viral infec-

tions. These last from a couple of days up to a few weeks. They rarely last longer, but if they do the chance of there being another cause increases. Another common cause is acid reflux caused by acid from your stomach coming up your oesophagus (gullet), usually at night, and irritating your throat. It can also cause a dry, irritating cough or an acid taste. Throat cancer is a rare cause but the chances are higher in people over the age of 50 who have smoked or chewed tobacco, smoked cannabis or drunk a lot of alcohol. At the time of writing your sore throat had lasted 7 weeks, if it’s still sore you ought to be carefully examined and have blood tests and possibly an endoscopy to look at your throat and stomach with a flexible telescope.

Q I have an embarrassing personal problem that I do not feel comfortable talking to the prison health care about. I am thirty,

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Does this mean that I need to be circumcised and how can I go about having it done. I have tried using cream like Vaseline but nothing works and due to the scar tissue it looks horrible. What can I do to cure this problem?

A Inflammation of the skin of your foreskin with dryness, cracking and subsequent tightening of the foreskin may be due to the local effect of a more generalised skin condition such as psoriasis or eczema or due to a problem only in that area such as Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans (also known as Lichen Sclerosis). Whatever the cause, if it is causing scarring and narrowing of the foreskin, you need to seek medical advice because left untreated it can lead to the foreskin, or even the urethra (hole at the end of your penis) closing up because of the amount of scarring. Treatment can be very effective. Depending on the amount of scarring, creams such as steroids or testosterone can help. A circumcision may be recommended if the condition is too advanced. Very rarely cancer can cause changes to the skin of the foreskin and glans (head of the penis), again this can be treated; the sooner the better! I’d strongly recommend you let a doctor examine you and if they have any doubts (since these conditions are all uncommon) you should see a specialist.

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relatively fit and healthy, with no other problems. However, over the past year or so I have been having problems with dry skin on my foreskin. Due to the dryness the skin has been splitting and healing and leaving scar tissue. Due to the amount of splits and healing my foreskin has shrunk and when I get an erection is very painful. My foreskin does not retract over my helmet like it used to, resulting in more stretching and splitting.

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Health

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What is hypochondria? ....................................................................... Hypochondria is a term used to describe excessive concern with ones health and the unrealistic worry about having developed a serious illness. Hypochondriacs complain of symptoms in various parts of the body, most commonly in the abdomen, the chest, the head, and the neck. Some are preoccupied with a specific organ, as in cardiac neurosis, wherein the heart becomes the focus of extreme concern. Hypochondriacal patients sometimes become quite offended when they are told their fears or beliefs are unwarranted, and may persist in seeking professional care. Sufferers consume numerous over the counter drugs, and willingly undergo endless tests and examinations to check into their mostly imaginary complaints.

Hypochondria

is to maintain a healthy lifestyle - exercise regularly, adopt a healthy diet, and learn relaxation techniques that relieve stress.

When should I see a doctor? ........................................................................... If you suffer from hypochondria, the question is probably not when you should see a doctor, but when you should stop seeing one. Do not become offended if the doctor says your fears are groundless. The risk lies not so much in ignoring symptoms as in making too much of them. A person is more at risk of making their life a misery by being in a constant state of worry. Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, the best response a hypochondriac can have to a complaint is to try to delay seeing the doctor for a few days, while telling themselves they are healthy.

What causes hypochondria? ....................................................................... The cause of hypochondria is unknown. Some doctors feel the hypochondriac merely shows excessive self-concern. Others place low self-esteem at the root of the problem, with attitudes towards bodily functions rooted in childhood; in particular if a person suffered from an inordinate amount of illness as a child, or if there was an invalid in the family. Stress also seems to play a role in hypochondria. Anxiety, depression, and compulsive personality traits are commonly associated with the illness.

What is the course of hypochondria? Hypochondria tends to be chronic. Symptoms may appear in connection with the illness of a friend or family member, but generally their origins are hard, if not impossible, to trace. Usually, the patient’s social and professional life is disrupted. Personal relationships often become strained because the person is preoccupied with disease. Work may suffer due to constant absences to see a doctor. Symptoms may be alleviated, but in many cases they persist for life.

Hypochondria affects equal numbers of men and women. It can begin at any age, but men tend to develop symptoms in their thirties, and women in their forties.

Symptoms ›› Physical complaints without evidence of disease. ›› Interpretation of normal body functions as symptoms of a disease. A persistent fear of having a disease, despite a doctor’s reassurance. ›› Consulting numerous doctors despite negative diagnostic tests.

How is hypochondria diagnosed and treated? ....................................................................... When examining a hypochondriacal patient, the doctor’s primary task is to decide what must be treated. Every attempt will be made to rule out organic disease. If the hypochondria is part of another emotional disorder, such as depression, the patient may be referred to a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, however, most hypochondriacs refuse psychiatric help. The doctor may suspect hypochondria when complaints do not correspond to any recognized disease. Past medical history can also be revealing, particularly if other doctors have repeatedly failed to find any evidence of disease. That said,

hypochondria is easier to diagnose than to treat. Patients gain some relief from a sympathetic relationship with a doctor. The family too, may contribute to the treatment by providing a supportive home environment. Psychotherapy, which may help reveal the possible cause of complaints, is useful only for highly motivated patients who do not resist the idea of psychiatric treatment.

What can I do myself? ....................................................................... The best you can do is acknowledge you have an emotional problem. Think back and see if your life has been following a certain pattern.

The doctor will give you a careful examination. If numerous doctors have already failed to find any grounds for your symptoms, the doctor may try to convince you that your fears are unrealistic, refer you for psychiatric treatment, or simply listen and try to dissuade you from undergoing any unnecessary tests.

Is hypochondria dangerous? ....................................................................... Unnecessary tests and surgery both carry health risks, and there is also the danger that the doctor, accustomed to dismissing the patient’s complaints, will fail to diagnose a genuine illness. However, for most hypochondriacs the real peril lies in ruining their lives through worry and preoccupation.

How can I best cope with hypochondria? .......................................................................

Talk openly with your doctor about your worries. Even if you believe your illness is genuine, one thing you can certainly do

Acknowledge that you have an emotional problem, and seek professional help from a psychiatrist or psychologist. Practice good health habits and learn to relax.

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Everys provide legal services in the South West to HMP Exeter, HMP Channings Wood and HMP Dartmoor. Everys can help with all aspects of family law including: • Divorce • Contact with Children • Care Proceedings • Legal aid work undertaken For more information contact Lesley Powell, one of our Family Accredited Panel Members, at Everys, Hertford House Southernhay Gardens, Exeter, EX1 1NP. Tel 01392 477983.

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20

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Accessing the right treatment and care Jill Towndrow explains how prisoners can raise concerns or make complaints about the NHS them to understand their rights and make informed choices, while also giving them a voice.

CAS

Independent Complaints Advocacy Service

L

ike everyone, prisoners need healthcare. This is now provided by local healthcare Trusts. Sometimes, gaining access to the right treatment and care can be difficult, or things can go wrong with healthcare provision. This is where the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) can help, providing prisoners with advocacy support to make a complaint and to make their voices heard.

What is ICAS?

ICAS is a free, confidential and independent service open to anyone who wishes to make a complaint about NHS funded treatment or care. Over the last seven years the service has helped around 30,000 people navigate their way around the NHS complaints procedure. In doing so, ICAS advocates have supported some of the most vulnerable and ‘less heard’ members of our society. We have helped

Specifically, prisoners have sought support from ICAS to help highlight problems regarding access to healthcare in prisons, the dispensing of medication, delays to treatment and poor communication. ICAS is delivered in nine regions throughout England by Carers Federation, POhWER and South of England Advocacy Projects (SEAP). The service is funded by the Department of Health, but it is entirely independent of the NHS and HM Prison Service, providing impartial advocacy support to those that need it most.

What does this mean in practice?

Someone may get in touch with ICAS because they simply want information about the NHS complaints process and what it involves. Others may want more from the advocacy service; they may be looking for someone informed about the process – yet impartial – to talk to about their complaint. They may seek help in putting their thoughts down on paper in a clear and unemotional way. They could want someone to advocate for them at meetings with healthcare professionals, help keep the complaint on track and ensure they

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are informed of their options as the complaint progresses.

What kinds of complaints does ICAS help with?

A complaint can be about any aspect of a NHS funded treatment or care. Typically, this can involve: • Access to medication; • Access to treatment; • Attitude of NHS staff; • Poor communication; • Waiting times; • Lack of information; • Failure to diagnose a condition.

Where to find out more about ICAS If you are interested in finding out more about ICAS and how it can help you or your someone you know, please contact the local service provider in your region.

Carers Federation – ICAS service provider for the East Midlands, North East, North West and Yorkshire & Humberside:

Why complain?

Most NHS complaints are about finding out why things have gone wrong and having mistakes acknowledged or put right. Some people just want to hear the word ‘sorry’. Importantly, too, complainants want their experiences to be a catalyst for positive change, so that others can benefit.

How ICAS supports prisoners

Information about ICAS, including contact telephone numbers and addresses, is made available to prisons. In some circumstances an ICAS advocate can arrange to visit a prisoner to discuss his or her complaint. Once the complaint process has begun, help and support can continue by letter and telephone. With the prisoner’s permission, ICAS can work with another person - a partner or relative, perhaps – to take a complaint forward on their behalf. This can help overcome some of the practical difficulties of progressing a complaint from prison (such as a lack of privacy to make calls or access to a telephone), while at the same time ensuring that the prisoner’s aims and wishes are being taken fully into account in the complaints process.

Web Page: www.carersfederation.co.uk/ what-we-do/icas/ East Midlands Regional Helpline: 0300 456 8347 North East Regional Helpline: 0300 456 8348 North West Regional Helpline: 0300 456 8350 Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Helpline: 0300 456 8349 Email: [email protected]

POhWER - ICAS service provider for the East of England, West Midlands and London: Web Page: www.pohwer.net Prison Helpline (for all regions): 0845 456 4214 (on PIN system) Main Helpline: 0300 456 2370 Email: [email protected]

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Diary

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Month by Month by Rachel Billington

gold and green (pictured). A fourth group, led by sculptor Al Johnson, concentrated on how artists portray the moving body. The students created their own small sculptures, using wire and clay, before turning them into vivid pictures (pictured).

from ‘Bang me up, boss, I’m fed up’ to ‘I didn’t do it Guv!! Honest Denial around it.’ It certainly is an extraordinarily vivid portrayal of community art.

The whole exhibition was extremely original and I look forward to seeing next year’s work - maybe in an even bigger room.

.....................................................

Rachel admires prisoner’s art in the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, enjoys poetry from Askham Grange and wonders about spring gardens

.....................................................

T

he National Gallery in London is an impressive place, fronted by Trafalgar Square with its famous Nelson’s Column, fountains and massive lions at each corner. Inside the vast rooms hang the masters of the past. However, I was heading for a particular room where paintings, prints and collages from HMYOI Feltham were being exhibited. I can’t pretend it was the biggest room but there they were … a few steps from the greatest painters ever known, Michaelangelo, Holbein, Vermeer, Degas, Van Gogh … The artists were part of a project running for three years from 2009-2011 funded by Lankelly Chase Foundation. I was looking at pictures chosen from those produced by the thirty-six students on the first course. As so often with arts programmes, the young men (aged 15-21) were astonished by their own success. ‘I got to work as part of a team’, said one. ‘I never knew I could draw until this project’. Another added, ‘It helped me to be calmer and taught me new ways of expressing myself’. How it works is that the chosen YOs are shown copies of paintings in the Gallery’s collection and then asked to produce a picture inspired by what they have seen. Individual professional artists set up and run different

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exercises. The first group, led by Marc Woodhead, concentrated on self-portraiture. Woodhead chose two paintings including Van Eyck’s 15th century self-portrait (pictured) and asked the men to make studies and then produce a modern idea on the same theme. The results were surprisingly assured, particularly the decorated portrait of a man (also pictured).

21

Coincidentally, my next port of call was the Victoria and Albert Museum in London’s Kensington where an exhibition called QUILTS included some amazing prisoner needlework, both modern and historic. The modern prisoner work came from the charity Fine Cell Work which produced two large patchworks, one of them - the ‘Signature’ quilt - had already been auctioned at a special evening event for five and a half thousand pounds. The quilt was stitched by men at HMP Bullingdon and follows in a nineteenth century tradition in which local luminaries were recorded. The Fine Cell Work included signatures from Tracy Emin (who also had a bed in the exhibition!), Judy Dench, Bruce Oldfield, and Helen Mirren.

Historically, patchwork was almost always done in groups. The most moving is the huge HMS Rajah Quilt worked by women prisoners on board this convict ship bound for Tasmania. It was worked in April-June 1841 by some of the 180 women. They had been given fabric and sewing thread by the organisation started by the social and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (see page 23). The result is, unlike Wandsworth’s, somewhat provocative work; very demure and charming with a dutifully grateful tag attached to it: ‘We have not neglected the Ladies kind admonitions of being industrious’. How times have changed! Paintings, Patchwork and finally Poetry. Inside Time has been sent a beautifully produced book of poems from HMP/ YOI Askham Grange. It’s a women’s resettlement prison and since many of the women are already back in the community it was decided to make no mention of prison. The book is divided into sections headed Outside, Inside, Family and Friends (which has the largest entry) and Hearts and Minds. Individual poems are as various and emotionally compelling as their titles: The Sea Breeze (by E.S.), Cyber Bullying (by K.L.), My First Born (by B.W.) and The Name of this Animal is Pain (by S.M.). The last poem, called Hands (by H.D.W.), is particularly moving about how hand gestures express emotion: Lift the hands, palms open/ raise them to the heavens/light hearted and relieved/the shame recedes… The book’s title is Open Minds, edited by Helen Cadbury, Creative Writing Tutor at Askham. Paperback £6.95 ISBN 978-1-44571014-3 Available from www.lulu.com/buy Those of you who send poetry to us at Inside Time might also like to know that we’re planning to publish VOL II of Inside Poetry in the summer.

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Other groups included a block printing course based on animal paintings in the gallery. This was run by artist Viyki Turnball who also steered the lads into some wonderful collages inspired by early ‘Devotional’ paintings which included use of gold leaf. Subjects included cars, Obama, Arsenal football team and a dazzling collage of a girl in a bikini against

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The modern quilt, specially commissioned by the V&A, had been made by prisoners at HMP Wandsworth and is a testimony to their life inside, with the hexagons and triangles embroidered with, for example, the barred view from a cell, a man on his bed, worshippers in chapel or a brilliant Union Jack with the message: ‘We’re here on recall’. In fact there were plenty of other messages ranging

Gardening is on my mind at this time of year when spring has finally arrived. I wonder how many of you get the chance to work outside? Perhaps your prison has a garden or at least flower beds that you’re proud of helping to create or just give you pleasure. I’d love to hear from any of you who are able and willing to do more than look at nature through bars.

22

Astrology

Cycles of

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Astronomy

Mythology

In contrast with her stunning beauty, planet Venus is an extremely hostile place. A dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide includes thick clouds of sulphuric acid that falls like rain. The Sun’s heat is trapped so that temperatures reach a suffocating 5,000C. This creates a blistering dust-desert, scattered with volcanoes, craters and loose rocks. It is racked with thunder and lightning – and atmospheric pressure is ninety times that of the Earth. Not so pretty after all! If Venus ever did sustain life, it’s unlikely that she could do so now.

It’s small wonder that such a bright star as Venus inspired many dramatic myths. Through these stories, Venus emerges as a complex figure whose undisputed beauty disguises a mysterious and powerful persona.

the Planets A monthly column devised by astrologer Polly Wallace exclusively for readers of Inside Time as a follow on to ‘Wheel of the Year’. In this new series the focus is the planets themselves - providing a set of profiles that showcase each planet in turn

Polly Wallace

Venus After fleet-footed Mercury, Venus is next in line to orbit the Sun. Unlike elusive Mercury, Venus is highly visible – after the Sun and Moon, she is the brightest natural object in the sky. Throughout the ages this radiant ‘star’ has enchanted and inspired us – dreamers and artists, poets and song-writers – and all those hopeful people who remember to look her way at dusk or dawn.

On the other hand, Venus’ sky-behaviour is extremely elegant. Her orbit of the Sun is the most circular of all the planets. It takes her just 225 days. Recent discoveries show that, as she repeats this route across the sky year after year, Venus traces out amazing patterns that include the shape of a rose and of a heart. As Venus is never far from the Sun, she appears in the sky around sunset or dawn. She is often the first star of the evening – or else the last one to linger on in the early morning sky. For early sky-watchers these appearances suggested different qualities. As the Morning Star, Venus seemed assertive and she became associated with Nike, the goddess of Victory. As the Evening Star, Venus suggested the more gentle, laid-back and amorous side of her reputation.

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Astrology

In the western world we identify Venus with Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love. Classical art depicts Venus/Aphrodite as the epitome of beauty and pleasure. Her mythology reveals a darker side through stories that describe the perils of love as well as its pleasures. For this goddess can be ruthless – especially to any rivals in love! In China the brightness of Venus is viewed with caution. Because of her colour she was known as Grand White – but in ancient China, white was considered unlucky, ominous and ghostly. Whenever Grand White appeared in the sky, it was seen as an omen of war or punishment.

Venus

Careful observation over many years resulted in the Mayan Calendar – a time-keeping system which meshed together the cycles of the Sun, the Moon and Venus.

Aztec and Mayans civilizations of Central America both placed great store on military success. They looked to the planet Venus when making decisions about when and where to do battle. Venus played an important role in Mayan creation myths – and in its religious belief that humanity is moving through successive ‘world ages’. In order to calculate these world ages, Mayan kings had skilled astronomers whose task was to accurately track the movements of Venus – especially in relation to the Earth’s orbit.

Mayan Calendar

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The Birth of Venus, Botticelli Sandro

Venus is a real star in astrology – in every sense of the word! She is a magnet for things that add harmony and joy to our lives. Venus symbolizes love and beauty - in two contrasting styles. As ruler of Taurus, an earth sign, Venus is a sensuous goddess, who reflects our affinity with the physical world – often experienced as the beauty of nature and the magic of sex. The urge to capture Venus’ inspiration leads to a wealth of artistic expression - poetry and music, painting, drama and dance. Venus also rules Libra, an air sign. In this role she is less physical, more idealistic. Her intention is to create balance, symbolised by the scales of Libra. Hers is the light touch of the peace-maker, seeking to bring about positive outcomes through fairness and negotiation. It takes Venus approximately a year to move through all the signs of the zodiac. If you know the sign Venus occupies in your horoscope or natal chart, this gives insight into your values. Facts are useful – experience is more real. Venus works through the forces of attraction and magnetism. For each of us, these mean something different. So to get a better idea of Venus and her role in your life, you may like to think about what ‘attraction’ really means for you. What and who attracts you? What is it about you that attracts other people? Think about what you care about most deeply. What brings out the best in you? And what really makes you tick?

Religions

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

23

Quakers In an extension to the popular World Religions series featured recently in Inside Time, Charles Hanson highlights lesser known religious denominations - continuing this month with Quakers imprisoned and beaten in Great Britain, Ireland and the British colonies. Despite persecution, the movement grew steadily.

Charles Hanson

T

he Religious Society of Friends is a Christian religious movement whose members are known as Friends or Quakers. The roots of the movement lie in the 17th century but the movement has since branched out into many independent national and regional organizations. It is therefore difficult to accurately describe the beliefs and practices of the Religious Society of Friends. There are about 210,000 Quakers across the world. In Britain there are 17,000 and 400 Quaker meetings for worship each week, while 9,000 people in Britain regularly take part in Quaker worship without being members of the Religious Society of Friends. It can be said, however, that most groups of Friends meet for regular worship, the form of which may range from largely silent meetings with no leader and no fixed programme through to services led by a pastor with readings and hymns (similar to conventional Protestant church services).

The name ‘Quaker’ was first used in 1650, when George Fox was brought before Justice Bennet on a charge of blasphemy. According to Fox’s journal, Bennet … “called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God.” Therefore what began apparently as a way to make fun of Fox’s admonition by those outside, the Society of Friends became a nickname that even Friends use for themselves. Unlike other Christian denominations, some forms of Quakerism completely reject all forms of religious symbolism and outward sacraments such as baptism, celebrating Christmas or Easter and will never swear oaths, even in court. However they will affirm and whilst the Bible is accepted by most other Christian denominations as being the word of God, Quakers do not accept this or regard the Bible as the only guide for conduct and belief to steer their lives.

As the movement expanded, it faced opposition and persecution. ‘Friends’ were

Elizabeth Fry, a Quaker and one of the first prison reformers. She worked especially with women prisoners and pioneered education in prison and the improvement of cell conditions. Quakers also believe in continuing revelation with the idea that God speaks directly to any

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person, without the need for any human intermediary. For this reason, many reject the idea of priests or holy people, but believe in the priesthood of all believers. They do not therefore have clergy. They seek religious truth in inner experience, and place great reliance on conscience as the basis of morality. They also integrate religion and their personal lives believing that God can be found in the middle of one’s everyday experiences and human relationships, as much as during a meeting for worship with the notion that the Kingdom of Heaven and redemption are to be experienced now, in this world. Quakers have no collective view on what happens after death. They tend to concentrate on making this world better rather than pondering what happens after leaving it. Some believe in an afterlife, some don’t.

Quakers are known for their social activism, having been instrumental in the campaign against the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as campaigning for the rights of women, prisoners and gay people. A number of leading charities, including Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty International were founded with participation from Quakers. The founder of Quakerism is generally accepted to have been George Fox. He became convinced that it was possible to have a direct experience of Jesus Christ without the mediation of clergy. He began to spread this message as an itinerant preacher, and found several pre-existing groups of likeminded people. He gathered them together; eventually becoming accepted as their leader.

Friends Meeting House, Brighton

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A Quaker funeral has two particular aims: to thank God for the life that has been lived, and to help the mourners feel a deep sense of God’s presence. Because they are thankful for having known the dead person, Quaker mourners tend not to wear black. In addition to the funeral there can be a ‘meeting for worship on the occasion of the death of our Friend’. Quakers can be buried or cremated. Socially, Quakers do not gamble and although they are not forbidden from using alcohol or tobacco, most Quakers avoid them, or consume them moderately. On a more personal level, Quakers don’t have a

collective view on the rightness or wrongness of contraception. Many Quakers do use artificial methods of birth control. Quakers don’t have a united view on euthanasia. Some Quakers make ‘living wills’, requesting that if they become ill to the point of being incapable of living without artificial life support systems or inappropriate medical intervention, they be allowed to die naturally and with dignity. As a religious movement the Society of Friends (Quakers) see themselves as believers in the capacity for human betterment and its social activism to achieve that objective, which is a clear departure from what one might come to expect from the rituals, symbolisms and sacraments of mainstream Christianity. Charles Hanson is a lifer formerly at HMP Blantyre House

The images on the back of the £5 note are related to the life and work of Elizabeth Fry. The main illustration shows her reading to prisoners at Newgate. In recognition of her work she was awarded the key to the prison and this is used in the design of the banknote.

