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20-21 ‘Lets take 26 Prisons likely to politics out of prison’ keep fi lling up Lord Woolf speaking at the whoever wins election Inner Temple in London on Former MP and prisoner the 25th Anniversary of Denis MacShane scrutinizes the Strangeways Riot both the Conservative and Labour 2015 election 18-19 Month by Month manifestos and fi nds prison reform is seriously lacking the National Newspaper for Prisoners & Detainees Rachel Billington honours the centenary of Gallipoli, 33 Buddhism: a voice for prisoners 1990 - 2015 one of WWI’s most The path to Nirvana controversial and tragic A new series looking at A ‘not for profi t’ publication / ISSN 1743-7342 / Issue No. 191 / May 2015 / www.insidetime.org campaigns, where her own world religions and faiths An average of 60,000 copies distributed monthly Independently verifi ed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations grandfather was killed for prisoners CCRC: ‘performing reasonably well’ As the 2010-15 parliamentary term was drawing to its close, MPs on the Justice Select Committee published their report on the Criminal Cases Review Commission it too much under the yoke of the Court of Bob Woffinden Appeal (CA). Leading investigative journalist Logically, if the Court adopts a Draconian approach, then the CCRC must follow suit should point out straight away that I and be similarly hardline. Glyn Maddocks, was one of those who gave evidence the solicitor who set up the Centre for to the Committee. On the whole, the Criminal Appeals, told the committee that it report was good news for the CCRC. creates ‘an unequal relationship’ and that The MPs concluded that it ‘is perform- the CCRC’s independence is compromised Iing reasonably well’. If this seemed to be ‘because it is frightened of the Court of damning with faint praise, they added that, Appeal’. ‘it remains as important and as necessary a body as ever’. The CCRC must decide not what it thinks, but what it believes the Court of Appeal Alongside this broad support for its work, may think. However, the Court of Appeal is however, the Justice Committee did itself charged with reaching not its own acknowledge deepening concerns, espe- opinion about a case but with trying to cially over the ‘real possibility’ test. The determine what the original jury’s opinion CCRC can only refer cases back to the may have been, if jurors had been able to appeal court if there is a ‘real possibility’ consider the fresh evidence now being The Butler Trust Award Winners 2014-15 that the conviction would not be upheld. presented. So the CCRC is second-guessing Trevor Lewis is granted an Award from HRH The Princess Royal for his dedication and profes- the Court of Appeal which is in turn second- sionalism over four decades as a PE Offi cer, as well as for his contribution to all aspects of Though there are problems with the guessing the jury. It is, at best, an unsatis- prison life at HMP Exeter. He was nominated by 15 prisoners, one of whom described Trevor vagueness of the term, perhaps the major factory situation. as “a gentleman and a role model for all staff”, while his Governor praised “his jailcraft [as] practical diffi culty is that parliament, in some of the fi nest I have seen”. requiring the CCRC to apply this test, placed Continued on page 22 Appeals Crime Prison Law The country’s leading experts in Unhappy with your solicitor? Transfer New Head of Prison Law - Jo Davidson ‹ cm ‹ serious, complex and high your case now. NJGD>D OJMN profile appeals. Legally Aided Services Fixed Fees (from £150.00) We have represented clients on some of the most We are leading defendant solicitors in:- Parole Guittard Application complex and high profile crime and appeals cases in recent years including: - Murder/Manslaughter EMAP Re-call Pre-tariff Review R v Barry George (Jill Dando case), Large scale multi-handed conspiracies including serious fraud, Re-cat Reviews R v Levi Bellfield (Milly Dowler case) murder, drugs, grooming, robbery, people trafficking, Adjudication Specialising in cases before the Court of Appeal Serious sexual offences including historic sexual offences Representation against return to and the CCRC. Sentence Calculation closed conditions Robbery POCA Serious assaults, torture HDC Years of experience in Proceeds of Crime Applications Registered with Gang crime including firearms offences, extortion, kidnap Transfers › › Dedicated prisoner hotline: 0161 833 9253 Manchester Office: 13 St John Street, Manchester, M3 4DQ Website: www.cmsolicitors.co.uk where lients atter Freephone: 0800 1 444 111 London Office: 15 Old Bailey, London, EC4M 7EF Video link: Nationwide service If you would like to contribute to Mailbag, please send your letters (including your name, number Insidetime May 2015 2 Mailbag and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. www.insidetime.org ‘This is a scandal!’ Star Letter of the Month ..................................................... insidetime SAMSON McNAB - HMP a voice for prisoners 1990 - 2015 Congratulations and a £25 cash prize for this month’s Star Letter. ERLESTOKE the national newspaper for prisoners published by Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of subsequently contributed to a 69% increase The New Bridge Foundation, founded in 1956 to Peel the label off Editorial note: This is a question (part of a in the suicide rate of imprisoned people in create links between the offender and the community. longer Mailbag) that appeared in our April England and Wales (Inside Time, December Inside Time is wholly responsible for its editorial content. imprisoned people issue. Comments or complaints should be directed to the ..................................................... 2014). Managing Editor and not to New Bridge. GARETH- HMP SHOTTS The question I would like you to put to NOMS Have we not learned the lessons of the is this ...Why have you designed a system for a © 1980s? Detention Centres were designed to not In the American penal system imprisoned prisoners calls (privileged or otherwise) that profit Board of Directors deliver a ‘short, sharp shock’ to young is so easily exploited by staff, law enforce- publication4 people are referred to, not as human beings, people in British prisons. The reality was a ment and, most probably, the intelligence but as ‘offenders’. Applying dehumanising series of institutions where youngsters were services, enabling potentially unlawful labels makes it acceptable to kill people. It is Trevor Grove - Former Editor Sunday Telegraph, brutalised. The 80% reoffending rate should interceptions to take place? Furthermore, are Journalist, Writer and serving Magistrate. far easier to describe strapping an ‘offender’ not have been a surprise. these the ‘...provisions for voluntary or ad hoc John Carter - Former international healthcare to a gurney and executing that offender by disclosure...’ in other words, breaching RIPA company Vice-President. lethal injection, than it is to acknowledge Geoff Hughes - Former Governor, Belmarsh prison. If you treat prisoners like animals in a cage 2000 and doing it illegally and in secret? that a person is, in fact, a human being. Eric McGraw - Former Director, New Bridge you cannot possibly expect to release them (1986-2002) and founder of Inside Time in 1990. back into society as well adjusted people. John D Roberts - Former Company Chairman and Dehumanising terms do not just apply to North of the border, prison staff, and even Managing Director employing ex-offenders. prisoners on Death Row. They are used to Writes Louise Shorter - Former producer, BBC Rough NHS staff have innocently adopted the describe everyone who is imprisoned. By Justice programme. ‘offender’ terminology. However, there is a © © removing a person’s humanity and labelling Alistair aH. E. Smith B.Sc F.C.A.a - Chartered growing realisation that decades of copying NOMS does take seriously obligations to Accountant,not Trustee and Treasurer,not New Bridge them as an ‘offender’, the prison authorities allow prisoners to discuss confi dential profit profit the American model of incarceration (via Foundation.4 publication4 are damaging the chance of rehabilitation matters with lawyers, and other confi dential service England) is not cost effective and does not because ‘offender’ is a present tense term organisations without fear of those conversa- serve to protect the Scottish public. which describes the imprisoned person as tions being recorded and/or monitored. perpetually offending, offensive and The Editorial Teama © In the recently published Organisational incorrigibly criminal. ‘Offenders’ by defi ni- In 2012, one of the reasons to move all not Review, it is clear that Scotland is looking profit tion will never be able to make reparations or prisoners on to the call enabling system was organisation4 toward the proven Scandinavian example of exist constructively within society. to protect confi dential communications. This ‘how to do’ prison and how to treat impris- is clear in PSI 24/2012. Paragraphs 3.31 - 3.36 oned people; the Scandinavian’s low rates of This terminology has also permeated our of that document set out what NOMS staff will recidivism validate this approach. In a recent society in Britain. Across the prison system do to safeguard confi dentiality but as we say speech, the Director of Sweden’s Prison and and increasingly highlighted in the media, the in paragraph 3.30, there remains a small risk Probation Service, Nils Oberg, appealed for a that a confi dential discussion will be recorded term ‘offender’ has become almost a byword penal system that ‘treats prisoners as and monitored. Rachel Billington OBE Eric McGraw for describing people who are in prison. human beings, not criminals’ (ibid). Novelist and Author and Managing Editor In terms of the HMCIP investigation, NOMS Journalist Labelling a group of people has the effect of Blavo Nov 2012_Blavo Dec 2008 red border PartSHADOW.qxd of our journey 13/11/2012 in Scotland 09:42 should Page include 1 will await the fi nal report, which is now due assigning them an identity.

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