From Ed:
Please visit the Facebook site and look at the letter just posted from Ben's barrister to get a full explanation of what happened to Ben on Wednesday and why we so badly need a reform of the system in the this country.
Ben
Lecturing
About Me
- prisonerben
- United Kingdom
- Previously known as "one of Britain's best known prisoners...he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility of the system" The Times, Ben was finally released from prison after 32 years in August 2012. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when he was 14 years old, he renounced violence and fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result of speaking truth to power, he served far longer than the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to argue that he had "been punished excessively for a crime committed as a child". One of the more intellectual of prisoner-campaigners, Ben chose to educate himself from schoolboy level to having both undergraduate and post graduate degrees. He is currently one of very few prisoners in Britain ever to attempt a Doctorate. Ben's speciality is non-violent action and the Human Needs Theory. Now on Life Licence, He is forging a career as a CJ policy consultant, writer and - as ever - campaigner.
Its an outrage that Ben's future can be held up like this just because of his being intimately involved with someone for goodness sake, he is a grown man. I cannot understand why the parole board has used Ben's relationship as a way of keeping him locked up in Shepton Mallet.
ReplyDeleteWell I shall be writing again to Mr Donkoh at the MoJ asking him and the department he works for to intervene in this farce and make haste Ben's release.
Its our money that is being used to keep him (and others) so unfairly behind bars. Its has to stop.
Have read the site - I want to know who and how risk assessments are made?
ReplyDeleteHow can Ben be such a risk for having a relationship with someone and talking about a mobile phone? Might be against prison 'rules' but hardly high risk!
Mary, to understand the risk issue, please pop over to Facebook and read the most recent letter from Flo Krause, Ben's barrister. I shall also be posting a blog on the subject soon which Ben has sent me (just have to scan it in...)
ReplyDelete