Faith in books Restricting prisoners’ Doug Heming - Chaplain access to books ruled “Let us continue to unlawful defend our right to read Rod Clark - PET and interact with the “Your voices have PRISON BOOK BAN great thinkers of been heard” 33 OVERTURNED yesteryear” & the National Newspaper for Prisoners & Detainees Month by Month Beating the book ban Rachel Billington Samuel Genen - Solicitor “Has no-one taught “I worked hard on this A ‘not for profit’ publication / ISSN 1743-7342 / Issue No. 186 / January 2015 / www.insidetime.org them how to be a case so please, read, An average of 60,000 copies distributed monthly - Independently verified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations gracious loser?” read like crazy” plus over 450,000 monthly online readership - Independently verified using SMARTER STATS 20 25 News images from 2014 The Pakistan Taleban kill 132 children, aged between 10 and 18, and nine adults in a school A 6 year-old Bengal tiger kisses a neighbour on January 20th. in Pakistan on December 16. Seven gunmen 274 tigers have died in India alone in the past four years, out shouted ‘ALLAMU AKBAR’ (God is Great) of a population of some 1700. At least 20% were killed as a before opening fire on groups of children. result of poaching. Queen Elizabeth walks through a field of ceramic poppies that form part of the art installation ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ in London on Oct 16. A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) worker in A teddy bear is found next to the wreckage at the site of the protective clothing holds a child suspected of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down in Eastern Ukraine having Ebola at a treatment centre in Men rescue a boy after activists said forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar on September 9th by pro-Russian fighters. All 283 passengers Paynesville, Liberia, on Oct 5. Al-Assad dropped explosive barrels in Aleppo on April 6. and crew died. Quote of the month page 26 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 January 2015 2 Mailbag and prison) to ‘Mailbag’, Inside Time, Botley Mills, Botley, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 2GB. www.insidetime.org No compassion or help No wheelchair friendly prisons .......................................................................................................... insidetime from the prison system D KINSEY - HMP MANCHESTER a voice for prisoners since 1990 ..................................................... the national newspaper for prisoners published by J HANSON - HMP GARTH I arrived at HMP Manchester on the 27th of February 2015 to serve a 3 year sentence for drug Inside Time Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of possession. I am currently in a wheelchair after a road accident. Both my legs are injured and are The New Bridge Foundation, founded in 1956 to non-weight bearing until I’ve had surgery. After going through reception I was taken to G Wing create links between the offender and the community. I had a letter published in your pages but when we got there it was found that my chair was too big to fit through the door of the cell. (December 2013 issue) when I was housed at Inside Time is wholly responsible for its editorial content. After trying 2 more cells - I am 6 foot 4 and weigh 18 stone - I was placed on I Wing, which is a Comments or complaints should be directed to the HMP Woodhill, regarding healthcare/mental Managing Editor and not to New Bridge. detox wing for inmates who have addiction problems, though I myself have no problems of this health issues. Regular readers may remember kind. I was placed in this cell as a ‘stopgap’ but 8 months later I am still here. Soon after arriving my story of going through a serious illness a © I was given Category C status but could not move as, apparently, no Category C prison would not and amputation of my leg and the subsequent profit Board of Directors take me because of the chair. This wing has no shower facilities on the ground floor so I have to publication4 failures of certain departments to give me the be taken by an inmate carer to the showers on G Wing, which are not ideal as I have to negotiate aftercare that I required. Nearly one year on I a step. I have gone as long as 14 days without getting a shower even though I have asked many Trevor Grove - Former Editor Sunday Telegraph, thought I would give an update. officers to help me. I have now got a painful fungal infection around my groin. I cannot wash Journalist, Writer and serving Magistrate. properly in my cell and even using the toilet is a struggle. On the 1st of September I was given John Carter - Former international healthcare I contracted a condition which stopped the Category D but I have met with the same obstacles as Category C, they do not want to take me company Vice-President. blood circulating through my legs, hence the because of the chair. There are no facilities anywhere in this prison for a disabled prisoner. Geoff Hughes - Former Governor, Belmarsh prison. Eric McGraw - Former Director, New Bridge amputation. Physically I made a recovery of (1986-2002) and founder of Inside Time in 1990. sorts, but what I needed was help with my John D Roberts - Former Company Chairman and mental state. I was promised some expert Protect the children Shortage of staff at Managing Director employing ex-offenders. counselling for me and my partner to get us ..................................................... Louise Shorter - Former producer, BBC Rough HMP Eastwood Park Justice programme. through such a life-changing experience. MARK WATLING - HMP THE MOUNT Alistair aH. E. Smith© B.Sc F.C.A.a - Chartered© Despite many false promises and the ..................................................... Accountant,not Trustee and Treasurer,not New Bridge profit profit so-called duty of care I did not spend one There is a little known criminal offence KIM JONES - HMP EASTWOOD PARK Foundation.4 publication4 service minute talking to any expert who could relate brought in in 2007 called ‘Encouraging or to my condition and offer me the right Assisting an Offence believing it will be I am writing about the shortage of staff here support. I was left with just my weekly visits Committed’. To be found guilty of this charge at Eastwood Park. For the last few weeks we The Editorial Teama © with my partner where we helped each other not you have to commit an act capable of have been banged up for over 22 hours per profit through it the best we could. My partner was, encouraging or assisting the commission of day, only getting unlocked first thing in the organisation4 in effect, my ‘shrink’. Then, in May of this year, the compassionate people in the Prison an offence, and that you believed this offence morning from 8am to 9.30am for breakfast, Service decided to move me 200 miles away would be committed and your act would meds, shower and exercise - then back behind to HMP Garth. Not the worst prison in the encourage or assist in its commission. This the door. world, but why did they move me so far from offence can be linked to ANY crime - murder, my support network? Is this their idea of main- drug dealing, robbery, child abuse, etc. So, We now only have association on Tuesday and taining family ties? Since being here I have how is it that people in positions of authority Friday from 5pm to 6.45pm, this is for 109 Rachel Billington OBE Eric McGraw suffered more complications which resulted in Novelist and Author and Managing and trust wilfully turn a blind eye and try to women to get food, shower, use the Journalist Editor another stay in hospital where I was given the cover up allegations of child abuse and are telephone, and get medication and hot water! Blavo Nov 2012_Blavo Dec 2008 red border SHADOW.qxd 13/11/2012 09:42 Page 1 devastating news that my right leg will have to not being brought up on charges linked to the be amputated as well. offences committed? How is it that ‘crime It is difficult to keep in touch with our families tsar’ Mark Wright, social workers, policemen, as there are only 3 phones working on the Being so far away from my loved ones I went MPs, the church and all the officials who are wing, so the queues of women trying to use from weekly visits to not seeing anything for made aware of systematic abuse and try to the phone in such a short space of time are months.