My very best friend in the world tried to kill herself on Monday
This
wasn’t a cry for help or attention seeking; she didn’t tell anyone. She
just calmly and quietly took a huge overdose of amitriptyline. If you
google this drug you will see it is commonly referred to on suicide
websites as a fool proof method…
By pure luck, or maybe divine
intervention, I decided to phone her as she had sent a text that evening
that just seemed odd. When I called she was already pretty incoherent
and very out of breath. As she also has AF (a heart rhythm disorder
associated with deadly and debilitating consequences including heart
failure, stroke, poor mental health, reduced quality of life and death),
hearing how breathless she was really made me panic. I then called 999
and managed to organise emergency services in Scotland to go to her
rescue. She ended up in ICU on a ventilator. And thankfully she is still
alive, still unhappy, but alive and hopefully moving forward.
Ok,
so you may have guessed now that this is the same lady abandoned by
probation, her MP, the prison service, the judicial system up in
Scotland on her own.
She told them over and over and over about
her poor mental health. This is a strong capable woman who has never
been suicidal or suffered such severe depression. Even throughout her 5
years in prison she had never felt as hopeless and isolated as she does
now, left to rot in homeless accommodation 500 miles away from her
support network. She told her probation officer, she told the housing
people, she told a local GP….. but nobody really cared. By Monday
evening, four weeks on from being forced back to Scotland, she could not
see any future and decided she could not wake up again to another day
abandoned, isolated, jobless and homeless.
There has been some interesting research done on suicides amongst newly released prisoners. http://community.nicic.gov/blogs/mentalhealth/archive/2012/07/16/suicide-risk-factors-among-recently-released-prisoners.aspx
In
my opinion, after release from prison your life should be getting
better! However, everything is put in the way to make life harder.
Getting a job is often impossible as employers cannot see beyond that
tick box for an unspent conviction; housing departments often label
people released from prison as intentionally homeless therefore removing
the possibility of secure housing; benefits are slow to be paid and
nothing is given for the first 7 days after release; family are often
angry or hurt and may not support the ex-offender…..
So much more
work needs to be put into supporting ex-prisoners, especially in the
weeks before release so that the situation that has happened with my
friend in Scotland can never happen again. The sentence meted by society
has been served and we must see these people as members of our society
who are equally entitled to help and support in all areas. Probation
departments need to stop addressing “protecting the public and reducing
reoffending” in such an uncaring and unhelpful way. The best way to
reduce risk and reoffending is to ensure a good quality of life for
released prisoners with ongoing support to secure housing, employment
and a future.
Sunday 12 July 2015
The Grayling Book Ban….
I don’t think anybody outside prison, and especially the media, has
portrayed this book ban accurately, and it really frustrated me when I
was incarcerated that I couldn’t respond to the news articles or
televsion and radio debates about it. This is because there is a ban on
prisoners contacting the media…….. hmm I wonder why! Now that would be
dangerous to the powers that be!
In prison there is a behaviour modification system, very like a merit system you get in schools. It is called the IEP system which stands for Incentives and Earned Priviliges. The idea (which doesn’t work) is that naughty prisoners (and I use the term naughty as you are treated like a child in prison) will stop being naughty if given positive and negative IEPs. In prison slang an IEP is the piece of paper handed to you, usually for a negative issue, stating what you did wrong this time! There are also positive IEPs but these are pretty rarely handed out. Some shameless souls blatantly ask for these when trying to gain enhanced status, or just when trying to creep up to the offiers. “Ive put the bins out, can I have a positive IEP?”, that kind of thing! Prison isn’t very good at positive reinforcement, but very good at blame and shame and even better at getting it wrong… The threat of an IEP is used all the time inside, and you become completely desensitised to being told off or punished as it is constant.
Negative IEPS are rarely fairly given and getting three of them leads to being downgraded to BASIC for 28 days. As the lady who fought the book ban once said to me;…. “you cannot even have normal behaviours in prison, the boundaries of right and wrong are twisted and impossible to understand, and it is impossible to learn which normal big wide world behaviours are actually allowed inside!” (thanks Barbara Gordon-Jones 2015)
In November 2013 a new PSI came in changing the IEP system. Until this time a prisoner could have items on the prison facility list handed in or sent in to prison every 3 months. Now, all you Daily Mail readers can stop right there! The facilities list is scrutinised by every individual governor and there is hardly anything on there. Yes, you can have a playstation, but only when enhanced, and only a very basic one. And usually the prisoner ends up buying it themselves by saving from their £10 a week wages! Mainly the items are clothes and some hobby items and also of course books! The full list is available here: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov.uk%2Fdownloads%2Foffenders%2Fpsipso%2Fpsi-2013%2Fpsi-30-2013-1.doc&ei=x6GGVcHxIoiS7AbV5pvQBA&usg=AFQjCNECYpkxf5lbCJXgeXBGjUsFjXZ_jw&sig2=UGwIxR2pxJOGaK08Kmy1-w&bvm=bv.96339352,d.ZGU
Thanks to Mr Grayling’s desire to make prison life harder….. (more on that in another blog…) the new IEP ruling stopped ALL items being sent in or handed in. So he didn’t ban prisoners getting books…. he banned prisoners getting anything! His theory behind this was that it would encourage better behaviour from prisoners and that they themselves would work harder and save up to buy their own items; items which can only be bought from specific suppliers.
