tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31849900329795402292024-03-13T10:06:28.462+00:00BEN'S PRISON BLOG - Lifer On The LooseThe first blog by a British prisoner. Variously described as being "obviously extremely intelligent" (Michael Gove MP), "full of shit" (Mark Leach) and a "fully paid up member of the awkward squad" (Parole Board), I try to generate debate around the moral and political nexus that is imprisonment. Imprisoned between ages 14 to 47, released on Licence in August 2012prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.comBlogger1148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-26705540959179031942024-02-10T18:45:00.001+00:002024-02-10T18:45:13.619+00:00Shouting over the wall.<p>I have
spoken about the birth of this blog before, but for new readers the
trouble is that I wrote several weeks worth of blogposts, sent them
out to the Editor, and only then told the Governor that I was
starting a blog that would go live the next day. He called the
Ministry, who told him to stop me having any communications. This was
unprecedented in prison history, and was somewhat undermined by my
using my illegal mobile to phone the Guardian, who ran the story the
next day. The Ministry backed down and so I began the first blog in
British prison history. All I wanted to do was wind up the Governor
and it sort of grew into something more.</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">And, you
may ask, so what? Who gives a damn about just another blog on an
internet full of opinions? It matters in that prisons are a closed
world. One created specifically for the State to cause people
suffering. That's its point. All done on our behalf, in our name,
with our money. And the Government has strained with all its might to
keep prisons a closed world with the minimal amount of information
flow. Gaining the right to blog blew a massive hole in those efforts,
which is why the Ministry reacted so stupidly to my efforts.</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I had
hoped that there would be many prison bloggers. I know that there are
excellent writers in prison, as can be read in the prisoners
newspaper, Inside Time. But I also recognise the barriers faced by
prison bloggers. The practicalities themselves are a deterrent to
blogging. A prisoner has no direct access to the internet, blogs must
be hand written or typed, then mailed to someone outside, who can
then upload them. You can appreciate that people who have served many
years have very few outside contacts, let alone one willing to type
up and manage blogs.</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Blogging
puts a target on your back for the staff, who are suddenly having to
deal with the public being informed of what they do. And there are a
thousand ways that staff can mess with your life, all subtle and
above board. Why adopt a path that raises your head above the
parapet? Given all of these hurdles and harsh prison realities, the
reality is that few prisoners have the ability to write well, have
the stones to open their mouth, and have people outside they can rely
upon.</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">One who
surmounted this obstacle course was Adam Mac, whose blog was
interesting but short lived. In a bizarre turn of events, this prison
blog was stopped in its tracks by prisoners. Adam found himself in
Grendon prison, a therapeutic community where prisoners committees
have a significant effect on the daily lives of other prisoners.
Despite assurances that he would respect anonymity of his peers in
his blog, the prisoners voted that he stop blogging. Obviously I
think this is ridiculously stupid, but here we are. Visit Adam Mac’s
blog for his version, before he fell silent.</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">And now we
are left with a void. There are no prisoners blogging. The closed
world has again managed to close the gates to the outside world. This
is deeply unsatisfying and highlights the barriers prisoners still
face in finding their voices. I hope the risk I took and the efforts
I made are not wasted and that somehow, a prisoner will again blog
and drag prisons into the light of public scrutiny.</p>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-83522867829082308912024-02-06T12:12:00.001+00:002024-02-06T12:22:05.442+00:00The Party Of Law and Order. And Stalinism.<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Let
me paint you a little picture of part of the justice system. Perhaps
one of the most difficult parts - the assessment and release of Life
sentence prisoners. More precisely, murderers.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Each
Life sentence is divided into two parts. The first is the retribution
and deterrence part, the punishment for the crime. We call this the
Tariff. Post tariff is the second part of the sentence, where the
Lifer continues to be detained until it can be established that he or
she poses no more than a minimal risk to life and limb. Essentially,
when he's judged to be safe to release. Tariffs can range from months
to a whole lifetime, depending on the crime and the behaviour of the
Lifer.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span>All
so simple so far. Let's look at HOW the release and assessment
process works. Firstly, the Lifer </span><span>isn't</span><span> told his tariff. He has no
idea how long he is intended to serve. As the tariff expiry
approaches, the interviews by prison staff begin. Everyone from the
guy who unlocks your door to the Governor, taking in the Chaplain,
education staff, and psychiatrists along the way. EVERYONE gets a
say. They interview the Lifer endlessly and write their reports for
the Parole Board.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Here's
the interesting bit - the Lifer is not shown these reports. He has no
idea what's being said about him. He has no way of checking or
correcting anything he may dispute. The Lifer can make
representations but he doesn't know what he's arguing against. These
reports then go off to the Parole Board.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The
Parole Board then looks at these reports and judges the Lifer against
the release criteria - being no more than a minimal risk to life or
limb. It then makes its decision. Release, or not to release. If not
to release, the Board notes its concerns and the issues the Lifer
needs to address before being released. The Board also sets the next
review date, which may be a decade ahead.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Here's
that interesting bit again - The Lifer isn't shown the Parole Board's
answer. He is told “You aren't being released, come back in X
years. Now off you go.” That's it. He has no clue whatever what the
issues are preventing his release, has no idea what he needs to do to
get released. This was called “Mushroom Management” - kept in the
dark and fed on shit.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">If
the Parole Board does opt for release, this can then be stopped by a
politician. The Justice Minister can overrule everything the
specialists have assessed and substitute his own opinion. And as
always, the Lifer Wasn't told why and left to blunder along in blind
hope.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Would
anyone call such a system fair and reasonable? When the Lifer is told
nothing and can't argue against anything, can't defend himself
against any wild claims made in staff reports? And to then have
release blocked by a politician on equally secret grounds?</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Well,
the British courts were more than happy to uphold this system. They
had no problems with it at all, at times tying themselves in
ridiculous knots to defend it.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span>Which
is where we get the European Court of Human Rights stepping in.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The
ECHR stated what should be the bleeding obvious - that no, a secret
system where you cant see what's being said against you isn't fair
and just. And having politicians decide release was just absurd - no
one should be detained for political purposes, a judicial body should
control release, not a vote grabber. What supporter of the rule of
law could argue against this?</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The
system above is, dear reader, history. It was the situation up to the
early 1990s, when the ECHR rulings led to a new system. Reports were
open - Lifers got to see every word written about them and be able to
make informed representations. Release was decided by a three person
Panel headed by a High Court Judge. The Minister had a representative
there to give their views to the Panel. To all involved in these
matters, it was universally accepted to be a better way. Even if it
did put the brakes on prison staff's imaginative abuse in previously
secret reports…</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This
system worked pretty well for the last 30 years. Public safety was
upheld whilst a transparent due process was enforced. The rate of
Lifers reoffending did not increase one iota. What's not to like?</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Well,
2023 saw some opposition. Not based on any rational grounds. Tory
politicians began grumbling that Lifers were being released that the
public didn't want to be released. They want none released,
obviously. This is a regular moan and can be dealt with by pointing
to the Parole Board and saying “nothing to do with me, it's the
law”.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This
recent grumbling has been given an extra impetus - poor electoral
prospects for the Tories. In their usual electoral spasms, they
retreat to the high hill of “law and order” and start bewailing
that everything is too soft, too short, too easy - the whine of
politicians at every election in my lifetime.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Not
that politicians were rendered completely useless under the new
system. The Minister was represented at parole Panels. He had his
say. And the Minister always has the ability to challenge the Parole
Board in court if they thought their decision was manifestly
irrational and have their decisions overturned. They never used this
power.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Now,
the Tories want to roll back time. They want the Minister to have the
final say on release. They want to be able to override the
considerations of the Parole Board and substitute their own views.
These views are not constrained by the “life and limb” test. No,
this schema abandons rationality completely. The Minister's criteria
for release is “Will this lose me votes?”</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">No
one should be detained in prison for political ends. No one's release
should be a gamble based on electoral concerns. People's imprisonment
should not be based on vote-grubbing and the whims of a politician.
This is a return to mob rule - from the party that claims to be one
of law and order. Lifers should be released when they have served
their punishment and judged to be safe to release. Not based on the
Minister's mood of the day.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While
a politician grubbing for votes is hardly novel, electoral fear seems
to have paralysed the political minds. As it stands, the release of
the most serious criminals rests with the Parole Board. Ministers
have a buffer against popular outrage at release decisions, being
able to say “Nuffink to do with me Guv, it's the Parole Board.”
In taking the release decision from the Board and back to the
Ministry is to put a perpetual albatross around the political neck,
THEY will now be directly responsible. This is a level of political
idiocy that only the Ministry of Justice can think is a genius plan.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Politicians
getting involved in release decisions undermines the rule of law.
Which for the party of law and order is doubly deplorable. Add that
to short term political panic and it's a recipe for gross injustice.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-44974467210146893262024-02-04T17:16:00.003+00:002024-02-04T23:52:46.351+00:00Ho ho, Ho no.<p><span>So
I thought I had retired. Not by choice, but even so. Severe heart
failure, cancer and a head full of demons saw the government sit me
down, pat me on the head and say “there, there, you tried, but you
are too messed up to work. Here’s some money.”</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>And
so for the last few years I have been living on PIP, whilst winding
up my cardiologist by staying alive. It was a strange existence,
knowing that my brain was mostly still functioning but being unable
to do anything productive (or financially rewarding). I took up
lockpicking as a hobby. Deeply Freudian for an ex con to become
absorbed in locks…</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>Now,
however, the government has decided that I have the health of an
Olympian, and took their money back. This was something of a blow,
especially as I can now add a fractured spine to my list of annoying
ailments. Bemused, I’ve been through two stages of the appeals
process and await a third. So far, the fact I have what we now
politely call a “life limiting illness” hasn’t effected their
scales of judgement.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>So
like Grumpy, its off to work I must go.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>And
there lies the problem. On my release I sidestepped the regular job
market and was able to use my status as “educated ex con big mouth”
to get myself work in the criminal justice third sector, with a bit
of TV tarting on the side. Of course with my retirement I have
neglected all these contacts, as I slowly withdrew from prison
issues. I was content to try and wash prison out of my bones, after a
lifetime.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>The
passage of time has seen this niche advantage eroded, and the reality
is that another favourite ex con is always around the corner. That
can no longer be my beat. The obvious avenues are touting myself
around the prison-ish charities but they are surprisingly averse to
ex cons. I will be trying this nonetheless. Given the secluded corner
of the world I now occupy, several hours from London, finding a job
there would be nothing short of miraculous (and ridiculous) and
London is the centre of these things.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>I
peer wistfully into the Job Centre window, seeing all the casual jobs
floating around. Why are they not for me? I’ve done every job from
scrubbing toilets to E-Commerce strategy. Stacking shelves isn't a
step down. Alas, this is where that pesky heart failure hoves back
onto the stage - there are just so many jobs that I am no longer
physically capable of doing. Which points the way to “working by
brain rather than hand”.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>Which
brings me to exactly the situation I have spent so much time trying
to avoid - dealing with that little box on application forms that say
“Do you have any unspent convictions?” Usually tucked away on the
last page. An irrelevancy for most. A mountain for me.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>You’re
a random officer manager, looking for a quiet administrator. Along
comes an old guy with a very patchy CV, likely to fall down dead, and
oh yes, he killed someone. I mean, why would you even bother when
there's a queue of other, sane, applicants stretching round the
corner?</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>So
this is a pretty difficult situation. Jacob cat is being as well fed
as ever. Apart from that, everything is getting just a bit ropey and
gruel is getting boring.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>So
I will work for food. If I fail to find work I may be forced to begin
an Only Fans.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span>You
have been warned.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-6392107299457395482023-10-09T12:04:00.000+01:002023-10-09T12:04:12.042+01:00Going Backwards to go Forwards<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I
am a great believer in prison education. After all, it was where I
completed my secondary education, A Levels, BSc and MA. My PhD failed
when I ran out of funds. That's a very long journey, over 32 years.
