Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Sun, 21 Apr 2024 14:36:02 +0000: Kiss Marry Kill review – a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale of love behind bars - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Stone Nest, London
Dante or Die’s intriguing but underdeveloped story is based on the case of two men, each convicted of a homophobic murder, who became the first same-sex couple to marry in a UK prisonBasing a play on real events offers a safety blanket of authenticity, but the facts of a story being true is not always enough to make us believe in them. Dante or Die’s new production about a homophobic gay man in prison is packed with energy and built on significant research, but the storytelling skates over the surface of the knotty topics it tackles, and struggles to make its complex characters come alive.
Kiss Marry Kill tells the story of Jay (Dauda Ladejobi), imprisoned for life for murdering a man he started hooking up with, out of fear his friends would find out. To the clang of prison beds being stacked together, and the rapping of Lady Lykez, Jay hastily forgets his pregnant fiancee at home and embarks on a relationship with charming fellow murderer Paul (Graham Mackay-Bruce). Inspired by events that are stranger than fiction, the show draws on the story of Mikhail Gallatinov and Marc Goodwin, both convicted for murdering gay men, who became the first same-sex couple to marry in prison.
Continue reading... - Sun, 21 Apr 2024 06:00:49 +0000: Sex offender banned from using AI tools in landmark UK case - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
The decision could set a precedent for future monitoring of people convicted of indecent image offences
A sex offender convicted of making more than 1,000 indecent images of children has been banned from using any “AI creating tools” for the next five years in the first known case of its kind.
Anthony Dover, 48, was ordered by a UK court “not to use, visit or access” artificial intelligence generation tools without the prior permission of police as a condition of a sexual harm prevention order imposed in February.
Continue reading... - Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:24:58 +0000: Mick Ryan obituary - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
My husband, Mick Ryan, who has died aged 82, was emeritus professor of penal politics at the University of Greenwich, in London. Mick joined what was then Thames Polytechnic in 1973 to teach politics.
After some early collaborative work on London Docklands regeneration and parliamentary scrutiny of European legislation, he became interested in the organisation Radical Alternatives to Prison (RAP) and published his first book, The Acceptable Pressure Group, about it and the Howard League, in 1978.
Continue reading... - Sun, 14 Apr 2024 16:46:08 +0000: Celia Mason obituary - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
My partner, Celia Mason, who has died aged 86, was a teacher, probation officer and author of novels on the English civil war. She also wrote short stories and poetry.
While working as a probation officer in Birmingham in the 1980s, Celia spent a year producing an illustrated manual designed to help prison inmates whose heavy drinking had led to their conviction. Her research showed 75% of prisoners at Winson Green suffered with this affliction. Her manual led to her being presented with an award by the Princess Royal on behalf of the prisons charity the Butler Trust. The citation stated: “Her endurance and dedication are of the highest order and her initiative in a large local prison will without doubt bear fruit for many years to come.”
Continue reading... - Sun, 24 Mar 2024 09:55:13 +0000: ‘They signed her death warrant’: how probation service failings left a violent man free to kill - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
The father of Michaela Hall, the charity worker killed by her partner in Cornwall after he was wrongly assessed as only ‘medium risk’ says lessons must be learned
A serial violent offender who previously tried to strangle his partner was free to murder her after being wrongly assessed as “medium risk” by the probation service.
When Lee Kendall killed charity worker Michaela Hall on 31 May 2021, police had received 34 pieces of intelligence about his domestic abuse against her and he had almost 50 convictions, relating to 100 offences.
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