Sounds lovely in theory doesn’t it? Well, in my last establishment you earned £11.05 a week. £1 a week pays for television, a small dodgy portable wth 8 freeview channels. No, Ms Daily Mail reader, we do not have sky tv in prison! Plus if you are locked in a small room on your own year after year, sometimes for 23 hours a day, then a rubbish tv isn’t really a luxury….So that leaves £10 a week, and if you smoke (which I don’t luckily) about £8 a week goes on tobacco. Not to mention the extortionate telehone charges, the £2 you have left would only pay for a maximum of 20 minutes off peak to a land line. So where on earth can you save? Yes a prisoner can have money sent in, and this is where the IEP scheme kicks in. An enhanced prisoner can have £25.50 a week, whereas a standard prisoner only has £15.50, and a BASIC prisoner even less. But, in my experience, a lot of ladies didn’t have anybody able to send in money, so this bribery from the government was completely useless!!
So, back to the book ban. With no hand-ins happening anymore, prisoners could no longer get new books. Although there are libraries, these do not cater for everyone, the books are old and often there is no allotted time to actually access it, especially with the current staffing shortages. For those studying at advanced levels, open university for example, the new PSIs meant they couldn’t get extra material sent in for their courses.
The wonderful Barbara Gordon Jones took a stand and took her fight to court…. and, as you all know, Grayling’s book ban was ruled unlawful. But….. did the prison service give in gracefully?? No of course not! Instead of allowing relatives to send any books in they want, for example my family buy from charity shops a lot as we have little funds, they decided to only allow books from recommended suppliers….. and, you have guessed it, these are expensive and not always easy to access. There is the added issue of the extortionate amount of time it takes in most establishments to actually get the item to the prisoner…..Plus there is a limit on how many books are allowed in a prisoner’s cell….12! So, in a way the book ban was overturned, but, as always, the powers that be found another way to stay in control.
In prison there is a behaviour modification system, very like a merit system you get in schools. It is called the IEP system which stands for Incentives and Earned Priviliges. The idea (which doesn’t work) is that naughty prisoners (and I use the term naughty as you are treated like a child in prison) will stop being naughty if given positive and negative IEPs. In prison slang an IEP is the piece of paper handed to you, usually for a negative issue, stating what you did wrong this time! There are also positive IEPs but these are pretty rarely handed out. Some shameless souls blatantly ask for these when trying to gain enhanced status, or just when trying to creep up to the offiers. “Ive put the bins out, can I have a positive IEP?”, that kind of thing! Prison isn’t very good at positive reinforcement, but very good at blame and shame and even better at getting it wrong… The threat of an IEP is used all the time inside, and you become completely desensitised to being told off or punished as it is constant.
Negative IEPS are rarely fairly given and getting three of them leads to being downgraded to BASIC for 28 days. As the lady who fought the book ban once said to me;…. “you cannot even have normal behaviours in prison, the boundaries of right and wrong are twisted and impossible to understand, and it is impossible to learn which normal big wide world behaviours are actually allowed inside!” (thanks Barbara Gordon-Jones 2015)
In November 2013 a new PSI came in changing the IEP system. Until this time a prisoner could have items on the prison facility list handed in or sent in to prison every 3 months. Now, all you Daily Mail readers can stop right there! The facilities list is scrutinised by every individual governor and there is hardly anything on there. Yes, you can have a playstation, but only when enhanced, and only a very basic one. And usually the prisoner ends up buying it themselves by saving from their £10 a week wages! Mainly the items are clothes and some hobby items and also of course books! The full list is available here: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov.uk%2Fdownloads%2Foffenders%2Fpsipso%2Fpsi-2013%2Fpsi-30-2013-1.doc&ei=x6GGVcHxIoiS7AbV5pvQBA&usg=AFQjCNECYpkxf5lbCJXgeXBGjUsFjXZ_jw&sig2=UGwIxR2pxJOGaK08Kmy1-w&bvm=bv.96339352,d.ZGU
Thanks to Mr Grayling’s desire to make prison life harder….. (more on that in another blog…) the new IEP ruling stopped ALL items being sent in or handed in. So he didn’t ban prisoners getting books…. he banned prisoners getting anything! His theory behind this was that it would encourage better behaviour from prisoners and that they themselves would work harder and save up to buy their own items; items which can only be bought from specific suppliers.