“Locked in here all day; you don’t turn criminals into citizens by treating them this way” with kind permission from Billy Bragg

We have a dedicated and specialist team. We offer nothing but honest and professional advice. We aim to deal with your case speedily and efficiently. We aim to provide a quick response to all initial contacts. We regularly attend prisons throughout Northern England but do offer nationwide service in particular: Categorisation / Progression Parole & Licence Issues Lifer & IPP cases Adjudications Appeals / CCRC cases Recall HDC Judicial Review

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24

Interview

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

A thirty year stretch Stephen Shaw CBE, the outgoing (in every sense of the word) Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales talked to Eric McGraw, Managing Editor of Inside Time before he left office .....................................................

.....................................................

›› Stephen, you have, in one way or

In America they call this Secondary Imprisonment so that somebody is released on licence and in one way or another it is determined that they have fouled up and they are recalled. And there are plenty of local prisons in this country now where over 10% of the population are on recall after failing on licence. But of course that is only one driver of the prison population. The other driver is very long and indeterminate sentences for those who have committed serious acts of violence. And it’s famous, infamous I suppose, that we have more life sentence and indeterminate prisoners than any other country in Western Europe. What’s little known is that we have more of those prisoners than all the other countries of Western Europe put together. Both in terms of recall and in terms of very long sentences for serious crime, that’s a major concern for prison overcrowding whatever the other justifications.

another, been working for a just and humane penal system for some 30 years. It seems so long that I’m tempted to ask who was on the throne when you first started. .....................................................

Yes, it really is nearly thirty years. I joined the Prison Reform Trust in 1981 as its inaugural director and stayed there for 18 years until 1999 when I succeeded Sir Peter Woodhead as Prisons Ombudsman. .....................................................

›› So tell me, what were the big issues thirty years ago? .....................................................

We worried about the size of the prison population which at that time was about 40,000 - less than half of what it is now. Because the prison estate was much smaller, there were high levels of overcrowding in individual jails: two and three people in a cell. The sanitary facilities in most of the urban jails were disgusting, with slopping out from plastic buckets into a sluice in the morning and, of course, more solid waste being thrown out of the cell windows. You used to have special works parties going out to collect these in the morning. Prison visits rooms were absolutely disgusting places – the air clogged with tobacco smoke, no decoration, nowhere for the children to play, no visitors’ centres, so nowhere for people to wait, and in terms of the rights of prisoners, even the very term ‘Rights’ and ‘Prisoner’ seemed some sort of contradiction in terms. So, thirty years ago, the decency agenda had not been invented nor the concerns to ensure that prison could be a positive experience. The prevailing ideology of the time was that nothing worked, that it didn’t matter what regimes and activities you had in place, prisoners were likely to re-offend whatever you did, however nice or nasty. If you contrast that with now, you’ve got a much larger population, you’ve got much longer sentences, you’ve got much greater structure in prisoners’ lives, not all of it very welcome: you must now take this programme or that programme before you can convince the Parole Board that you are safe to be released.

.....................................................

›› We had a letter in the April issue of

So I am not saying that everything that’s changed in the last thirty years has been welcome to prisoners, I don’t think that for one moment. But is the prison system today a modern service reflecting modern values, in large part, not in every part but in very large part, it is. I mean, prison healthcare; if I think of the area which has changed to the greatest degree, it would be prison healthcare. Thirty years ago, prison doctors were candidly people who couldn’t have got jobs elsewhere in the NHS. So-called prison hospitals, I mean they weren’t hospitals at all. They were just sort of banks of converted cells with often mentally ill people slumped on the floor. If you contrast that now with the sort of healthcare facilities they’ve got in prisons like Birmingham or in Pentonville, these are modern facilities which compare very well with the best the NHS has to offer. .....................................................

›› I remember 20 years ago, being struck by the fact that everybody seemed to be interested in - or they at least knew something about - hospitals and schools but most people had absolutely no idea what went on in

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prisons in their name. There were, I recall, few television programmes about prisons or prison life at that time. .....................................................

One of the campaigns I remember running all those years ago at the Prison Reform Trust had the title of “Opening Up a Closed World”. All institutions, if they are immune from public scrutiny, tend to become inward looking and, if there are abuses or malpractices, they’re never revealed to the public eye. Most people don’t go anywhere near a prison; even those walking outside a prison – if you walk up the Caledonian Road past Pentonville, I would guess that half the people who pass there are only vaguely conscious that the jail is the other side of the wall. .....................................................

›› Turning to the big issues of today: one that is getting a lot of attention at the moment in terms of letters to Inside Time is the growing number of people who are being recalled to prison, not necessarily because they have committed a criminal offence but because they have breached their licence conditions.

Inside Time from a prisoner at Holloway, who said she had been offered a job in the City of London for a salary around £30,000. But was ‘advised’ by the Probation Service that she shouldn’t take it because it would get in the way of her probation appointments. .....................................................

Well, I don’t know the details of that but what we do know is that the enforcement of licence conditions and of community punishments is hugely more robust than it once was. Now it’s very difficult to say that is wrong in principle. If you are released on licence, the word is Licence and it’s a way of both preparing you for freedom but it’s also to test you in conditions of relative freedom. So it’s very difficult to say it’s wrong in principle for there to be robust enforcement. Likewise, if somebody receives a community punishment and then doesn’t turn up or doesn’t do what’s expected of them, it’s very difficult to make an argument to say we should just look the other way. So I think that more strict enforcement is a genie which is out of the lamp and which is not going to go back in. And indeed as a matter of principle, enforcement should be strict. In particular circumstances though, I mean what are we trying to do? We are

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Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org trying to help people lead law abiding lives, more personally satisfying, more socially acceptable, more socially useful lives and there has to be good sense on the part of probation. And in the case you mention, if the lady in question has got a job, surely it would be possible to meet her licence conditions at times outside the working day. Thirty years ago, most probation supervision was voluntary in effect. Because if people didn’t do what they were expected to do the prevailing culture was well, we have done all that we can hope for and that’s the end of it. .....................................................

›› The other concern highlighted by the National Audit Office recently is the 60,000 adults jailed for less than 12 months every year - people they claim who spend a lot of time in their cells because there aren’t enough classrooms or workshops available. .....................................................

Yes, the statistics are very, very clear insofar as short term imprisonment is concerned. As a former Home Secretary once famously said, imprisonment is an expensive way of making bad people worse. Short term imprisonment is not an effective way of rehabilitating and resettling people. Now whether that‘s because prison itself is not delivering anything or because there is no post-release supervision for short sentences, that’s a different matter. But certainly as we currently organise things for people whose offending is not that serious but is persistent, our arrangements, the combination of short term imprisonment with no supervision, are actually increasing reconvictions not reducing them. .....................................................

›› Prison Service budget cuts are on everyone’s mind at present. I noticed in a recent Justice Select Committee Report they quote the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) HQ as 11% of the entire criminal justice system budget. If I’ve got my sums right, that is equivalent to the cost of about 100 prisons or 60,000 prisoners. If you had been the Minister, would you have created NOMS? .....................................................

I think that NOMS in its current iteration makes a good deal more sense than it did when it was first launched, but I don’t know whether NOMS as a brand will survive. I think that there are benefits in trying to ensure that prison and probation works more closely together. I don’t believe that it was necessary to create a huge new organisation but the current arrangements are a lot more sensible than those which obtained at first. I think a lot of the confusion over NOMS was

because those who were its architects seemed to depart within a few months of their appointment, so that those who were, as I say, the principal architects of NOMS are long since gone. But a light touch combination of prison and probation, that might have benefits not just for the services but I think potentially for the taxpayer in terms of trying to reduce reconvictions. I don’t like this ugly word ‘offender management’ – I hate that term. But if we gave it its old-fashioned term, we’d have called it “throughcare”, and appreciated the benefits.

There’s no doubt that the Strangeways Riots - we’re talking almost 20 years to the day and the Woolf enquiry are the critical turning point in prison history in this country and my office as Ombudsman derives directly from the Woolf Report. Prisoners took the law into their own hands because they had no confidence in internal complaints procedures and they didn’t believe that they would be treated with justice. I have never forgotten that this office exists to do justice in prisons; it’s not just a failsafe for the prison service, it’s a positive duty to do justice.

.....................................................

.....................................................

›› Although NOMS does sound a bit

›› When I last saw you, you told me that you were leaving your job as Ombudsman before you were pushed. Have you upset some grey suits recently? It would be disappointing if you hadn’t.

like the Ministry of Defence, who apparently have as many people in grey suits than in uniform.

© prisonimage.org

.....................................................

NOMS HQ today is significantly thinned down on what it once was. But as a general principle I entirely agree that resources should as far as possible be devoted to the front line services rather than upon bureaucrats. .....................................................

›› When I interviewed Alan Duncan MP, the Shadow Minister for Prisons, he was keen to start a revolution. Revolutions usually cost a lot of money but perhaps a revolution we could start is to legislate the Prison Service out of Government. .....................................................

Well, I’m a great believer in that. In the old days, the prison service was run by something called the Prison Commission, a stand alone agency, one step removed from Whitehall and Westminster. My personal view is that that is a good model to run operational services like the prisons. But I also think it is very difficult to believe that in the modern world it is possible for politicians to go into the House of Commons and say ‘It wasn’t my fault, it was the fault of the agency’. .....................................................

›› So you wouldn’t start a revolution but I bet you would like to do something major to bring about change for good. .....................................................

One thing that I would like to do is think about the use of imprisonment as a default position for people with mental health problems. It’s been an issue throughout my thirty years and it’s one that it’s very difficult at the moment to see a resolution to. And really it’s almost that we need something between the prison and the psychiatric hospital. Or we should face facts and say that prisons actually are going to have to deal with lots of people with mental health problems and they should be resourced and equipped accordingly. I find the fact that jails are so full of people who everyone, all the staff, all the fellow prisoners, believe ought to be elsewhere, I find that that really is not

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... what I have tried to inject into all my work is a sense of fun, a sense of potential and a belief that whatever prisoners may have done in the past, they have, they should have, the opportunity of making good in the future.  So that’s what’s motivated me ” Stephen Shaw

consistent with the way a civilised society ought to behave.  .....................................................

›› Inside Time, of course, in its own way, started a bit of a revolution twenty years ago. .....................................................

Well, of course, I’m old enough to remember when it was first started and the great difficulty it faced getting into prisons, and the shenanigans on the part of some governors preventing it being distributed. So I think Inside Time has been one of the great successes and, if you like, symptomatic of some of the changes I have talked about. Because thirty years ago it’s absolutely inconceivable that a newspaper, with a huge amount of prisoner content would be, not only made available to prisoners, but actively distributed by the prison service to prisoners in their charge.   .....................................................

›› The office of Ombudsman and Inside Time have something in common because we were both inspired by the Woolf Inquiry into the Strangeways Riots. .....................................................

.....................................................

I was in the final year of my contract and, having been Ombudsman for ten and a half years, it was made clear that I was not to be offered another contract. Actually, I think that’s fair enough. Personally, I would have loved to have remained until my retirement date. I love the work, I enjoy the company and professionalism of colleagues, and I hugely enjoy the company and comradeship of prisoners and prison staff. So I would have been personally very content to stay. But I don’t think it is wrong of the Ministry of Justice to say that, in such a job, it is right to get some fresh blood. I’ve been lucky in life, I’ve been lucky in terms of family, in terms of work, and in terms of the opportunity to travel, and I’ve wanted to share with prisoners that those opportunities are open to all no matter what you have done and no matter what your circumstances. There are many success stories – that’s what Inside Time does, it celebrates success stories. Most people who’ve served a prison sentence, they are now happily at liberty, so it doesn’t all have to be negative. Footnote: Stephen Shaw left his position as Prisons and Probation Ombudsman on 23 April 2010. His replacement will not be advertised until after the General Election. He has been appointed the inaugural Chief Executive of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator. He agreed it was a “mouthful” and explained there was ‘no such person as Health Professions Adjudicator’! The new body will nevertheless organise and conduct what in effect are tribunals to determine whether a medical doctor is fit to practise. Stephen has written a regular column for Inside Time for ten years. His support has been a great source of encouragement to the Editorial Team and we join with others in thanking him for his friendship and kindness and wish him all good fortune in the challenges ahead.

Comment

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

F

or those of you serious about saving some of your hard earned cash there are a few things you should be aware of, and having looked at the various options and limitations for anyone wishing to save externally, I have tried to simplify the process.

Sending your money out of prison Saving in an external savings account is simple enough. You put in an application to Prisoner’s Monies and they send a cheque to your specified account. Postal orders are charged at a percentage rate of the value endorsed, and it is foolhardy to use them for savings purposes. Doing so negates the interest rate you have with your account. It is therefore a ‘no brainer’ that you tick the box marked ‘cheque’.

Interest rates The interest rate in the UK is set by the Bank of England. A lot of people struggle with understanding interest rates, and for good reason. If, for example, you have £100 in an account for 12 months with a rate of I%, then you will receive £ I interest at the end of the period. This gives you a balance of £101. Essentially, the bank has given you £1 for letting them spend your money. The best thing to do therefore is put money in and not take it out.

Inflation/deflation No doubt you will have heard the term inflation. It may sound complicated, but for the purposes of savings it is actually very simple. If you put a £I coin in a box today, then it would have a different value in 5 years time. This is because with inflation, the value of goods goes up. A good example of this is a house; 50 years ago you could have bought a house for say £5,000. Because of inflation that same house in the same condition could sell for £200,000 today. The value of the property has risen, so you need more money to buy it. Essentially, you get less house for your money.

Tax liabilities

Making your savings work Prisoners who want to invest their savings should always shop around for the best product says Troy Eames

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As a serving prisoner you will probably have no real need to concern yourself with tax liabilities. Unless your income (this includes interest and savings) exceeds the set amount of £6,475 (under 65) then you can fill in a form that means the tax man can’t take any of your money off you. As a prisoner, this is normally a ‘given’, as we normally fall below the income and investments threshold. If you fail to fill in this form then the tax man will take a small percentage (normally 10%) of your savings off you.

Premium Bonds v ISA/savings accounts There is a huge array of savings products (accounts, bonds, certificates etc.) to choose from, although as a prisoner you are restricted

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All areas of criminal defence work Appeals against sentences and conviction Adjudications ALP/DLP Categorisation and Transfers Recall to Custody Licence Conditions ROTL And other areas of Prison Law Video Link facilities available Contact Richard Scotter or Richard Grace 190 - 196 Deptford High Street London SE8 3PR

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›› Registered with EMAP ‹‹ BK0195_Clarion Inside Times Ad V2.indd 1

26/5/09 17:36:11

as to what you can purchase. The most common products are savings accounts and bonds. Essentially there are two types of savings account; the run of the mill bank savings account and the ISA (Individual Savings Account). The average bank savings account offers an account that you can pay money into and take it back out again as often as you like without detriment to you; this is normally sufficient for a prisoner’s needs. The ISA is a tax free product where you can put up to a set limit into it in any single financial year (normally £3,600). The tax man allows you to do this without coming after you for his money! The ‘downside’ is that if you put money in then it counts towards your tax free allowance. You can only pay in up to the maximum limit in any one year. Because of the thresholds, this is not realistically a problem for the average prisoner. Premium Bonds are a different matter altogether. They are still a savings product, but they are more prone to the effects of inflation. Once you put money in (minimum investment £100) it stays at that value. It is neither helped nor hindered by interest rates in any way. Think back to the example of buying a house. Your £100 is unlikely to buy you the same thing(s) it does today in 50 years time. The upside is that it is like buying a lottery ticket; in that it is entered into a draw every month until you decide to take it out again. Currently you have a 1 in 36,000 chance of winning a prize of some size with a single £1 bond. The monthly returns can be quite substantial, up to £I million. The good thing is that your initial investment is safe and will be returned in full whenever you present the Bond certificate to the Post Office.

Best deals I cannot stress enough how much you need to shop around for the best product. Don’t just accept what a bank tells you; look at what other banks are offering and barter. The bank manager may not be able to change the terms of the account just for you, but they can help you choose the best product for your needs. Don’t be lulled into purchasing an account on the strength of an introductory offer; you will inevitably lose out long term. At the same time, if you have the ability to switch accounts on a regular basis, then taking advantage of these offers can often pay dividends. Although I like to feel I know what I’m talking about, you should always consider asking a financial expert for their help. Troy Eames is a pseudonym for a prisoner currently serving at HMP Gartree

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PRISONERS VOTE! What MPs think of prisoners

S

ometime before the General Election was announced, Inside Time sent a letter to 27 Members of Parliament (pictured) in which we included two questions, to each MP, posed by prisoners. The 27 MPs we chose to write to were either members of the Home Affairs or Justice Select Committees.   It can be seen that only three out of the 27 Members of Parliament responded in any way. Bob Russell, Lib Dem MP for Colchester, provided a full and considered answer to two questions (featured).   Andrew Turner, MP for the Isle of Wight (with three prisons in his constituency),

could only manage to write a couple of lines for his answer to two questions (featured). His claim, as a legislator, that ‘we make our own laws in this country’ will either amuse or shock readers.   And the third MP, Conservative Andrew Tyrie, had the bright idea of simply sending the letter we sent to him, on to the Clerk of the Justice Select Committee for an answer (featured). Obviously he had better things to do with his time.   Clearly, if prisoners had the right to vote then Members of Parliament would have to go knocking on their doors and they would take a great deal more interest in them.

James Clappison MP, Bob Russell MP Tom Brake MP, Douglas Hogg MP, Ms Sian James MP

Linda Riordan MP, David Heath MP

Virendra Sharma MP, Martin Salter MP

Q Why is modern technology, eg lap-tops and Only seven of the fourteen members of the Home Affairs Select Committee in session. The Committee is appointed by the House of Commons with the task of examining the expenditure, administration and policy of the Home Office and its associated bodies.

insidetime

the National Newspaper for Prisoners

P.O. Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 4XJ. Telephone: 01489 795945 www.insidetime.org

____ _____ MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA As the General Election gets nearer we have received a number of letters from prisoners in England and Wales asking us to seek from you - as a member of the Home Affairs or Justice Select Committees - answers to some of their questions. We have limited the number of questions to two in the hope that you will find it possible to oblige them with an answer. We look forward very much to receiving your responses. Eric McGraw Managing Editor

restricted internet access, still denied to most prisoners in the B and A category estate?

Q Why does the Prison Service continue to rely on offending behaviour courses as a means of addressing offending, when the Home Office’s own detailed studies demonstrate that there is no difference in the reconviction rates of those who have and those who haven’t completed these courses? Response: NO Reply

Mrs Ann Cryer MP, Gary Streeter MP, Andrew Turner MP

Q

Should HMPS recruitment policy require would-be Prison Officers to have attained ‘A’ Level(s) as a minimum standard of academic achievement?

Q

Given the ruling of the European Court regarding the universal enfranchisement of prisoners, can the forthcoming election be regarded as valid/legal when prisoners are still denied the vote?

Response: 1 A I believe it should not be compulsory for would-be prison officers to have attained ‘A’ level qualifications as a minimum of academic achievement.

A As regards the ruling of the European Court; we make our own laws in this country and therefore it is legal for prisoners to be denied voting rights at the forthcoming election. Andrew Turner, Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight

Gwyn Prosser MP, Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith MP

Dr Nick Palmer MP, Keith Vaz MP

Q Would your party advocate

the construction of several hospital prisons to cater for the medical needs of the ever expanding population of sick and elderly prisoners?

Q As the probation service are now using lie-

detectors to monitor ex-prisoners in the community, is it not right that prisoners protesting their innocence should be able to use lie-detector tests to demonstrate their innocence at the Court of Appeal?

Response: NO Reply

Q Currently, vulnerable prisoners in the high security prison estate, whose families hail from the south of the country, cannot be held long-term any closer to the south than HMP Wakefield and Long Lartin. This is destroying prisoner-family relationships. What steps should a future government take to ensure that high security places are available in the south of the country for vulnerable prisoners?

Q Prisoners pay does not reflect the prices

charged by the prison canteen (shop). This forces many prisoners to succumb to prison loan sharks or to become reliant on family members to subsidise their in-prison living cost, something that was heavily criticized in the Woolf Report. How will any future government rectify this issue?

Response: 1 A I have previously raised with the Prison

Service difficulties which a constituent was having in visiting their partner and father of young twins due to the distance. Due to the category of the prisoner, options on prisons were limited. Through such involvement I am very aware of the distress to the innocent caused when relatives are incarcerated in prisons a long distance away. There certainly needs to be a full inquiry into establishing the possibility of small units within prisons for special cases.

A

I was not aware of the imbalance between income and costs for prisoners. This certainly is a matter that needs urgent addressing, as you have stated, to avoid opportunists such as loan sharks, to take advantage for more vulnerable prisoners. There must be better parity between shop costs and prisoner income. I hope that this can be accomplished within the next Parliament. Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester

PRISONERS VOTE! Barred from voting: The right to vote for sentenced prisoners

Khalid Mahmood MP, Julie Morgan MP, Dr Alan Whitehead MP

Mrs Janet Dean MP David Winnick MP, Jessica Morden MP,

Q Should government encourage third sector

organisations (Charities, faith groups, etc) to become more involved in prisons and at the same time encourage prison governors to support such interactions?

Q The current government seems to be wedded to the idea of indeterminate sentences, which has seen the number of such prisoners rise from 3,500 to over 10,000. Does your party support such endless sentences, or do you propose fixed sentences which solely reflect the seriousness of the crime? Response: NO Reply

Patrick Mercer MP Rt Hon Alun Michael MP

Q

Drugs, and funding drug habits, are the largest single driver of offending. Do you accept that the war on drugs has been a social and financial disaster and that decriminalisation should now be considered?

Q The present system of work in prison means

that less than half of prisoners are employed, and work is unskilled and paid at pocketmoney rates. Do you intend to invest and encourage genuine work paid at least minimum wage rates for all prisoners?

Response: NO Reply

Andrew Tyrie MP

Q

Isn’t it time the Government commission independent research on the effectiveness of offending behaviour courses used by the Prison Service?

Q Should we be pursing a policy of restorative

justice especially in relation to juvenile offenders as opposed to incarcerating them in such large numbers?

Q In the current economic climate with inevi-

table cuts in social services and the social budget, shouldn’t the future government be seriously considering a complete moratorium on further prison building plans?

Response: NO Reply

The government must now put aside delaying tactics and respect and obey the judgment of the court and overturn the outdated ban on prisoners voting. People in custody should be able to exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities in the forthcoming election.

u

In April 2001 the High Court rejected a case demanding enfranchisement of prisoners. In March 2004 the European Court of Human Rights (Hirst vs the United Kingdom (No 2)) ruled unanimously against the UK government’s blanket ban on sentenced prisoners voting; the government’s subsequent appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court was dismissed in October 2005.

Q Do you support moves to provide prisoners with realistic pay rates for the work they do in workshops, etc?