My education helped shape the person I became.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But.
I always have a but, I'm afraid. But what is it that I believe <i>in</i>
that flows from education? It’s taken as axiomatic that education
itself reduces offending, cuts future crime. Trouble is, I’ve never
seen any research to substantiate that. If you have any, I’d be
grateful to see it. Sans actual evidence, it's always been my view
that the “education good” axiom actually rests on a moral belief
- that educated people are inherently more likely to be “good”.
This has at least a surface attraction. To be realistic, if I was
some lumpen shaven headed illiterate of a murderer, my public
reception would have been far less amenable.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
don’t for a moment think this proposition is actually true.
Education does not have an inherent ability to make you a better
person as such. Education just makes you more educated. That said,
education does help you if you want to change your view of life. I
know that for myself, education gave me the intellectual tools to
deal with my own psychological aberrations, and a system that rests
wholly on naked State power. Reading Mill’s ‘On Liberty’ in
solitary confinement sharpens the understanding of legitimacy and
power….</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Education
in itself does nothing. But education can be an open ended toolbox
that can be used to transform yourself and your life, should that be
the path you elect. But there is no reason whatever to think that
this necessarily follows. In this sense, education could potentially
reduce reoffending. Or it could give you more capable criminals. The
law of unintended consequences is the burden of any prison policy.
Note the number of PhDs amongst the leadership of the S.S….Education
may give you the tools by which you can better discern moral choices
and deal with them. It doesn't guarantee a moral decision.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Which
brings me to the new Education Policy announced by the Ministry. The
press release just hums with positivity. They always do. But then
they call a full scale riot an “incident of concerted
indiscipline”. Smaller riots are “disturbances”. You get the
idea. MoJ press released have always been given the Hallmark touch.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
you take a moment to squint past the glow and interpret the words,
the reality begins to sink in.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Every
prison will have a Head of Education Skill and Work. Huzza!.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Of
course the very same role has existed for years under the different
title of Head of Learning and Skills. I’m not sure what having to
reprint the letter heads and nameplate does to improve education or
training, but the Ministry make it sound truly marvellous.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
the first time, there will be apprenticeships in catering and
construction, in league with large name employers.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
would be all for this and have no “but”, but…</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There
has been a long and regrettable history of companies misusing
prisoner labour. A significant part of some prisons budget comes from
the Governor selling prisoners labour. And note this isn't the free
market - prisoners are compelled to do this work under the threat of
punishment. It is literally slavery, only actually allowed under the
European Convention. And obviously any company using forced prisoner
labour, at under a tenner a week wages, instantly has a market
advantage. So you will excuse my cynicism when I hear of
collaborations between companies and prisons.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Obviously
the skills and qualifications gained through an apprenticeship could
stand a prisoner in good stead on release. So long as they are not
exploited by companies along the way and get a fair days pay for a
fair days work. Alas, they will be misused.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's
an extra couple of million towards basic literacy, and an App to use
on release. All good there, but more money is always nice.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over
2 years, around 2000 prisoners will be trained in scaffolding,
electrical, and other vital industries. This will guarantee a job
interview on release.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is where having an old “birdman” lurking at the edge comes in
useful. This used to be standard across the prison estate. C&G
training in painting, decorating, welding, carpentry, etc. The skills
where a guy could start a small business himself and not rely on the
dubious largess of employers in the face of an ex con begging a job.
This was so prevalent that even I found myself compelled to learn
welding. Strange times.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
was the situation for many decades, until the arrival of a new wave
of managerialist control swept prisons in the early 1990s. Out went
the trades, and in came the psychologists. Straight swap. It was
declared that the very best way to cut reoffending was to force
prisoners to undertake a raft of “offending behaviour courses”,
psychological treatments that would turn the polluted criminal waters
into sparkling prosecco. Two decades later and the data shows we’ve
pretty much wasted several hundred million pounds. The only benefit
of all this was to keep psychologists away from wider society.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now
here we are again, two decades later, retreading the old path. Only
on a miniscule scale. 1000 men a year. Out of a population of
100,000. So this is not signifying a great switch away from
psychological interventions back to trades, it is a passing nod to
the past. This is regrettable. The insatiable appetites for degrees
has seen a generation or two of workers not working, but avoiding the
trades. The economy is ripe for more tradesmen. So this tiny effort
on the part of the Ministry becomes even more insulting.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There
will be “new” contracts to education providers, with tough “new”
targets for basic literacy and numeracy.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They
have existed for a decade or two. Always have. Education got
flattened by the managerialist zeitgeist like everything else. And
like everything driven by targets, the statistic frauds began
instantly. You get the idea from the fact that I was compelled to
take basic literacy and numeracy exams at every prison that had me.
After gaining my BSc. And MA.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Target
driven education also leads to coercing education. You are made a
“throffer” - an offer wrapped in a threat. The Ministry's version
of “Nice life you have there, pity if something happened to it…”
The Psychology Department excel at them, but Education Depts are also
not shy about leaning on a con to get him to take an educational path
that he really doesn'tation want to. Just to meet some target.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
may believe, of course, that leaning on someone to get better
educated must be no bad thing in the scale of things. But consider
the poor bloke working away packing crap in a prison workshop. He's
making 12 quid a week. His girlfriend is nearing term with their new
baby, and his brother is playing up at school. He needs that workshop
job and wage to pay for phone calls home. Badly. Having some self
righteous manager desperate to meet a target come along and grab him
is really not what is needed.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
all its bluster, these ideas do nothing significant for prison
education. The ideas that have a kernel of use are flawed or too
limited in scope, and changing job titles is meaningless. Not the
lack of the word “internet”. In a document about education. In
2023.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
was legitimately online in a Cat-B prison, with Summit Media, in
2001. Here we are, over 20 years down the line, and prisoners still
do not have internet access. With the rate of illegal mobile phones
in prison being around one for every two prisoners, trying to stem
the internet tide is utterly Canutish, a bizarre denial of reality.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
obsession with basic skills is overshadowing everything else that has
potential. Trades should explode across the estate, not be limited to
a few thousand people. Higher education, though in prison terms that
means a decent GCSE, falls off the map. When prisoners are serving
ever longer sentences, abandoning them once they are literate and
numerate is verging on the cruel. Being literate is a necessary
component of getting work, but hardly a sufficient one. It is utterly
depressing to realise that under the present arrangements, I could
not have taken the educational journey I did, and may not have
developed into the joyous, diplomatic, subtle man I am today…</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<br /><br />
</p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<br /><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-33227356687645991342023-07-16T21:41:00.000+01:002023-07-16T21:41:01.809+01:00<p><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">How
very Soviet</b></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Well,
I’ve finally been provoked into blogging for the first time in
several years. Apologies. I am unable to balance openness with
privacy, a problem that has plagued me since my release. But here we
are.</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
junction between politics and criminal justice is usually a messy
one.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some nations have
resolved this by making them the same. The Soviet Union, North Korea,
China…all the nice places just subsumed criminal justice into their
ideological fortress and the political becomes the judicial. <i>Whatever
became politically necessary became judicially correct</i><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
Then you were shot in a basement.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
cynical amongst you, and long time readers, will appreciate that
there were corners of British justice which were always afflicted by
the same disease - politically motivated sentencing.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Life
sentences were a particularly fraught, politically charged,
judicially warped arena. The setting of minimum terms for lifers was
set by bureaucrats. The prerequisite to release of moving to Open
prison was decided by Ministers (or the paper-monkeys acting under
his/her name). Release was decided by Ministers.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During
all of this, the Parole Board was a factor, but in reality and law
couldn't make decisions, merely recommendations. Hence the situation
where the Board assessed me as fit for Open for ten years on the
trot, with Ministers refusing to let me move. That cost me ten years
and the taxpayer the best part of 300,000 quid.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
cost in time and money was the smallest cost of political control
over sentences. The largest cost was that it distorted Justice
itself.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Which
brings me to recent events. A Bill is currently passing through the
legislature that removes the legal processes put in place over the
past 25 years to ensure release decisions are fair and rational, not
centred on reflex responses to the Daily Mail front page. The party
of law and order is abandoning law and order in favour of
vote-grabbing. I will return to maul this travesty soon enough.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile,
a more febrile series of events occurred that illustrates the
politically porous nature of the management of Life sentences and the
moral vacuum that can corrode people's views.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
transgender prisoner, lets call him SAB, made a speech at a recent
rally which included the phrase “punch TERFs in the face”. The
crowd cheered - a disturbing development where violence against
political opponents seems to becoming acceptable.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
far, so normal, in these intense culture wars. But SAB isn't your
usual speaker. He is a Lifer on license in the community. He was
originally given a discretionary Life sentence for kidnapping and
torture, then attempted to murder a fellow prisoner. The result was
that SAB served some 30 years before the Board judged him safe enough
to release.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lifers
calling for violence are, to be crystal clear, absolute fucking
idiots. I really can't emphasise enough how insanely stupid it is.
Whether you mean it or not. And you can expect a robust response from
the probation service and/or the Parole Board.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But,
if you have the barest of interest in criminal justice, you expect
this response to be proportional and necessary for public protection.
Not driven by political motives. I cannot stress enough how corrosive
it is to any system of justice to be driven by political decisions.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Information
is incomplete and sporadic, but we do know that the Met police
initially said there was no crime, no arrest necessary. It is
reported that the Probation Service hauled SAB in and gave him a
warning, but decided that his risk to the public has not reached the
level of requiring a recall to prison - the ultimate sanction for a
Lifer on license.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Enter
the mob. Of course, in this age, it was a Twitter mob. Led by a
lawyer (not criminal law) who would describe herself as decidedly
TERF-ish, who felt personally at risk from SAB because SAB had
suggested he would be attending a speaking event organised by said
lawyer. We can call her TL, TERF lawyer.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is not unreasonable. A man with a history of violence, who had just
called for violence against TERFs, was attempting to attend TL’s
event. TL was extremely unhappy at the lack of action by the police,
and quickly began to threaten legal action. Many other women also
made complaints to the police.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Enter
the politicians. The Home Secretary, in charge of the police forces,
tweeted that she hoped the Met would revisit the case. Which is, to
all but the disingenuous, an instruction to the police. Oddly enough,
SAB was then arrested. Then released, investigations ongoing.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the face of no information from the Probation Service as to what was
going on, TL began threatening legal action unless her needs were met
- recall SAB to prison.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SAB
was then recalled to prison. Despite Probation previously determining
this wasn't necessary on grounds of risk, it is believed that the
Minster of Justice ordered the recall. The second political
interference in the situation, for solely political benefit.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
began to feel very uncomfortable at this point. The sheer ignorance
of the system of those campaigning for this was as deep as it was
expected. What shocked me most was the sheer visceral glee of these
people at the recall of a man to prison for possibly many years, on
political instructions. I stupidly expected better from someone
working in the justice system.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">TL
went so far as to say that she would not be happy unless SAB stayed
in prison for the rest of his life. Likely to be decades. At this
point we parted ways…</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Scratch
a liberal and underneath you’ll find a Daily Mail editorial. I was
still shocked at the blatant glee. Not that a possible danger was
averted, but that a person from the opposing tribe was going to
suffer. The joy at that was vomitus.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
begged that they at least appreciate what they had done. And the
denials came thick and fact - “We did nothing, he did it to
himself”. As if a Hand of God mysteriously came down and
transported SAB to the Scrubs. As if their screaming at the Ministry
had nothing to do with Ministers reversing two previously made
decisions by Probation. This was disingenuous hypocrisy from those
simultaneously cheering their success.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It
is the excuse used to justify anything done to prisoners. “Well, if
you hadn’t committed the crime and gone to prison, the screws
wouldn't be giving you a beating. Your fault.” It's a refrain I’ve
heard for decades. And its still as pathetic and immoral.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
final step from me was to point out that getting a man imprisoned was
a big deal, and may not have been necessary. But no, they wanted him
in prison. Period. TL especially, who was still threatening to sue
Probation for not dancing to her satisfaction.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
deleted my Twitter account. I was not going to be anywhere near a mob
who could turn on me in an instant and try to use political pressure
to get me imprisoned. I’ve been through that already, thanks.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
final straw was the response from TL when I asked if she knew what
she had inflicted, what prison is like? The response was so steeped
in ignorance I may frame it for posterity:</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
can’t turn on Netflix without tripping over yet another ‘behind
bars’ documentary or dramatised film about men getting attacked by
the Big Dog who's in with the Warden. We’ve all seen Shawshank
Redemption. My dad did three days in Shrewsbury prison. Don’t come
this ‘you don't know prison’ nonsense.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Truly
mind-boggling. Hatred addles the mind. Ideology can allow you to
justify doing horrible things. And political interference in the
justice system invariably leads to injustice.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Me?