Sounds lovely in theory doesn’t it? Well, in my last establishment you earned £11.05 a week. £1 a week pays for television, a small dodgy portable wth 8 freeview channels. No, Ms Daily Mail reader, we do not have sky tv in prison! Plus if you are locked in a small room on your own year after year, sometimes for 23 hours a day, then a rubbish tv isn’t really a luxury….So that leaves £10 a week, and if you smoke (which I don’t luckily) about £8 a week goes on tobacco. Not to mention the extortionate telehone charges, the £2 you have left would only pay for a maximum of 20 minutes off peak to a land line. So where on earth can you save? Yes a prisoner can have money sent in, and this is where the IEP scheme kicks in. An enhanced prisoner can have £25.50 a week, whereas a standard prisoner only has £15.50, and a BASIC prisoner even less. But, in my experience, a lot of ladies didn’t have anybody able to send in money, so this bribery from the government was completely useless!!
So, back to the book ban. With no hand-ins happening anymore, prisoners could no longer get new books. Although there are libraries, these do not cater for everyone, the books are old and often there is no allotted time to actually access it, especially with the current staffing shortages. For those studying at advanced levels, open university for example, the new PSIs meant they couldn’t get extra material sent in for their courses.
The wonderful Barbara Gordon Jones took a stand and took her fight to court…. and, as you all know, Grayling’s book ban was ruled unlawful. But….. did the prison service give in gracefully?? No of course not! Instead of allowing relatives to send any books in they want, for example my family buy from charity shops a lot as we have little funds, they decided to only allow books from recommended suppliers….. and, you have guessed it, these are expensive and not always easy to access. There is the added issue of the extortionate amount of time it takes in most establishments to actually get the item to the prisoner…..Plus there is a limit on how many books are allowed in a prisoner’s cell….12! So, in a way the book ban was overturned, but, as always, the powers that be found another way to stay in control.
Does the punishment fit the crime
Just as an addition to my blog today and to my comments about the lady who got 16 months for drink driving……
Daily Mirror 20/06/2015
A banned driver who mowed down and killed a couple with 15 children has been jailed for 16 months.
Mobein Ali (20) was seen driving at excessive speed for wet and windy conditions as he appeared to try and beat the lights.
He hit dad of 10 Michael and mum of 5 Paula in Manchester in December.
He admitted causing death by dangerous driving
Same sentence……
Fair judicial system……..???
I will let you decide
Daily Mirror 20/06/2015
A banned driver who mowed down and killed a couple with 15 children has been jailed for 16 months.
Mobein Ali (20) was seen driving at excessive speed for wet and windy conditions as he appeared to try and beat the lights.
He hit dad of 10 Michael and mum of 5 Paula in Manchester in December.
He admitted causing death by dangerous driving
Same sentence……
Fair judicial system……..???
I will let you decide
Aftercare and Support……actually just “after”..
I was woken at 5.45am by a phone call. It’s Saturday morning and I
thought it was my alarm going off as my daughter is off on a scout hike
first thing.At the other end of the phone was one of my prison-community
friends. She was feeling suicidal and was sat in a stream in her
dressing gown, needing to rant and have some support….
When you are sentenced, for most crimes, you spend half your sentence in prison and half on licence in the community, supported (i say this loosely) by the probation service, or actually often now by the new privately run community rehabilitation companies or CRCs! Their job, as my very own personal member of the service keeps telling me, is firstly to protect the public from us terrible, awful, scary, dangerous convicts, and secondly to prevent us reoffending….. if for any reason we cock up in any way at all we are recalled straight back to camp! However, there seems to be no requirement at all for the authorites to actually help you to achieve a trouble free time on licence in any way, shape or form!