Response: 1 A Independent research into the impact of offending behaviours course. In view of the Committee’s conclusions on the role of custody as expressed in its reports on the role of the prison officer (2008-09), justice reinvestment and appointment of a new HM Inspector of Prisons (2009-10), it is safe to say that study and research, both independent and by NOMS, of the effectiveness and impact of courses on offending behaviour are absolutely crucial if the rehabilitative effect of custody is to be improved. There may also be value-formoney gains to be achieved; very important in a tight public expenditure environment. In this context, and with one eye on the Committee’s interest in justice reinvestment principles, an important strand of wider study might be an estimation of any benefits such courses could have downstream, ie in costs of re-offending ‘saved’ or ‘avoided’, thus building up a case for more investment and/or better courses.

A Realistic or market pay rates for prison

Margaret Moran MP, Bob Neill MP

The UK’s ban on sentenced prisoners voting undermines the principle that in a democracy everybody counts. It is an unjustified relic from the past which neither protects public safety nor acts as an effective deterrent.

work. This is a more difficult one to answer at this time as the Committee’s previous work has not addressed this issue, nor any analogous subject from which to extrapolate an answer. It is the case, as I point out above, that the Committee’s approach, as a corporate body, to custody is one of stressing the importance of focusing on the reforming and rehabilitative potential of using time spent in prison to best advantage. Thus the Committee would probably want to focus on what evidence there was of the relationship, if any, between rates of pay of prison work and rates of resettlement and re-offending reduction after release. Fergus Reid, Clerk - Justice Committee on behalf of Andrew Tyrie MP.

u

Key facts and figures

u

On 18 December 2009, the prison population in England & Wales stood at 84,231. The vast majority, 70,344, are sentenced prisoners who are denied the right to vote.

u

The electoral ban on sentenced prisoners is contained in Section 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended by the Representation of the People Acts 1985 and 2000. The ban dates back to the Forfeiture Act of 1870.

u

Protocol I, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees ‘free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature’. This guarantee is now contained in the Human Rights Act, which became part of the law throughout the UK on 2 October 2000.

The UK is out of step with most other European countries. Around 40% of the countries in the Council of Europe have no restrictions on prisoners voting. Many others only ban some sentenced prisoners from voting. In France and Germany, courts have the power to impose loss of voting rights as an additional punishment. The UK is only one of a handful of European countries that automatically disenfranchise all sentenced prisoners, the others including Armenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary and Romania.

u

The only other adult nationals who cannot vote in general elections are hereditary peers who are members of the House of Lords, life peers, patients detained in psychiatric hospitals as a result of their crimes and those convicted in the previous five years of corrupt or illegal election practices. Remand prisoners, people imprisoned for contempt of court and fine defaulters held in prison are eligible to vote. An extract from a publication by the Prison Reform Trust and Unlock

PRISON REFORM TRUST

Prisoner’s legal challenge to vote Leon Punchard, currently serving an 18-month sentence at HMP Norwich, is planning to sue the government for blocking him from voting in the 2010 General Election. Solicitors Leigh Day and Co. have filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights, saying Punchard was seeking a “declaration and compensation from the UK government for its failure to take the necessary steps to allow him to vote”. A spokesman for the law firm said a letter was sent to Justice Secretary Jack Straw earlier this year requesting immediate steps be taken to allow Punchard to vote.”No such steps have been taken and with the date for registering to vote having now come and gone, Mr Punchard is barred from voting. With no other remedies available to him under the domestic legal system, Mr Punchard has no alternative but to return to the ECtHR seeking a declaration and compensation from the UK Government for their breach of one of his most fundamental convention rights.”

PRISONERS VOTE! Ballot Paper

The political parties on this page are featured to help all UK nationals (excluding foreign nationals) to register their vote. Please put your X in the box for the party for which you want to vote. One Prisoner One Vote!

Our aim is to restore responsibility and discretion to the police – getting them out of police stations and onto the street fighting crime – while making them truly accountable to the people they serve

Ensure a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public. We lead the new cross-government Justice for All public service agreement to deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public. We are taking a problem-solving approach to improving the criminal justice system which fully reflects the priorities of local communities as well as victims and the public.

Gordon Brown

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Crime is one of the biggest issues facing the country. It is far too high and too many people don’t feel safe - in their own homes and in their town centres. The Liberal Democrats want to cut crime to make you safer As well as putting 3,000 more police officers on the beat by scrapping ID cards, the Liberal Democrats are committed to meaningful reform of the police service and to putting criminal justice policy on an evidence-based footing.

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David Cameron

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The British National Party will end the culture where criminals’ rights are placed above those of victims of crime. The BNP will review the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in order to remove unnecessary bureaucracy from the police service’s duties. The BNP will reintroduce capital punishment for drug dealers, child murderers, multiple murderers, murderers of policemen on duty and terrorists where guilt is proven beyond all doubt. The BNP will reintroduce the right of householders to defend themselves and their property using whatever means they deem necessary. The BNP will establish a penal station for extremely dangerous/violent repeat criminals (including rapists) on the British island of South Georgia. “In my view trench digging is ideal work for a gang of criminal scum” (Newsnight 24 April 2010).

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Nick Griffin

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Crime is out of control in Britain. Crime, especially violent crime, is on the increase. Crime has a serious impact on the lives of its victims, and all communities blighted by criminals. Despite their arrogant boast over ten years ago, Labour has neither been tough on crime, nor on the causes of crime.

The Green Party takes the issue of crime very seriously. We feel that being a victim of crime or the fear of crime is something that citizens have a right to feel protected from and believe that more needs to be done to protect them. At present, despite numerous government ideas and initiatives, the criminal justice system is very sadly failing. We want officers to spend far more time working in local communities rather than being constantly taken away by other duties. The police should know their communities and should concentrate more on preventing crime before it happens.

The Conservatives strongly argue that the public are key in tackling crime from the bottom up. They plan to develop a new Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act which will both protect human rights and have much more resonance with the public.

Caroline Lucas

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UKIP believes that victim’s rights should come first. We believe that the Human Rights Act has been an unmitigated disaster for fighting crime. Criminals have been able to claim their ‘rights’ have been ‘violated’, leading to ever more absurd pro-criminal policies in response. It has also led to a collapse in public confidence in the justice system The police force has been demoralised by political correctness, bureaucracy and too much central Government control from Whitehall.

Lord Pearson

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PRISONERS VOTE! Ballot Paper Scottish National Party - Stewart Maxwell MSP wrote to Labour’s Justice spokesperson Richard Baker calling on him to explain why his party are misleading voters with their supposed knife crime policy. Despite publicly proclaiming ‘carry a knife - go to jail,’ Labour have admitted to Justice Committee witnesses that judges will still have the final discretion on sentencing. Abolish double jeopardy. SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill (March 21, 2010) announced a consultation on plans to reform the centuries-old law which prevents a person being tried twice for the same offence in Scotland. This has been the case in England for some time.

Plaid Cymru (Wales) also believes that in time, further powers may be transferred to the National Assembly beginning with the police and criminal justice system.

Alex Salmond

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Social Democratic and Labour Party (NI) - accountability and change on the Policing Board, District Policing Partnerships and Community Safety Partnerships ... In delivering better policing the SDLP will continue to get police officers out from behind their desks and onto the streets. The closure of police stations that don’t contribute to policing will help. Through the Policing Board, we’ll continue to work for a routinely unarmed police service with emergency support units. The party strongly opposed the introduction of TASER, and will continue to campaign to ensure that only the highest standards of human rights and equality are touchstones of the police service in the North..

The political parties on this page are featured to help all UK nationals from Scotland, Wales or North of Ireland to register their vote (including those for national parties featured on the previous page). Please put your X in the box for the party for which you want to vote. One prisoner One Vote!

Margaret Ritchie

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People need to feel safe at home and in their community. Plaid Cymru believes that crime is committed for a wide number of reasons. We believe in providing greater support for victims and witnesses to help people feel safer in their communities. We are committed to restorative justice and community sentencing where appropriate.

Ieuan Wyn Jones AM

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Our communities deserve and expect top quality policing. Sinn Féin is working with all levels of the PSNI and the Gardaí and others to ensure that we achieve this goal and will continue to do so. This means holding policing to account, but also about shaping future policing in response to peoples needs. In terms of Criminal Justice, fundamental reform is required north and south. There must be much more emphasis on all-Ireland co-operation, on human rights, on achieving representativeness of the community as a whole and on accountability.

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Gerry Adams

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››Your vote will count, so please use it!

We want the management of risk posed by sex offenders to improve. Other important priorities are domestic abuse, knife crime and alcohol and drug-related offences. We must remove delays and inefficiency in criminal justice processes and ensure more police officers are visible within communities.

Rt Hon Peter Robinson MLA

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Whilst this is not an official vote, it is as close as you can get to the right every prisoner has, as ruled by the European Court. By returning your completed ballot paper to us, even if it is after the official election has taken place, your vote will still count. Inside Time will publish the results and ensure politicians and the general public know the outcome. The special Freepost Address has been set up specifically for this vote and we ask you wherever possible to put as many ballot papers into one envelope as you can to keep the costs down. No other items to be sent to this special unit and Freepost service closes 17th May.

Simply write on the envelope:

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Political party profiles researched and written by former prisoner Andy Thackwray

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Democratic Unionist Party - More neighbourhood police officers visible - New NI sentencing framework Reduce legal aid bill – More fixed penalties for ASB – Fewer prisoners on remand – Support extended precharge detention.

Comment

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Ombudsman confidentiality

the Prison Service tradition of claiming a prisoner had cracked the safe and stolen said items, but admitted their ‘loss’, and offered £25 compensation. Our hero felt that with 8,000 hours of work missing this was an insult, and continued the complaints with the Ombudsman, the County Court and Cambridgeshire Constabulary. On 16 December 2008, the Ombudsman sent the result of their investigation to our prisoner, together with a detailed account of their enquiries, however there now surfaced a problem.

Keith Rose believes the independence of the Ombudsman can, on occasions, be open to question

I

have always been slightly sniffy about the role of the office of the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman and their freedom to investigate complaints. This scepticism is not helped by the letter from the Ombudsman which states “we CAN investigate your complaint”. That suggests there are an awful lot of complainants who receive a letter stating “we CANNOT investigate your complaint”. When it was set up, the Ombudsman’s investigative role was severely limited in what they could investigate. Complaining about your category review, transfer or any security issues are well outside the Ombudsman’s role. So restricting were these limits that I once accused Stephen Shaw of trying to ‘beat the Prison Service to death with a feather duster’. However, there was one area where I thought the Ombudsman’s remit remained sacrosanct, and that was confidentiality. However, that was before case number 36517/2009 was brought to my attention. This saga commenced at Whitemoor Prison in 2008, and concerned ‘Access to Justice’ laptop computers. Whitemoor provide a severely disabled computer known as a “Belmarsh Build”, which instead of having a word processing package, simply has the entirely inadequate Microsoft notepad. Prisoner file storage is by memory stick. I had not heard of the Belmarsh Build laptop before

Prior to our hero receiving the Ombudsman’s findings, he was informed of the result by Whitemoor’s Security Governor, to whom the Ombudsman had helpfully sent all the ‘confidential’ documents. What was overlooked by the Ombudsman was, and is, that both the criminal investigation and County Court cases are still active.

this case was brought to my attention, and would question if the non–provision of a word processing package is a breach of the original 2004 High Court order - amounting to contempt of court. However, that is a question that should be explored by users of a Belmarsh Build laptop. Anyway, back to the plot. One prisoner using a computer happened to notice that the contents of his memory stick had been printed out at 3.20 am. Now I was unaware that Whitemoor permitted prisoners to roam the wings in the early hours of the morning, let alone print out legal documents. As the prisoner in question denies being able to roam the wings at 3.20 am, let alone print anything at this time, it becomes logical that a staff member has printed the legally privileged contents of the memory stick. This is the conclusion formed by our prisoner, and being a fairly volatile character he immediately put in a complaint, quoting a breach of legally privileged data. The result was fairly predictable. As the memory stick contained the proof of the early morning print-out, in the best traditions of the Prison Service it promptly disappeared, together with every other prisoner’s memory stick. Surprised? You shouldn’t be! Claiming that more than 8,000 hours of legal work was stored on his memory stick, our

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Complaining about your category review, transfer or any security issues are well outside the Ombudsman’s role. So restricting were these limits that I once accused Stephen Shaw of trying to ‘beat the Prison Service to death with a feather duster’

hero immediately went through the complaints procedure and, having exhausted that, complained to the Ombudsman, and at the same time submitted a criminal complaint to Cambridgeshire Constabulary alleging theft of said stick, and a civil case for compensation of both data and memory stick. Prisoners’ memory sticks were secured in a wing safe, in sealed bags, when not in use. Unusually for Whitemoor, they did not follow CCRC Advert Portrait

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In practice the Ombudsman, supposedly acting in confidence, had gifted the Defendant, HMP Whitemoor, with all the prisoner complainant’s arguments, which will certainly be used in the County Court. Whilst the Ombudsman might like to comment on this case, I have always made the following observations to prisoners pursuing complaints. Although the Ombudsman’s office may have the word ‘independent’ displayed on their letterhead, this does not guarantee they are. There is an old adage which says, ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’, and the Ombudsman is funded by the Ministry of Justice. The other observation is that if you expect the matter to go to the County Court; then actually go to court, the Ombudsman is, at best, a lengthy investigation process which can potentially cloud the issue.

Keith Rose BA is currently resident at HMP Long Lartin 10:00

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very important meeting took place recently at the House of Commons. This hadn’t, it hardly needs saying, been organised by the government or any of the political parties. It had been set up by the organisation London Against Injustice (LAI), and concerned the mounting problems created by convictions in so-called joint enterprise cases. Advance information was given in Inside Time and many, many more attended than had been anticipated. The numbers necessitated a last-minute switch and the meeting, which was chaired by Bruce Kent, transferred to the much larger Committee Room 15. This brought back particular memories for me as it was in that same room, almost a quarter-ofa-century ago, that the first major meeting was held about the wrongful convictions of the Birmingham 6 et al.

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org police verbals). Craig, being only sixteen at the time, could not be hanged and is still alive today. Popular concern about the case continued until Bentley’s conviction was quashed in 1998.

Guilty by association Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden reports on joint enterprise prosecutions and argues that the CPS should avoid them and concentrate on establishing the identity of the actual culprit

The case went right up to the House of Lords, where the country’s senior judges held that as English could not have foreseen the killing, then he could not be held liable for it. His conviction was quashed. He was released and was free to resume his life.

There was a similar history-in-the-making atmosphere on this occasion. Here was another series of shocking scandals that needed to be drawn to public attention. Joint enterprise is the common law concept that all those engaged in activity that leads to a criminal act are equally culpable of it. The classic situation is that a number of people take part in aggressive behaviour towards someone, who is then fatally struck by one of them; but all are charged with murder.

In key respects, I argued at the time, the English case was the greater injustice. Firstly, there wasn’t a joint enterprise; whereas Craig and Bentley had been committing a burglary, English and Weddle were just wandering about. Secondly, there was no evidence (not even of the fabricated kind) that English had encouraged Weddle. Thirdly, there could not have been in any event because English was not even within sight of the fatal incident when it occurred.

It’s rather like maintaining that all members “ of a football team are equally culpable of a player’s crude tackle that breaks an opponent’s leg. Self-evidently, all the team are engaged in a joint enterprise, so if one player is charged, why not all of them?

In ascribing collective responsibility to an action that may have been a result of one individual’s momentary malevolence, joint enterprise has always been highly controversial. It’s rather like maintaining that all members of a football team are equally culpable of a player’s crude tackle that breaks an opponent’s leg. Self-evidently, all the team are engaged in a joint enterprise, so if one player is charged (as has happened in one case lately), why not all of them?

with it, believing that it assists in alleviating the supposed threat to public order from mob or gang violence.

So the basic legal doctrine, even when implemented correctly, is highly questionable. Despite that, the authorities in this country, and some other jurisdictions, have persisted

A decade ago, I was involved in a landmark case in this area. Phillip English and Paul Weddle were both convicted of the murder of a police officer in Gateshead, even though

”

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the officer was killed by Weddle. The case had echoes of the celebrated joint enterprise case from 1952 of Derek Bentley. Bentley was executed after allegedly encouraging his friend Christopher Craig to shoot dead a policeman (though the words, ‘Let him have it, Chris’ are regarded today as

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Since then, however, the prosecution has attempted to restore the situation prior to the English judgment by extending the law so that it covers all those caught up, however tangentially, in violent confrontations. They argue that “mere presence lends assent”; that participation can be passive as well as active; and that an inability to foresee the future is no defence. This re-defining of the legal boundaries is ‘a stubborn application of public policy considerations that defies logic’, according to the eminent barrister Christopher Sallon QC, who spoke at the Commons meeting and who had successfully argued English’s case at the House of Lords. The most critical of public policy considerations is, of course, the appeasement of tabloid newspapers. It works like this. The tabloids create a furore about something; and the authorities then react to it. Perhaps they have genuinely confused media outrage with public anxiety; probably, though, they just want the tabloids off their back. It is hard to think of a more craven way of running the country.

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Comment

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org From a judicial standpoint, the concern is not just that the Crown Prosecution Service, the police and some judges are taking the law to places it was never intended to go. The key considerations are these: firstly, the joint enterprise law absolves the prosecution of its responsibility of finding out who actually committed the crime. It is easier for them simply to blame a job-lot – the blunderbuss approach to crime-solving. Secondly, a joint enterprise prosecution allows the prosecution to cherry-pick the most vulnerable among the suspects and win cases that way (again, without bothering to establish degrees of culpability). Thirdly, it allows cases to be taken to court by lowering the evidential hurdles. One example of this is that the prosecution will often apply the word “gang” when what it actually means is “group”. The term “gang” is emotive and is generally understood to have a specific meaning in a criminal context. Judges (and, of course, defence lawyers) should not allow it to be used unless the prosecution has evidence to justify it. Fourthly, there is piecemeal anecdotal evidence (as no one is able to ask questions of jurors, it cannot be anything else) that juries feel bullied in some of these prosecutions. In several instances, jurors have been in tears as guilty verdicts have been returned. There appear to have been occasions where the prosecution has told the jury that, because of the law of joint enterprise, they must convict. If juries have been told this, they have been misinformed; there is no law saying that they must convict in the absence of good evidence. Despite all this, there will be convictions, depending on the particular circumstances of the case, which are indeed correct under the law. However, if a joint enterprise prosecution is to have judicial integrity, then three clear considerations apply: firstly, there must be some sort of information that there actually is an objective, or a collective undertaking; secondly, the prosecution must press charges against all those involved in it; and, thirdly, all must be tried together as co-defendants in order to

enable the jury to get the complete picture. (In fact, there are regularly serious difficulties with co-defendant cases. As defence barristers are under a professional duty to provide their client with the best possible defence, such cases can often lead to situations where defendants are under attack from both sides – from the prosecution and other members of the defence team. The upshot is that, as far as the jurors are concerned, little light is shed on what went on. This is merely an added reason why, in the interests of justice, the Crown Prosecution Service should strive to avoid joint enterprise prosecutions and instead try to establish the identity of the actual culprit.) Those are fundamental principles. If they are not satisfied, then the trial process has not been fair. Any consequent convictions are likely to be miscarriages of justice. The argument about the current use of joint enterprise prosecutions, therefore, is not whether the law is just but whether cases which are not joint enterprise at all are being brought under its umbrella (which is why I described them as “so-called” joint enterprise cases). On the basis of what happened at the House of Commons, the answer would seem to be that it is. I’ll briefly outline three cases. Noel Moran was put on trial for murder at the Old Bailey in June 2007. He was a co-defendant with Gavin Ward, the man who appears to have killed the victim. However, the prosecution stopped the trial, for reasons that have never been made public. The defendants were then tried separately. In the second trial, Ward was convicted. There was then a third trial in which Moran was prosecuted on the basis of joint enterprise. At the outset, the jury was told that Ward had already been convicted. So Moran, who was unaware that the victim had been seriously injured, let alone killed, was deprived of the presumption of innocence at the outset of his trial. As I said, it is axiomatic that the defendants must be tried together. Jonathan Long was convicted of murder after a street brawl in east London. The victim had

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attacked one of Long’s friends and he had briefly intervened to chase him away. Subsequently, an eyewitness saw the victim being attacked by three other men, who punched and kicked him. The man was killed by a blow to the head, possibly from a brick. The judge acknowledged that Long had played no part in the murder itself, yet suggested that he had ‘encouraged’ it – despite the fact that there was nothing to link Long with those who carried out the killing. Kelvin Horlock was charged with murder on a joint enterprise basis because, as the judge said when passing sentence, ‘you either sent, or more likely led, a group of your friends [to attack the victim]’. Again, the judge’s uncertainty clearly illustrates the vagaries of the joint enterprise law; even he did not understand what exactly Horlock had been convicted of. As ever, one needs to be guided by the evidence. The victim survived for two weeks before he died and was able to make a statement. Asked if he knew his attackers, he replied, ‘No’. Yet he did know Horlock; he was his aunt’s partner and lived with her and her sister (Horlock’s mother). That seems unassailable evidence of Horlock’s innocence. The prosecution may argue that the victim was too frightened to tell the truth; but exceptional evidence should be required to overturn such first-hand testimony, and there did not appear to be any. The Commons meeting concluded with several of those who attended giving brief descriptions of cases in which family or friends had been wrongly convicted. It had to be cut short, as the room was required for another meeting; England football manager Fabio Capello, who looked amazed at the throng of people, was due to be questioned by MPs. But for this, one imagines that the meeting could have gone on for a very long time indeed.

* Anyone wishing to raise concerns about a conviction in these cases is invited to contact either Inside Time or London Against Injustice [email protected].

Brilliant response to trapping question The policeman above was being crossexamined by a defence attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the officer’s credibility ... Q: ‘Officer, did you see my client fleeing the scene?’ A: ‘No sir. But I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender, running several blocks away.’ Q: ‘Officer - who provided this description?’ A: ‘The officer who responded to the scene.’ Q: ‘A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?’ A: ‘Yes, sir. With my life.’ Q: ‘With your life? Let me ask you this then officer. Do you have a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?’ A: ‘Yes sir, we do!’ Q: ‘And do you have a locker in the room?’ A: ‘Yes sir, I do.’ Q: ‘And do you have a lock on your locker?’ A: ‘Yes sir.’ Q: ‘Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with these same officers?’ A: ‘You see, sir - we share the building with the court complex, and sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room.’ The courtroom exploded with laughter, and a prompt recess was called. The officer on the stand has been nominated for this year’s ‘Best Comeback’ line. Sent to Inside Time by Julian Young Article page 35

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Comment

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

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ell, where do I start with this one? Though really I’d like to ask, ‘when do I stop? You’ll know exactly the reason why after reading this article. Whilst languishing behind the walls of HMP Doncaster way back, (or so it seems) at the beginning of January, just six weeks before my February release date, I started to worry that no one had been to see me regarding my release plans, especially those concerning my benefit entitlements etc. So, as is the norm when trying to deal with anything remotely associated with Prison Service inter-departmentalisation - I had to take the initiative and ‘put an App in’ to the resettlement unit. An unsettling experience at the best of times.

