Monday 28 August 2017

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

My dream in May 2015, when I left the gated retreat, was to change the system, I had managed to achieve changes inside, but on release I was hit by the reality. The best laid plans.....

I spend far too much of my time these days on social media. But it seems, in this warped "prison and prison reform" world, I am not alone. Those of us trying to change the HMP chaos seem to be inordinately active on Twitter and Facebook. Little did I imagine, this time five years ago, that my social media feeds in 2017 would be filled with such issues as the need for prisoners to have email addresses, the appalling neglect and abuse of disabled inmates and  the unacceptable overcrowding and terrible conditions in the UK prison system. And that's without taking into consideration the problems with freely available drugs inside, the smoking ban currently being implemented and the constant media reports about the frequently corrupt HMP staff!

My frustration is immense. I read posts avidly and greedily, and want to be a part of the solution, a solution that I believe is possible. My desire to help gyrates in my brain 24/7. I blog, and share, and re-tweet, yet I cannot seem to infiltrate the very charities and reform groups I would absolutely be a game changer for. 

It's a confusing world. All of these charities employ a variety of paid staff. Many of these, I am sure, have absolutely the best intentions and want a solution. Yet, how do you, as a prison leaver, get into these very positions that would enable you to enact change? That enable your voice to be heard? The only solution seems to be volunteering, as mentioned in my last blog entry:

 http://outofsync8.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/inevitable-impact-of-incarceration.html

Being an "ex-offender" charity volunteer is seen far too often as the charity actually enabling the vulnerable, deprived, incapable prison leaver to have "meaningful and purposeful" activity. But what about the service users and prison leavers who are more than capable? The ones who are intelligent and focused and have come from a professional background? How do we break through into this secret society?

It seems the solution is to start yet another charity or reform group. But surely it is better to focus on having less groups who can help more people?

Today my Twitter chat was with the CEO of a prison-leavers charity I hadn't heard of before. Their issue of the day was to ensure that all prisoners leave jail with an email address. Sounds sensible and achievable, and necessary,  unless you have actually been a guest of Her Majesty. Mention internet access when in jail and you are grounded, nicked and possibly put in Seg! Internet access terrifies security in prison, yet in reality many of the men in jail have it anyway, through secreted mobile phones. My Twitter feed has many serving prisoners on it, and I am so incredibly grateful for the reality of their input. During my two years inside the female estate I didn't even get a whiff of a mobile, and only ever heard about one lady who had managed to hide one for two years! Men's jails, it seems, are very different!

Prisoners need to leave jail with many things in place. Yet, through-the-gate services are dire or non-existent. These prison leavers need an e-mail address.... yes..... but they need the skills to use it! Giving a lifer an e-mail address to use on release, and a web site with the instructions on how to access it, is asking that licensed prisoner to fail! Imagine being transported from say 1991 to 2017 and being expected to instantly use a laptop or iPad or mobile phone, with your future income and housing and job being reliant on this?

In the last few months of a sentence an inmate must be allowed to access the internet, learn to use a mobile phone, apply fully for benefits, visit the local housing department. If we want to stop the revolving door we need to take this much more seriously. Working in the Vision Office in HMP East Sutton Park, trying to support ladies into work, it was almost impossible for me to perform my role without internet access. HMP officers and staff like to be in control, and they would only pass on e-mails etc when they felt like it, which dashed many prisoners chances of meaningful paid employment We need to remember that human behaviours and personalities play a big part in the attitudes of the staff employed to support and care for prisoners. My personal experience is that the majority had very little empathy, which has a detrimental impact on those prisoners trying to better themselves. 

One story featuring massively on my social media feeds at the moment, which truly concerns me, is the treatment of, and attitude towards, a young disabled prisoner. This 24 year old man caused his own life-changing disabilities in a car crash, which tragically killed two teenage boys and seriously disabled two others who were travelling in his car. His crime is hard to forgive, he made incredibly bad choices and has been severely punished by his life long paralysis and other life limiting disorders. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail, for death by dangerous driving. He is wheelchair bound, tetraplegic, doubly incontinent and currently very unwell. 