My friend who called me at dawn today is one of so many ladies I know who are out on license and feeling totally unsupported and lost and forgotten. The punishment of prison is the loss of freedom; the loss of the control of your own life and decisions for a set period of time. Yet all of us who have been convicted of a crime (I won’t say ‘committted’ a crime, as many people are unfairly or wrongly convicted every year, in fact latest figures show 4 appeals against conviction being won every single week…. that is four people too many who have suffered in prison as an innocent) suffer far beyond the prison gates. I myself am about to be homeless. After two years struggling to keep my children stable, and succeeding, I have returned home to a total lack of any housing help whatsoever, a lack of any money or financial support (my children’s tax credits are going to take five weeks to come through), no car, no job and a probation officer who signposts, tells me I am doing all the right things and keeps reminding me not to re-offend! Well, I tell her I won’t offend, as re-offending makes the assumption of an original crime and there simply wasn’t one in my case!!
Let me tell you about just two ladies, both on license and both first time offenders who are low risk.
My friend who called me today did so for the second time in two weeks, The last occasion was at about 2am when again she was feeling unable to cope. In prison she was one of my gym buddies and one of the few people I met on the same wavelength. She went into prison for a relatively minor offence (drink driving), not to be condoned, but one that most men (or famous/rich people with a good barrister) would get a community order for. She was given a 16 month sentence, so she would have been due to serve 8 months in prison and leave after the first 4 months to be on HDC (home detention curfew or tag). This is the same sentence that the judge Constance Briscoe was given for perverting the course of justice, and she left on HDC on exactly the right day..! ( I know this as I was there!). When my unhappy friend sat her HDC board she was told she had to do a course before she could leave. As always, this was just thrown at her the week before her children expected her back home and four months after arriving in prison. Standard prison service behaviour. This course was RAPT (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoner’s Trust) due to alcohol being part of her crime. This is an onsite rehab for those in serious addictions. The course which uses the 12 steps, lasts from 4 to 6 months, full time, living and working and sleeping and eating with other addicts and away from the main prison population. Totally unsuitable for a one time offender without an addiction and a waste of taxpayers money. There are so many women desperately waiting to get onto this treatment and deal with their very long term addictive behaviours. So she refused and had to spend twice as long inside, away from her partner and two lovely boys.
An intelligent and assertive lady, after refusing the course, which she was entitled to do, she then spent the last four months being picked on and tripped up wherever possible by staff and was frequently put on BASIC and Cellular Confinement, stopping her from being able to talk to others and from going to the gym which was her only mental health support inside.
She left prison to a partner who hadn’t coped and had become someone she no longer recognised, who had not paid all the rent, and to an eviction notice, children who had needed her at home and were emotionally damaged, and severe depression caused by this situation and the weeks spent alone in a room inside. The partner fell apart, and their relationship is pretty much done, she is going to be homeless soon with two kids and several dogs, and she really feels like she has nothing to carry on for. The council may determine her as intentionally homeless as the rent wasn’t paid while she was inside, which means they won’t help her. One issue is that in most households it is the mum or the woman in the family who organises these things, and when we are sentenced to a custodial sentence, the one left behind just cannot manage. That is if there is even another adult left behind, often there isn’t. And again, there is no support.
My second friend has served longer inside. Five and a half years. Again she is a first time offender, who committed a crime through trusting a relative. No crime should be condoned, but she received an incredibly long sentence for pleading not guilty, and she truly believes and knows she is not guilty of the specific charges put to her, although she takes responsibility for committing a crime of some sort.
Another intelligent and articulate and professional women, she has taken every course going inside. She has completed above and beyond her sentence plans, the most recent of which asked her to find full time employment, build a supportive local network of friends and maintain family contact. Through a total lack of any support from the inside, or from outside probation who knew this lady through 18 months of ROTLS, she was due to leave her open prison without any accomodation. The solution? She was returned to Scotland (where she lived when her crime occurred) from the south east of England, and is now living in temporary homeless accomodation with no job, no money, no support, no friends, and is also feeling depressed and unable to cope.
Although she has sourced accomodation near her support network and full time job (both on her sentence plan which supposedly both prisoner and prison service/probation have to adhere to….), and actually gave the adddress to probation five days before leaving prison, two weeks later she is still sitting in her homeless flat, alone, with not even a television to watch. Going from over five years in the busy prison community with others around you 24/7 to offer support or to just chat to, this enforced isolation has had a hugely detrimental affect on this lady. Again, she is too intelligent and sensible to re-offend…… but many in her position would. She has had to beg the probation service for money, as she has nothing at all and her electricity and gas for her empty and lonely accomodation are on key meters. They produced £20, last thing on a Friday afternoon, which she had to walk for an hour to get; not usually a problem for most of us but this lady has a severe heart condition.
All she needs is for her new accomodation (in a Christian family home) to be approved and she can get back to her job and her support. But the powers that be are not rushing or even bothered, her job is only kept open another week and she is losing everything that she herself has gained through her own rehabilitation. She also has life saving surgery lined up in the next few weeks by a specialist in the south and has not been able to access any health care in Scotland yet, totally unacceptable.