Benefits... or lack of ‘em

In the second instalment of Andy’s new series for Inside Time, he shares with readers his fruitless and unsettling encounter with the prison’s resettlement department and discloses the numerous problems he experienced with the state’s benefits agencies after his release earlier this year.

Criminal Defence & Prison Law Specialists

Credit where credit’s due though, I did get a slip shoved under my door which asked questions regarding my release, all of which I didn’t know the answers to. For instance, ‘where will you be living’? ‘Will you need a travel warrant’? ‘What kind of discharge grant will you need’? Considering I hadn’t seen anyone to ask these questions to, I returned the form unanswered. I had a word with my inside probation officer, who in turn had a word with my outside probation officer who then had a word with me and collectively we arrived at square one again; because at that time no one could guarantee exactly what was going on regarding my release plans, which was hardly surprising considering that during my seven and a half years inside I’d had around seven outside probation officers or ‘offender managers’ as they prefer to be known now. During that time I only met with one of them. The only time I had any contact with outside probation was when they wrote to inform me that I had a new probation officer. Having said that, I have to say that my current probation officer has done a sterling job mopping up the mess of his predecessors. Anyway, we finally established where I’d be staying and how I’d be getting there, so another App was sent in the direction of the resettlement department and I was duly summoned in the most professional and gracious of ways – a badly photocopied appointment slip shoved under my neighbour’s cell door. When I finally got to the Resettlement Department, I was ushered into their impersonal communal and offered Page 1 ofoffice 1 a seat at a cluttered desk. “Can I have your

I was expecting an in-depth interview where my mind could be put at rest concerning my financial well-being upon release. I would argue that financial insecurity and behaviour induced from it are the root causes of many a licence recall. However, all I got after answering these four questions was, “I’ll make an appointment for you at your nearest Job Centre. You’ll get an appointment slip telling you when and where. It’ll be shoved under your door!” I could quite easily have done that myself. They couldn’t answer any of the questions I had to ask, for instance how much benefit I’d be receiving or when I’d be receiving it. “They’ll tell you all that at the Job Centre,” I was told. So thanks to the resettlement department, I left the meeting feeling very unsettled and much more financially insecure than I ever had before seeing them! It was quite by chance that I got to know about Community Care Grants, certainly nothing to do with the resettlement department. In layman’s terms, these grants help people on low incomes when moving out of residential care to live independently in the community (see eligibility list on the opposite page). Most importantly - you don’t have to pay back a Community Care Grant! I was chatting to another prisoner and he told me I should be eligible to apply for one, especially after I’d served seven and a half years. I asked a landing officer how I could go about getting the wheels in motion and yes, you guessed it, “You need to see resettlement, son.” Bloody marvellous! Another App was fired in the direction of the resettlement department, and yet again I duly waited to be summoned. I wasn’t. Instead, I got a big, brown envelope shoved under my door. It contained a Community Care Grant application form. Nothing else. No note from resettlement to say how to fill it in, when to fill it in, or indeed where to send

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name please, fella?” demanded the resettlement ‘lady’ (obviously expecting me then, weren’t they?) That was to be the first of only four questions I’d be asked at the five minute meeting. The second being, “What are you in for?” Quite what that had to do with any benefit claim escapes me to this day. The third, “What day are you out?” Hmmm. And finally, “What will be the nearest town to where you’ll be living?” And that, effectively, was my one and only resettlement meeting after spending seven and a half years inside.

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the bloody thing. Nothing. Now I’m quite an assertive and educated bloke, so I just managed to muddle through filling in the form by myself, with a little help from an experienced landing officer. I also established what I could and could not claim for, and where to send it. I discovered that if you’re still in residential or institutional care, you can apply for a grant up to six weeks before you are due to leave. But supposing someone who perhaps was the shy, unconfident type, or someone who struggled with their reading or writing, had got the same ‘treatment’ as me? Exactly, the opportunity would pass them by. I claimed for approximately five hundred quid’s worth of new clobber. I was going to be staying in a hostel upon my release, so couldn’t claim for household goods and the like, but you can bet your life I would have done if I could! However, I could claim for new clothes which I desperately needed as I’d put on a bit of beef during my incarceration, plus I needed a new laptop. I sent the form off and waited expectantly for the reply. I would be waiting a long time! It was during this wait - with my release date just a matter of days away - that I got my appointment slip to attend the Job Centre. I was to attend the day after my release, which gave me the false impression that things would immediately start to move and some form of income would be coming my way soon. My release date arrived, with no news of the result from my Community Care Grant Application. At reception, I was given £44 discharge grant. I worked this out to be less than half a penny for every day of my incarceration. Although I was informed that in addition, the hostel was to be bunged fifty quid towards my first two weeks rent. I had some money of my own saved which was just as well because after my appointment with the Job Centre (an appointment which was nothing more than my first signing on day), I

asked how long it would be before I received any payment and was told, “It will take a while for your application to be processed, you won’t get paid for your first three days and we always work two weeks in arrears. We’ll be in touch. Enjoy your day.”

It was quite by chance that I got to know about Community Care Grants ... In layman’s terms, these grants help people on low incomes when moving out of residential care to live independently in the community. Most importantly - you don’t have to pay back a Community Care Grant! I waited no less than twenty-eight days for my first payment of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). Twenty-eight bloody-days! If that wasn’t enough, the decision makers who hold the purse strings of the Social Fund that finances Community Care Grants came to the decision, approximately three whole weeks after my release date, that they would give me £83 to totally re-clothe myself instead of the £500 I had hoped for. I went on to appeal this decision, but to no avail. They weren’t having any of it and were adamant that a 44 year-old man could buy a complete new wardrobe, including shoes and an interview suit, for eighty- three quid. Maybe I could if I lived in the Gambia! I am still appealing the decision regarding the Community Care Grant and will let you know in a future issue how I get on. But I suppose eighty-three quid was better than a kick in the bollocks. However, the bottom line was this; I had three weeks without one penny of financial

support from the State. Admittedly my accommodation was paid for, and my breakfast and evening meal, but nothing else. Yes, I could have applied for a Crisis Loan, but you have to pay those back out of your meagre benefits. So a Crisis Loan would be just adding insult to injury. All the financial support I get from the State for my pocket is just over £64 a week JSA. Out of this, I have to pay the hostel £25, which leaves me just under forty quid a week to ‘exist’ on. Fortunately, I have the love and support of my family and some good mates who have given me a leg up financially since my release, but of course not everyone is as lucky as me. So my advice to anyone caught up in the mayhem called the prison system is to start making release plans the day you begin your sentence. Put a quid away here, a quid away there. Try to get a few quid together for your eventual release, because trust me you’ll need it if you aren’t walking straight into a job or don’t have a rich Mummy and Daddy waiting for you in the Bentley in the prison car park. Even if you can secure a job you have to work up to a month in advance; a week at the very least. Another tip is you can never start to make your resettlement plans soon enough. Find out where you are to be staying upon your release. Find out who your outside probation officer is to be. Write to him/her. Do these important things months before your release date. Get a Community Care Grant form filled in; six weeks before your release is the permitted time. Approach resettlement; don’t wait for them to approach you, because you could already be out before they get around to it! If you leave things until the last minute, then in my mind you are asking for trouble. Next month I will be looking at opening bank accounts and how the Citizens Advice Bureau can help the recently released. See you all then.

SOLICITORS SPECIALISTS IN PRISON LAW

                                         

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              

  

  

 





 

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Be represented by dedicated Prison Law Solicitors Call

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Applying for a Community Care Grant (form SF300) Who is eligible?

You can apply for a Community Care Grant if you are either: u already getting Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit, or payment on account of one of these benefits; u likely to start getting one of these benefits within the next six weeks because you’re moving out of care.

Any one of the following applies: u you’re moving out of residential or institutional care to live independently; u you’re moving to a new home which will be more suitable for you following an unsettled period in your life and are being resettled by an organisation like a local council or voluntary organisation; u you need help to stay in your home and not go into residential care or hospital; u you need help because you and your family face exceptional pressure, such as family breakdown or because one of you has a long-term illness; u you look after someone who is ill or disabled, or has been released from custody on temporary licence; u you need help with expenses such as visiting someone who is ill, or to attend a relative’s funeral.

Andy Thackwray was resident at HMP Hull and HMP Doncaster

KRISTINA HARRISON

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WELLS BURCOMBE

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We provide specialist legal advice, assistance and representation in relation to the following areas: • • • • • • • •

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Adjudications & Prison Discipline - Licence Recalls Parole Reviews (including Parole Refusal) Categorisation Reviews (including Cat A Reviews) Mandatory & Automatic Lifer Reviews IPP & Extended Sentences - HDC - Tariff Settings IEP Schemes - Medical Issues - Transfers Recovery of Property - Human Rights Issues We offer a service throughout England & Wales and visit clients in custody. For immediate help and assistance call

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n my April issue article I examined the powerful influence prison officers have on the lives of those in their charge and that I would expand on how I saw ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’, and hopefully offer some pointers on how to deal with the latter two. So I’ll explain, briefly at first and then in detail, what I mean and how I (at least) draw the distinctions. For openers, I’ll say that I’ve never come across the brutal ‘Shawshank Redemption’ style thug. They may exist, but I suspect are now few and far between. Such a prison officer will be none of the ‘good’, ‘bad’, nor ‘ugly’. He would be unspeakable and, I suspect, as much so to his colleagues as to any prisoner. Secondly, although this article deals with prison officers, I am not drawing the distinction that the House of Commons report does on the role of the prison officer and excluding Governors; because the majority of Governors are in fact promoted from the ‘ranks’; retain the culture they had as officers; and in my experience are uniformly as ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘ugly’ when dealing with prisoners in their capacity as Governors as they were when they were officers. Lastly, by way of generalisation, I have to mention the dreaded framework which is the umbrella under which the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ shelter to justify a large percentage of their decisions and actions; the PSO’s and PSI’s. Have none of it (at least not without thoroughly checking and then rechecking!) That actually is the first pointer. The majority of citations of the PSO or the PSI as a reason for rejecting or refusing a prisoner something he asks for are just not correct. Firstly because huge discretion is given to Governors under the PSOs and PSIs, and secondly because in my experience, most officers have no idea of what the relevant PSO or PSI says; or whether there even was a relevant PSO or PSI. I found that around 70% of the time I was told they said something when in fact they said no such thing … or the exact opposite! Starting from the standpoint that, as a prisoner, you are in prison; and given that you are expected … “to comply with a structured, disciplined and tough regime where everyday

money on your telephone pin? ‘Make an application’. And so it goes. Not much humanity or constructive help there!

The good, the bad … and the ugly! with apologies to Clint Eastwood

To me at least, it can be summarised in a very elementary way: u Without in any way forgetting the basic rule above, (and most prisoners in reality do not), the ‘good’ will listen; know what [he/ she] can do or what the system permits (and if he/she does not know, find out); try to help where it is reasonable to do so; either directly or by moving up the prison ‘food chain’; and exercise the discretion they have (at whatever level) in a humane and thoughtful fashion. None of the above in any way detracts from any of the underlying principles of

INSIDE? YOU NEED A FRIEND ON THE OUTSIDE... At Keith Park Solicitors we have many years experience representing our clients, not only before sentencing but also once they are in custody. There are many ways we can help you with advice and representation once you are on the ‘inside’. Our team of Legal experts will be your friends on the outside. We specialise in: OUTSIDE ADJUDICATIONS. Have you committed an offence whilst in custody? We can provide representation for you in front of the adjudicator. PAROLE BOARD HEARINGS. We can supply written representations and attending oral hearings. CATEGORISATION. If you want us to assist by way of written representations – we can help.

PRISON RECALL. Have you been recalled and do you think the decision is justified? We can prepare written submissions and appear on your behalf before the parole board. PRISON COMPLAINTS AND REFERRALS TO THE PRISON OMBUDSMAN. If you feel you are treated badly in prison, you can make a complaint. We can help you through the procedure.

Call us on freephone: 0800 374388 (24 hours). Keith Park Solicitors Claughton House, 39 Barrow Street, St Helens WA 10 1RX E: [email protected] CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYERS

imprisonment in the UK. The basic mission duty of HMPS is, and I paraphrase, to keep (a) securely prisoners and (b) to treat them with humanity, and help them to live useful and law-abiding lives in prison and on release. The system will deal with (a) and the role of the officer is to deal with (b). The ‘good’ will try to do so. u The ‘bad’ will not necessarily actively try to make life more difficult; that is the preserve of the ugly. But will have, whatever the security category of the prison, an embedded ‘turnkey’ mentality which I can best describe as … “three meals a day and one hour in the yard”. Everything else is just too much trouble. A visiting order has not been received? ‘Make an application’. The weekly canteen order is wrong and you have no tobacco for the next week? ‘Make an application’. You have not been paid and cannot put

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Of course all the above have to be seen in the context not only of the prime objective of imprisonment, but also in the context of the security category of the prison concerned; and the differing regimes within these categories. In a category ‘A’ prison a ‘turnkey’ approach, and all that goes with it, is perhaps more justified. And it is true that, in my experience at least, there were far more of the ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ in the Category ‘C’ prison in which I served part of my sentence than in the ‘D’ category estate. But there were sufficient of each in all of them to make me feel that it is worthwhile continuing the analysis.

In the second of a three-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Michael Fielding examines the influence officers have on the lives of those in their charge choices usually taken for granted are removed”, what then is to be the role of the prison officer who you see and react to on a daily basis on the wing, during association, during activities and in trying to live some sort of life?

u The ‘ugly’ will usually embody all the qualities of the bad; however will then add their own finesses. They’ll be interested in not just a primary turnkey role but also in permanently reminding their prisoner charges not only that they are in prison (as if they could ever forget), but also of who is the boss (again, as if that can be forgotten); and that the prisoner is there not only as a punishment but also to be actively punished. So if they have to make a decision, it will inevitably be a rejection.

Overriding all the above is, for the first time prisoner, what I can best describe as the ‘shellshock’ factor. I’ll be back next month for the final instalment … • Michael Fielding was a City of London lawyer who was a senior partner in one of the largest law firms in the UK until 2001. He resigned in 2001. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to charges of theft committed whilst he was working between 1998 and 2000 and was sent to prison. He has now been released and, as he puts it …”largely succeeded in beginning to rebuild his commercial and domestic life”. He says “... my marriage and friendships in large part, incredibly and with the inevitable scars, survived the trauma”. He is currently working in a senior position in the property industry.

Chartwell and Sadlers SOLICITORS

PRISON LAW SPECIALIST Wrongly Convicted? Long Sentence? Tired of knock back?

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Immigration,Criminal Court Proceedings & Appeals and Confiscation proceedings . Please write to Joshua or Rita at:

Chartwell and Sadlers Solicitors 111 Asylum Road London SE15 2LB or call us on 0207 635 5255 (Mob 07507 431045)

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Ben’s Blog Lifer Ben Gunn’s Prison Blog … the only blog by a serving British prisoner which ‘looks stupidity and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate’.

We were not encouraged to become educated, the view that an educated con is a dangerous one holding firm against the rehabilitative impulse. Nevertheless, the brightest of us used to find our way to sociology classes or whichever local variant offered the atmosphere that supported debate and reflection. Un-standardised, bereft of targets and on a shoestring budget, the old education system provided an atmosphere of genuine learning and achievement. Alongside this, the teaching staff were unencumbered by the con-hating ideology of the prison staff and so treated us as people first, prisoners second. Education Departments were a refuge for us, a place where we could escape the demeaning culture and attitudes of the prison and be real people for a few hours a day. And then the managerialists moved in, the bean-counters assessing, measuring and systematising every aspect of the educational experience. Along the way, they have managed to kill it stone dead.

29 March 2010 … The latest diktat from our Education managers is that our Open University tutors will no longer be allowed to see us in the Education Department. The new arrangement is that we must send them a Visiting Order and see them in the course of our domestic visits. Leaving aside the utter contempt this shows for the aspirations of those trying to build a future for themselves, or the attitude of Education managers towards education, the reality is that neither prisoners nor visitors are permitted to bring books, papers etc into or out of domestic visits; this is a security measure. How, then, does an academic tutorial go when no one involved has so much as a pencil or book to hand? Already two people have abandoned their undergraduate courses in response to this stupidity. It renders the attempt to educate a nonsense.

3 April 2010 … Prison education used to be provided through the local education authorities and it was, broadly, a benign shambles. Whilst offering Maths and English, there was also an eclectic mix of sociology, politics, current affairs, various arts and crafts. It was in this ‘system’ that Cohen and Taylor taught at Durham prison, their unofficial participant observation research making its way into a book which remains one of the penological standards: ‘Psychological Survival: The Experience of Long-Term Imprisonment’.

Howard & Byrne

Now, under the modern educational ethos, the purpose of education is strictly instrumental. The mantra is repeated endlessly, that prisoners generally have “low literacy and numeracy skills” (a phrase which makes me want to vomit, but sums up precisely the problem I relate), and this leads to unemployment and offending. Ergo the whole machine, and the budget, is geared towards Basic Skills. Not basic as in GCSE’s but basic as in ‘do you need help doing up your shoelaces?’ The qualifications on offer comprise a jumble of acronyms that, unravelled, easily spell out ‘low expectations’. The targets set for each prison relate solely to these basic skills, leading to managers scrabbling around to find ways to “persuade” prisoners to complete such qualifications. An attempt was made last year to have me undertake a Basic Skills Level 1 in Numeracy, for instance. This target-driven culture has no consideration for the needs of the actual prisoner-students, it is all about the needs of the institution. With qualifications higher than basic skills not being part of any target, they are of no interest to education managers. What sort of perverse system is it that only rewards people for endlessly completing a raft of basic skills but has no time for them once they can spell their name? If any prisoner has the temerity to aspire to dizzying heights such as A-Levels, no funding is available. We rely on a couple of educational charities to support our efforts and they bear the weight of the educational needs of thousands of prisoners.

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Innocent until proven guilty Conditions for remand prisoners are often considerably worse than for those convicted says Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust

PRISON REFORM TRUST Rights on remand Remand prisoners are supposed to be treated as though they are not guilty. However, remand prisoners are often held in the worst, most overcrowded conditions. Remand is supposed to be used by the court only when there is a risk to the public but the figures show this is not the case. Just under twothirds of people on remand are waiting for trial accused of non-violent crimes. In 2007, 30% of people remanded in prison went on to receive a non-custodial sentence. Remand prisoners have the same need for support as those who are convicted. They should be able to get help with keeping their home and/or their job and keeping in touch with their family. While on remand, they should also be able to get help to carry on running any business from prison - as long as it is legal. Another important right for remand prisoners is that they can still vote. Someone who is unconvicted or convicted and not yet sentenced keeps this right. So this May, in the Election, around 13,500 remand prisoners should have been able to vote. However, it can be hard for the individual to arrange this from prison as they have to register and many people are not told about this right. The rules also say that remand prisoners do not have to get NHS treatment from the healthcare staff if they don’t want this. They can get healthcare from a private doctor or dentist. They will have to pay for this but the prison is supposed to help arrange this facility. Remand prisoners do not have to work if they don’t want to; however, not working can mean that people will spend more time locked in their cell. As remand prisoners are held in local prisons they generally receive less time out of cell than people in training prisons anyway. The Prisons

Inspectorate surveyed remand prisons in 2002 and recommended that remand prisoners should be out of their cells for 10 hours or more a day. Despite this, it is still the case that remand prisoners have less time unlocked than other (convicted) prisoners. In the last figures, only seven percent of people in local prisons said they have 10 hours (or more) out of their cell a day. In addition, the numbers of people in local prisons going out for exercise three or more times a week had dropped. The IEP scheme also has an impact on how long people can be unlocked during the day. Remand prisoners can find it hard to get enhanced status as they don’t always have the chance to show repeated good behaviour. Offender management and sentence planning changes have meant that some prisoners receive more resources. However, for people on remand, (who don’t have a sentence to plan) staff time has been diverted to people who qualify for offender management. Another big problem is the lack of support when leaving prison. Someone can be found guilty at court and get a sentence but find that they have actually served this time on remand already. If their sentence is 14 days or over, they should be entitled to get a discharge grant (£46) and a travel warrant from the escort staff in the court. There is generally no compensation for people who have served time on remand, however long they may have been inside for. The only cases where this can happen are where the police have acted improperly. A remand prisoner that leaves prison or court having been found not guilty is not entitled to any support from the probation service or to the £46 discharge grant. It seems particularly unfair that people who have been in prison, without being convicted, cannot access the (very limited) support that a convicted prisoner gets on release. The difficulties people experience on leaving prison can be the same whether convicted or not. If you have any questions about our work, or if you want to receive any of our publications, please contact us. Our freephone: 0808 802 0060 is open Mondays 3.30-7.30pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays 3.30-5.30pm. We also have a freepost address: Prison Reform Trust Freepost ND6125 London EC1B 1PN. Keep up to date with PRT news, campaigns and reports www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/newsletter

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Prison Service Order 4650

Prisoners’ Voting Rights This PSO should be, as its title states, about prisoners voting rights. Its purpose is to provide guidance in relation to the Representation of the People Act 2000. The Act introduced voting rights for those prisoners on Remand. Parliament stopped short of extending voting rights to convicted prisoners. Indefensibly, Parliament did not debate whether convicted prisoners should be allowed to vote before denying them this basic human right. Hirst v UK(No2) decided in October 2005 that the UK had violated Article 3 of the First Protocol of the European Convention. I was angered when it was announced that Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg were being offered the opportunity to partake in three ninety-minute live debates on TV.