His mother, understandably so, is at her wits end and is tweeting all and sundry to try to get her son the care he needs. A 2017 UK prison is not the appropriate place for a seriously disabled prisoner. He has become seriously unwell, lost a lot of weight and is at risk of serious injury or death. The lack of funding and staffing in today's HMPS means that many inmates are likely to be on 23 hour bang up, and often ignored by mental health teams and healthcare. But, for such a severely disabled prisoner, the current prison regime cannot possibly provide the care needed. The removal of freedom is the punishment ordered by the courts. Whilst in prison each offender must be treated humanely and fairly, and yet this will be impossible for this young man with such severe and all encompassing medical needs. I have personal experience of the appalling treatment of disabled ladies, many thought to be swinging the lead or hypochondriacs, and very few allowances are made. All prisoners are believed to be deceitful, and the disabled and unwell are not excluded from this! One incident I remember well is accompanying a disabled lady with a walking frame to a church event in HMP Bronzefield, who then could not walk back, Staff refused to help, refused to allow other ladies to help, and ultimately this disabled lady was punished for being unable to return to her wing due to her disability. 

Social Media is cruel and the Daily Mail readers of this world have such hatred for this young man's offence that he, his mother, and his family have received threats and appalling comments online. (Some of the comments are from serving prison officers which is deeply disturbing). I have read many of these, and I despair at the ignorance of the British general public towards prison sentences and their purpose. I pray that this young man starts to receive that '24 hour care by a team of 8 people', as promised by Judge Collier at his sentencing....... It doesn't seem likely. I wonder exactly what rehabilitation he will receive, whilst being seriously ill, profoundly disabled and lacking in basic care? His mum states he doesn't even have a cell call bell......

Britain's prison system is at breaking point. There are many clones of "me" in the community who really want to make it change. The problem is that we are seldom taken seriously. We blog, and tweet, and post, and write books and articles. Yet we are all "ex-offenders" and as such we are unimportant. 

I am reaching out through this blog. I want to be a serious part of the change needed within the criminal justice system, I am available to work with any charities. I blog, I write, I am studying BA Criminology at a red brick uni! But I am not a vulnerable ex offender who needs supporting into meaningful activity. Will you take me up on my challenge? Will you prove I am wrong with my current analysis of reform charities? Will you take me on board with my incredible academic and analytical skills, my ability to problem solve and my personal knowledge of the system? 

I am waiting to hear from you......

Thursday 24 August 2017

Inevitable Impact of Incarceration

I am a highly intelligent woman. Ask Judge Anthony Niblett... he used this phrase endless times during my court case!

In early 2016, having left Jail a few months earlier,  I was lucky enough to land an interview for the BA Social Work at the University of Sussex, a course you have to sell your soul to get onto (or have incredible academic qualifications which I luckily had). I had started my studies towards this in 2012, by studying on a one year Access course in Health and Social Care, and I had achieved 61/61 distinctions on the course. Pretty well qualified for the degree course, if I say so myself as the entry requirements at this red brick university was 40 distinctions or more.
The interview went well, I seemed to click with the friendly interviewer who had also come to social work as a mature student, and then....... the question....
"Finally, we ask everybody this question, do you have any criminal convictions?"
At this point I was not long out of prison and still relatively naive. "Yes I do" I replied, and that was that! No questions were asked and I was free to go. Having been given a small sheet of paper on which to describe my conviction, and knowing my conviction (although wrongful) would have no effect on my ability to work with children, I wrote my explanatory paragraph, assuming there would, at some point, be further discussion over the actual ins and outs of my conviction and why I maintained my innocence.