Committing a crime needs to be, and must be, addressed by the offender, and a punishment shoud be served. But when that punishment is over should that offender’s life and their entire family, be totally destroyed and at rock bottom? If this is the case then don’t make rehabilitation a part of a prison sentence. Because what is the point if you are always on the back foot from the day you walk through the gates. No wonder the re-offending rates are so high. Luckily both of these ladies are intelligent, professional and educated women, and will never re-offend. However, they are both suffering unacceptable levels of stress, depression and deprivation in a society that has meted its punishment. Their sentences have been served, and we should all now be supporting them back into being profitable members of that society. Instead, society, and those in charge of helping these women, have left them vulnerable and at risk.
When you are sentenced, for most crimes, you spend half your sentence in prison and half on licence in the community, supported (i say this loosely) by the probation service, or actually often now by the new privately run community rehabilitation companies or CRCs! Their job, as my very own personal member of the service keeps telling me, is firstly to protect the public from us terrible, awful, scary, dangerous convicts, and secondly to prevent us reoffending….. if for any reason we cock up in any way at all we are recalled straight back to camp! However, there seems to be no requirement at all for the authorites to actually help you to achieve a trouble free time on licence in any way, shape or form!
My friend who called me at dawn today is one of so many ladies I know who are out on license and feeling totally unsupported and lost and forgotten. The punishment of prison is the loss of freedom; the loss of the control of your own life and decisions for a set period of time. Yet all of us who have been convicted of a crime (I won’t say ‘committted’ a crime, as many people are unfairly or wrongly convicted every year, in fact latest figures show 4 appeals against conviction being won every single week…. that is four people too many who have suffered in prison as an innocent) suffer far beyond the prison gates. I myself am about to be homeless. After two years struggling to keep my children stable, and succeeding, I have returned home to a total lack of any housing help whatsoever, a lack of any money or financial support (my children’s tax credits are going to take five weeks to come through), no car, no job and a probation officer who signposts, tells me I am doing all the right things and keeps reminding me not to re-offend! Well, I tell her I won’t offend, as re-offending makes the assumption of an original crime and there simply wasn’t one in my case!!
Let me tell you about just two ladies, both on license and both first time offenders who are low risk.
My friend who called me today did so for the second time in two weeks, The last occasion was at about 2am when again she was feeling unable to cope. In prison she was one of my gym buddies and one of the few people I met on the same wavelength. She went into prison for a relatively minor offence (drink driving), not to be condoned, but one that most men (or famous/rich people with a good barrister) would get a community order for. She was given a 16 month sentence, so she would have been due to serve 8 months in prison and leave after the first 4 months to be on HDC (home detention curfew or tag). This is the same sentence that the judge Constance Briscoe was given for perverting the course of justice, and she left on HDC on exactly the right day..! ( I know this as I was there!). When my unhappy friend sat her HDC board she was told she had to do a course before she could leave. As always, this was just thrown at her the week before her children expected her back home and four months after arriving in prison. Standard prison service behaviour. This course was RAPT (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoner’s Trust) due to alcohol being part of her crime. This is an onsite rehab for those in serious addictions. The course which uses the 12 steps, lasts from 4 to 6 months, full time, living and working and sleeping and eating with other addicts and away from the main prison population. Totally unsuitable for a one time offender without an addiction and a waste of taxpayers money. There are so many women desperately waiting to get onto this treatment and deal with their very long term addictive behaviours. So she refused and had to spend twice as long inside, away from her partner and two lovely boys.
An intelligent and assertive lady, after refusing the course, which she was entitled to do, she then spent the last four months being picked on and tripped up wherever possible by staff and was frequently put on BASIC and Cellular Confinement, stopping her from being able to talk to others and from going to the gym which was her only mental health support inside.
She left prison to a partner who hadn’t coped and had become someone she no longer recognised, who had not paid all the rent, and to an eviction notice, children who had needed her at home and were emotionally damaged, and severe depression caused by this situation and the weeks spent alone in a room inside. The partner fell apart, and their relationship is pretty much done, she is going to be homeless soon with two kids and several dogs, and she really feels like she has nothing to carry on for. The council may determine her as intentionally homeless as the rent wasn’t paid while she was inside, which means they won’t help her. One issue is that in most households it is the mum or the woman in the family who organises these things, and when we are sentenced to a custodial sentence, the one left behind just cannot manage. That is if there is even another adult left behind, often there isn’t. And again, there is no support.