PSO

watch In his monthly feature exclusively for Inside Time, former prisoner John Hirst simplifies Prison Service Orders. John spent a total of 25 years in prison (his tariff was 15 years - discretionary life sentence for manslaughter) and is the author of the Jailhouse Lawyer’s blog. Prior to release in May 2004, he proved to be the most prolific prisoner litigant of modern times and, he says, unlike Perry Mason and Rumpole of the Bailey, he never lost a case against the Prison Service jailhouselawyersblog.blogspot.com

Yet a whole 5 years, a full Parliamentary term, and they could not (or would not) debate the issue of whether 73,000 convicted prisoners should get the vote in the light of the Hirst judgment! Birmingham Labour MP Roger Godsiff published a campaign leaflet attacking his Lib Dem rival Jerry Evans, claiming that a vote for the Lib Dem candidate would mean that murderers, rapists and paedophiles would get the vote: the party that has failed to implement changes to the law following Hirst, then attacking the Lib Dems on this issue? That’s a bit rich if you ask me. The reality is, with the judgment of Frodl v Austria (Application no. 20201/04) on 8 April 2010, the Court has reemphasised the ruling in Hirst v UK (No2) and highlighted the only examples when the franchise can be removed. Disenfranchisement must be limited to offences related to the electoral process. Therefore it is irrelevant whether a prisoner is serving a sentence for murder, rape or paedophilia; or whether the sentence is one year, four years or even life. Unfortunately, Frodl has come too late to

allow all convicted prisoners to vote at the upcoming election. However, even though the politicians have tried to ignore the issue, academics and journalists have not; as can be witnessed by this headline: “The May General Election will be incompatible with Prisoners’ Human Rights - What are the implications?” Indeed, what are the implications? For a start the government’s fraudulent consultation exercise, and the ‘dodgy dossier’ which accompanied it, are in tatters following the decision in Frodl. This is because it is not compatible with the HRA and Convention to ignore those serving over 4 years, and lifers pre and post tariff. Jack Straw misled Parliament when he claimed that the government had not failed to amend any law following a declaration of incompatibility. However, such a declaration was made in Smith v Scott (Scottish Prisoners Votes Case) and Jack Straw failed to act to change the law. His stated reason for so doing is that he said he was awaiting the outcome of the consultation exercise. The ECtHR was not prepared to wait any longer and made the decision for the UK government in Frodl. One of the first tasks of a new government, post election, will have to be addressing the issue of passing a Bill to allow all convicted prisoners the franchise. In the House of Lords, Lord Ramsbotham raised the issue of prisoners may sue for damages for loss of the vote. Lord Bach responded that, in the government’s view, prisoners would not be entitled to claim any damages under the HRA. The Association of Prisoners (AoP) expresses a different view. The General Secretary of the AoP, Ben Gunn, claims that damages are available under the HRA. Prisoners wishing to make their own claim can obtain a pro forma claim form from Elkan Abrahamson, Jackson & Canter LLP, 32 Princes Road, Liverpool, L8 1TH. A stamped addressed envelope is required). Elkan Abrahamson and the top barrister in prison law, Flo Krause, are pursuing claims for damages for all those prisoners who wish to seek at least £1,000 each in compensation. The damages claim combines the HRA with the Common Law, using the only known case whereby damages have been awarded for

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loss of the franchise. The bill for the government, or rather taxpayers, could top £73,000,000! It has been reported elsewhere that the AoP have been informed that prisoners cannot claim damages for loss of the vote. The AoP has not been informed of any such thing and the person making this false statement is not only a liar but should be ashamed of himself for attempting to mislead prisoners. A further implication is that on the 1st of June 2010, new powers come into force allowing the Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, and the ECtHR to deal severely with pariah or rogue Member States, for example, the UK for failing to abide by the Convention and Court decisions. On that date the Committee of Ministers considers the case of Hirst v UK (No2), and they will be urged to invoke Article 11 of Protocol 14, an interim resolution to send the case back to the ECtHR for a final resolution to revoke the UK’s membership from the Council of Europe. Because these new powers come from the Lisbon Treaty, which brought the European Union and European Court of Justice into closer harmony with the Council of Europe and ECtHR, unless the UK decides to play ball it will find itself kicked out of the EU as well. Commentators are already comparing the fate of Belarus, suspended from the Council of Europe for breaching the Convention and ignoring an ECtHR decision, and stating that the UK should not be treated any more leniently than Belarus. It beggars belief that the UK could believe it could take on the other 46 Member States in the Council of Europe and win! The UK should now be rounding on both David Miliband and Jack Straw and asking them what the hell they thought they were playing at! It remains to say that PSO 4650 - Prisoners’ Voting Rights - is not fit for purpose and will be revoked very soon and a new PSO published to reflect any new or amended legislation which Parliament now has no option but to pass.

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A recipe for disaster

Quote of the Month

Julian Young wonders why those acquitted at court can’t access property and cash instead of literally being left to fend for themselves Judge the Indictment was put, the Defendant pleaded not guilty and the Defendant was formally acquitted by the Learned Judge.

by Solicitor Advocate Julian Young

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Just before Xmas last year I represented a Defendant who had been remanded in custody and was facing a mandatory 3 year sentence for domestic burglary in a Crown Court in London. His case was transferred to the Crown Court in the usual way and there was a delay until the Crown Prosecution Service sent me the committal papers. In

accordance with my professional duty I read them carefully and reached the conclusion that there was absolutely no admissible evidence against the Defendant. A ‘skeleton argument’ was drafted and sent to the Crown Court and the Crown Prosecution Service. No written argument in response was received from the Crown Prosecution Service. I arrived at the Crown Court and saw the Defendant, who had been in custody for a number of weeks. We discussed the case and the reasons why I felt there was no evidence. Eventually, the Crown Counsel spoke to me and agreed that his case had no realistic prospect of success. Before the Learned

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But then the problems started. Because he was being released from the Crown Court he was not entitled to a release grant. It was late in the afternoon and his property was still held in a prison many miles away. All he was entitled to was a travel pass to wherever he wanted to go. If he went to the prison to collect his possessions and money he would arrive too late – the prison property office would be closed. It was far too late to claim any benefits and, as we all know, it takes ‘the system’ a long time to sort matters out. He had no address, having lost his hostel room as a result of his arrest and remand into custody. What was he to live on just before Xmas when all public offices were closing? No accommodation, no money, no food; almost a recipe for disaster and, effectively, ‘forcing’ the client to resort to crime [steal] in order to exist and have a warm roof over his head. The solution – I gave him a small sum of money to tide him over. He promised to repay me and, to his credit, did so. However, it should not be for the lawyers to sort out a mess, an easily foreseeable mess, in this fashion. All persons taken to a Court from custody should have easy access to their property and especially finances in the event of a case being withdrawn/dismissed etc. There should be in place a system whereby sufficient funds are made available to help a person who is released in these circumstances – perhaps through the Probation Service. And, on each day a Defendant is taken in custody from a prison or police station to a Court, there should be an enquiry to see whether that person can be released if the case comes to an end. So often Defendants are acquitted or have sentences passed upon them which would otherwise result in immediate release and yet they have to wait until various enquiries are made by fax or telephone, enquiries which really should be made at the first opportunity [or overnight] rather than reactively at the end of a case. In a caring criminal justice system, what happened to my client, at any time of the year, should not have happened and should never be allowed to happen. Julian Young is a Solicitor Advocate at Julian Young & Co. in London

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America is making a terrible mistake in Afghanistan. It is backing the wrong man - spending its blood and treasure propping up the corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai. Instead of admitting that Karzai brazenly stole last year’s election, the Obama administration turns a blind eye and pretends he’s the best bet to tackle corruption. But why expect “this guy” to root out corruption when he owes his very position to it. “Steal an election and you can steal anything”. It just goes to show that Obama has failed to learn rule No. 1 of Middle East diplomacy: “If you don’t call things by their right name you get into trouble”. It’s a mistake he might have avoided, had he not broken rule No.2: “Never want it more than they do”. Karzai sees all too clearly that we think he’s indispensable when it comes to confronting the enemy, yet in his view - as recently made plain to lunch guests at the presidential palace - the Americans themselves pose an obstacle to striking a peace deal with the Taliban. He has even “stuck a thumb” in Obama’s eye by inviting Iran’s President Ahmadinejad to deliver a fiercely anti-American speech in Kabul. Karzai is happy to let us fight his battles “to the last US soldier. And once we hold and build Afghanistan for him, he is going to break our hearts”. Thomas L Friedman The New York Times 10th April 2010

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Too cautious by half Authoritarian governments cannot or do not want to see injustice says Barrister Stanley Best

Stanley Best

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he Chairman of the Parole Board, Sir David Latham, was reported by BBC Radio 4 (on 1st April) in the ‘Today’ programme to have said that too many Parole Board members were frightened of the reaction of press and public (citing the Venables’ case) in case release on parole should go wrong and so were denying release on parole for many who had met the conditions for such release. As a practising barrister with long experience of Parole Review, I say ‘amen’ to that but was surprised not to hear any suggestion of a remedy. Surely, at the very least, those Parole Board members identified as being over-cautious should be invited to resign? If every Judge in a criminal trial was troubled by what the public or the press might think, there would no longer be any room for compassion or for a sentence which recognised the particular circumstances of the offender. Sentencing would become what this government wants - a textbook or government

driven exercise which reflects what one minister or another spells out on the basis of ‘one size fits all’. That Jack Straw, the Justice Minister, has got rid of Judges chairing Parole Board panels shows how dangerously close to actual injustice society has got in many ways under Gordon Brown and his cohorts. In saying that, I should add that I do not belong to or support any political party. However, if legal aid is curbed so as not to allow counsel to appear for prisoners at Parole Board hearings, I suspect that there may be uproar. I was particularly struck by two letters in the April issue of Inside Time; one from Nadine Wallace and the other from Max Szuca. For a woman who, rightly or wrongly, with a tariff of 3 years to be kept in prison from 19 years of age until she is 28 seems, at first blush, to be arguably rather harsh; although without knowing all the facts it is impossible to judge fairly. However, if Nadine Wallace correctly reports having secured, on release, her ‘dream job’ (i.e. at a staff recruitment agency earning £30,000 pa plus commission) one asks why she was ‘advised to give the job up as she would not be back (home) in time to report’ weekly to her Probation Officer.

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Is it beyond the wit of man to say that she could report instead to another Parole Board office within easier reach of her place of work? Miss Wallace may well have been, as alleged, ‘challenging’, but occasionally a prisoner or ex-prisoner may be justified in challenging conditions or instructions which appear unjust or too harsh. Why was it not in this case, as Nadine Wallace observes, appropriate for the Probation Service to ‘support, encourage’ (and to guide her) and to ‘praise (her) achievement in obtaining responsible employment allowing her to be self supporting and ‘to work around’ the difficulty, presented by her hours of employment, in reporting each week? Is there something we are not told or is this just a case of an over cautious approach leading unnecessarily to recall? Prima facie it surely demands investigation! If Nadine Wallace was unnecessarily recalled and retained in prison as a result of over-caution (and at this stage one does not know), she will not have been the first to have been treated in this fashion. I can fully understand Max Szuca’s complaint on several levels. When I addressed FACT (False Accusations Against Carers and Teachers) members in Birmingham a year or so ago, it appeared that there were indeed many more than one of them falsely accused - yet the government, as in the case of alleged rape, offers encouragement to accusers by suggesting that conviction levels are too low whereas 60% or more of those put on trial for rape are convicted. Whatever the truth of that matter, the report in the Sunday Telegraph (2nd April) of child abuse and the death of Baby ‘P’ alleged political interference by government to ‘shift blame’

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onto a particular individual. It made unhappy reading. That the present government is always so eager to present itself as the righteous party heightens suspicion. Turning now to Max Szuca, it does indeed seem harsh that Mr Szuca, whose conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal whereby he was found not guilty by a jury, should be refused compensation. Unless something was seriously amiss in the trial process at the first trial for which Mr Szuca could be fairly blamed (and it is not suggested thus far that this was so), then the Justice Secretary, dancing on the head of a pin, may have been entitled to refuse compensation, but this does not sit happily with the concern for fairness which the now very ancient man on the Clapham Omnibus would be looking for. The Act of Parliament which denies Mr Szuca compensation, following his suffering throughout two trials and an appeal, is typical of the government’s approach. One must hope that the next government, unbothered by retrospectivity in a situation where such legislation would be intended to correct an obvious injustice to Mr Szuca and others, will quickly move to put matters right. Can one readily imagine a government minister in similar circumstances affecting himself or his family being ready to accept such injustice philosophically? The question beggars belief but, of course, authoritarian governments, like too many members of the public the tempo of whose lives has never been affected by wrongful allegations, cannot or do not want to see the injustice. One hopes that at the forthcoming election, more than one candidate will take up the challenge presented by the conviction of the innocent and at the very least end the curtailment of legal aid. We have ignored that challenge for too long. Stanley Best is a practising barrister at Barnstaple Chambers, EX19 8ED and Chairman of the British Legal Association. Tel/Fax: 01837 83763

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Short Story

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org foot please, mister? Stick it all on Mum’s bill.” The chicken foot was for me to terrorise the girls with in the school playground, the sheep’s eye was for underneath my brother’s pillow. Yes, the butcher’s was my favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Or was it? “A packet of Weetabix, two pints of milk, a pack of toilet rolls, a box of firelighters and ten Consulate ‘cos Paddy’s shut. Don’t forget to tell them you’ll need a bag. And check the change; they’re foreign. Shall I write it down for you?” “No need, I’m not stupid, Mum,” I’d reply. The Spar shop stood on the other end of the parade of places where I couldn’t reach. It was the biggest place of all. It didn’t have a step but did have clever doors that slid open sideways on their own when they saw you coming.

Those out of reach places … a story that enables Andy Thackwray

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raffiti scarred metal shutters now hide the parade of places where I couldn’t reach; holding memories behind them, memories that inspired me; ones I’ll never forget. Though redundant and shut permanently for business, each place once had a certain individual quality; an individual means of purpose, but in all of them - I simply couldn’t reach. “A News of the World, a Sunday People and ten Consulate. Tell Mr Paddy they’re for me, you can have five pence wages for going.” Paddy’s sweetshop was my favourite place of all. It stood in the middle of the parade of places where I couldn’t reach and I could manage its one small step with ease. I welcomed doing this Sunday morning chore, once Mum got me out of bed and readied me for after my elder brother had gone to do his weekend paper round so I too would have wages to spend on sweets; usually a fivepence mix of chewy blackjacks and fruit salads: but not always. I always paid Mr Paddy by the side of his big counter. The counter where all the expensive chocolate bars lay in their brightly coloured wrappings, the counter so big I couldn’t reach and could only look and drool at. “I’m five pence short,” Mum would sometimes say - inspecting her change. “Your fags have gone up Mum,” I’d lie. The clip around the ear was worth it for the ten-pence bar of dairy milk I had hidden in my shirt. Yes, Paddy’s was my favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Or was it? “Three fish, a special and four bags of chips, and don’t let the ‘chip mouse’ eat any on the way back,” Mum used to say. Mr Cranswick’s chip shop stood at one end of the parade of places where I couldn’t reach. I could only just manage its step on my own. ‘What’s so special about a fish that makes you wait?’ I often thought, whilst waiting hungrily at the shiny metal counter where I couldn’t reach for Mr Cranswick to finish frying my Dad’s big fish. I always burned my

nose after I’d raised myself up, and the vinegar stung my eyes also, as I peered over it to watch Mrs Cranswick busy with her vinegar bottle and saltshaker. Nearby, fish lay crisp and golden in their brightly lit glasshouses, high up where I couldn’t reach. “Plenty of scraps on mine,” I’d shout up, “And I’ll have my brothers too, he doesn’t want none,” I’d lie. Together with my warm, newspaper-wrapped parcel, I’d make the two-minute journey home last five as I expertly picked a chipsized hole into the corner of my precious load, stopping occasionally to pull out one chip, then just one more. My mouth would burn though also welcome the flavoursome, fleshy softness of yet another chip, and another: my brother’s chips of course. “Mum, he’s got more chips than me and I’ve got hardly any scraps,” he’d moan. “Has the chip mouse been at it again?” Mum would say, smiling down at me as she took half a dozen or so chips from my plate and put them onto my whinging brothers. Yes, Cranswick’s was my favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Or was it? “A pound of mince, we’re having Shepherd’s Pie tonight. Oh, and get me a pack of lard. Tell him to put them on my bill, I’ll settle with him later,” Mum would say. “And make sure it’s fresh.” The butcher’s stood between Paddy’s sweet shop and the library that I haven’t mentioned yet, on the parade of places where I couldn’t reach. I always needed help with its two small steps. It was also the one place where I couldn’t reach where I didn’t want to be able to reach, especially at its big glass counter, for a pig’s head placed on a silver salver guarded the top of it; its piggy eyes watching my every move! “Mum says make sure the lard’s fresh.” “Where’s my glasses?” the butcher would often say as he took a pencil from behind his ear to reckon up Mum’s bill. “The pig’s got them on,” which it often had, I’d cry with delight. At Christmas, the pig’s head would have a flat cap on with a scarf wrapped around its neck. Sometimes it smoked a pipe. Once, it even wore make up. Whatever it was wearing, it always looked scary and it never missed a trick. “Can I also have a sheep’s eye and a chicken

“A packet of Cornflakes, two pints of milk, a box of firelighters and ten Consulate ‘cos Paddy’s shut. Can you get them for me please because I can’t reach? And Mum says I’ve to tell you I need a bag and you’ve to check the change because you’re foreign.” “Conflakes? I said Weetabix you ha’peth. You know your brother doesn’t like Cornflakes, and where’s the toilet roll?” Mum crowed on my return as she took the content out of the plastic bag onto the kitchen table. “You should’ve written it down for me Mum, stupid.” ”The fact that at that particular time Cornflakes had a free plastic dinosaur in them and my brother had a bad case of diarrhoea had nothing at all to do with my lapse in memory. Yes, the Spa shop was my favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Or was it? “Tell the librarian lady your Mum’s been poorly and couldn’t leave the house, that’s why they’re overdue. Tell her I don’t want to take any more books out just yet.” The library stood between Paddy’s sweetshop and Cranswick’s chippy on the parade of places where I couldn’t reach. It had a ramp as well as a step. “Can our kid come with me Mum?” “No, he’s at Cubs so you’ll have to go on your own love.” The library was the only place where I didn’t mind my brother coming along with me. I could easily reach the kid’s books on the lower shelves but the good books, the ones with photographs of dead soldiers and Adam and Eve with no clothes on, I couldn’t reach. I used to let my brother, who could only just reach, get them down. Then we’d take it in turns to look in wonderment at these books with their fascinating pictures while the other stood guard, watching out for the bossy librarian lady. “Mum says she’s been too ill to bring them back herself, that’s why they’re overdue.” I said, as the bossy librarian lady came around the wooden counter where I couldn’t reach to take the books from me. “She says can she take out World War One Illustrated and The Birth of Man this time please? And can you go get them down for me because I can’t reach?” I could hardly contain my excitement as the bossy librarian lady agreed to my untruthful request. After I smuggled the books into the house under my jumper it cost my brother the batteries out of his transistor radio before he got a look. Yes, the Library was my favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Or was it?

37

“What colour do you want love? Point, because we know you can’t reach.” The itchy wool shop stood between the Library and Cranswick’s chippy. The itchy wool shop was the only place where I couldn’t reach where Mum never sent me to on my own. I always went with her, so it didn’t matter about its one steep step. The itchy wool shop was a boring place. It had balls of itchy wool stacked up high along the walls; each brand and colour had its own designated wooden pigeonhole. I always knew a visit here with Mum would eventually result in my brother and me each having to wear an identical hand-knitted itchy jumper or cardigan which we both detested and we hated wearing the same things. “I only need another four balls, I’ve only the arms to do on them both,” Mum would say to the itchy wool lady. I prayed the itchy wool she’d run out of, the same itchy wool she’d ended up choosing anyway (after promising me I could choose the buttons), would not be in stock and stall Mum’s progress with the two, half-finished monstrosities she had shoved in the depths of her knitting bag at the back of the settee. The itchy wool lady told Mum she’d only two balls of Mum’s itchy wool left in stock and she’d have to order the other two. “Finish our kid’s first, Mum. I know he’s looking forward to his. I don’t mind waiting, honest.” I said selfishly, thinking he’d lose his at school before Mum finished mine. “Ahhh, that’s kind of you love, putting your brother first. I’ll buy you some sweets from Paddy’s.” Yes, the itchy wool shop was my least favourite place where I couldn’t reach. Yet it survived where the other places I couldn’t reach failed - all my own doing of course. My to-the-door courtesy bus, in-store newsagents, butchery, fishmongers and bookshop, not to mention Porky the Pig in the crèche, have made my supermarket the place to shop for everyone except hand-knitters. Most importantly, my disabled customers, especially those in wheelchairs like myself, can enjoy disabled access to all areas as well as my personal and online shopping services, which make my supermarket reachable by all. Andy Thackwray is formerly HMP Doncaster This is one of a collection of short stories from The Fruits from an Innocent Mind by Andy Thackwray, which is available in all good bookshops and also through Amazon, www.lulu.com or from Inside Time.

insidestories our last call for your contributions Despite the request to publish more short stories coming from prison education staff keen to see their students work published, so far we have had a very disappointing response. If it is to go ahead and be as successful as our other supplements we need your contributions urgently. Maximum 1000 words and please be quick, they need to be with us by 17th June latest.

38

News from the House

Paedophilia

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent guidance his Department has issued on the publication of images of convicted paedophiles; and if he will make a statement. Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice has not issued guidance on the publication of images of convicted criminals. However, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre’s Most Wanted website was launched in November 2006 in partnership with Crimestoppers. That website contains photographs of convicted child sexual offenders who are wanted because they have breached the notification requirements. The Home Department has indicated that, to date, 15 of the 20 offenders whose photographs have been posted on the website have been located. The photographs and details of child sexual offenders who have failed to comply with their notification requirements and have gone missing are included on the website only following the exhaustion of all lawful means to identify their whereabouts and a comprehensive risk assessment by the responsible police force in respect of the impact on victims, the individual offenders, their family and the community. CEOP and police forces comply with Standard Operating Procedures drawn up in consultation with the Home Office, ACPO and Crimestoppers.

Prison Places: Expenditure

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average cost to the public purse was of a place in prison in each of the last three years.

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

News from the House Inside Time highlights some of the more important Parliamentary Questions from the House of Commons The overall average cost for 2008-09 comprises the expenditure on public and private prisons (as recorded in the NOMS agency annual report and accounts), increased by an apportionment of relevant costs borne centrally and in the regions by NOMS. This involves some estimation. In addition, expenditure met centrally by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) is included. The figures do not include the cost of prisoners held in police or court cells under Operation Safeguard, nor expenditure met by other Government Departments (e.g. Health and Education). The prisoner escort service costs are included. Expenditure recharged to the YJB in respect of young people is included. The overall cost for 2007-08 was calculated on a broadly similar basis. Cost per prison place is expressed in terms of the certified normal accommodation number of places; this gives a higher unit cost than the cost per prisoner. Figures to nearest £1,000.

Prison Places: Finance David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the cost of (a) prisoner health care, (b) prisoner education services,

(c) drug addiction services and (d) dog handling are taken into account in his Department’s estimates of the cost of a prison place in England and Wales. Maria Eagle: For 2008-09 the overall cost of a prison place was £45,000 (to nearest £1,000). This includes expenditure met by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Youth Justice Board (YJB). It does not include expenditure met by other Government Departments (e.g. for health and education). In general health care costs are not included. Where prisons have been contracted out to the private sector the cost to NOMS includes health care and this is included in the cost per place above. In general prisoner education services are not included. Where prisons have been contracted out to the private sector the cost to NOMS includes education and this is included in the cost per place above. In general clinical drug addiction services are not included. Services which are the responsibility of NOMS (e.g. drug testing, accredited drug treatment programmes and Counselling, Assessment,

£ 30,000 31,000 30,000

The direct prison cost is only the expenditure met locally by prisons. It does not include expenditure met at area, regional, or national level by Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMPS) or the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The figure for 2008-09 includes private prisons and is net of income from the Department of Health and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. For the last two years (2008-09 and 2007-08) an overall average cost per prison place including prison related costs met by NOMS, in addition to the direct prison cost, has been calculated as: Financial year 2008-09 2007-08

£ 45,000 43,000

Prisons: Sanitation David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his most recent estimate is of the number of prison cells without in-cell sanitation; and what plans his Department has to install in-cell sanitation in those cells.