I’d have hauled him in for a chat. An official warning. And
recalled him to a Probation hostel with a strict curfew and limited
geographical movement. That would have negated any risk. But in their
ignorance and sheer spite, safety wasn’t what they actually wanted.
They wanted to see him suffer.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
if you hear my voice from the cockpit of a plane, don’t worry, I
know all about flying. After all, my Grandad was in the RFC and I’ve
watched Top Gun five times.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<br /><i style="font-family: "Segoe Script", cursive;">Ben
Gunn</i></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><br />
</p>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-59769306672481466812017-07-17T10:27:00.000+01:002018-01-14T22:31:16.054+00:00Marooned and toasted cheese<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That’s how I feel right now. Marooned. Ironic for a Ben Gunn….</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For much of my time in prison I had the luxury of a stable, foundational set of ideas and values. In times of difficulty, uncertainty, I could withdraw back to these and be slightly assured that I was at least attempting to move through time with some coherent direction. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It baffles many that my chosen direction wasn’t release. For much of my sentence, release was not the goal at the top of my list. That place was occupied by “try to do the right thing”. This was a complicated reaction to my own crime, and the reality I was living in an institution resting on naked State violence. That mishmash of morality, history, politics and daily life would take a lifetime to explain; but the end result was, doing what I perceived to be “the right thing” came before pragmatic steps towards release.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This didn’t perturb me, and I hadn’t accepted never being released. I wasn’t indifferent to freedom, only that “the right thing” came first, release came second. In my forties, then, the future appeared to take shape. To complete my PhD. To then take its concepts and apply them to prison. To make the prisoners union – the AOP – an actual living body and not a legal sideline. Then to potter about and probably fall off my perch somewhere before I was sixty. There is also my cancer weaving its thread through this potential future, adding a wrinkle. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So I knew what I was doing. I knew where I was heading. And I knew what values and ideas drove me forwards. As I now appreciate, this made me an exceptionally fortunate person. The human condition more frequently suggests blind stumbling through the days. Having a coherent structure, internally and externally, gave me purpose and strength.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And then I fell in love. That changes everything. And I knew that I would have to put gaining release at the top of my list of priorities. This made manoeuvring through daily prison life far more difficult than it had been. My broad approach had been so simple – If I saw power, then I would resist it. Regardless of the cost on my time to release. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With gaining release as the overriding priority in my new relationship, this lodestone was gone. I had no reference points, the moral and intellectual structure that had sustained me for nearly three decades was of no use. This made prison far more distressing for me. I knew I was making deliberate efforts to walk away from all that I had been working for for so many years. To rush to release was, to me, a decision to also rush away from making a mark, to give meaning to all of those years.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My relationship became the lodestone that guided my new approach. The prison service barely noticed that I was growling slightly less frequently, leaving me grinding my teeth. Only now, years later, do I really appreciate how profound a shift this was. I had took a deliberate decision to abandon everything that had informed my life, to abandon all I was trying to achieve.</div>
<div>
Obviously, my relationship was that important. It offered a different future to the one I was facing. And it was a future I couldn’t particularly understand, only approach with hope. Because I sure as hell didn’t have experience to guide me. We both blindly assumed that I was able to build and maintain a long term relationship…an untested proposition. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I re-entered the World, then, in a condition of hope but pretty complete uncertainty. I had no idea how I would deal with actually living with someone else, sharing a home, a bed, a sofa…a life. I left a path of confidence and certainty and jumped blindly over a cliff.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here we are, five years onwards, and I sit amongst the wreckage of my relationship. And have no doubt, this has been the result of my inabilities, my selfishness, my flaws. The relationship was the ship in which I was exploring life, the vessel that would carry me forward.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Having pressed the self-destruct button, I swam to the nearest rock and there I sit. This was not the plan. This is not where life should find me. I walked away from a constructive path and now find myself with nothing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Such, I gather, is life. The emotional pillar at the centre of my being has crumbled. I find this harder to deal with because I realise that my relationship was more important than anything else, and so as I failed to build a good relationship the effort I was making diverted my attention from the rest of life.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prison can be monastic. It flows at its own rhythm. It is a limited existence, sometimes a meagre one. In that strange environment I could vanish into Solitary and take the time out to muse on my situation and its potential. It was in that environment that I took a lengthy moral and intellectual tour in order to distil my “operating principles” of “doing the right thing” and “resist abuses of power”. And these principles gave me a certainty and solidity in the face of an otherwise overwhelmingly oppressive institution.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
These parameters made sense in prison. I had killed someone; trying to do “the right thing” seems a bit of a moral imperative, the least I could do. And in an institution built on violence, “resisting abuses of power” was an imperative. These things made sense…in prison.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On release, I was too busy to reflect. Five years on and I still haven’t unpacked my prison paperwork. Only now, as rubble from my exploded relationship rains down, have I been compelled to reflect. And realise I am bereft on every level. I have been exploring this world of freedom without the compass, the values, that guided my prison life.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I don’t know where I am going. Or why. And unlike in prison, Life out here doesn’t pause to allow me time to muse. I am told that this is all quite normal, the human condition. Perhaps I was very fortunate to have an idea of what the hell I was doing in life for so long. That doesn’t help me in this moment. I literally don’t know what I am doing here in freedom, what I should do, what I can do, and most importantly for me – why and to what end.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-26360998604725106822017-05-21T08:28:00.000+01:002017-05-21T08:28:57.971+01:00Guest Blog. Wings Clipped.<br />
I've never run a guest blog before - but with the election fast approaching, this prison story involving an individual now closely involved with the Ministry of Justice is too significant to omit from my site...<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wings Clipped<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fundamentally, having made a cataclysmic mistake – and being
(deservedly) jailed for it, prison was a life-changing experience. The disgrace
within me still aches to this day. They could have sent me home on the first
night – I <i>got it</i> as I was walked trembling
onto a prison wing as a customer – back on that evening of July 25<sup>th</sup>,
2011.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps it might be an idea to show more people around
prisons – young people – to maybe deter possible future errors of judgement.
Just an idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there lies the rub. Our prison system is so lacking in
off the wall ideas within the walls. Worse – viewed from the inside, there
seemed to be very little cooperation between the countless agencies working
within the desultory system. “This is my bat and ball – and you’re not playing
with it,” appeared to be the ethos of the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the nightmare ended, the book that had kept me going –
both sanity wise – and as something constructive to occupy my time – in the
trade it’s called purposeful activity – I had to create my own – did, thank
god, get released to the big wide world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s now paying the rent, putting food on the table and
clothing me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other than that, I don’t have a job. Haven’t had one since I
got out. More of that – and why – later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I write this, I can feel a resident of Hexham getting
twitchy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Becoming an author made me feel like an imposter. Writing
this as someone who works within the CJS makes me even more the great pretender
– as I don’t. I just bang the drum a lot on the telly and the wireless about
what I saw not going on – and what I believe we could be doing… Through being a
non-stop pest, I have tried to up the profile on good practice in clink by
visiting some prisons with the like of Russell Brand, Frances Crook, The <i>Guardian</i>’s Eric Allison, Derek Martin,
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Lenny Henry, and both Sadiq Khan and Lord
Falconer when both had Shadow Justice Minister titles. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When <i>IN IT</i> came
out, a new Justice Minister came in. He was called Chris Grayling. He’s now
something to do with the railways. For an individual not keen on the
combination of books and prisoners, his staff were surprisingly interested in
what I’d written from the sharp end as their house-guest and met with me. They
grilled me with questions like “why doesn’t prison work?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michael Howard wasn’t there. He’d be cross.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr Grayling’s team were frightened of something called the <i>Daily Mail</i>. They went a funny colour
when I talked to them of the pornographic channels being available on E wing at
HMP Bedford.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a whoppingly huge percentage of adult prisoners who
are completely illiterate. When I asked Mr Grayling’s team what they were going
to do about their prison education provider, a company called A4e, banning the
prison approved literacy scheme – then called Toe by Toe, now called Turning
Pages – in an open resettlement (?) prison they said they “couldn’t comment on
a specific incident.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having been ordered by then Head of Education at HMP Maplins
– sorry – Hollesley Bay, (tennis court and sea views) to “scrub Toe by Toe” and
“there will be no Toe by Toe in this prison” I spent five minutes a day
emptying a waste-paper basket – the rest of the time sunbathing. It’s something
called purposeful activity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the last election campaign – yes, the last one, not
this one – I regularly Tweeted a quote from a man called David Cameron. His
sensible words were “in prison, people cannot read. They need help. It’s common
sense.” My electronic social media bombardment aimed at the diversity between
political HMP rhetoric and actual events in prison caused someone in Number Ten
to make a phone call.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s called being on the back foot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Politicians are unfailingly an odd lot. Another one got in
touch. The MP for the constituency of Hexham. He was called Guy Opperman. He
used to have something to do with horses. He had interest in prisons and was
writing a book. The switch from nags to lags induced him to ask for my help. He
was always very quick on the draw at calling me when he needed something. He
came out with some belters. Referrals to “obstructive and disinterested prison
officers” in an email to me made me think I was dealing with a straightforward
gentleman. Someone with some integrity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Mr Opperman’s book came out, I arranged for Jonathan
Aitken to attend the launch. Yours truly was the other ex-prisoner at the
event. If you were an ex-con, you could only be there if you were called
Jonathan. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a small world. At said event was the head honcho of the
education provider who had banned Toe by Toe at Hollesley Bay. She later sent
me emails saying it wasn’t them who’d done it – but “HMPS staff, or Learn
Direct staff.” When I emailed her back naming the individual who had ordered
the cessation of the proven-to-reduce-reoffending-reading scheme, together with
a link to the gentleman’s name from their company website, she never responded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My amazement at the lack of holding one’s hands-up to
cock-ups by people at the helm of our prison system galvanised me into a campaign
of revealing the truth. A relentless slog within the media. I got there in the
end when Michael Spurr, CEO of something then called NOMS, now called something
else – and probably something else again when – inevitably – Mrs May’s dust has settled after
June 8, publicly declared at a Prisoners Education Trust event that “the prison
education provider made a huge mistake banning Toe by Toe in an open
resettlement prison.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I still savour that moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the major aids to stopping ex-prisoners reoffending
is employment. The only letters next to my name before being imprisoned were
QHI – which in English means I was a qualified helicopter instructor. Friends
of mine still talking to me almost man-handled me down to Gatwick Airport where
those in charge of matters aviation – the CAA – reside, to explore the notion
of returning to my trade. The CAA interviewed me and decreed that if people
were willing to give me a positive reference – I could indeed go back to work.