My second friend has served longer inside. Five and a half years. Again she is a first time offender, who committed a crime through trusting a relative. No crime should be condoned, but she received an incredibly long sentence for pleading not guilty, and she truly believes and knows she is not guilty of the specific charges put to her, although she takes responsibility for committing a crime of some sort.
Another intelligent and articulate and professional women, she has taken every course going inside. She has completed above and beyond her sentence plans, the most recent of which asked her to find full time employment, build a supportive local network of friends and maintain family contact. Through a total lack of any support from the inside, or from outside probation who knew this lady through 18 months of ROTLS, she was due to leave her open prison without any accomodation. The solution? She was returned to Scotland (where she lived when her crime occurred) from the south east of England, and is now living in temporary homeless accomodation with no job, no money, no support, no friends, and is also feeling depressed and unable to cope.
Although she has sourced accomodation near her support network and full time job (both on her sentence plan which supposedly both prisoner and prison service/probation have to adhere to….), and actually gave the adddress to probation five days before leaving prison, two weeks later she is still sitting in her homeless flat, alone, with not even a television to watch. Going from over five years in the busy prison community with others around you 24/7 to offer support or to just chat to, this enforced isolation has had a hugely detrimental affect on this lady. Again, she is too intelligent and sensible to re-offend…… but many in her position would. She has had to beg the probation service for money, as she has nothing at all and her electricity and gas for her empty and lonely accomodation are on key meters. They produced £20, last thing on a Friday afternoon, which she had to walk for an hour to get; not usually a problem for most of us but this lady has a severe heart condition.
All she needs is for her new accomodation (in a Christian family home) to be approved and she can get back to her job and her support. But the powers that be are not rushing or even bothered, her job is only kept open another week and she is losing everything that she herself has gained through her own rehabilitation. She also has life saving surgery lined up in the next few weeks by a specialist in the south and has not been able to access any health care in Scotland yet, totally unacceptable.
Committing a crime needs to be, and must be, addressed by the offender, and a punishment shoud be served. But when that punishment is over should that offender’s life and their entire family, be totally destroyed and at rock bottom? If this is the case then don’t make rehabilitation a part of a prison sentence. Because what is the point if you are always on the back foot from the day you walk through the gates. No wonder the re-offending rates are so high. Luckily both of these ladies are intelligent, professional and educated women, and will never re-offend. However, they are both suffering unacceptable levels of stress, depression and deprivation in a society that has meted its punishment. Their sentences have been served, and we should all now be supporting them back into being profitable members of that society. Instead, society, and those in charge of helping these women, have left them vulnerable and at risk.
Maintaining Innocence
THE SCARIEST PRISONER IS AN INNOCENT ONE……
Maintaining your innocence is a human right. I did this throughout my sentence, and there was only one reason for this……. yep, I am innocent.
Now, many people say to me “Isn’t everyone in prison innocent?”. Well, actually, no! I would say at least 95% of the girls I met admitted their crime and many pleaded guilty. Admittedly many had stories around their crime, and, if these are to be believed, many of the ladies should never have been convicted or imprisoned. Many were led astray by men, or bullied into committing the crime. Upbringing and lifestyle choices also led to convictions for many women. Addictions of course also play a major part in offending behavour.
Prison life is all about addressing your offending behaviours. If you have none, due to not committing the crime, then the authorities do not know what to do with you, and that is scary for them. It is very difficult, for most people who are unacquainted with the legal system, to realise just how easy it is to fall victim to wrongful convictions. Before my court case (my first experience of the judicial system) I assumed that you tell the truth in court and so does everyone else….. how wrong was I!!
Look at the recent case of Stacey Hyde? http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jun/11/stacey-hyde-there-are-many-more-who-need-their-cases-re-examined
Stacey maintained her innocence throughout her sentence, and had to go through the harrowing ordeal of a retrial after six years in prison. She had very obvious mental health problems, she was a very young and vulnerable girl and I am so happy to see her free, with her conviction quashed. However, her time as an innocent in prison will affect her for the rest of her life. Her phyical self-harm scars will fade, but the mental and emotional ones will be harder to lose. I feel priviliged to have known Stacey, a brave survivor, and I wish her all the best for her future.
I was quite fortunate in jail. Once staff saw the facts and evidence around my case they were pretty supportive on the whole. I found they were like this with most of the women maintaining innocence. Common sense usually prevailed once the information was read and taken in. Which makes you question the judicial system yet again.