Shortly after my interview I received a UCAS notification, simply stating that I had not managed to gain a place on the course, and I also then received several emails from admissions about my criminal record with regards to the other courses I had been already accepted onto! I immediately asked for feedback on my Social Work interview, and in the mean-time I accepted my place on a different course; Psychology with Criminology. This course did not demand a disclosure which I was very happy to explain to admissions using their own policy documentation! I did not feel able to fight for the Social Work course at this point, still suffering from the PTSD you inevitably suffer after a stint at the hands of the brutal HMPS, and also suffering from low self-esteem. My dreams, for many years, of working in the social work system had been dashed and I must truly therefore be a bad person to be refused the opportunity. However, a year later, I have realised I have still not received that feedback, and am now actively following it up. I am stronger now and more able to fight the system. Why should a conviction for fraud affect my ability to be the most amazing social worker. Surely my background of being a child in the appalling care system for 13 years, my years working with vulnerable adults and children, and my intelligent and analytical mind, and skills in critical thinking be enough to afford me a place on the degree course. Prison destroys your strength and makes you far too accepting of discrimination. Watch this space for my feedback if I finally receive it.

But it is not only in education that this discrimination happens, and where we, as ex-offenders, feel the impact of a prison sentence.

When I was first released I signed up with some employment and job seeking sites. I was head hunted for a job working with children with additional needs, ideal for me as several of my children have additional needs, plus a plethora of experience working with children like this. I attended the interview, they loved me, and I was offered the job on the spot, there and then, at the interview. All was going well until I had to send in the DBS forms. The interviewer (a probation officer for twenty years) was fully aware of my conviction and all the circumstances around it, including maintaining my innocence, however, after waiting many weeks for the DBS to be returned, I was simply emailed to tell me I would not be employed due to my DBS!! My "convictions" have no impact on working with children, and yet this company chose not to employ someone who would have been amazing in the job role, purely based on a piece of paper rather than the reality.

So, as an ex-offender ( a label that I don't actually identify with having not offended in the first place!), your only route seems to be volunteering with charities. For a year and a half I have been involved with a well known charity which believes that only ex-offenders can change the system and stop re-offending. When I first became involved with this charity I believed this was an amazing philosophy. But now I have seen the reality of this charity, which employs mainly ex-offenders in their paid positions, but seems to choose those with the most issues! There is nepotism, breach of confidentiality, erratic behaviours, chaos. Everything I saw in jail, from both prisoners and staff, and wanted to escape from! I have slowly become more and more disenchanted with the charity, which could, in reality,be amazing. However, they belittle their volunteers, making assumptions about their lack of ability due to being an ex offender and refusing to take on board the amazing skills many of these ex service users bring to the table. This charity loses so many volunteers because they often employ those still in chaos to be in team engagement roles, which leads to a lack of committed support. Very recently they employed someone in an engagement role who was sacked within a month due to these chaotic behaviours, and yet there were three other candidates at interview who would have been far more able. These charities need to employ those best for the role rather than the person with the longest criminal record!

The impact of a prison sentence is huge. Where do we go? Employment is often impossible, university is OK as long as you have the qualifications and the course doesn't involve a DRB, charities use and abuse you and believe you to be incapable......

An amazing guy I met through one of the charities I worked with (Pete that's you!)  is setting up his own charity to work with ex offenders on 'through the gate' issues. Through the gate support is sadly lacking, and charities are relied upon to provide a service which, in reality, should be put in place by HMPS and the probation service and CRCs. He has asked me to help out, he recognises my many skills and abilities, and I will gladly do this as I think he is amazing. He is used and abused by the charity he works for, but is going to be a game changer in his own environment.

I have now chosen to study a BA in Criminology, still at the University of Sussex, and maybe an MA in Social Work, which gives me time to fight the discriminatory system. I am supporting "ban the box" and still fighting to help those less capable than me.

Serving your sentence should mean the end. Lets ban the box and stop the assumption that a prison sentence leaves you incapable, deceitful, and unemployable. Surely we, as a society, want ex-offenders to be rehabilitated, and to be working for a living wherever possible. Ex offenders need to be judged on their own abilities and not on their past, and reform charities need to learn that there doesn't necessarily need to be a long sentence to afford a person the ability to work within the system and fight it.

The impact of incarceration should and can lead to a changed, positive and capable member of society. Lets work together to achieve this.