They asked for a list of ten people (“no ex-cons though”) who would be willing
to vouch for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I contacted ten people. All of them said yes – they’d be
happy to give me a reference. The CAA selected two individuals from the list,
my MP and Guy Opperman MP.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My MP sent a reference by return of post. Mr Opperman went abruptly
quiet. The CAA chased him. I chased him. Stories of “being very busy” but
“quite happy to give a reference” were emailed from Mr Opperman’s office to me <b>and copied into the CAA</b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the bombshell dropped. Mr Opperman’s office told me “he
had been told by the Chairman of the Tory party not to give me a reference.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The CAA emailed me saying because of this – it meant <i>something sinister</i> and up-in-smoke my
return to aviation – and employment went.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the Justice Select Committee invited Mr Opperman to
give his version of events he did indeed acknowledge that I had asked him for a
reference – but he “had said no”. <i>He
failed to admit that he had said yes</i> – both orally to me – and in writing
to me <b>and</b> the CAA – before changing
his mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This rather got up my nose. Some Tweets were fired off
Hexham way. Mr Opperman followed me on Twitter. Then blocked me. Then he had
his girlfriend ring my PR people asking me to delete the tweets “as it’s
hurting Guy.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I said no.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr Opperman is (currently) chief whip for the (current)
Secretary of State Elizabeth Truss (the lover of cheese) at something called
the Ministry of Justice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my very short tenure at the tiller of campaigning for
prison reform – independently – we’ve seen Messrs Grayling and Gove – who <i>spoke</i> a lot of sense – <i>Dr Who</i> Regenerated into Miss Truss, who,
I met in a London prison (we were both guests). On introduction, her assistant
piped up “I’ve just read <i>IN IT</i>”.
She’ll go far.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We toured the <i>Bad Boys
Bakery</i>. Enthusiastic inmates plied the Justice Minister with cakes. I made
sure they didn’t contain the wrong type of cheese.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Miss Truss quizzed me as to who I was. I piped up that I’m
the fella who has made a bit of a stink about Toe by Toe being banned in an
open resettlement prison.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her reply?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“What’s Toe by Toe?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What happens after June 8? That’s the quandary…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jonathan
Robinson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Robinson
is a former prisoner and alleged author. He served 17 in weeks in prison from a
15 month sentence for theft. He advocates for prison time to be purposeful
time.</span> <a href="http://www.jonathanrobinson.org/">www.JonathanRobinson.org</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-5089760375951897252017-05-09T09:46:00.004+01:002024-02-04T17:42:36.075+00:00"Prisoner Ben's Story"<br />
<h4 style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
What do I do?</h4>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Having to sit down and ponder the question, “What do I do…?” may be a little more complicated than expected. My career in freedom being less than 5 years, this has been a swift, brutal and exciting foray to the world of work (which obviously bears no relation to prison work).</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I was fortunate, in that my politics and studies open avenues of possible employment that most prisoners can’t explore. Whilst regular work was an option, a vista of shelf stacking didn’t appeal to me. And prison had been my whole adult life; I not only served my sentence, I tried to change the prison, and studied it. The idea that I could wash prison off my shoes on leaving the Gate was never really realistic. Prison seems to be in my bones.</div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Life license</h4>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
With no obvious criminal justice job around, I opted for Consultancy. And I ran smack bang into my Life License. Being prohibited from taking a job without permission, and having a client company that wanted our connection obscured for political reasons, I found myself breaking my license. And I make no apologies or excuses. I took the job, produced my output, and moved on.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://howardleague.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #02c39a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">The Howard League</a>, recipient of an occasional barb thrown from my cell, took the interesting decision to take me on for a while. It was then I was hit with a realisation that here I stood, aged 47, and never having worked in an office. It was a learning curve, and I will always regret that I couldn’t quite get my mojo for the League. I continue to campaign for them, years after my contract ended.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
During these initial months after release, I was drawn into a part of life that was unusual. One with different mores, expectations, rules, and structures of power. Coupled with my innate inability to live life smoothly, it could have been predicted that this transition would be far more difficult. In reality, after 32 years of imprisonment, I had two good jobs within weeks of release.</div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Inside Justice</h4>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Some four years on, and I have experienced a fascinating range of work. <a href="http://www.insidejusticeuk.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #02c39a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside Justice</a>, which investigates miscarriages of justice, had me as a caseworker. Where else can you chat with the Mets Head of Intelligence, meet Nick the Greek in a London suburb over a murder, then find yourself at the BBC holding a castrated man’s bloody jeans? The work was fascinating. My ability to deal with being managed, how I adapt new approaches, became an issue. To think I could rework learned attitudes from prison quickly was my error that some others bore the brunt of!</div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The long term psychological effects of incarceration</h4>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Enough time had passed for me to briefly pause and reflect. Something wasn’t right. I began to appreciate the profound psychological effects of so many years in prison, and how they effect my work. The small talk of relationships, the gestures that weave us together in any setting, is something that often escapes me. I lived a life where Mr X would be ten feet away for the next few years. But in freedom, Mr X isn’t merely sitting still waiting for me to reappear. This matters when communication and professional relationships are at the centre of what I do, and something I continually address.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Similarly, I am not best placed in a relatively controlled structure. Many aren’t, but I have the increased resistance that is essentially a prison response to power. Telling me to sit there, do that… It’s not something that sits well. You may call these things quirks, or disabilities, but they are factors that shape my decisions.</div>
<h4 style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Freelancing</h4>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
For two years I’ve avoided long term contracts, embedded in a structure, closely managed. Rather, shorter and more eclectic work has suited me better. I play a small part in some media kerfuffles and more often exist as a background resource for media researchers and documentary makers. Universities are kind enough to ask me to lecture sporadically on penology and related areas. Smaller charities often don’t have specific expertise and it is particularly pleasing to see some input of mine having a quick effect. Somewhere along the line I found myself advising some extremely unlikely people, and chairing improbable discussions.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Which reminds me. There is a lot I can’t actually tell you. The job of criminal justice consultant ranges from high offices to very grubby alleys, with the only shared characteristic being the insistence on privacy. And this itself always has the potential to cause difficulties with my supervision. I don’t recommend it to the faint hearted!</div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Adamina; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The end of last year saw me having to deal with long neglected medical issues, which inevitably led to much reduced activity. As normality reasserts itself, I look forward to continuing to move mysteriously through the penal reform community…and beyond.</div>
<br />
Published courtesy of Russell Webster<br />
http://www.russellwebster.com/prisoner-bens-story/<a href="http://www.russellwebster.com/prisoner-bens-story/" target="_blank">http://www.russellwebster.com/prisoner-bens-story/</a>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-12755479135714190822017-04-17T11:50:00.002+01:002017-04-17T11:50:53.953+01:00Drones and Phones<br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To be fair,
anything involving flying stuff is inherently more interesting than “I threw a
ball stuffed with weed over a wall”. Drones have a whiff of the Mission
Impossible. Basic media clickbait.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And also apparently
catnip to our Ministry of Justice leaders. Drones, they have declared, pose a
real risk to the security of prisons by smuggling in drugs and mobile phones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Oh, that’s a
lie. You weren’t meant to notice, but even the MOJ figures place the number of
drone incursions to prisons in the dozens. Not hundreds, dozens. Whilst Liz
Truss indulges her Tom Cruise fantasies, drugs and mobiles pour into prisons
and will continue to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The latest
MOJ announcement <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drones-prisons-ministry-of-justice-jails-liz-truss-sam-gyimah-a7686561.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drones-prisons-ministry-of-justice-jails-liz-truss-sam-gyimah-a7686561.html</a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">is a masterpiece of irrelevancy.
If the problem being addressed is the smuggling of contraband, the starting
point must be – How are drugs and mobiles smuggled into prison? The answer
shapes the policy response. All nice and rational.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here we sink
into murky waters. There is very patchy data on how and what is smuggled into
prison. Measuring covert illegality is always an interesting criminological
challenge. The MOJ has comprehensive data on what staff find, but this is not
publicly available…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We do know
over 10,000 mobile phones/SIM are found annually. I invite you to check the
weight of mobiles, the carrying capacity of cheap drones…And with under 50
drone incursions a year, any hint that drones have a significant impact on the
supply of mobiles is plain ridiculous. For the Minister of Justice to make this
claim is staggeringly dishonest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Drugs pose
the same mathematical challenge to the MOJ claims. Tens of thousands of drug
users. The weight of drugs. The sparse number of drones. On what we do know,
the idea that drugs delivered by drones has a significant impact is again
plainly absurd. Its physically impossible that drones are doing what Truss
claims they are. This is so obvious that Truss’ statements must either be
deliberate lies, sheer stupidity, or plain incompetence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To address
the basic question – how does contraband enter prison – we must rely on
deduction and prisoner experience as well as the thin data. An unsatisfactory
basis on which to build a policy, but such difficulties are common in criminal
justice issues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prisoners
and their visitors are usually blamed for smuggling. Every public effort HMP
makes against smuggling focuses on prisoners and their visitors. Some glimpse
into what a “domestic visit” entails would inform debate here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A prisoners
visitors must be in receipt of a permission slip (Visiting Order) and
sufficient identity documents. Personal possessions, sans a few quid to buy
refreshments, are removed and stored. The visitor is then searched, a “rub
down”; essentially, a prolonged indecent assault. Babies and nappies included.
Visitors are then sniffed at by drug dogs, and then scanned or wanded – a metal
detector.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Only then do
they enter the Visits Room. To sit on fixed seating opposite their prisoner.
Under constant staff and CCTV surveillance. I’ve been in Visits rooms where
there were as many cameras as tables.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On exit, the
prisoner is then searched. Rubdown, strip, squat, metal detector…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If I have
given you the impression that smuggling contraband in a visits room is
difficult…Its because it is. It can be very difficult indeed. How exactly does
a mobile phone get through this procedure? 10,000 mobile phones?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The widely
spread idea that the major route of contraband is via prisoners domestic visits
collapses in the face of the visits security procedures I’ve delineated. They
are so oppressive that as these security procedures were brought in, and
despite the prison population nearly doubling, the number of people visiting
prisoners halved. Prisoners families being the major source of contraband is a
myth that needs to die in order to address the actual problem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In contrast
to the security procedures imposed on visitors, prison staff are at best
subject to the occasional random rub-down search. From their colleagues. We
have to end this pretence that prison staff do not pose a massive risk to
security. Drones can carry gramms. Staff can carry ounces.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyone
familiar with the experiences of (ex Gov) John Podmore will share the
frustration at the perpetual refusal of the Prison Service to address staff
corruption. It is a subject on which the MOJ, HMP and POA are in perpetual
denial.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most
simple analysis of the contraband issue reveals that the issue isn’t drones. It
flatly isn’t the problem. Staff corruption is the major source of contraband.