Maria Eagle: The average direct prison cost per prison place in each of the last three financial years is as follows: Financial year 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07

Referral advice and Throughcare services) are included. Dog handling costs are included. Before 2008-09 Her Majesty’s Prison Service Annual report and Accounts included the direct prison cost per place. This included only the expenditure met and managed locally at each prison and excluded expenditure met at area, region or national level. The reported figures included expenditure on health care and education which was recharged to the other Government Departments. It did not include that expenditure met directly by other Government Departments. The overall average cost for 2008-09 comprises the expenditure on public and private prisons (as recorded in the NOMS Agency Annual Report and Accounts), increased by an apportionment of relevant costs borne centrally and in the regions by NOMS. This involves some estimation. In addition, expenditure met centrally by the YJB is included. The figures do not include the cost of prisoners held in police or court cells under Operation Safeguard, nor expenditure met by other Government Departments (e.g. Health and Education). The prisoner escort service costs are included. Expenditure recharged to the YJB in respect of young people is included. Cost per prison place is expressed in terms of the Certified Normal Accommodation number of places; this gives a higher unit cost than the cost per prisoner.

Three Labour MP’s charged with expenses fraud will have their estimated £1 million  legal bill covered by legal aid.

Court officials were obliged to accept the MPs application ‘in the interests of justice’.   However the Legal Service Commission’s Legal Aid Calculator informs an enquirer that an applicant must not exceed a gross income of £2,675 per month. An MP’s annual salary of £64,766 works out at a gross monthly salary double the figure allowed. This is without taking into account the equity in their properties, disposable capital and the reported figure of £650,000 lump sum for retiring MPs (including these three not so retiring MPs).

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Maria Eagle: There are about 2,000 cells on normal location across the prison estate that do not have integral sanitation but which have electronic unlocking facilities, which permits a prisoner to leave the cell to access sanitation and washing facilities on a call system. This system was approved as a method of ending ‘slopping out’, as set out in the Judge Tumin report of 1989. There are also some further cells on the prison estate without integral sanitation but which permit prisoners to have open access to central sanitation facilities via their privacy locks. This was also acceptable to Judge Tumin as a method of ending “slopping out”. Cells with the current electronic unlocking facilities are too small for the installation of integral sanitation. Editorial note: Recently when David Howarth asked a question on sanitation we wrote an editorial note in which we invited the Minister to read a recent report on the

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39

News from the House

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org subject by the Prisons Inspectorate. This time we invite the Minister to read two letters in this issue on page 2 and the latest IMB Report on HMP Bullwood Hall.

Prisons: Mobile Phones John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated research into the means by which illicit mobile phones are brought into prisons. Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has not commissioned specific research into the means by which illicit mobile phones are brought into prisons. However, phones enter prisons by the same routes as other contraband: visitors; over the wall; post and parcels; reception; and remand prisoners and staff. David Blakey CBE QPM DL, formerly Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Chief Constable of West Mercia, was commissioned by the Director General of NOMS, at the Justice Secretary’s request, with undertaking a review of the effectiveness of HM Prison Service’s measures for disrupting the supply of illicit drugs in prisons. Mr. Blakey confirmed the five main routes for illicit drugs to get into prisons, and noted that the use of each route and the traffic flowing along it will alter from time to time and from place to place. He recognised the link between the availability of phones in prisons and the smuggling of illicit drugs. NOMS is determined to address the risks that mobile phones present to security and to the safety of the public. Our strategy is to: minimise the number of mobile phones entering prisons; find mobile phones that are smuggled into prisons; and disrupt mobile phones that we cannot find.

Prisons: Overcrowding

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what mechanisms are planned to assist new private prisons to reduce levels of prison overcrowding. Maria Eagle: Crowding levels are set and managed carefully by the National Offender Management Service. Prison crowding occurs when the number of prisoners in an accommodation unit exceeds the certified normal capacity (CNA) of that unit. A prison’s “certified normal accommodation” (CNA) is therefore its agreed capacity when there is no crowding. A prison’s “operational capacity” is the maximum number of prisoners it is allowed to hold over and above CNA taking into account control, security and the proper operation of regimes. In addition operational managers must ensure that each cell used for the confinement of prisoners has sufficient heating, lighting and ventilation and is

of adequate size for the number of prisoners to be held in it. Operational capacity in prisons is set by Directors of Offender Management on behalf of the Secretary of State in both publicly managed and contracted establishments. The Government are committed to increasing substantially the capacity of the prison estate and plans to provide 96,000 places by 2014. On 27 April 2009 the Justice Secretary announced that the Ministry of Justice plans to build up to five new 1,500 place prisons. The private and third sector will be invited to bid for the construction and operation of these new prisons and places are currently planned to be provided on an uncrowded basis.

Prison Accommodation

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number of prison cells reckoned as (a) certified normal and (b) operational capacity accommodation in each of the next five years. Mr. Straw: By the end of 2009 the total useable operational capacity of the prison estate was 85,986. The Government are currently planning to increase overall net capacity to 96,000 places by 2014. There are two substantial programmes to deliver new places, the Core Capacity Programme and the New Prisons Programme. The Core Capacity Programme aims to deliver 12,500 additional places by 2012 (for which 9,500 places had been announced prior to the Carter Report of December 2007). Places are being provided through the building of new prisons as well as expansions at existing ones and more effective use of the estate. The following table shows the approximate number of additional places currently planned for delivery between 2010 and 2012 under this programme (may be subject to change): Number of places 2010 3,650 2011 1,400 2012 2,600 In addition, under the New Prisons Programme it is intended to build up to five new prisons with a total of 7,500 places and, as part of this programme it is currently planned to close up to 5,500 worn out, inefficient places in the current estate. The Ministry of Justice does not hold official estimates for future useable operational capacity. Operational capacity figures will also be affected by the impact of maintenance programmes, which will vary over time. The precise numbers and delivery timings of new prison places will also depend on construction schedules and prioritisation

within the prison estate.

Legal Aid Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he plans to take to ensure that the requirements of vulnerable people receiving services under the new Legal Services Commission contracts are met. Bridget Prentice: The Government are committed to ensuring that the most vulnerable people in society have access to quality, publicly-funded legal advice for family and social welfare issues. This is why we increased expenditure on Legal Help, which covers initial advice and assistance, from £176 million in 2008-09 to £200 million for 2009-10. We have also increased the number of acts of assistance provided from 595,000 in 2004-05 to over a million last year. During 2010-11, funding for advice and assistance will be maintained to ensure that people can

Criminal Legal Aid

opportunities for a range of providers to win contracts, including barristers chambers; The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor (Mr. Jack Straw): The Ministry of Justice is publishing today (22nd March) outline proposals for restructuring of the delivery of publicly funded criminal defence services. This follows the announcement in December 2009 that the Ministry would work closely with the Legal Services Commission (LSC), the Law Society and individual practitioners to develop such proposals by the end of March 2010, and that these would replace the LSC’s planned pilots for best value tendering. Even with the necessary savings and reforms, our system of legal aid-civil and criminal-will still be far and away the best funded in the world. The Government strongly believe that there must be a significant restructuring of the provision of criminal defence services in order to achieve greater value for money from legal aid, while still ensuring fair access to justice and enabling legal aid providers to remain profitable and sustainable. The Ministry of Justice policy statement proposes that this would be achieved by creating a more consolidated market, in which larger contracts are let to

• Birmingham Care Homes

retaining the ability for individuals to choose a solicitor from among those firms that hold contracts; and fostering innovation and efficiency on the part of providers by minimising contractual burdens, but balanced with strong financial audit controls. The Ministry of Justice intends to undertake a consultation later this year on more detailed proposals, including a tendering model capable of delivering this restructured market. The Government will wish to consider the views expressed by respondents, including on any alternative options that would ensure the sustainability of criminal legal aid at reduced overall expenditure, before making final decisions. Copies of the policy statement, “Restructuring the delivery of criminal defence services”, will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The document will also be available from the publications section of the Ministry of Justice website at: www.justice.gov.uk.

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a smaller number of more efficient providers, enabling them to take advantage of economies of scale. Other features of the proposals include: contracts tendered across a whole criminal justice system area, and for the full range of services including higher value Crown court work;

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40

Legal Comment

Mandatory drugs tests - procedure and reliability Solicitor David Wells explores the challenges that are open to results of positive drug tests

T

he provisions relating to the administration of mandatory drugs tests can be found in PSO 3601; a document well over a hundred pages in length. I have done my best to summarise the main points in this article and to raise awareness that results of the tests themselves are often open to challenge. Approximately 15% of the prison population is the subject of drug tests every month. This means that with a prison population in excess of 85,000, quite a number of inmates will find themselves in the position of being requested to provide a specimen. All those from whom a sample is required must comply, except those declared by healthcare to be ‘unfit for testing’. Apart from those selected randomly, prisons can ‘target test’ inmates against whom there is a reasonable suspicion that drugs have been used. Risk assessment testing can also be a pre-requisite to privileges such as temporary release or transfer to an open prison. Procedurally, when asked to provide a specimen of urine, reasons must be given. The test must not be taken within the sight of a person from the opposite sex and neither should it be in the direct view of a prison officer. If these requirements are ignored, a challenge ought to be made

to the reliance upon any positive result. If you are not able to provide a sample of at least 30ml of urine, the prison may keep you in segregation for up to five hours and provide you with water in the hope that a specimen will follow. If you are still not able to provide a sample, or in the event of a blank refusal, a charge of refusing a lawful order is likely to result which itself raises complex issues. When a sample is taken, it should be divided into two parts and you should be asked to sign to confirm that both samples were sealed in your presence. The first sample (known as a screening test), is sent away for analysis. The second part is stored by the prison for 9 months and you are entitled to have it independently analysed at any time. In the event of a positive indication, a charge will likely follow and in the event of a not guilty plea being entered and where the result is disputed or another defence raised, any adjudication will be adjourned for what is known as a ‘confirmation test.’ This is supposed to be more accurate than the earlier screening test. There is a rebuttable presumption with the confirmation test that they are accurate beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the time that it would be best to request an independent analsyed test to be done using your own sample held by the prison (this must be done quickly). This is best done using the services of a solicitor who will need to

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which the inmate did not know and had no reason to suspect that such a drug was being administered; or

So what, if anything, can be done by way of challenge to a positive result after a specimen has been analysed? Such challenges are probably less frequent than they should be. Firstly, inmates should always pay careful attention to ensure that the prison have followed the correct procedure- both in terms of the taking of, and the analysis of the samples. The chain of custody of a sample is an important aspect to consider. Measures are in place to make sure that this chain is properly followed throughout the process of collection, transport and testing. Records must be kept whenever the sample is moved and often in the presence of others. You want to know that the sample tested was actually yours!

c) The controlled drug was administered by him or to him under duress or to him without his consent in circumstances where it is not possible for an inmate to have resisted.

As far as the sample itself, some medications can give positive results, such as painkillers and anti-depressants as they contain controlled drugs. Even some foods produce positive drug tests, even though the person being tested did not ingest drugs. The unreliability of many drug testing technologies is a matter of some concern, particularly as the effect of a positive test is to punish; often harshly. It should also be noted that there are express defences to a charge following a positive result. Those are contained in Prison Rule 52. These defences are: a) The controlled drug had been, prior to its administration, lawfully in an inmate’s possession for own use, or was administered to an inmate in the course of a lawful supply of the drug to him by another person; b) The controlled drug was administered by or to an inmate in circumstances in

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Often, when charged, inmates simply attend adjudications without legal representation believing that no realistic challenge can be made. However, it is my firm’s experience that it is very much possible to beat these charges even when no statutory defence applies or where there is no challenge to the MDT procedure. Take for example a recent client who failed his drug test with a spectacular amount of cannabis in his sample. About thirty-two days or so later, he tested positive for cannabis again, but this time with only a relatively low level detected in the sample. PSO 2000, Annex F tells us that the prison has to wait 30 days before it can charge a guy for a failed cannabis test. It was successfully argued that these limits are by no means 100% scientific rock-solid and that it is entirely possible that, with such a huge amount of cannabis in the first sample, he was still working the cannabis out of his system when he gave the second sample. It also helped that he had moved to a different wing, and started taking anti-drug classes, and signed up for voluntary drugs tests in the meantime. The fact is that such tests are heavily regulated by a lengthy PSO, and for good reason. Successful challenges can be mounted not just because a statutory defence arises, but because very often there is a flaw in the detailed procedure that must be followed.

David Wells is a senior partner at Wells Burcombe LLP in Hertfordshire

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Legal Comment

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The criminal appeal system: an overview Solicitor Chris Saltrese explains the essence of the appeal system

T

he criminal appeal system is not concerned with the justice of a conviction. The Court of Appeal will only intervene where a decision can be said to be ‘unsafe’, and this technical concept is far removed from whether an appellant is innocent or guilty. The Court of Appeal will not rehear the original case, or re-evaluate the evidence, or revisit the merits of a jury’s decision. Nor will the Court of Appeal entertain arguments that the defence could have argued the case better; or that the jury never grasped the significance of that point or this – which may well be true; or even that so-and-so lied – which may well be true too. The core point is that the Court of Appeal is not concerned with whether the decision reached by the jury was right or wrong, only that the conviction can be regarded as ‘safe’. The Court of Appeal’s stance derives from a bedrock assumption that a case properly put to the jury is properly decided by that jury. The system has tremendous strengths but imposes onerous constraints on the right of appeal. If a jury chooses to believe the flakiest witness, and chooses to discard solid and sober truth, that is the jury’s right. Hence the essence of the appeal system revolves around the word ‘properly’. Was the case properly put to the jury? Avenues for appeal are severely limited by another major assumption. Over the centuries, our system of justice developed to allow the defence a full opportunity to state its case. The Court of Appeal proceeds on exactly this footing. It assumes that the defence team did, or most definitely should have presented all relevant evidence at the main hearing. After the case, it is too late. And, because we have a proper, all-seeing system of justice, there is very little that occurred during the trial itself that constitutes a ground of appeal. This includes almost any argument along the lines of incompetence. So what are the things that might render a jury’s decision unsafe? In practice, there are just two major possibilities. Firstly, an appeal may be granted

if there has been a “material irregularity” in the conduct of the trial. Such an irregularity might be the introduction of inadmissible and prejudicial evidence or the failure of the judge to give correct directions to the jury in his summing-up. But once again, even if a judge’s direction is not as clear and precise as it might be, it does not render the conviction unsafe. Broadly speaking, a judge will discharge his duties in the eyes of the Court of Appeal if he gives the appropriate ‘directions’. The best-known is the requirement for the prosecution to prove its case so that the jury are sure before they convict. Here the essence of the jury system is visible: the judge makes the appropriate enjoinder to the jury (“you must be sure”), and, provided he does so, the jury is properly directed on the burden of proof. In a trial of any complexity, there will of course be numerous other directions. But the judge’s task boils down to using the standard form-of-words on maybe half a dozen issues: say, good character; the duty not to speculate; the effect of delay; inferences to be drawn from lies to the police; and the interlinked questions of bad character evidence, collusion, contamination and cross-admissibility. In addition, the judge has a general duty to summarise the main planks of the case, both for the prosecution and the defence. But this does not extend to summarising its detail. There is certainly scope for judicial error here. But, if there is no defect in the summing up or other material irregularity in the trial, the remaining way to undermine the decision of a properlydirected jury is with fresh evidence. There are restrictions here too. The Court of Appeal takes the view that everything which should have been put in evidence was put in evidence – and that every witness with something to say was called and did give testimony. Hence a quest for fresh evidence is primarily limited to events arising after the conviction. If the evidence was available at the time of the hearing - in the sense that theoretically it could have been put forward, even if it was not - a compelling reason is required to explain its omission. In addition, this fresh evidence must have weight – and,

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after a finding of guilt, this weight becomes dauntingly heavy. Those who have been wrongly convicted know that all sorts of slender peripherals can be produced at the main hearing – anything, in fact, that makes guilt more probable. But, once a conviction is made, the Court of Appeal does not simply require evidence that suggests innocence. Its requirement is far higher: evidence that either establishes innocence, or comes very close to it, or demolishes the prosecution evidence (such that it is ‘unsafe’ to rely on it).

The Court of Appeal’s stance derives from a bedrock assumption that a case properly put to the jury is properly decided by that jury … If a jury chooses to believe the flakiest witness, and chooses to discard solid and sober truth, that is the jury’s right.

This means that it does not matter how many ‘lesser’ arguments are put forward. Lesser arguments - of the kind which fail - do not acquire a culminative power that layup2:Layout 1 12/04/2010 21:14 Page 1

eventually tips the balance. They simply fail, one by one, piecemeal. A single strong point is worth a hundred weak ones. As appeal lawyers, we are interested in the guilt or innocence of our clients. But our job is to identify and develop arguments that satisfy the Court. There may be a defect in the summing-up. The judge may not have grasped - or conveyed - the essence of the defence. A mistake of law, whether elementary or complicated, may emerge. The propensity to do X may be wrongly extended to embrace a propensity to do Y. Bad character propensity evidence in the form of previous convictions may be muddled up with allegation evidence. Perhaps the good-character direction was left out, or improperly put. There may be fresh evidence - a later retraction, or an admission, or a letter, unobserved at the bottom of a file or actively concealed. New witnesses may come forward, perhaps with proof that A did in fact collude with B. Even DNA evidence can be the subject of misdirection. All these things are unlikely. But, importantly, all these things happen. Sometimes the key point has always festered in the mind of the accused. In other cases, the ground of appeal that eventually emerges has lain unremarked, “hidden in plain view”, for years. The patterns are often complicated, but a good place to start is with an appellant alert to where the main possibilities do and do not lie. Chris Saltrese is a solicitor at Chris Saltrese Solicitors in Southport

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Legal Comment

Challenging decisions Claims for judicial review need to be brought on well established grounds says Solicitor Michael Robinson

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

insideinformation the Comprehensive Guide to Prisons & Prison Related Services Published by insidetime - the National Newspaper for Prisoners www.insidetime.org

D

ecisions made by the prison system, the Parole Board and agencies overseen by the Secretary of State for Justice (SSJ) that affect prisoners must be right in law. Decisions that are wrong in law are challengeable by way of judicial review. It is hard to think of any decisions affecting prisoners that could not, potentially, be susceptible to judicial review. A ‘decision’ also includes the failure to make a decision, and the failure to exercise discretion to make a decision. A policy such as the contents of the prison rules can be challenged, as can disciplinary and Parole Board decisions. Decisions relating to transfer, segregation and categorisation are susceptible to judicial review, as are those relating to operation, administration, or management of the prison system. Judicial review is not an appeal process, so a decision cannot be challenged purely because you disagree with it. It is also a procedure of last resort, which requires that all other available remedies must have been exhausted beforehand. In some instances, it is necessary to have completed the formal complaints process. Disciplinary findings of guilt must have been through the review procedure. In addition, the remedy sought through a claim for judicial review has to be both appropriate and effective. A complaint to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is not a suitable remedy, as he does not have the power to direct anyone to take any action. In general, decisions made by the parole board or the SSJ have no other remedy other than judicial review. There are established grounds upon which a claim for judicial review can be brought. These include ‘illegality,’ which involves a public body incorrectly interpreting the law; not applying the law properly; making a decision that there was no power to make; or misinterpreting facts, such as taking irrelevant factors into account, or not taking into account relevant information when making the decision. ‘Procedural Impropriety’ involves unfairness to a prisoner. Prisons must follow the policies and procedures that are in place. They also cannot be biased, be seen to be biased, and they cannot treat prisoners unfairly. ‘Irrationality’ applies to unreasonable decisions. Following a policy so strictly that it does not take into account a prisoner’s circumstances may be irrational. In circumstances in which prisoners are entitled to know the reasons why a decision has been made, it is not lawful to give insufficient reasons for that decision, or to provide no reasons at all. Judicial review claims can also be brought on Human Rights grounds. Prisons and other public bodies are not entitled to treat prisoners

in a way that is contrary to the Human Rights Act, except where the Act provides that it is lawful to do so. Some rights are absolute, such as the right to life and the prohibition on torture and inhumane treatment. Others contain exceptions, such as the general right to liberty unless a person has been lawfully deprived of that liberty. In claims for judicial review there are rules that, in most instances, need to be followed. A prisoner’s lawyers must send a letter to the defendant or defendants, setting out the issues and giving them a chance to respond before a claim is lodged with the court. If the response is not satisfactory, or there is no response at all, the claim is lodged at the Administrative Court for a judge to decide whether or not the case should proceed to a hearing. There is no automatic ‘right’ to have a decision judicially reviewed. Much like applications to the Court of Appeal, the process involves a paper-based application for permission to bring proceedings, which can be renewed orally if the judge refuses to grant permission on the papers. If the public body considers that they are unlikely to be able to defend the claim, they may ask the court for some time in order to try to reach a settlement. If this happens it is recorded by way of a ‘consent order.’ Alternatively they may decide to defend the claim. The Administrative Court has a number of powers to deal with unfair decisions. It can order the public body to act in a particular way; order it not to do something that is unlawful; order that the decision is void; or make a declaration that clarifies how the public authority should apply the law. The Administrative Court is also able to make a financial award (damages) to a prisoner, in certain circumstances. This may happen if, for example, the decision breached a prisoner’s human rights in such a way that damages could be justified. The time limit for lodging claims is extremely short. Claimants have three months from the date of the decision, which is in fact a longstop. Although the court retains the discretion to hear cases that are out of time, any delay must be adequately justified. If prisoners feel that they have been treated unfairly, they must seek legal advice without hesitation.

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Legal Advice

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Fraud Act 2006

… 3 years on be one single offence of obtaining by deception under s15 of the 1968 Act.