Sadly, the new PSI on the IEP system, issued in Novemeber 2013 has included the need to take responsiblity for your crime and address offending behaviour in order to achieve Enhancement. Despite this, those who maintain their innocence continue to do so, which surely shows that they, at least, truly believe they are innocent. Women who, after 17 or so years, still maintain innocence despite it knocking back their parole…… well, what do you think? Would you have this strength of mind?
Maintaining your innocence is a human right. I did this throughout my sentence, and there was only one reason for this……. yep, I am innocent.
Now, many people say to me “Isn’t everyone in prison innocent?”. Well, actually, no! I would say at least 95% of the girls I met admitted their crime and many pleaded guilty. Admittedly many had stories around their crime, and, if these are to be believed, many of the ladies should never have been convicted or imprisoned. Many were led astray by men, or bullied into committing the crime. Upbringing and lifestyle choices also led to convictions for many women. Addictions of course also play a major part in offending behavour.
Prison life is all about addressing your offending behaviours. If you have none, due to not committing the crime, then the authorities do not know what to do with you, and that is scary for them. It is very difficult, for most people who are unacquainted with the legal system, to realise just how easy it is to fall victim to wrongful convictions. Before my court case (my first experience of the judicial system) I assumed that you tell the truth in court and so does everyone else….. how wrong was I!!
Look at the recent case of Stacey Hyde? http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jun/11/stacey-hyde-there-are-many-more-who-need-their-cases-re-examined
Stacey maintained her innocence throughout her sentence, and had to go through the harrowing ordeal of a retrial after six years in prison. She had very obvious mental health problems, she was a very young and vulnerable girl and I am so happy to see her free, with her conviction quashed. However, her time as an innocent in prison will affect her for the rest of her life. Her phyical self-harm scars will fade, but the mental and emotional ones will be harder to lose. I feel priviliged to have known Stacey, a brave survivor, and I wish her all the best for her future.
I was quite fortunate in jail. Once staff saw the facts and evidence around my case they were pretty supportive on the whole. I found they were like this with most of the women maintaining innocence. Common sense usually prevailed once the information was read and taken in. Which makes you question the judicial system yet again.
Sadly, the new PSI on the IEP system, issued in Novemeber 2013 has included the need to take responsiblity for your crime and address offending behaviour in order to achieve Enhancement. Despite this, those who maintain their innocence continue to do so, which surely shows that they, at least, truly believe they are innocent. Women who, after 17 or so years, still maintain innocence despite it knocking back their parole…… well, what do you think? Would you have this strength of mind?
Diversity, equality and inclusion…. ignored
I met a lovely lady last year. She is an IPP prisoner; this means she
has a minimum tariff, but in reality could be kept incarcerated for as
long as the authorities want. This practice was abolished in 2012, but
currently over 5000 IPP prisoners remain in prison, with over two thirds
over tariff. More on this later…
This lady had a tragic start to life. One of 14 children she was a Vietnamese boat person. Those of you my age will remember Blue Peter campaigning about this situation and raising money to help this displaced generation, fleeing a conflict in which 65,000 were executed and a million sent to prison camps where about 165,000 died. Leaving the country was illegal so many escaped in makeshift boats. It is estimated that 1.5 million vietnamese escaped this way and around 10 percent of these drowned.
This lady spends most of her time on BASIC (28 days with little association and no tv)…and yet I never saw any behaviour that I would consider to be disruptive, aggressive, or of an offending nature. She didn’t bully anyone, kick off, fight or argue. She speaks very poor English, but on top of this has very obvious cognitive difficulties. This has actually been documented in her records (after a fight from other prisoners to get it recognised, yes that’s right… other prisoners!). However, it never seems to be taken into account (equality, diversity, inclusion…) when she is being punished or victimised.
This lady mainly gets in trouble for …. hoarding food in her room or taking her food out of the dining hall to eat later. Bearing in mind she spent her entire childhood starving and without knowing where the next meal is coming from, I fully understand this. So should the authorities, but they don’t. In fact, one officer even regularly stole from her room when he wanted sugar, milk or crisps for his office (a safer custody officer which is ironic) and would threaten her with an adjudication for storing food if she dared to complain!
One of her adjudications was for having vegetables from the garden in her room. They were being thrown away despite being perfectly edible. She cannot handle the idea of wasting food. Do you blame her?
She is the kindest and most giving person I met in jail. She takes note of all the other prisoners on her wing and what kind of food they like, and she redistributes the prison issue food to the right people. For example, I would give her my sugar, flavours of crisps I don’t like, sometimes things that came with my salad like crab sticks, noodles and so on. She would then give me hot chocolates as I don’t drink coffee and plain flavoured crisps.