And in focusing on drones and refusing to get to grips with the actual problem,
Truss is being worse than merely ineffective. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In focusing
on drones and ignoring the actual problem, our Minister Truss is condemning
prisons to a future of rotten staff culture, rampant drug misuse, and
predictably awful reoffending rates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For a
Minister of Justice, delivering such a future should consign them to political
oblivion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-91288877559583840082017-03-31T15:10:00.000+01:002017-03-31T23:13:32.543+01:00How exactly do you pick up a conversation after four years…? <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How exactly do you pick up a conversation after four years…? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And conversation it was. For those prison years, from the birth of this blog in 2009, it was a conversation. One molested and warped by the Prison Service and its aversion to post vacuum-valve technology, but nonetheless a meaningful exchange. And in an early post I noted that any meaningful blogging was a relationship – in return for a fragment of your attention and hopefully brainpower, I regularly attempted to inform and entertain you with a perspective of the prison system no one else provided. That’s the deal. It seemed to work reasonably well, given my lack of direct net access.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, the scale of the blog in our respective lives was a tad different. Apart from one spectacularly insecure Governor, no one rolled out of bed with the first thought being “check Ben’s blog!”. My waffling impinged for moments in your day, hopefully with some small reward for your attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">From my cell the scale of the blog was large. Very large. When the environment is such that each day is born without any inherent joy or meaning, to have this opportunity, to blog, was one of the very few pillars on which my existence was propped up in a ramshackle fashion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The attempt to show you a part of life you cannot see, overlaid each grey prison day with a layer of interest – to share with you the experience, I was forced to pay greater attention, to think more, about the life I was living. It gave meaning to what was otherwise meaningless, even if the only meaning was to try to share the experience to those in The World. In the sterility of my prison existence, the blog, your presence, became more important to me than I can ever explain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having no idea about the reality of blogging, very quickly I was forced to make several decisions. One was, how personal should this blog be? Should I confine myself to abstract comment? This was both an issue of “how can I best use this blog?” and also an irreversible decision about whether I wanted anonymity in the rest of my life. Big decisions! I decided that broad comment in itself was something many could provide. And that illustrating prison issues through a more personal engagement with them would be far more interesting. The human element (the thing the Prison Service has forgotten). The mix of grand pronouncements on policy, savage analysis, and personal revelation seemed to be broadly successful?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And then came release. I knew it was highly likely months ahead, but wary of the Prison Services habit of supplying firewood then pissing on your fire, and acutely aware of those in power waiting for me to make any error, I gave no particular thought to how the shape of this blog would invariably change on release. I had an idea I would continue with comment, and continue sharing my journey through the criminal justice system (Life sentences don’t end). I gave it no more attention than that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had overlooked a small matter….that on release, from Minute 1, I would have direct net access and ability to blog like the rest of the world. It literally hadn’t occurred to me, I had become so used to the slower flow of information to and from the blog via Royal Mail (mostly…). The blog was no longer my refuge from prison life, it became one of many obligations in my free life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also walked into a massive wall of information previously denied to me, but equally the amount of time my new daily life afforded me to absorb this infowave shrank significantly from the indolent hours blogging filled in prison.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can you imagine walking from a world without internet, to the streets of the UK in 2012? When I say wave of information, I mean having access to nearly every word generated in penological history. Not so much a wave, perhaps. More of an infinite column of data falling from the sky onto my grid coordinates. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Simultaneously, I was trying to “do living”. I suspect that I stand in a cohort of One that began their prison sentence at 14, to be disgorged back into reality 32 years later. While I was feeling generally competent to address daily life – “7 billion do it, how hard can it be?” – I had an idea that there was an awful lot I would be experiencing for the first time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I say “a lot”, I actually mean “nearly everything”. Truly, every experience outside of the Gate was a new one. From the very small – pausing for an Americano on my way home – to the lifechanging, finding myself walking into The Editors home as “our home”. This is an awful lot to absorb. And life doesn’t pause to allow you to digest what it bungs in your direction. You have to work it out whilst living it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And at that point, my mental gears ground to a halt. I couldn’t see a way to meaningfully blog, which must sound absurd given that I was now able to blog in freedom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Freedom, maybe, but we are not islands. What we say matters. In order to continue sharing the journey, it meant keeping the door ajar on my personal life, my experiences. And as that life was with The Editor, it meant sharing our life, not just mine. I was loath to do so. Everybody aware of our circumstances has usually accepted our wish that she usually remain obscured. Just because I was daft enough to throw myself into the public arena doesn’t mean I can drag others along. I couldn’t see past this impasse.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whilst I do live in freedom, I remain formally constrained. I remain on Probation supervision, with a Life License with several standard conditions. As well as these formal constraints, there is the practical reality that I can be hoiked back to prison if Probation have sufficiently urgent concerns. Without breaking a law, my actions, attitudes or words can lead me into danger of imprisonment. Anything I wrote, particularly about my personal journey, would feed into my supervisors views and assessments. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Very quickly after release I was employed in various bits of work around prison issues. Which meant I was publicly tied to various bodies, allowing the mendacious or silly to saddle my employers with responsibility for my views or, conversely, my views could irritate those paying the bills. Blogging about what I was actually doing daily became a series of challenges I failed to defeat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">These are very real difficulties that I didn’t foresee. But then, having began the first prison blog, I’m also the first prison blogger to be released and face these issues!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That said, I’m back. The journey continues.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-46575416623107771662016-11-13T22:18:00.000+00:002016-11-13T22:18:15.231+00:00I have seen how dangerous prison lockdowns are …<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
<span class="drop-cap" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e6711b; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: 'Guardian Egyptian Web', 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; height: 4.5rem; margin-right: 0.3125rem; padding-top: 0.0625rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="drop-cap__inner" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 5.25rem; line-height: 4.25rem; vertical-align: text-top;">I</span></span>n a place whose essence is the passage of time, cell doors are the metronome. Unlocking and locking, creaking and slamming: steel doors provide the soundtrack and the structure to prison life. And when the cell door doesn’t open, when this routine is broken, a shudder of uncertainty runs through the prisoner community.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
A prison lockdown is staff leaving prisoners locked behind their doors. You may shrug – after all, isn’t that the point of prison? A moment’s thought, though, suggests otherwise. Prisoners need to be unlocked to be fed. To move to work. To attend education. To see the doctor, governor, probation officer … cell doors are flung open with regularity. Without unlocking, everything stops.</div>
<aside class="element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded" data-component="rich-link-tag" data-link-name="rich-link-tag" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 0.75rem -15rem; width: 13.75rem;"><div class="rich-link tone-news--item " style="background-color: #f6f6f6; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: relative;">
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<a class="rich-link__link" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="background: transparent; color: inherit; cursor: pointer;">The stories you need to read, in one handy email</a></h1>
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Read more</div>
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<a class="rich-link__link u-faux-block-link__overlay" href="https://www.theguardian.com/info/2015/dec/08/daily-email-uk" style="background: transparent; bottom: 0px; cursor: pointer; left: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 200%; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap; z-index: 0;"></a></div>
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</aside><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
You wake. You wait. Time passes by, and yet you hear no movement. Cells are not being unlocked. This is the only warning of a lockdown. And so you sit. And wait. As time passes, you may begin to worry. Will domestic visits be cancelled? Have families crossed the country to be turned away? Will mail be delivered? Will letters be sent? Lunchtime arrives. Doors<em> must</em> unlock: people must be fed. On a lockdown, this is done with a “controlled unlock”, a handful of prisoners at a time. Do you know how long it takes to feed hundreds of men, when only five at a time are unlocked?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
A few hours locked down can provide some relief, an escape from other obligations. As the day progresses, and the prison remains silent, tensions can grow.</div>
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It may be seemingly little things, such as being short of tobacco. It may be large things, such as not being unlocked in the evening to telephone home to a partner sitting patiently by their landline.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
To lockdown a prison is to increase exponentially the pressure on prisoners. And sometimes pressure must find some release. Lockdowns are dangerous, and to use them as a management tool in time of crisis only reveals desperation.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
<i>Courtesy of the Sunday Observer </i></div>
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/13/ben-gunn-prison-lockdowns-dangerous"></a>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-68584016467520937352016-10-03T21:47:00.001+01:002016-10-03T21:47:54.284+01:00Release after 32 years<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xs-tck3iV1E" width="459"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-63129323851121547032016-10-03T13:01:00.001+01:002016-10-03T13:01:59.938+01:00Short Sentences<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kf4xjDf5vJ8" width="480"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-67016535442154071842016-10-01T19:35:00.001+01:002016-10-01T19:35:32.280+01:00Screws<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eOz3NOdQZao?list=PL39w8P_Ej3To4YJQy1m6aGxFvv__--Yu7" width="459"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-87371480019902610802016-10-01T12:10:00.001+01:002016-10-01T12:10:14.983+01:00Exeter Uni<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z8C-SRzv_9o?list=PL39w8P_Ej3To4YJQy1m6aGxFvv__--Yu7" width="459"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-67820465028607214482016-10-01T12:09:00.001+01:002016-10-01T12:09:15.882+01:00Exeter Uni<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kjfh0dAbX-o?list=PL39w8P_Ej3To4YJQy1m6aGxFvv__--Yu7" width="459"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-55187459989344175182016-10-01T12:08:00.001+01:002016-10-01T12:08:32.696+01:00Exeter Uni<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HJ0lL0LUoxg?list=PL39w8P_Ej3To4YJQy1m6aGxFvv__--Yu7" width="459"></iframe>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-12649238624034931932016-08-22T00:17:00.000+01:002016-08-22T00:17:11.098+01:00Personal Blogging<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xLvOmtqT2xU/V7oYKNJPs0I/AAAAAAAAASg/RAiSpclXMbgPbjIqrLy43ZxMSWE90sr4QCLcB/s1600/benrelease.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xLvOmtqT2xU/V7oYKNJPs0I/AAAAAAAAASg/RAiSpclXMbgPbjIqrLy43ZxMSWE90sr4QCLcB/s1600/benrelease.jpg" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I came to a divergence in the path - and I chose the wrong way forward.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I began this blog I took the decision to make it personal. How else could I show prisoners, including myself, as three dimensional beings unless I shared my personal journey? And so you had an eclectic mix of blogs, the highs, the lows, and sheer inanity that is daily prison life. It was a journey that you shared.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then came release. Four years ago today: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/ben-gunn-prison-blogging">www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/ben-gunn-prison-blogging</a> ...how time flies. And the blog changed. My fault for listening to advice! It was strongly impressed on me that the wider world wouldn’t be as quick to embrace me. Most pertinently, I was advised to manage my image, to show only my most professional face. I’m not known for taking advice, yet this seemed very sensible stuff.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with this approach is that I feel it is slightly dishonest, as if I have shut a door in the face of readers who have shared this journey. Release and trying to forge a life are as inherently part of the journey as prison. To confine myself to trying to appear professional at all times seems deceitful.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so I have decided to return to the eclecticism I used to enjoy, and I suspect you did as well. </span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-800f0c41-aedf-3c62-4ac8-b7e053e73c0e"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-800f0c41-aede-5ea9-fc35-50994dbac728"><br /></span>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-25706551641779445302016-08-07T12:24:00.000+01:002016-08-08T22:33:03.114+01:00How do you Adjust after 3 Decades Behind the Door?<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I assume no Lifer walks out the Gate intending to breech their licence, but I managed to do it without even thinking. Such is the perilous path we tread.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My brother filming my release annoyed the Gatehouse staff, so I left prison with the same attitude as I entered it 32 years earlier...The final jibe from staff was about my blog, which HMP never quite made its peace with. Off in the car, destination South West. Then The Guardian phoned. Could I do a piece about my release by 3pm, for 300 quid? Oh, go on then. Out for just minutes and my first job! I was still hacking away when I arrived home. Home being a country cottage in Wiltshire and my partner, Alex. Lunch in the sun under the pergola, one hand writing, the other forking. Job done, easy money, thanks!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Only then could I sit back and look around me, begin to relax into the reality. After 32 years of prison, beginning when I was 14, I was free. Wowser. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Life had become a series of firsts. Everything I seemed to do was new. Small things, I’d never actually slept in a bed with a woman, to more lasting things such as opening bank accounts. And all the while the shadow of prison wasn’t far away. My partner, a diver, called it ‘decompression’, the bubbles of prison working their way out of my system, sometimes causing pain. Sitting at a cafe in Bath, suddenly the world around me seemed slightly alien, separated from me; did I belong here? Was this actually my world now? My partner was my bedrock through this early time, when I had horrific nightmares and woke screaming. She was my bridge, the thing that connected by bruised soul to the world I was now part of.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">After seemingly being at war with prison probation officers for decades, I was now in a situation where a more flexible approach may be useful. Fortunately, my prior OM had been supportive, which helped persuade me that they weren’t all a blight on humanity. So I walked through their door with a “let’s see how this goes...” frame of mind. Having avoided Offending Behaviour Crap inside, I wasn’t likely to embrace it outside. Nonetheless, starting with an abrasive attitude wasn’t likely to lead to anything but Recall. The aim of my approach is ‘leave me alone as much as possible, please.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Next day, check in with Probation. Supervision for me could have been a series of barriers and challenges, my view of Licence and Probation being well known. Difficulties were expected, but I let down the lads who bet I’d be recalled in a week! I had two Probation. Two! Tag teaming each other week by week to spread the load that is supervising me. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I am fortunate that my Licence has no unusual conditions, and so expected restrictions were the usual – Work, Home, Relationships – and to be honest I lost my copy a couple of years ago now! My Guardian article broke my Licence – No work, paid or unpaid, that isn’t cleared by Probation. Oops. This point became an important one. For many years I have written about prison issues and I have never asked permission to do so. I didn’t when in prison, and I wasn’t going to on release. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"> The issue was, whether my speaking or writing in public, paid or unpaid, was “work”. I took a hard line on this. Campaigning isn’t any old regular work; it explicitly brings into play may right to free expression. Quickly, we found a workable medium- my public activities are fine, with minor restrictions. I should give my OM a heads-up as soon as possible about any media appearances, and not discuss my victim’s family. Hardly onerous, and neither restrict anything I wish to say. What could have been a point of great difficulty was handled with far more thought than I expected. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I have to admit, my working relationship with Probation has been far easier than I anticipated, even in difficult times. When I decided to try and live by myself, Probation were not particularly jumpy. When I had a vicious stalker (a whole other story!), Probation didn’t over-react. Equally, when I hit a period of ill health, it was not noted as a negative. Overall, the attitude seems to be one of not overly interfering, with the goal being “stability”. Having problems isn’t the issue – such is life – but how I deal with them is. It is in demonstrating consistent stability and forward movement that eases Probation’s mind. Hiding issues is a bad idea.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Within 24 hours of release, I had a home, partner and a working relationship with Probation. And I deeply appreciate that these are far more than many prisoners have on release. Just being released directly home, not hostel, was a minor miracle. I had a foundation, enough support to take a brief pause, look around me and wonder - Now what do I do?!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The first real decision I needed to make was whether to continue prison reform efforts, or to melt away into obscurity and take up regular work. I decided that reform was as important to me as it ever was, and that regular employment was unlikely to appear. So I promptly signed on! And ran into a series of hurdles in trying to engage with official bodies. I had literally no identification documents. No National Insurance Number. Nothing. It took months to chase up all that is needed to function in society, highlighted by the difficulties in opening a bank account.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I was a cypher, literally unknown to The Computers. No financial history at all. Every door shut in my face. And yet within weeks, I was in paid employment. For months, all my earnings had to go into my partner’s account, an option many don’t have. And it fried the taxman’s brain! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">My first actual work was to conduct some analysis for a technology company which has links with both NOMS and G4S. Neither the company nor I was keen on it being known we were in cahoots, and so this slid under the radar. That completed, I was facing boredom, unemployment, and the prospect of being slung onto some inane Jobseekers course.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">By chance, a job advert from the Howard League was pointed out to me. Policy Officer. Hmm! I had been critical of some of the Howard Leagues activities over the years, so with no small sense of mischief I fired in my application just before the deadline. And expected it to vanish into the bin. I was a little disconcerted to be invited to the interview stage. Where I made such a mess of my first solo trip involving the Tube that I presented myself 90 minutes late and looking like a drowned rat. I made my pitch, and made it to the Top Three. Being a cheeky sod, I looked the bosses in the eye and asked, “Am I here because I’m Ben Gunn, or do I have a genuine shot at the job?” I was reassured.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I didn’t get the job. Not because I didn’t know the work, but rather because of my inexperience, particularly of office life. It hadn’t occurred to me, but of course, this was new territory for me. The League needed someone to hit the ground running, and I was an unknown quantity. The right candidate got the job! Later, at home musing, Frances Crook called and offered me a Policy Consultancy. I will always be hugely grateful for this introduction to regular work, even though I moved on after a few months to different work with Inside Justice, researching miscarriages of justice. Vitally needed work. The Outside World had a space for me, an acceptance. At a time when even opening a bank account was difficult, this gave me hope that perhaps I could build a viable future.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The process of ‘decompressing” from prison hasn’t been a simple one. Life is a journey, not a destination. What seemed to be very easy became quite difficult. Most parts of life are simple, even the new experiences. What became my weakness was relationships, and how to maintain them. In moving straight in with my partner after only 3 Home Leaves, I felt very aware that I was moving into her space, trying to weave my new existence into her established life. It became too much to unravel, I needed to find out how I was to live by myself, time and space to drop old habits and make new ones. For the moment my partner and I live separately but very close to each other. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In my new place, myself and Henley Cat against the world! And I began to drop the many balls that life throws at us all. Bills mounted. My stress levels increased. The old enemy, severe depression, began to impact my ability to work. Within months, I found myself in front of a shrink with a diagnosis of depression and anxiety, coupled with more personality disorders than you can name! I retreated into myself, the world around me seeming to grow more hostile and bleak. It was a downward spiral that I am only now coming out of.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">These difficulties may be huge, but I continued to do some public speaking. I am a regular visitor to many universities as a speaker, and the media pop up now and again. Most importantly, I have reached out and tried to connect with people in every corner of the justice system. Standing on the sidelines moaning is futile, and any opportunity that offers itself has me bending someone’s ear.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Due to astonishing luck, I have had the chance to grovel across the Ministerial carpet and timidly offer some suggestions to Michael Gove, who as I write is Justice Minister. I believe he is a genuine reformer, a man who appreciates the waste of human life and money that is Prison. Big structural changes are needed, instead of the petty and vicious meddling of Grayling (met him...Big lump!). And so, along with others, I’ve highlighted the importance of using prison sparingly, to reduce much of the Estate to Cat-C, unravel the shambles of Education and work, and to deal with the pressing problems of the IPPs. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Gove has announced several shifts, none yet particularly effecting prisoners daily lives. Patience, I beg of you. Change is coming. Although at the moment it is ‘top down’, driven by the need to reduce reoffending and costs, no significant lasting reform can ever happen without addressing the needs of prisoners on the landings. I will remind anyone who listens of that.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Who knows how my journey will develop? Hopefully, more simply than of late! But no matter what, I always remember that whilst prison guarantees a bed, roof and food, that is pretty much as good as prison gets. Out here, you can fall into the gutter. But the possibilities to stand tall and find a meaningful life are infinite. That is compelling and exciting.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I am sitting here, coffee and fags at hand, typing away.; It could be another night of bang-up, really. But the options available to me are vastly more than yours. Prison is a stunted existence. The most important lesson I have learned is that I couldn’t have done this by myself. I stand here today only because of all the guys who were around me I during my years inside. Any idiot can serve 32 years; the trick is to be sane at the end of it! And without those staunch friends, I doubt I would have managed that. And on release, I have been propped up by many people, whose kindness and faith I have yet to begin to repay.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Most ex cons brush prison off their feet as fast as they can. For me, prison is in my bones. I lived it, studied it, wrote on it, campaign against it. And I can’t ever forget that my free life is built on the bones of my victim. All I can do is live, live with meaning, and hopefully look back and see I may have made some small difference.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Published courtesy of ConVerse magazine</span></div>
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prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-23205160681171129012016-07-25T20:55:00.000+01:002016-07-25T20:55:01.696+01:00Gove’s Policies 1<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-left: 180pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.295; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those not intimately involved with the reform process will only note its beginning and its apparent ending, and the lack of change. This is not surprising. The reforms were intended to be strategic, not quick. It is only in examining the specifics of the reform agenda that we can discern how the potential outcomes could actually improve the prison system and how much scope within these changes there may be to address the specific concerns of prisoners.</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Policy areas highlighted by Gove include Education, Work, Categorisation, Release on temporary license, and Autonomy. Together, changes in these areas are hoped to lead to better rehabilitation opportunities and so reduced reoffending. In this blog I explore Education and Work.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Education</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problems that have slowly been building within prison education are now self-evident, and no one supports the status quo. Education has been reduced to basic skills, rendering education a desert for the literate and numerate. Access to higher education has been decimated. It is not too much for me to say that under the current structures I would not have been able to achieve what I did educationally. This cannot be right.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gove understood these issues, and asked Dame Sally Coates to explore the present situation and make positive recommendation. The Coates Review recommendations have been universally applauded for not only discerning the problems but for proposing workable solutions. Two of her recommendations could have a revolutionary effect, and are ideas that I suggest would never be generated from within the Prison Service. Firstly, removing the limit on Governor's funding courses above Level 3. With ever increasing sentence lengths, prison education has become irrelevant to much of the estate, particularly long termers. Removing this limitation would again make education a viable option for interested prisoners. Prison education could become more than the sum of its current target-driven parts. The catch with this proposal is funding; no Governors have spare in their budgets to increase educational opportunities. The Treasury would have to be persuaded that investing in education would reduce reoffending costs and the Treasury seems incapable of such forward thinking. It’s a hard political reality that the Ministry must function within constraints set by the Treasury.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The present educational structure, centering on basic skills, is driven by managerial targets. It is not driven by prisoner needs. As long as this structure exists, then prison education may continue to be irrelevant. With the adoption of Coates’s recommendations, education could return to being enabling and enriching. This is a desperately needed for those many prisoners who face several years of captivity and who are presently hamstrung.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second revolutionary recommendation was to provide some level of internet access for educational purposes. I repeat. Internet access. Everyone with any contact with the prison system is made instantly aware of the Dark Age that begins at the Gate. HMPS doesn’t do technology. It has a positive aversion to it. This attitude runs so deep that even attempting to engage HMP about technology is nigh on impossible. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conversation inevitably runs into the mantra of all unthinking Governors, “Security!!!”. This is the catch-all concern that can be used to prevent any change, and often is. No internal review of prison education would even raise the issue of the internet; it required an outside expert to put the issue on the table. Security is, of course, a legitimate concern. However, the Norwegian prison system manages to provide Net access to all prisoners, the various restrictions based on the security category of the prison. Very circumscribed for High Security, to unrestricted access in Open prison. By comparison, the only Net access available in British Open prisons is on illegal mobile phones.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is an absurd situation, to expect to deliver quality education in an information economy without the internet. At a stroke, most distance learning is rendered unavailable. Worse, a basic literacy in the use of the web is prohibited, when prisoners are expected to be released and integrate. This is farcical. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had Gove asked the Prison Service to address the perceived problems in education, we can be confident that the internet wouldn’t even get a mention. The use of outside expertise was crucial just to have the issues raised.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ken Clark made an exceptionally good speech on work….and no changes followed. Gove not only appreciated the positive effects that can flow from work, but intended to break with historical practice to actually provide a new model. The willingness to use the goodwill and experience of those like Timpsons suggested that there are possibilities to change the nature of prison work, a view I took some persuading to accept. I have, as you’d expect, seen and heard it all before. Indeed, my most intractable disputes were over exploitative work.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It can be done. Prison work can be made useful, skilled, profitable for everyone, and lead to better opportunities on release. Even a brief glance around the prison estate reveals interesting pockets of inventive solutions. The Clinks restaurants are one example, alongside the Timpsons training and employment schemes. Other small schemes, often transitory, pop up in particular prisons whilst being supported by particular staff, which then wither when those staff move on.