Aziz Rahman and Jonathan Lennon Fraud under the new Fraud Act 2006 The Fraud Act 2006 came into force on 15/1/07. It changed the landscape of fraud. From a Defendant’s perspective it makes the offence much simpler to understand and from the Crown’s perspective, much easier to prosecute. Much of the ‘old’ law on fraud was to be found in the Theft Acts of 1968 and 1978 as well as some common-law offences (i.e. developed in case-law rather than by Parliament). Many of the statutory provisions led to technical arguments and difficulties in practical application. It was clear that the law on fraud needed updating and the Law Commission produced a report on the topic in 2002. That report led to the Fraud Act 2006. Its provisions apply to conduct committed on or after 15/1/07. The Act widened and simplified the law of fraud, though Parliament has still kept in place some of the common-law offences such as conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to cheat the Revenue. We cannot in this brief article hope to give a detailed account of all the ‘new’ offences created by the Act. However, the centre piece of the Act is undoubtedly the creation in section 1 of a new single offence of fraud – a single offence that can be committed in one of three different ways. Fraud by false representation: a person is in breach of this section if he dishonestly makes a false representation with intent to gain or cause loss to another, or to expose another to risk of loss. This offence carries no requirement for actual loss or even the risk of loss and in fact no requirement of even causing an alleged victim to believe the false representations. For a ‘representation’ to be ‘false’ the maker of the statement must “know that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading”. This latter part is designed to catch representations such as the promotion of a scheme involving “high yield investments”. In such a case it would be difficult to prove that a defendant knew in advance that this representation was in fact untrue, but easier to show that he was aware that it might be misleading. This offence can be used to prosecute so-called ‘boiler room’ frauds. More commonly though, and especially in the current climate – this is the offence used to prosecute alleged mortgage fraud. However, the new law does cause the prosecution some difficulties. For example, if you are facing this as a substantive charge (rather than a conspiracy to misrepresent) then the Act is worded in such a way that the prosecution really have to draft each single representation as a separate count where the allegation is that each representation was made for separate gain/loss. This is because each occasion constitutes a different offence whereas under the old law there could easily

Fraud by failure to disclose: a person is in breach if this section if he “dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose and he intends thereby to make a gain for himself or cause a loss, or risk of loss, to another”. This offence requires the Crown to first of all establish that the Defendant was under a duty to make some kind of disclosure. The Crown will try to establish this by evidence of the relationship between the Defendant and the alleged victim, e.g. a legal duty to disclose can arise as a result of a contract between two parties or because of the existence of a particular type of professional relationship between them; for example, a solicitor/client relationship. The intention behind the nondisclosure must be to make a gain or cause loss, or risk of loss to another. Thus this offence is complete as soon as the Defendant fails to disclose information that he was under a legal duty to disclose, together with the requisite dishonest intent. It does not matter whether or not anyone is deceived or any property is actually gained or lost. The CPS’s website suggests that the necessary “duty” is established by the Judge and not the jury. Quite why the Crown say this is not clear – it certainly does not say that in the statute and maybe a point for the Court of Appeal as this provision has not yet been tested in the Appeal Courts. It is certainly not a matter we would yet concede as this offence can risk crimininalising what would have been purely civil disputes prior to the implementation of the 2006 Act. Fraud by abuse of position: this offence is committed by a person who occupies a post in which he or she is expected to safeguard, or not act against, the financial interests of another and then dishonestly abuses that position intending to make a gain for him or herself or to cause loss, or risk of loss, to another. Examples given by the CPS include an employee of a software company who uses his position to clone software products for his own personal gain or an employee who grants contracts/discounts etc to friends, relatives or associates. This offence would cover the corruption type cases of ‘backhanders’ and bribes and will invariably boil down to the question of honesty. Other offences: The Fraud Act creates other offences such as possession of articles for use in fraud (s7) and dishonestly obtaining services (s11). This latter offence replaces the old offence in the 1978 Act of obtaining services by ‘deception’ – it is now ‘dishonesty’ not ‘deception’. This just means the prosecution do not have to prove that any of the deceptions were operative or had any effect on the victim – it is what is in the Defendant’s mind that counts. Other frauds: We still see non-Fraud Act offences being prosecuted given the implementation date of the Act and the very long investigative periods which apply in complex fraud cases. Whether old or new the principles are, by and large, the same - though the precise legal tests may be different. The offence of conspiracy to conspiracy to

defraud must be mentioned however as it still exists and will continue to exist despite the Fraud Act and we still have fraudulent trading, false accounting, tax and Cheating the Revenue, (MTEC frauds and the like).

Evidence & experts Broadly speaking, defenders in financial allegation cases will look at patterns of behaviour of the Defendant and of his business practices. ‘Honesty’ will usually be the central issue – one “dodgy” invoice might be a mistake but several may be deliberate. It may be that an accountant, or auditor with a particular knowledge of some business area, can help explain to the jury that what appears odd, or commercially risky, may be acceptable in a particular line of business. ‘ In the case of forensic accountants it is worthwhile for solicitor and counsel to appreciate at an early stage what the issues are for the accountant to concentrate on. The temptation may be to simply instruct an accountant and pass him the prosecution Case Summary along with the papers and a vague outline of the defence case and ask him or her to ‘have a look’. That is not the right approach. The lawyers must understand

43

what the accountant is being asked to do, and why. The expert’s evidence may be critical and he or she should have their energies focussed on the right (and identified) areas. It may be, for example, that a man who appears to be trying to split monies between a number of bank accounts before withdrawing it can demonstrate, through the accountant witness, that in fact historically he is behaving more or less as he has done in the past when his behaviour was not in question – thus taking the sting out of the allegation of dishonesty. Audit trails may be poor, but armed with the right banking records and purchase invoices etc, an accountant may be able to help present a case that, for example, a particular business venture was, or could have been, commercially successful and was by no means the obvious scam the prosecution make out.

Conclusion There is simply no room in this article to go through all the offences created by the Act; however it will be appreciated that the Act may clarify and simplify the law in many ways but it also creates problems. The Court of Appeal has been largely untroubled by the Fraud Act up to now, but that will inevitably change as the higher Courts test the challenges taken by pro-active defence litigators. As always, the motto has to be ‘early preparation maximises performance’. Aziz Rahman is a Solicitor-Advocate and Partner at the leading Criminal Defence firm Rahman Ravelli Solicitors, specialising in Human Rights, Financial Crime and Large Scale Conspiracies/Serious crime. Rahman Ravelli are members of the Specialist Fraud Panel. Jonathan Lennon is a Barrister specialising in serious and complex criminal defence cases at 23 Essex Street Chambers in London. He is a contributing author to Covert Human Intelligence Sources (2008 Waterside Press) and has extensive experience in all aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

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44

Legal Q&A

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

RJ - HMYOI Glen Parva Q I am currently serving time for arson with

Inside Time Legal Forum Answers to readers’ legal queries are given on a strictly without liability basis. If you propose acting upon any of the opinions that appear, you must first take legal advice. Replies for the Legal Forum kindly provided by: ABM Solicitors; Chivers Solicitors; de Maids; Frank Brazell & Partners; Henry Hyams; Hine & Associates; Levys Solicitors; Morgans; Oliver & Co; Parlby Calder; Petherbridge Bassara Solicitors; Stephensons Solicitors LLP; Stevens Solicitors; Switalskis Solicitors and WBW Solicitors see individual advertisements for full details. Send your legal queries (concise and clearly marked ‘legal’) to our editorial assistant Lucy Forde at Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. For a prompt response, readers are reminded to send their queries on white paper using black ink or typed if possible. Use a first or second class stamp. of the Act under which they were sentenced. However, if he was sentenced under the CJA2003 then the same rules apply as under the CJA2008. Anyone recalled could serve until their SED unless the Parole Board or Ministry of Justice directs earlier release.

KR - HMP Durham Q I was charged with ABH and pleaded guilty

right away and was sent to the Crown Court for sentencing. The Judge sentenced me to 15 months and also a five year extended sentence. For the first six months the prison were telling me that my sentence was six years and three months. I wrote to my solicitor and told him that the most you can get for ABH is five years and he got the sentence reduced to five years. Should I have had a third reduction for my early plea? I was released after serving 15 months but recalled for a further offence. I was sentenced in London but on release I got my licence transferred to Scotland. I was sentenced by a Scottish court to nine months but after serving four and a half I was brought back to England to serve the recall time. I have had no paperwork or letters from probation to advise that I’ve been recalled, can you tell me if they can keep me until my sentence runs out in September 2012?

A This gentleman is asking for advice on two

separate issues: appeal against sentence and recall. Dealing with the recall issue first; I note that he has been transferred from Scotland to England upon the conditional release date of a Scottish sentence as he has to serve time for the original sentence imposed in England. This is because his licence was revoked due to allegations of new offences (those for which he was sentenced in Scotland). He asks whether he will serve up until his SED. The answer depends upon the date that he was recalled. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 came into force on 14 July 2008. Anyone recalled before that date is subject to the rules

He needs to submit a general application to the recall clerk at HMP Durham requesting a copy of his recall pack. If the prison does not have it he needs to either request one from the appropriate recall team (dependent on area of country he was recalled in) or instruct a prison law specialist to advise him. He can submit written representations. The Parole Board or PPCS (Public Protection Casework Section) will consider whether his risk can be managed in the community. If he does not do this he will be subject to an annual review, so 12 months after he was recalled. In relation to the advice on appeal against sentence, I must refer firstly to the Sentencing Guidelines Council Definitive Guideline in relation to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Assuming he was charged under Section 47 of the Offence Against the Persons Act, the maximum penalty that can be imposed is 5 years. However, the offence is a specified offence for the purposes of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and therefore the sentencing judge must consider whether it is appropriate to impose a sentence of indeterminate length for public protection or extended licence conditions for public protection. In this case the judge chose the latter. The writer is correct that he should have been given credit for his guilty plea and that is generally a third, but can be less depending upon when the plea was entered. Other factors are taken into account - aggravating and mitigating features of the offence itself. Where a weapon is used and the assault is premeditated, that will cause the offence to be in the highest sentencing range. The court will also consider the offender’s previous convictions. I would suggest that the writer instructs a prison lawyer that deals with appeals as a matter of urgency, as for the appeal to have any effect upon his detention; it needs to be commenced immediately. If this were my case I would obtain the judge’s sentencing remarks in the first instance and take it from there.

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intent; I set fire to my girlfriend’s clothes during an argument. When I was on bail we got back together, despite my bail conditions. While I have been inside my girlfriend has visited me when she can and writes regularly but my outside probation worker has told me that I will have a no contact condition which will mean I will not be able to see my girlfriend. When I am released we both want to continue our relationship but with the conditions we will not be able to. I don’t understand why these conditions have to be: I would be better off inside where she could visit me.

A This young man asks if there is anything that can be done to alter a licence condition that prevents him from having contact with his current girlfriend, who was also the victim of his index offence. The answer depends on a number of things. Firstly, he does not say whether he is supervised with MAPPA restrictions. If he does then it would be essential that the solicitor puts representations to the attention of each MAPPA authority involved in the decision making process, which could include police, probation, social services. He also does not give the age of his girlfriend. If she is under 18 then there may well be issues involving social services and that will make things more complicated. Assuming that she is over 18 and prepared to provide a statement confirming her commitment to the relationship then I would now send a letter before action under the pre action protocol for judicial review proceedings to the Offender Manager. I would state that a legitimate expectation has been created that they can continue their relationship with her visits to him in custody and so on. I would argue that it was unreasonable to refuse contact in all the circumstances. A judicial review is a claim in the High Court of Justice that a decision made by a public authority is unreasonable, unlawful or procedurally irregular. There is a very high burden of proof, but cases where legitimate expectation can be argued can be strong cases. In addition, I would argue that this is in breach of their rights to a private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I would advise that he instructs a prison law specialist. I would also advise his girlfriend to consult a prison lawyer so that there can be a two pronged attack. However, I must reiterate that this advice is given without having all the

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AM - HMP Garth Q I was put on adjudication for being short of medication, the prison said that I had breached a compact with healthcare. I said that a compact isn’t a rule but the governor said it was. I am not the only person at Garth to be punished on breach of healthcare compact. Also, could you explain the PSO2000 rule on evidence? I can’t seem to find out what happens to evidence once it has been found; I thought it should be stored in a safe place in a sealed bag?

A Your correspondent asks why he was put on Adjudication for being short of some medication and therefore breaching a compact with healthcare. He also wants advice in relation to what happens with the evidence once found. This gentleman failed to comply with a rule or regulation which applied to him. In this matter, I believe the prison is stating that there has been a breach of a compact with healthcare, under Prison Rule 51 paragraph 26. He should be aware that before an adjudicator can be satisfied of guilt beyond reasonable doubt they must establish the following: The rule or regulation must be lawful. This means that the prison staff must have the authority to impose this rule on your correspondent. In this matter, it is arguable, as your correspondent would have needed to provide consent to have a compact with healthcare. A compact cannot be imposed on your correspondent by prison staff without consent. In relation to evidence, PSO 2000 at paragraph 5.7 states that it is important that physical evidence is retained and produced at the hearing, the general practice is that it is put into a sealed clear bag. However, there are occasions when physical evidence cannot be retained, for example when a prisoner is on adjudication for having an unauthorised article and then disposing of it immediately.

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Legal Q&A

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Q

I have been refused leave to appeal by the single judge. I am going to the full court. They denied me legal aid. Doesn’t this pave the way for the full court to simply follow what the single judge decided?

Banks on Sentence Answers by Robert Banks, a barrister who writes Banks on Sentence, the book the Judges use for sentencing more than any other.

www.banksr.com QI

Q

A This relates to the power to deduct time

A Your judge will not consider you had to commit the offence. The law is that being a drug addict is not mitigation. In one way it is an aggravating factor because the addict is committing additional offences, namely possession of drugs. There is one way an addict can receive a discount which is by showing that he or she has made determined efforts to break the addiction. Then the court can consider a “constructive sentence” within the community. However such sentences are reserved for less serious offences. It would not be considered suitable for someone who has committed 5 street robberies. The court would be expected to pass a considerable sentence. The starting points for street robbery are 1 year, 4 years and 8 years for someone aged 18 or over, depending on the circumstances. The starting points for a 17-year-old are community order, 3 years and 7 years detention again depending on the circumstances. Because you had a screwdriver your starting point would be 4 years. As a screwdriver is similar (but not as bad) as a knife you may receive an uplift on the 4 years. You must expect a further uplift because you committed 5 robberies and not one.

was released on bail on 14 August 2008 with a curfew. I was arrested for a breach of the curfew and then released on 27 January 2009 with a curfew and a tag. I remained on bail until my conviction on 3 November last year. What time will I get off for being on a curfew? that a bailed person is on electronic monitoring. The rate is half a day for every day spent tagged. I am afraid the answer is far from simple. The Court of Appeal, in a rare comment on legislation, has described this new power as over-complicated and one which has frequently generated uncertainty and confusion. The rules are: a) The statutory power only relates to: i) Offences committed after 4 April 2005. ii) Bail where there is a qualifying condition. iii) Where there is electric monitoring. iv) Periods of bail after 3 November 2008. b) Even when the conditions are met the Court can decline to give the discount if they consider it would be just so to do. c) No reduction should be given when someone is just on a curfew. d) In an appropriate case the Court can give a discount even though there has been no electronic monitoring, although there is no entitlement to this. Now you can see why the Court of Appeal made the comments it did. This means you would (if you satisfy the matters in para a above) be entitled to the 50% off for the period from January 2009 to November 2009.

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I am waiting for sentence for five muggings. In most of them I used a screwdriver. I had to commit the offences to feed my crack habit. Shouldn’t the judge take this into account and give me a discount?

A Your case will be heard in open court and officially your case is examined afresh. However few of these paper hearings result in leave being granted and a full hearing set down. If the defendant pays for counsel themselves, counsel makes submissions and leave to appeal is sometimes granted. Few can afford to pay. Sometimes barristers act for free. It has been said there is one rule for the rich and

45

one rule for the poor. However, many countries have no legal aid at all.

Q I was very interested to read the bur-

glary guidelines in the last issue. Are there guidelines for wounding?

A Thank you for this. A condensed version of the guideline follows below. There is other guidance about assaults generally which I do not reproduce. It is important to remember that the Court may pass a sentence above or below the guideline range where the particular facts of a case warrant it. If the judge does that, he or she must give reasons why that was done.

Sentencing Guidance Council Guidelines 2008

Assaults and other offences against the Person Guideline 2008. This guideline applies to offenders aged 18+. Matters of personal mitigation are often highly relevant to sentencing for this offence and may justify a non-custodial sentence, particularly in the case of a first time offender. Such a disposal might also be considered appropriate where there is a guilty plea. The definitions of the offences make it clear that the degree of harm in a section 20 offence will be more serious. The CPS Charging Standard provides that more minor injuries should be charged under section 47. Where the offence ought to be sentenced as an assault occasioning actual bodily harm, that guideline should be used. GBH/wounding and Racially/religiously aggravated GBH/wounding (plea of not guilty) • Particularly grave injury or disfigurement results from a premeditated assault where a weapon has been used: Starting point - 3 years custody / Sentencing range - 2-4 years custody • Premeditated assault where a weapon has been used or other assault where particularly grave injury results or a weapon has been used: Starting point - 18 months custody / Sentencing range - 12 months–3 years custody • Premeditated assault where no weapon has been used: Starting point - 36 weeks custody / Sentencing range - 24 weeks-18 months custody • Other assault where no weapon has been used: Starting point - 24 weeks custody / Sentencing range - Community Order (High)-36 weeks custody Additional mitigating factor: Provocation Please Note: If prisoners leave out key matters like relevant and serious previous convictions, or that the Court of Appeal has already rejected an appeal, the answers given will often be incomplete or wrong. Please make sure questions relate to sentences and not conviction or release. Unless you say you don’t want your question and answer published it will be assumed you don’t have an objection to publication. No-one will have their identity revealed. Facts which indicate who you are will not be printed. Letters without an address cannot be answered. It is usually not possible to determine whether a particular defendant has grounds of appeal without seeing all the paperwork. Going through all the paperwork is normally not an option. The column is designed for simple questions and answers. Please address your questions to Inside Time and mark the letter clearly for Robert Banks.

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46

Book Reviews

The Road by Cormac McCarthy Review from ‘MacNutty’ - HMP Peterhead The Road is the post apocalyptic tale of survival featuring a man and a boy. They have no names, all we know is they are father and son. The novel is their struggle to survive a natural disaster that has occurred turning the world upside down and covered with black ash. No mention is made of what happened, although there is an early reference to an earthquake in the opening few pages. There are two types of people who inhabit the world that now exists; the good guys who never give up hope and the bad guys who do whatever it takes to survive. I was struck with the biblical references contained within the book’s 300 plus pages. Talk about God and angels and one character is a blind man named Ely who the boy and man meet on their journey. They talk about prophets who ‘knew it was coming’ and the clincher is when the boy says, ‘yes I am … I am the one’. Cormac McCarthy has written a modern day fable about good and evil where eventually the righteous are rewarded. They have to take what the world throws at them and make the correct choices. It’s character building with the highly appropriate adage of ‘what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger’. Although The Road is a page-turner, as the tension builds up at times I actually found myself not wanting to turn the page as McCarthy keeps dropping bombshells; especially when it looked like the situation was improving - leaving me quite afraid of what would happen to the man and boy. The good times were there too; spread amongst an epic struggle, this made them all the more special and left you with a warm glow. Although the bad times were miserable and jaw dropping, the boy keeps not only his father going but the reader too with his intense need to help others. As a work of fiction it certainly had me questioning my own mortality. If nuclear war or

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

climate change disaster really struck, what decision would I make? Pack up my belongings in a rucksack, shopping trolley or wheelbarrow and scavenge for survival …wondering who and what to trust? Or give up and lie down waiting for death to arrive?

Shutter Island

Hope is abundant. This is apparent for no matter how bleak it gets, comfort arrives in the most unlikely landscapes and situations. The man talks with his son about ‘we’re carrying the fire’. This is having faith that eventually all will bode well. Hope for the world, other survivors and of course themselves.

Gerard McGrath ranks this book as amongst the best he has ever read

What isn’t important is the time or month when everything and everyone has died or is dying.

A scene from the film adaptation of the novel released on DVD 17 May 2010

In my opinion The Road fully deserves the critical acclaim bestowed upon it, for it is deeply thought provoking, emotionally intense and one of the best written books I have ever read. The various twists are shocking and you cry from sadness as well as tears of joy. The humanity of the boy shines through, while his father protects him from the harshness and dangers of the environment. The boy is wise beyond his years and the father lives through his eyes; knowing he won’t be there forever and the need to teach him how to survive. If Cormac McCarthy has a moral message, I would say it is never give up because you just don’t know what is around the corner. Although he could easily be telling us that flat screen TVs, ipods or iphones don’t matter. What does matter is the human race. If you can read The Road or watch the movie then do so; you won’t regret the decision. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is published by Picador Books and available in all good bookshops and through Amazon, price £7.99 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-330-46846-6

by Dennis Lehane

It is my hope that the Inside Time editorial team do not regard this as a valedictory review because personal circumstances have compelled me to request a hiatus of a couple of months on completion of this commission. An imminent Parole Board Oral Hearing demands all the concentration my remaining two functioning synapses can muster. Fortunately, it has not overly taxed me to review Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Immodest as it might seem, I regard myself as eclectic in my appreciation of the written word and on occasion I am favourably disposed to what I experience as a good psychological thriller. I certainly experienced Shutter Island as more than good. I am not going to forestall until the penultimate or concluding paragraph of this review to tell you I recommend and commend this book to you without any reservations. I found it enthralling. It is an exemplary thriller and definitive of the genre. I envy Mr Lehane his fecund imagination, not to mention his axiomatic ability to impart what he envisions in the form of a novel. Even when reluctantly compelled to put it down to attend to whatever had interrupted me, I was as impatient and keen as a child on Christmas Eve to return to it. This is a page-turner par excellence from the pen of a literary conjurer. It is no surprise to me the film rights were purchased. Leonardo Di Caprio of the mercurial Hollywood ‘A list’ is cast in the male lead of US Marshal Teddy Daniels. At this writing I have yet to see the film, however, if it is only half as well produced as Mr Lehane’s novel it ought to have comparable box office success to any of the dollar-spinning thrillers produced in the last five years. So why am I so fulsome in my praise of Shutter Island? Why should you purchase it or borrow it from a library? I have no wish to detract from

the vicarious enjoyment for prospective readers, so shall endeavour to be at least a tad circumspect in answering my rhetorical question. The story is set during the 1950s; a time in the evolution of the discipline of psychiatry when dubious ethical standards give license to practitioners to conduct experiments using their patients as unwitting guinea pigs. With few prohibitions, drugs, conditioning and invasive neurosurgery are in vogue and readily employed by unrestricted and uninhibited psychiatrists. As a means to their end, clandestine and ruthless government agencies adopt the same methods. The setting is the insalubrious confines of Ashecliffe Psychiatric Hospital for the criminally insane. The prologue describes the hospital as benignly located on the northwestern plain of the island and appearing nothing like a hospital, more a boarding school. However, appearances are often deceptive and this reader soon realized the benign location of Ashecliffe belies what takes place within its confines - in particular Ward C. Marshal Daniels has been designated to determine what has become of a missing patient, escaped murderer Rachel Solando. Teddy seeks to understand how a barefoot female has supposedly escaped a secure room. The enigma is compounded by someone leaving cryptic clues. What I experienced as the decidedly sinister ambience is enhanced by the author writing-up a storm in both the metaphorical and literal sense in his description of the vicious hurricane which strikes the island. Dennis Lehane is adept in the art of misdirection; nothing is as it appears. Just when Teddy thinks he has the truth within his grasp it proves as elusive as a butterfly. He realizes no-one is being truthful and even comes to doubt his partner. The fear he may never leave Shutter Island consumes him as he becomes more-and-more convinced someone is seeking to drive him insane. The conclusion, the resolution of the novel, ranks amongst the best I have ever read. No, I am not even going to hint at it, suffice to say that if I had a bottle of Single Malt Whisky to hand I would toast Dennis Lehane. If you enjoy a clever, plausible thriller which keeps you guessing then borrow or buy this one and you will not be disappointed. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is available in all good bookshops and through Amazon price £3.59. ISBN 978-0-553-82448-3 Gerard McGrath BA Hons is currently resident at HMP Haverigg

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47

Film Review

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Precious: struggling to be normal “Precious is a new film that we can highly recommend. It is the story of 16 year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones, and is set in Harlem, a poor black neighbourhood in New York, USA.

to read exactly how she feels. The novel also includes journal entries by Precious’s classmates, who have their own issues, including addictions, involvement in prostitution, domestic violence, and a lack of education. Precious is obese and has to cope with all the hassle she gets for that, as well as all her other problems. “I think Precious feels as though she’s the ugliest person in the room.” says Gabourey Sidibe, who plays Precious brilliantly.

with what I have and this is what I have. And goddammit I love it!” “Precious is a dragon slayer”, says the film’s director Lee Daniels. “She’s immune to pain and ridicule and she slowly finds out that she’s beautiful. It’s a slow discover, but it happens. We know that she’s going to be OK. She learns how to read. She learns how to love herself.” The film is more uplifting than you might expect and is dedicated to ‘precious girls everywhere.’

