My Last Post?

That the Ministry of Justice and Prison Service have embarked on a course of activity in an effort to disrupt my blog only reinforces my view that I was right to intrude on the public. That they have the brass neck to portray themselves as guardians of the law whilst traducing it reveals the very underbelly of criminal justice morality that my blog wishes to illustrate.

In 2008, the justice minister Maria Eagle told MP Sion Simon that prisoners could blog, subject to the rules of correspondence. Yet despite my complying with the law and ministerial pronouncements, the prison service is now reverting to old habits – attempting to squash the vocal dissenter.

With perceptively cynical foresight, this last post is one of the first written. Having 30 years experience of the mendacity of my keepers, I supply this to John Hirst to distribute in the event of my blog being molested by officialdom. Whether my keepers succeed in their sordid effort is now a question to be answered by my determination and a chunk of legal aid money. And I am very, very determined.

I feel moved to blog because of the quality of public debate around prisons and prisoners. The debate is sterile, a dance conducted around stereotypes and tabloid campaigns, whose sole affect has been to relegate criminals to sub-humanism status and shift policy to reactive short termism. The results have been a disaster, with no constituency being happy with the criminal justice systems.

Giving a human face to criminality can only help inform and challenge popular conceptions. And as an individual I sharpen contrasts and undermine common beliefs with a vengeance. I was a boy when I committed my crime. I handed myself in to the police, pleaded guilty in court. That was the sole act of violence in my life and my revulsion of my crime is a permanent stain on my spirit. I have also tasted the bitterness of being a victim – my teenage sister was killed. From being uneducated I have sweated to the stage where I am now researching towards my PhD. That biography defies stereotyping.

That I am 20 years over tariff only adds to the moral and legal complexity of my blogging. My punishment ended at 10 years, my legal debt to society discharged. Legally and morally I am in a far stronger position to stand up in public than most lifers. Few of my peers can claim these life experiences and fewer still willing to step forward. Someone needs to and if this is read, then clearly my intrusion into the bloggersphere had an effect.

Throwing citizens into prison, placing the whole weight of the state on their neck behind closed doors, is a power that should be exercised with some deliberation. Instead, it has become a mindless political reflex. For far too long, society has abdicated its responsibility to give these profound matters due consideration. For even longer, political leaders and opinion formers have avoided the necessity to base policy on a footing firmer than the approval of tabloids.

I am arrogant, stupid and despairing enough to place myself full in the public firing line in an attempt to shatter the current morass of waffle. Who better than a reformed murderer to step forward and challenge for a debate? My blog is a verbal, moral and intellectual slap in the face, an attempt to shake people out of their complacent bigotries before inviting them to think.

In reducing discussions to trite slogans and vote grubbing sound bites we debase ourselves as a collective and as people. I realise that I pose a challenge, but regardless of any efforts expended by the government I am not going away. Welcome to the debate.

With thanks to the Guardian Online, who published this article yesterday http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/14/prison-blogging-law