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A perfect illustration of what is both possible, yet undermined by prison culture, was the Howard League's Barbed Design Studio. Created through public subscription, Barbed employed and trained prisoners to the standard where Barbed was undertaking design work for commercial clients. This was clearly a model with potential. The problem was, it was sited within a prison. Prison staff failed to throw their weight behind the scheme, leading to workers not being unlocked for work; and the regime did not support a genuine length working day. Commercial work cannot be undertaken in these uncertain circumstances, and despite having a trained workforce and profitable orders, Barbed was forced to close.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lessons Barbed highlighted were that any scheme must have the full support of Governors and staff, and the institution must be prepared to be flexible on its regime in order to accommodate genuine work and training. It is not the expertise or ideas that are lacking, it’s the Prison Service attitude that undermines genuine work. The drive to fulfil meaningless targets overshadows positive change.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The solutions to the work and training issue exist in the minds of creative business people and the rare creative governor. Using the expertise and goodwill of people such as Timpson’s reveals Gove’s reticence to put this problem into the hands of a Prison Service that’s failed to address it. However, no matter how coherent and positive the business ideas, the attitude of the institutions must be made more flexible and business minded. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are constraints to changes in prison work which must be acknowledged. Firstly, prison service managers are not businessmen, let alone entrepreneurs. The whole selection and training of managers centres, perhaps inevitably, on selecting out creative thinkers. We have shifted from the old “officer class” of Governors, ex-military, to a class of bureaucrats. This shift accompanied a broader societal move towards managerialism, exemplified behind bars by the endless spawning of regulations and targets that currently comprise “prison”. Secondly, there is the “short termers conundrum”. Will it ever be possible to find meaningful work for prisoners not in prison long enough to be upskilled?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reforming prison work, making it both meaningful and profitable, is a strategic imperative. If this area cannot be reformed, there must be little confidence that other reforms could be implemented.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-69123812325995467902016-07-24T12:27:00.000+01:002016-07-24T14:02:03.198+01:00What Have the Romans done for Us?<div class="p1">
Just how in the hell did I find myself standing alongside the Minister of Justice, taking the ire of prison reformers and wrestling the cynicism of ex prisoners? My life is indeed stranger than I expected. I’m in the position of having to persuade people that Gove was undertaking serious reform. As the most cynical guy on the wings, these are unusual waters to paddle in.</div>
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<span class="s1">Of course, any Minister who makes reforming noises is met with rolling eyes and a sigh. We’ve heard it all before, every variation of the theme. And those ministers who have actually acted have been the malevolent, petty ones who are more concerned with increasing the misery of prisoners than making an impact on crime rates.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In the face of this depressing history, which has rightly generated a wall of cynicism, then it is hardly surprising that people are already saying “Michael who…?” And yet despite the historical portents, people who really should know better have dismissed the idea that reform can be happening. This includes criminal justice professionals as well as my fellow ex cons and campaigners. To be frank, some of the criticism has been childish denial. “He’s a Tory…..Upper class….Supports Israel…” I have lost friends over this, people whose loathing of anything Tory is so blinding that it obscures reality. Equally, if reforms aren’t the ones highlighted by prisoners, then they aren’t reforms. I have been bemused and disappointed by fellow reformers.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You may ask, why would a Tory Minister push a prison reform agenda? Motives are very important. As we saw with Grayling, a malign motivation can be toxic. Was there political pressure for Gove to push for reform? Not particularly. There was no single “crisis” event demanding immediate and public change. Essentially, Gove could have sat in his office, collected his wages and allow everything to roll on as normal. Any particular prison problems could be squarely and fairly laid at the door of Grayling and the Treasury. Gove had no need to do anything, let alone create a plan for strategic reform. And yet he promptly got stuck in.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">What, then, were Gove’s motives? I have blogged before about his involvement in my case, which came from nothing more than a broad sense of justice. Make no mistake, Gove’s motivations were solidly Conservative in their basis. Prison is very expensive, and quite ineffective in reducing crime. In essence, this view is more akin to Hurd’s “prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse”, rather than a Howardian “Prison works!”. Whilst not a common strand in Tory thought for over 20 years, it isn’t alien. Efficiency and effectiveness are central Tory concerns. And they can be powerful drivers for change.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">This is not prison reform as prisoners and their allies would wish. Gove was not directly addressing the concerns of prisoners. And this appears to be the rub. In not focusing on prisoners, prison campaigners deny any reforms take place. It can be argued that without addressing the core needs of prisoners, then no meaningful reforms are taking place. But it would be silly to claim no reforms can happen.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Gove didn’t look at prison from the perspective of a cell, but as a policy maker concerned with the prison system as an expensive and inefficient part of government activity. His reforms were very much top-down, not bottom up. Not the approach reformers would adopt, but nevertheless a legitimate approach.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Any Minister can, and often have, meddle with prison policy. This tends to end badly, as my two recent blogs on Unintended Consequences suggest. Gove resisted any urge for quick fixes (which aren’t), nor did he rise to any tabloid bait. Previous Ministers, Straw in particular, who were weak and lacked any strategic vision were particularly prone to meddle on a nearly daily basis, to no good end. The lack of public spasms from Gove suggest inactivity; the reality was that his focus was on the long term, strategic issues. In avoiding the usual crisis management style of leadership, a broader view of the prison system and its place in society can be taken.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The methodology that Gove adopted was unusual, if not unique. Rather than merely diving into his own limited knowledge and pronouncing – a la Grayling – Gove canvassed far and wide for views on the penal problems and, more importantly, for solutions to these problems. To some degree NOMS was sidelined as expertise was sought outside the Ministry, at times from quarters who would otherwise be persona non grata with the prison system. The brief everyone bore in mind was: Prison is expensive and doesn’t cut reoffending. It needs to be “an efficient and effective” prison system. And NOMS has presided over a shambles. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The question I had to ponder was, could the actual policies that flow from this brief lead to positive changes for prisoners on the landing, even as a secondary effect? This was, at the beginning, the Great Unknown. I had to make a serious determination – was this a reform process that I wanted to become involved with? I was aware of some others involved, such as John Podmore and James Timpson; both very serious people with significant and positive ideas. I also knew that Gove was interested in Education and Work, both issues ripe for change. After sniffing around, I made my decision – Gove seemed to have the right motivation, he was consulting people I respect and his way forward seemed politically interesting. I closed my eyes and jumped in. I must be circumspect in what I share, Chatham House Rules.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The approach from Gove that I found interesting was his use of outsiders, specialists. A political cynic might suggest that Gove selected experts who then made recommendations he wanted, but it is more subtle. Gove appreciated the problems with, for example, education and then handed the issue to an expert. In this case, Dame Sally Coates. Having outside experts making recommendations adds weight to a Minister who may have to force changes on the wholly negative and obstructive prison service. Ministers may not be able to force their changes onto NOMS, historically ministers are strongest in relation to NOMS when a serious crisis occurs. In the absence of that imperative to act, a Minister leveraging outside expertise against NOMS is creative and astute. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This is my overview of the Gove process. I really shouldn’t need to point out that I am one of the penal reform community’s most experienced contributors. And unlike most, I suffered badly for my campaigning. Equally, I have a historical perspective that few others can match. I can even express this in the harsher terms – my activities cost me 22 years. And it is from this foundation that I say to dismiss Gove’s proposals as empty and meaningless is myopic.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">Next blog – examining the Gove proposals in detail and what they can deliver. </span></div>
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<br /><span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span></div>
prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-8428457284261695672016-07-21T10:53:00.000+01:002016-07-21T12:14:11.526+01:00<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reform, unintended consequences 2</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prison reform is spasmodic and complex. This is part two of a brief examination of reforms which although were attractive on their face, were actually disastrous. Prison reform highlights the immutable Law of Unintended Consequences. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE IPP FIASCO</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The idea wasn’t completely improbable. A small number of criminals commit a disproportionate amount of crime and generate high levels of social misery. If these people could be identified and imprisoned, then some significant social good would accrue. The mechanism chosen to enable this was a new sentence, Indefinite detention for Public Protection, the IPP sentence.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As it implies, this was not a sentence that delivered fixed terms of imprisonment. Rather, it was an indefinite sentence. It’s important to appreciate the nature of this sentence, which is bifurcated. The first part of the sentence, the tariff, is the amount of time that the person would have served if given a fixed sentence, the punishment for their crime. This may be measured in days, weeks, months or years. Once this period of time has been served the IPP prisoner remains in prison until and unless they can persuade the Parole Board that they are an acceptable risk to release.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the time, questions were raised as to whether we require yet another variant of a Life sentence, which is what IPP is in essence. Already available to Judges was the Discretionary Life sentence, partly used to stop an escalating criminal in their tracks. It is now realised that most IPP were never liable to get a Discretionary Life sentence, as their crimes were not serious enough.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indeed, we were meeting IPPs on the landings that had tariffs of mere weeks. They had a legitimate expectation of timely release. Us old hands quietly raised our eyebrows, tried not to disabuse them, and sat back to see how this fiasco would unfold.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Government predicted that some 300 people would fall into the clutches of the IPP sentence. As the numbers crept into the thousands, IPP criteria was altered so that only those who would be given a fixed sentence of 2 or more years would get IPP. That is, the minimum tariff became 2 years. Even so, the Government’s projected figure of 300 rapidly rose to 6,000, as the Judiciary responded to the harsh political tone of the time.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Capturing and imprisoning people was the initial part of the IPP plan. Rehabilitation and release was the conclusion. And this is where the IPP sentence slid from being a minor political spasm into a major disaster.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Actually getting released from an indefinite sentence is a complicated matter (as anyone who followed my blog will appreciate!). Prisoners must demonstrate a reduction in their risk of reoffending to the Parole Board. This is done by completing psychological treatments known as Offending Behaviour Programmes. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Predicting the haul of IPPs would be around 300, the Prison Service wasn’t allocated extra resources to offer sufficient places on Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBP). With some 6,000 IPP joining the lists for OBP, the system simply couldn’t cope. Prisoners with 2 year tariffs could face waits of several years before they could access the needed courses. A logjam has developed, so that now most IPPs remain in prison after their tariff not due to any actions of their own; but simply because their route to release is so narrow and oversubscribed. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The IPP sentence became a shambles. At one point the High Court declared the situation so chaotic that it ruled IPP detention to be arbitrary and therefore unlawful (a judgement swiftly reversed on Appeal). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And there the situation remains. Thousands of men are stranded in prison simply because they cannot access the routes to release. The Parole Board is overwhelmed. An attempt to capture prolific offenders has become a moral and political cancer, a festering wound on Justice with no end in sight.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EDUCATION</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A report from Labour’s Social Exclusion Unit asserted – on fragile data – that most prisoners were functionally illiterate and innumerate, which has a significant impact on reoffending. The policy that followed aimed to remedy this deficiency by directing the resources of prison education to inculcating basic skills.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prior to this rearrangement, education in prison was often eclectic. English language at one end of the corridor, politics and philosophy at the other, and all instructional ports in between. These were the days when I was able to complete my O Levels, A Levels, and my undergraduate degree.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No longer. The focus on basic skills took place at the expense of breadth. In this truncated system, education is driven by targets, and an illiterate prisoner can pretty much exhaust all offerings within a couple of years. What was a flowering tree is reduced to a fragile branch.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a background of ever increasing sentences, the limitation of funding to basic skills has a devastating effect. Prisoners find themselves abandoned by the education system once basic competence is achieved. This flows from a logical error in the Social Exclusion Unit report, which notes illiteracy rules prisoners out of most employment on release. Whilst true, it assumes that literacy is a sufficient condition for employment. It isn’t. Literacy is necessary, but not sufficient in itself. And yet, it is at this point that educational resources become extremely meagre.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tens of thousands of prisoners have been stranded, abandoned just when they are ready to embark upon serious education. An effort intended to increase education and better employment chances has had the unintended consequence of limiting education to those who genuinely desire it. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-96216482-0cdc-bc56-146b-4c34c2c6b335" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR PROGRAMMES</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The search for effective means to reduce reoffending can only be a laudable one. In theory. In practice….</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The mid 1990’s saw an explosion of psychologists in prison, and they quickly became the most despised of staff. The government had noted the birth of psychological treatment programmes in North America, and unveiled the “What Works?” agenda. As implied, this was meant to be a thorough examination of the potential for policies to cut reoffending. Alas, this inquisitorial approach swiftly saw the “?” fall into a chasm, with “What Works” becoming highly specific – it was decided that cognitive psychological treatments were the path forward.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A generation of forensic psychologists descended onto prisons and swiftly became the gatekeepers to release, particularly for Lifers. Courses included Thinking Skills, Anger Management, Violence Reduction and Sex Offender Treatment. Release without undertaking various courses became nigh on impossible (I never did a course, the Parole Board noting that “there aren’t any courses for being awkward”).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These courses became Holy Writ. And as such, funding them became a drain on other areas. Specifically, there was an overwhelming collapse in the provision of Trades training and courses. What was once a thriving sector spanning bricklaying to light engineering has become a wasteland. Imbuing people with useful work skills fell to the wayside, trampled by the psychology hoard.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This enterprise has so far cost some £500 Million. That’s direct cost. Indirect cost must include the thousands of extra years of imprisonment prisoners serve waiting to complete these courses. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The result of this agenda, which has been running for some 20 years now, has been negligible. The programmes continue.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It should be appreciated that reform is a complex and uncertain effort. Many good ideas are actually rotten.</span>prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-29459822528868369352016-05-02T21:58:00.000+01:002016-05-03T21:27:15.630+01:00Penal Reform and Unintended Consequences<b>Part One</b><br />
