Prisons & Probation – Latest News:
- Fri, 26 Apr 2024 17:30:11 +0000: The Guardian view on indeterminate sentences: the legacy of a bad law lingers on - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
Imprisonment for public protection sentences were flawed and unjust. Labour should commit to finish them off
The harmful effects of imprisonment for public protection sentences (IPPs) are well documented. For Tommy Nicol and Francis Williams, whose sisters have both spoken to the Guardian about the impact of punishments with no end-date, the pressure was unbearable. Nicol, who was originally jailed for a violent robbery, took his own life during a mental health crisis at the Mount prison in 2015. Williams, also convicted of robbery, died of an overdose in Bognor Regis last year – hours after telling a probation officer that he was suicidal.
These tragedies are far from unique. At least 90 prisoners on IPPs have died by suicide in custody. Others, including Williams, died while on licence (Williams was on the verge of being recalled). One study found rates of self-harm to be 2.5 times higher among IPP prisoners. Evidence to the justice select committee from a forensic psychiatrist compared the clinical presentation of these inmates, almost all of whom are men, to “those who have been wrongfully convicted”. Such is the stress of being given this kind of sentence, which resembles a life sentence but was in many cases handed down for far less serious crimes.
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Continue reading... - Wed, 24 Apr 2024 04:00:31 +0000: Tommy Nicol was kind and friendly – a beloved brother. Why did he die in prison on a ‘99-year’ sentence? - Prisons and probation | The Guardian
His sister says the only person he ever presented a serious threat to was himself, yet he was given an indeterminate sentence for stealing a car. The psychological torture was impossible to endure
When Tommy Nicol told his sister Donna Mooney about his prison sentence, she didn’t believe him. It was May 2009 and he had stolen yet another car. Nicol was a petty criminal, always nicking motors, and was rarely out of jail. “He said: ‘They’ve given me a 99-year sentence.’ I said: ‘That’s ridiculous.’ I thought he was confused.” Over the next few years, Nicol occasionally mentioned the sentence in letters to Mooney and asked her to look into it. She admits she didn’t give it much thought at the time.
In 2015, Nicol killed himself in prison. He was 37. It was only then that Mooney discovered he had been right all along. Nicol had a four-year tariff (the minimum amount of time he could serve in jail) and an indeterminate sentence, known as imprisonment for public protection. IPP is also called a 99-year sentence because people serving one can, technically, be jailed for 99 years. When they are released, it is on a 99-year licence, which means they can be recalled to prison at any time in their life for even minor breaches, such as being late for a probation appointment (although the Parole Board will consider whether to terminate the licence 10 years after first release).
Continue reading... - 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.
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