“That’s the sadness of her, that she’s struggling to be like someone else, struggling to be normal, because she thinks she isn’t”, she adds.

Precious has endured being raped by her father since she was a little girl. Aged 12, she gave birth to a baby girl on the kitchen floor. When Precious falls pregnant for the second time by her father she is kicked out of school and sent to a new one for “problem” kids. Precious cannot read or write, no wonder as her abusive mother – who calls Precious a whore for “seducing” her father – thinks school is a waste of time. When life gets too hard, Precious goes into a fantasy world, as a way of removing herself from the situation, stars in fashion and music shoots, and is a fabulous dancer. Sometimes she daydreams about being white and thin. At her new school, life begins to improve. Precious learns to read, gets some hope and makes friends. Her teacher encourages Precious to give up her new baby for adoption but she does not want to.

NEVER MIND THE RECALLS HERE’S THE

aW L oN S i r P

Precious is based on the novel Push by the author and teacher Sapphire, who got the idea from the deprived young women she taught to read and write. “The inspiration for Precious was the resilience, intelligence and beauty of the many young women I taught who persevered despite horrendous circumstances in their lives,” says Sapphire. She describes Precious as a character to “empathise with … not pity.” “There are children like Precious everywhere,” Sapphire believes. Push is written as Precious’s diary, so we get

“I love the way I look,” says Gabourey. “I’m never going to be a small size. I’m just not structured that way. So I have to work

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Being the size she is, Gabourey is not exactly your average size zero actress, and she is proud of her body!

This review first appeared in Women in Prison magazine, published by Women in Prison, a charity supporting and campaigning for women offenders and exoffenders. Women in Prison, a glossy quarterly magazine (pictured), is sent free to all women’s prisons in England and you should be able to find it easily. If not, please contact them. Women ex-offenders may receive their magazine free, just get in touch. They welcome contributions to their magazine from all women offenders and exoffenders. The service is women-only. Women in Prison, 347-349 City Road, London EC1V 1LR.

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48

Inside 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.

>> This month’s poetry section was reduced

to a single page to allow for the election pages and ballot paper.

To make up for this, our June issue will include a special 8 page Poetry Supplement.

H

the month H Poem H H H Star H of H

H

Congratulations to Matthew Brown - HMP Onley - who wins our £25 prize for ‘Star Poem of the Month’.

Imagine If ... Matthew Brown - HMP Onley Imagine if all violence just stopped tomorrow Thieves stopped stealing and decided to borrow Shoplifters walked in shops to put things back Drug dealers destroyed their crack and smack Prostitutes chose not to sell themselves Fraudsters went legal to obtain wealth Ram raiders ceased smashing up stores Counterfeit goods weren’t produced anymore Armed robbers hung up balleys and didn’t do blags Muggers left alleys and stopped snatching bags Banned drivers turned off engines and chose to wait Kids were safe playing outside even if it was late Guns and knives were all destroyed Nuisance neighbours turned down that noise Then we as people would be more respected Shops wouldn’t need cameras or store detectives Doors wouldn’t be locked because there are no burglars Mothers wouldn’t lose anymore sons through gangland murders Junkies would progress positively ‘cause they’d stay clean Courts could do away with affrays and sec 18’s Towns and cities wouldn’t have red light districts Kerb crawlers, peeping toms or misfits You wouldn’t need an alarm on a car or building We wouldn’t have to worry as much about the safety of our children Right across the board insurance prices would fall You wouldn’t wonder if it’s a con when you answer a call I for one wouldn’t go out on the rob Police and screws, what would they all do for a job?

MACKESYS

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A graft of sorts Philip Henry Barrett HMP Dartmoor Been out a year now Dabbled but not too much On pay days When I’m bored Just to take the edge off You know how it is. Keep telling myself that I don’t want a habit An occasional treat Every two weeks No big drama You know how it is. Gotta sing on today Tell the lady I’ve no money Need bus fare and some shoes For job interviews My crisis justifies a loan You know how it is. Staring waiting, ticket in hand Staring at the no smoking sign A jovial Bangladeshi lights up Chequered flares, golden sandals A wink, a smile You know how it is. My turn at last, steady now Gotta get into character Needy, grave, desperate, despair Maybe a tear, just one Hope it’s the old lady again You know how it is.

Horizon blurred by autumn Mark Lasky - HMP Dovegate Thunder Grey splatterings in a downpour Fast moving traffic sending up Glistening sprays of water The road like a river Running through the countryside Between two small towns Desolate Vehicles becoming grey In distant roads A bus pulls up, nearby Almost empty Empty oval faces Hazed against the windows Eyes cast down, waiting The bus moves on A man comes running Cutting through sheets of rain The bus continues on He stands by kerb Motionless Staring straight ahead Rain running down face Cold. Wet.

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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Jailbreak

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TWENTY QUESTIONS TO TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 1. Who was the lead singer with the 1960s and 70s pop group, the Four Seasons?

11. In which Dickens novel does the ‘ever so ‘umble’ clerk Uriah Heep appear?

2. Which US president, who served from 1953 to 1961, was nicknamed ‘lke’?

12. Which Hollywood actress did actor Freddie Prinze Junior marry in 2002?

3. Which actor played the title role in the 1996 film The people vs Larry Flynt?

13. Take It Like a Man was the title of the 1995 autobiography of which 1980s pop singer?

4. In 2000, the BBC’s main evening news bulletin moved from 9pm to what time?

14. Which Jacobean playwright’s works include The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi?

IQ 1.

?

6. A precursor of the EU, what did the initials EEC stand for?

7. Who was the first British sovereign of the House of Hanover? 8. From 1714 to 1837, the British monarch also ruled which state in northern Germany?

9. Which twentieth-century British prime minister was a bachelor with a passion for classical music and yachting? 10. In 1924, who became Britain’s first Labour prime minister?

15. In 1984, which British theatre legend married singer Sarah Brightman?

Members of the Serious Fraud Panel

Criminal Defence and Prison Law Specialists We p r o v i d e l e g a l a s s i s ta n c e w i t h t h e following matters:

* *

* * * * * * * *

* *

* * *

Adjudications Appeals Complaints Licence Recalls and Reviews Extended Licence Reviews Categorisation P r i s o n Tr a n s f e r s P a ro l e B o a r d H e a r i n g s Ta r i f f R e v i e w s Lifer Hearings Home Detention Curfew ROTL Sentence Calculation CCRC Assistance Human Rights

Contact Miriam Altaf at EBR Attridge Solicitors 23 Southampton Place London WC1A 2BP 0207 842 8600

4.

Which number replaces the question mark?

Which letter replaces the question mark?

17. The artist Vincent van Gogh was born in which country? 18. In the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, which Egyptian-born actor played the character Sherif Ali? 19. In Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, what is Cyrano’s distinguishing physical feature? 20. Which small, soft sweet is shaped like a baby?

Submitted by Thomas Greenwood at HMP Swinfen Hall. 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 back page. If you would like to submit similar puzzles we will pay £5 for any that are chosen for print. Please send in a minimum of three puzzles together with the answer!

Mind gym Matthew Williams - HMP Stocken

ATTRIDGE

Which letter replaces the question mark?

16. The English singer Phil Oakey was the lead singer of which 1980s synthpop band?

It’s a Con

SOLICITORS

2.

What number is missing?

3.

ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE

EBR

Challenge

Answers 1 - 12 Working in columns, the sum of the top two numbers equals the value of the lower number. 2 - D Starting in the top square, and working clockwise around it, letters advance through the alphabet, skipping 2 letters. Moving clockwise to the next square, the sequence of letters skips 3, then 4 etc. 3 - 11 Starting top left, and taking pairs of adjacent numbers, their total is always 20. 4 - O Starting at the top left, and working in columns from left to right, letters follow the alphabetic sequence, skipping 4 letters at a time.

5. The Californian rock singer Maria McKee had her only UK number one hit in 1990 with which love song?

49

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50

Jailbreak

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Raymond in Rain Man?

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Last month’s winner

4. Which liquid product featured the hit Like A Prayer in its advertisement? For your own personal copy, please send a cheque 5. Which Julie won an Oscar for Darling in 1965 or PO (payable to Gema Records) for £2 to Gema Records, PO Box 54, Reading RG1 3SD and we will and was nominated in 1998 for Afterglow? immediately despatch a copy to you along with a £2 6. Who wrote under the pseudonym Bernard voucher to use against your first order. Webb? GEMA RECORDS - SUPPLIER OF THE UK’S LARGEST BACK CATALOGUE OF MUSIC 7. By which first name is Andrew Blyth Barrymore known? 8. What was Michael Jackson’s debut hit away from the Jackson 5?

Last month’s winners

9. Which veteran actress was the first actress to win four Oscars?

Mark Lewis HMP Gartree

Another £25 prize is on offer for the best caption to this month’s £25 picture. What do you think is being prize is in the post thought or said here?

Gema sponsors of Jailbreak P Hatchett - HMP Littlehey Darren Downie - Rampton Hospital Kevin Gibson - HMP Shotts

10. What was the Spice Girls first single? See below for details of how to enter. The first three names to be drawn with all correct answers (or nearest) will each receive a £15 Gema Record Voucher & free catalogue

Answers to last months quiz: Answers 1. Lady Gaga, 2. Toy Story, 3. X Factor, 4. Lion King, 5. Take That, 6. Train Spotting, 7. Baby – Emma Bunton; Scary – Melanie Brown; Sporty – Melanie Chisholm; Posh – Victoria Adams; Ginger – Gerri Halliwell, 8. Oliver Reed, 9. Sir Cliff Richard, 10. Madonna

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. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Who is ‘adept in the art of misdirection’? Approximately 15% of the prison population is the subject of what every month? In 2007, 30% of people remanded in prison went on to receive what? Who describes the ‘shellshock’ factor’? If a joint enterprise prosecution is to have judicial integrity, how many clear considerations apply? Who waited 28 days for his first payment of Jobseekers allowance? The images on the back of the £5 note are related to the life and work of who?

>> To enter any of the above prize competitions

Please do not cut out any of these panels. Just send your entry to one or all of these competitions on a separate sheet of paper. Make sure your name, number and prison is

Jordans Solicitors LLP Specialists in all aspects of Prison Law, Appeal Work and Judicial Review

We offer help UK Wide: • Serious and complex criminal cases • Lifers – sentence to release • IPPs – sentence to release • Appeals For a guaranteed prompt response please contact Rachel Baldwin at:

Jordans LLP

4 Priory Place Doncaster DN1 1BP 01302 365374 www.jordansllp.co.uk

• Adjudications • Parole Applications • Licence Recalls • CCRC applications ess , awl ppeal L n a y a I n d o nted b e s e a rele repres wby e s a kN w Mar

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Richard Branson heading up a caterpillar in the Virgin London Marathon

Over the last seven years, what service has helped around 30,000 people navigate their way around the NHS complaints procedure? Who has spent 20 years working with socially excluded people? Who has a ‘foul smelling bucket in his cell’? Who stayed at the Prison Reform Trust for 18 years? Who can’t stress enough ‘how much you need to shop around for the best product’? At what time did the House of Lords rock with laughter? Who would ban all Catholic priests? Who picks up a book rather than a TV remote?

Answers to Last Month’s Inside Knowledge Prize Quiz 1. 55%, 2. 88 days, 3. Andy Thackwray, 4. Callum Dunn, 5. The Justice Secretary, 6. Stephen Shaw, 7. Next issue of Inside Time, 8. 54%, 9. John Allen, 10. Jack Straw, 11. Steven Relf, 12. One, 13. Monty Roberts, 14. Anver Jeevanjee, 15. Nadine Wallace

Last month’s winners

Our three £25 Prize winners are: Alicia Jenkins - HMP Send, Margaret James - HMP Downview, Leanne Lowther - HMP Newhall Plus our £5 Consolation prizes go to: R Coker - HMP Ranby, R Bradley - HMP Moorland

on all sheets. Post your entry to: Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. You can use one envelope to enter more than one competition just mark it ‘jailbreak’. A 1st or 2nd class stamp is required on your envelope.

Closing date for all is 25/05/2010

NOBLE SOLICITORS Specialising in Criminal Defence and all aspects of Prison Law

Offering advice and assistance covering:• Appeals against Sentence & Conviction • Adjudications • Lifer panel Representation • Licence Recall & Parole Reviews • Request and Complaints For an immediate visit, advice and Representation call:-

Noble Solicitors

21 High Street Shefford Bedfordshire SG17 5DD 01462 814055

Hefty Confiscation Order? Bank Account frozen? We are a team of Solicitors and High Court Advocates with considerable experience in Confiscation Proceedings. Legal Aid Available. Somos un equipo de abogados y de abogados de la tribunal superior con considerable experiencia en procedimientos de la incautación.Ayuda legal disponible. Chúng tôi là một nhóm các Solicitors và High Court Advocates với kinh nghiệm đáng kể trong Tịch thu Proceedings. Trợ giúp Pháp lý có sẵn.

CLL Solicitors

(formally Rose, Williams and Partners) 8 King Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1ST

01902 710822

Work undertaken throughout England and Wales

›› Registered with EMAP ‹‹

Jailbreak

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

Comedy Corner Send in your jokes, you will receive £5 for every one we print! Ê Three kids walking across a river one day and they see Gordon Brown fall in. They run down and pull him out and Gordon says name anything you want and it’s yours. The first kid said he would like an ipod, the second wanted a trip to Disney Land and the third kid asked for a wheelchair, Gordon Brown asked him why as he wasn’t handicapped. The kid replied ‘If my dad finds out that I saved your life I’ll have two broken legs!’ Kyle Jackson - HMP Castington ......................................................... Ê What do you get when you cross GPS with PMS? A very angry woman who WILL find you Darren Townsend - HMP Buckley Hall ......................................................... Ê Imagine if all the retailers started making their own condoms and kept their slogans: Tesco condoms – Every little helps Nike condoms – Just do it Peugeot condoms – The ride of your life KFC condoms - Finger licking good Duracell condoms – Just keep going and going and going

Pringles condoms – Once you pop you just can’t stop Burger King condoms – Home of the whopper Andrex condoms – Soft, strong and very very long McDonalds condoms – I’m loving it Polo condoms – The one with the hole Mark Lewis - HMP Gartree ......................................................... Ê The Portsmouth manager was nicked yesterday for drink driving. He was released from the police station and immediately surrounded by the press pack. One of the reporters asked him how he was feeling, he replied that he was glad of the three points! James Abrahams - HMP Wayland

TRUE OR False 4,300 new laws

7. Shining a light at an aircraft to dazzle or distract the pilot. 8. Unauthorised fishing in the Lower Esk River.

9. Obstructing an authorised person from inspecting apple, pear, peach or nectarine orchards for the purposes of ascertaining whether grubbing up has been carried out. 10. Wilfully pretending to be a barrister.

New Labour has created a new crime every day since 1997 … There are fifteen facts below. Your task is to read them carefully and try and work out which one is not true.

1. It is illegal in Britain to put a goldfish into a river or natural pond. 2. Entering the hull of the Titanic without permission from a minister. 3. Failure to attend a hearing by a bus lane contravention adjudicator.

11. As a merchant shipping officer, falsely claiming a door is closed and locked. 12. Selling non-native species such as a grey squirrel, ruddy duck or Japanese knotweed.

4. Disturbing a pack of eggs when direct-

13. Obstructing workers carrying out repairs to the Docklands light railway.

5. Landing a catch of unsorted fish at a

14. Keeping a dog on a lead longer than a maximum length in a designated area.

6. Carrying grain on a ship without a

15. Using an automatic rail-weighbridge which has a disqualification sticker on it.

ed not to by an authorised officer. harbour without permission.

Do you have any jokes (printable) that you would like to share with our readers? If so, send them in to: Inside Time (Jokes), Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. If you do not want your name or prison to appear please make it clear. You will receive £5 for every one we print so don’t forget to include your details even if you don’t want them printed.

copy of the International Grain Code on board

judicial review categorisation sentence planning

appeals lifer hearings

Answer on the back page

Scottish Prisoners Parole Tribunals Appeals Recalls

IPP Hearings/Progression

miscarriages of justice parole

transfers human rights issues

adjudication hearings medical issues Problems inside? Don’t know where to turn? Need a specialist prison lawyer? Whether you are coming up for parole or require advice about a Judicial Review against the Prison Service, we can help. So, if you need professional, confidential legal advice, call Howells’ prison law specialists on Sheffield 0114 249 6717. 15 -17 Bridge Street Sheffield S3 8NL

51

www.howells-solicitors.com

›› Registered with EMAP ‹‹

Contact Jim Litterick Higgins Morledge & Litterick 2 Candleriggs Alloa FK10 1EA

01259 725922

you call, we’ll be there

Jailbreak

Insidetime May 2010 www.insidetime.org

A Y E H G J Y R O E H T G N A B G I B R

S Z H Z D X T Q F S U X M P M W C L N Q

T A C I A C L A D A H B E O E V A E V W

E I B L J S S R H T R A E W R C D P N E

R L A L P U N B E U Q N X F K S O M T I

O G P A J Q P I S R Y K G H U U G S M G

I R Q Y M T K I J N Y Z O K A N B Z E H

D D U Y R E D L T A D L G W N A L S T T

B T Z R F A O P W E E F L S M R N O S L

E S S U E Y O Y X C R E F T T U Y L Y E

L A V C M C K C N U S E F E L A J A S S

T I B R O L N G C A S B T N X I H R R S

T F W E I D R D T P P E E A G V A W A N

S R B M S H S E M V L P F L K M Z I L E

X S Y B T U L Q I U T J O P U O I N O S

U A U Z N L V E N U S O J A W O R D S S

N V A S I H W A N Q T P X J W N A S A O

I B P T Z M V E K J A L X M I Y U C P G

O O E V H W L H G I R G O T U L P Q F K

T S Y X B L E T E K S D B R A L U B E N

Down

2

R McPhillips of HMP Stafford Specialists in Serious Crime with a track record of success (A1010AH)

I T SUDOKU

Find the items linked to our solar system

Sun - Mercury - Venus - Earth - Mars - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus SunNeptune Mercury - Pluto - Solar System - Sun Spot - Orbit - Big Bang Theory Venus Moon - Asteroid Belt - Planets Earth - Satellites - Stars - Nebular Galaxy - Milky Way - Weightlessness - Solar Winds - Black Hole Mars Jupiter Check forward, backward and diagonally, they are all there! Saturn Uranus Neptune Plutoat HMP Stafford Thanks to R McPhillips for compiling this wordsearch for us. Solar System Sun Spot If you fancy compiling one for us please just send it in max 20x20 grid & complete with answers shown on a grid. If we useBig it we send you £5 as a thank you! Orbit Bangwill Theory Moon Asteroid Belt >> Answers to the crossword Planets Satellitesand sudoku below << Stars Nebular Galaxy Milky Way > Next Issue Week commencing Weightlessness Solar31st WindsMay 2010 Black Hole

Nationwide Service Offices in London, Manchester & Birmingham

Criminal Law Serious crime including murder, robbery, conspiracy, drugs cases (supply, production, conspiracy), complex and financial crime, all other Crown Court Offences and Appeals Personal Injury Accidents in prison or on the outside We do the work to get the results. We fight for our clients. No excuses. Just proper, professional service. New enquiries 87 Chorley Road, Manchester M27 4AA 0161 794 0088 or Freephone 0808 155 4870 www.marymonson.co.uk

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

Jailbreak Answers General Knowledge Crossword

9 5

7

8 3 7 9 4 1 8

9 5

2

1

1

1

9

6 8

9 4 2 4

6 3 5

Daily Sudoku: Tue 13-Apr-2010

4 7

very hard

7

1 6 2

2 7

4 9 2 4 3 8 6 1 6 7 5

5

6 3

8 1

Daily Sudoku: Sun 11-Apr-2010

Don’t Rot On Recall! http://www.dailysudoku.com/

8 5

3 hard

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We’re outside fighting for your rights inside Prison Law Specialists in Wales Dealing With:

Adjudications Parole Reviews Licence Recall Categorisation Transfers Lifer Panels Criminal Defence and Appeals

Start the ball rolling now - call Sarah Grace on:

02920 729 888

Elgin House 106 St Mary Street CARDIFF CF10 1DX

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OFFICE: TheMANCHESTER Boatmans, 40 City Road, Deansgate, Manchester, M15 4QF MANCHESTER OFFICE MANCHESTER OFFICE:

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Mind Gym 1. 128, 2.12, 3. 42 True or false: Guess what? They are all true!

Daily Sudoku: Sun 11-Apr-2010

very hard

4 9 7 8 1 5 6 3 2 3 5 8 6 9 2 1 4 7 6 2 1 7 3 4 9 8 5

8 6 1 3 2 9 4 7 5

3 4 2 7 5 1 9 8 6

5 9 7 6 4 8 1 2 3

1 7 8 5 3 6 2 4 9

6 2 9 4 1 7 3 5 8

hard

4 5 3 9 8 2 7 6 1

2 1 4 8 6 3 5 9 7

7 3 6 2 9 5 8 1 4

9 8 5 1 7 4 6 3 2

I T SUDOKU

Daily Sudoku: Tue 13-Apr-2010

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.

General Knowledge

Across

General Knowledge Crossword

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.

Solar System

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.

52

You’re Not Alone

LONDON OFFICE LONDON OFFICE:

646-648 High RoadLeytonstone, Leytonstone, London, E11E11 3AA 3AA 646-648 High Road London, This Firm is aThis Member THEofSPECIALIST PANEL Firm is a of Member THE SPECIALIST FRAUD FRAUD PANEL Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority

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15. Andrew Lloyd Webber 16. Human League 17. The Netherlands 18. Omar Sharif 19. Nose 20. Jelly Baby