She could appear argumentative, but actually she just has a very strong idea of fairness, always likes to know the rules and keep to them, and also has the aforementioned cognitive disability which means she will often question and question in order to understand.
I saw her bullied by officers, and I tried my best to stand up for and support her in any way I could. I smiled last week when I received a letter from her stating she had been taken off BASIC, as her most recent IEP had been revoked….. the one I appealed on her behalf before I left. :-). I just pray there is someone else to take over her care and support…..
This lady had a tragic start to life. One of 14 children she was a Vietnamese boat person. Those of you my age will remember Blue Peter campaigning about this situation and raising money to help this displaced generation, fleeing a conflict in which 65,000 were executed and a million sent to prison camps where about 165,000 died. Leaving the country was illegal so many escaped in makeshift boats. It is estimated that 1.5 million vietnamese escaped this way and around 10 percent of these drowned.
This lady spends most of her time on BASIC (28 days with little association and no tv)…and yet I never saw any behaviour that I would consider to be disruptive, aggressive, or of an offending nature. She didn’t bully anyone, kick off, fight or argue. She speaks very poor English, but on top of this has very obvious cognitive difficulties. This has actually been documented in her records (after a fight from other prisoners to get it recognised, yes that’s right… other prisoners!). However, it never seems to be taken into account (equality, diversity, inclusion…) when she is being punished or victimised.
This lady mainly gets in trouble for …. hoarding food in her room or taking her food out of the dining hall to eat later. Bearing in mind she spent her entire childhood starving and without knowing where the next meal is coming from, I fully understand this. So should the authorities, but they don’t. In fact, one officer even regularly stole from her room when he wanted sugar, milk or crisps for his office (a safer custody officer which is ironic) and would threaten her with an adjudication for storing food if she dared to complain!
One of her adjudications was for having vegetables from the garden in her room. They were being thrown away despite being perfectly edible. She cannot handle the idea of wasting food. Do you blame her?
She is the kindest and most giving person I met in jail. She takes note of all the other prisoners on her wing and what kind of food they like, and she redistributes the prison issue food to the right people. For example, I would give her my sugar, flavours of crisps I don’t like, sometimes things that came with my salad like crab sticks, noodles and so on. She would then give me hot chocolates as I don’t drink coffee and plain flavoured crisps.
She could appear argumentative, but actually she just has a very strong idea of fairness, always likes to know the rules and keep to them, and also has the aforementioned cognitive disability which means she will often question and question in order to understand.
I saw her bullied by officers, and I tried my best to stand up for and support her in any way I could. I smiled last week when I received a letter from her stating she had been taken off BASIC, as her most recent IEP had been revoked….. the one I appealed on her behalf before I left. :-). I just pray there is someone else to take over her care and support…..
Is it Working?
Women’s prisons in England are boarding school styled communities,
where girls laugh, support each other, help and look after each other.
The three southern jails I have had the joy of residing in are as
disimilar to their media and political portrayal as chalk and cheese!
The female estate is not working, prison in general is not working and women in particular are being let down by the judicial system.
During my two year stint I kept my ears and eyes open to the disarray and chaos within the female estate and I did what I could to help those incarcerated within it.
My aim now is to work with agencies, charities, politicians, journalists, young people at risk of offending, and the unknowledgeable and often judgemental public to CHANGE an outdated, unworkable and often vindictive, dishonest and corrupt system.
Not a day went by without me noticing dishonest or deceitful behaviour from prison staff, whether officers, Governors or civilian staff. Surely in this last chance saloon for female offenders there should be an exemplar behavioural pattern from those responsible for the rehabilitation and care of women?
This blog will try to introduce you to the reality, the facts, of prison and the judicial system. It is about time it all came out and the system changes.
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/why%20focus%20on%20reducing%20womens%20imprisonment.pdf
The female estate is not working, prison in general is not working and women in particular are being let down by the judicial system.
During my two year stint I kept my ears and eyes open to the disarray and chaos within the female estate and I did what I could to help those incarcerated within it.
My aim now is to work with agencies, charities, politicians, journalists, young people at risk of offending, and the unknowledgeable and often judgemental public to CHANGE an outdated, unworkable and often vindictive, dishonest and corrupt system.
Not a day went by without me noticing dishonest or deceitful behaviour from prison staff, whether officers, Governors or civilian staff. Surely in this last chance saloon for female offenders there should be an exemplar behavioural pattern from those responsible for the rehabilitation and care of women?
This blog will try to introduce you to the reality, the facts, of prison and the judicial system. It is about time it all came out and the system changes.
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/why%20focus%20on%20reducing%20womens%20imprisonment.pdf
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