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There are many types of prison reform. Some efforts result from a political spasm in the face of tabloid populism. Some flows from great strategic changes following a crisis. On rare occasions, changes flow from an understanding that prison is a rather rubbish way of dealing with any problem.<br />
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And even the briefest glance at penal history reveals that all criminal justice reforms contain within them a ticking time-bomb – the Law of Unintended Consequences.<br />
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<b>Short, Sharp Shock</b><br />
The early, heady days of Thatcherism were a truly different place in many ways. One echo of our times, though, was the presence of a media created and driven moral panic. In the early 1980’s, amidst inner city riots, the popular panic was a fear of “feral youth”. Merely stepping out of your front door was bound to end with a mugging. Most likely by a Black teenager. Or so the tabloids were having it.<br />
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And Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw made the most basic of errors – he took the bait and began making justice policy as a response to media driven panics. He can’t be overly chastised for this, it is the usual pattern of Ministers with crime and justice.<br />
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The combined result of popular panic and an Old Duffer was the gloriously PR friendly “Short, Sharp Shock”. The old Borstal system was abandoned wholesale and replaced with Detention Centres. The aim seemed to be to treat criminally inclined kids with physical harshness. Education and training were replaced with gym circuits.<br />
The end result of this policy spasm was a little empire that quickly sank into a quagmire of deliberate brutality. It transformed indolent burglars into extremely fit young men with a grudge. And crime did not fall.<br />
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<b>Drug Testing</b><br />
On the face of it, prisoners should not be enjoying illegal drugs. I’m hard pressed to play the oppressed prisoner in the face of that simple statement. And yet...<br />
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Outsiders often fail to appreciate that each prison comprises a society, a warped microcosm of life on the Street. And drug use is a feature that permeates the walls, as drug users move in and out of the criminal justice system. For the majority of my captivity the drug culture centred on cannabis. Contrary to revisionist myth, the cannabis culture was a broadly accepted one in most prisons, with staff ignoring its consumption to varying degrees. A stoned prisoner is a happy prisoner – and a happy prisoner is one who isn’t going to present problems. A fairly benign equilibrium was in effect.<br />
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Michael Howard peered down from his office into this situation, and choked on his cuppa. Prisoners will not take illegal drugs! The policy was uttered, a big fat Manual printed, and a whole infrastructure of Drug Testing Suites, dedicated testing staff, legal procedures, laboratories... It was a bandwagon many in the Prison Service leapt upon. A quick tinkering of the Prison Act and Mandatory Drug Testing was born in the mid 1990’s.<br />
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Prisoners soon discovered the crux of the problem. Cannabis – its THC component -remains in the body to be detectable via urine testing for up to 30 days. The chances of actually continuing to use cannabis and not get caught was slim. This could have led to some interesting manouevres were it not for developments in the wider society – heroin. For many years heroin was viewed as a “dirty” drug, and its users viewed similarly. While not being unknown in prison, heroin was far from common on the landings.<br />
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As drug testing collided with the cannabis culture inside prisons, outside prisons there had been growing a larger number of heroin users. Heroin was becoming more socially acceptable (in some circles!). And these addicts were entering prisons in ever increasing numbers. Along with their cravings, they brought with them the solution to the “detectable for 30 days” problem.<br />
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Heroin can be expelled from the body in 2 days. The chances of taking heroin and remaining undetected by drug testing was a seemingly attractive one. As time has passed, the availability of cannabis has collapsed, as prisoners shifted towards heroin (and of late, New Psychoactive Drugs). The number of new addicts created is not known; nobody cares, no one asked. The crimes they went on to feed their addiction, countless.<br />
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A vastly under-appreciated consequence of this War on Drugs was a tightening of general perimeter security and, more significantly, a huge transformation in the circumstances in which prisoners received visitors and struggled to keep their relationships alive. Prior to this wave of new security measures, domestic visits often took place in reasonable conditions (considering...). Staff were not intrusive and various intimate activities were ignored and policed by prisoners (“not in front of the kids!”).<br />
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The drug war destroyed these conditions. Staff became massively intrusive, CCTV in visits became ubiquitous and it was a rare visits session where staff failed to see something suspicious and pile mob handed upon a family. Physical contact is massively restricted. The result has been that as the prison population nearly doubled, the number of domestic visits has almost halved. Needless to say, family support is one of the major factors in reducing reoffending.<br />
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For nearly 20 years the drug testing policy has actively fostered a drug culture dominated by heroin. Savagely addictive and morally corrosive, tens of thousands of new muggers and burglars have fell into its grip. And then re-entered society to add to the 10 Billion pounds a year bill and immeasurable human misery that follows reoffending.<br />
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This miserable failure of a policy continues.<br />
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Part 2 – IPP, Education and Offending Behaviour Courses<br />
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prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-15934738857928182252016-03-15T12:14:00.000+00:002016-03-15T12:14:03.617+00:00The Power of Ministers To Reform PrisonStanding on the prison landing in 1997, one of my friends was jiggling with glee at the prospect of a Labour victory. It was a wishful hope at the time that Labour would reverse or halt the privations heaped on prisoners. I was more cynical – for a year I had watched Jack Straw in Opposition try to out-Howard Michael Howard in terms of tough talk. I was sadly right.<br />
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Every leader finds themselves drawn to make comments about penal reform. Rightly, of course; criminal justice is a fundamental part of the State’s purpose. And Blair made his ringing assertion, to “be tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime” – and promptly passed the whole mess to Straw. Who happened to be utterly weak. The legacy of Labour ‘reform’ was the IPP sentence, which has stranded thousands behind bars; and the order that no activity should take place in prison which doesn’t have public support – which handed the daily running of prisons to tabloid editors. The apogee of this risible outlook was the Chancellor of the worlds 6th largest economy taking time out to personally veto a pay rise for prisoners of 50p per week. This was the sum effect of Blair’s ringing declarations.<br />
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Any political fool can, and often does, mutter aspirational statements around prison reform. Quite what any of them mean by “reform” is usually left unspecified. What prisoners would call reform is usually far from any politicians view. A brief canter through the years suggests that penal reform is, at best, petty meddling and at worst blatant neglect.<br />
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It was my lot to begin my sentence at the start of the Thatcher years. Willie Whitelaw, “short sharp shock”, Detention Centres. It was a time of tabloid panics over “feral youth”, and Whitelaw took the bait. His response was to create a system for dealing with young criminals which saw them being trained to be fitter and stronger, whilst brutalising them. An utter failure by any measure.<br />
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Despite a blizzard of announcements and Criminal Justice Acts, the Tories actually propagated no policies which impacted the lives of prisoners until they were dragged to face the carceral shambles by the riots of 1990. The resulting Wolff Report was astonishing for several reasons. Most notably, the Inquiry took the novel approach of actually asking prisoners why they rioted? The Wolff recommendations were utterly sensible, and fell into the urbane hands of Douglas Hurd.<br />
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A resulting White Paper declared that “prisons are an expensive way of making bad people worse”. Alas, Hurd moved on and the air of optimism – that all things were suddenly possible – quickly dissipated. Few of the Woolf Recommendations were actually implemented. A moment ripe for reform was squandered.<br />
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The vastly more robust Michael Howard hove into the Ministerial chair, and was apparently outraged at the sheer negativity of his officials. The mantra “nothing can be done” did not sit well with the Minister. The results of Howards efforts still remain – the daily regime and control mechanisms that are every prisoners lot today is essentially the one created by Howard.<br />
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Why so? Why are prison regimes been largely left unchanged in its fundamentals over the past 20 years, despite the efforts of those who followed after Howard? It was Howards fortune to go head to head with an ever intransigent Prison Service in a period of crisis. This is hugely significant. The escape of IRA from Whitemoor and High Security prisoners from Parkhurst put HMP firmly on its back foot, and Howard used this weakness to impose his policies.<br />
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This is not to deny that Ministers can have no effect unless there is a background crisis. Labour fiddled with bits of reform, mainly of a negative type in kneejerk reactions to media criticism. Always a sign of a weak Minister, and weak Ministers get rebuffed by the criminal justice system.<br />
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A return to a Tory government saw Ken Clarke and his emollient noises, none of which became a concrete reality. And then Grayling. Ah, where to begin...? A forceful Minister but lacking any strategic vision. Whereas Howard imposed large sweeping changes, Grayling sniped. Is it really the business of a Minister what clothing prisoners wear in their first two weeks, or how many books they have? The only lesson to be taken from the Grayling period is that imposing negative reforms is far easier than imposing positive ones.<br />
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Which brings us to the present. Unlike Grayling, Gove isn’t fiddling with the minutiae of prison life. He is sensibly leaving it to prison managers to manage. Like Howard, Gove has a broader and more significant vision- but unlike Howard, Gove’s is firmly rooted in efforts to cut reoffending.<br />
The question I have to ask is, is it possible for a Minister to impose a programme of reform on the Prison Service when there is no immediate crisis?<br />
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prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-54806500007336415642016-03-14T10:11:00.002+00:002016-03-14T10:11:40.838+00:00My View of Michael Gove<span style="font-size: x-small;">Whenever I mention the name Michael Gove within earshot of a teacher, their universal suggestion has been to bop him on the nose. It has to be said that I don’t pay much attention to education matters, so I am not sure quite what the poor chap did to upset the teachers. But upsetting a profession is not necessarily a bad thing; recall that Consultants had to have “their mouths stuffed with gold” to accept the creation of the NHS. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My perception of Michael Gove is somewhat different from the teachers. – and counterintuitive. Several years ago my blog caught the eye of one of Gove’s constituents who, after sniffing around, thought that my continued detention decades over tariff was perhaps a tad excessive and unnecessary. The constituent collared Gove – then at Education – and the outcome was that Gove wrote to Ken Clark wondering if my detention should perhaps come to an end?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Hmm. A Conservative Minister taking the time to look at the case of a murderer, and not even a voting constituent. This caused some minor cognitive dissonance. My whole adult life had been controlled largely by a succession of Tory Prison Ministers, and my experience told me that they were a vindictive, petty and plain malign bunch. So why would Michael Gove give his pleading constituent the time of day...?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For me, this is crucial. There was nothing to be gained for Gove in intervening in my case. None. If the tabloids had known at the time, I’m sure they could have made some hay at his expense. There was no earthly reason for Gove to touch any of this with a bargepole. Except..except...it was the right thing to do. My release demonstrated that Gove’s view of my case was actually accepted by both the Ministry and the Parole Board. At the end of this episode, all I could conclude is that Gove stuck his neck out solely because he looked at the matter and was honestly persuaded that I had, in sum, done enough time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For a guy who had been royally screwed by Tory Ministers for 20 years, it took some persuading but in the end all I could conclude was that Michael Gove had taken the time and risk to do what he believed was right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This is why I don’t write Michael Gove off as “just another Tory”. It would be childish to be so blinkered. A Minister who does “the right thing” is a rare beast and one who should be encouraged. </span><br />
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prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.com1