CALIFORNIA PRISON INDUSTRIES IN TROUBLE
It has long been an established business practice of any government, whether it be national or, as in the case of the U.S.A., state level, to exploit the resources that they control to offset their overheads. And those resources obviously also include their prison population... [Read More]
[17/05/13]
SPS INDUSTRIES FACING A 'NEW BROOM'
Following on from our recent story on changes at the Scottish Prison Service headquarters, it appears that uniform procurement is not the only sector of their operations showing the distinct influence of the new infusion of fresh blood from south of the border... [Read More]
[14/05/13]
A THOUGHT OR TWO ON SUPERVISION
Clearly if 60% of all people who receive a prison sentence of 1 year or less go on to reoffend, then 40% do not. Why then should those who are doomed not to commit another crime (or at least not get caught for it as there is no accurate way to actually measure reoffending... [Read More]
[09/05/13]
PUTTING THEIR SHIRTS ON BANGLADESH 2
It seems that we might have been a little unfair in charging the SPS with coming up with the dubious 'innovation' of outsourcing their prison officer uniform shirts and blouses to the sort of Bangladeshi sweatshops that have been in the news recently... [Read More]
[09/05/13]
SPS: PUTTING THEIR SHIRTS ON BANGLADESH
It has long been common knowledge that prison officers' uniforms have for years been made in China using prison labour, amongst other manufacturers. Originally British prisoners made these uniforms in British prisons, just as the same prisoners manufactured... [Read More]
[01/05/13]
HANGING AND FLOGGING AND FLAGELLATION
According to the Daily Telegraph, Chris Grayling has claimed that the "Tories not just the party of 'hanging and flogging'". No, clearly they have added the pointless, and in many cases the downright dangerous, flagellation of prisoners to their 'true blue' contribution... [Read More]
[30/04/13]
‘THE LEGAL STATUS OF PRISONERS IN THIS COUNTRY IS A MARK OF ITS HUMANITY’
On 4 April, a matter of days after the cuts to civil legal aid were brought into effect, Chris Grayling has announced the Government’s intention to cut legal aid for prisoners seeking to bring proceedings for judicial review of decisions relating to their treatment or the conditions of their confinement. He complains that £4 million pounds in legal aid is spent annually on such complaints and says that they can be perfectly adequately dealt with by the internal prison complaints system.
Read more at: The Justice Gap blog. [19/04/13]
BEAM (PARK WEST) UP AGAIN SCOTTY
Can the Coalition's prison policy get any more nonsensical? Well, you've guessed it. Yes it can, as it now appears that the Ministry of Justice are looking at building one of their new 2,000 place super mini-Titan prisons on the Beam Park West site, even though New Labour had previously abandoned plans for a smaller 1,500 place prison there as being too expensive and, more importantly, a serious flood risk. Que sera. [17/04/13]
KICKING PEOPLE WHEN THEY ARE DOWN
It appears that the Coalition's prisons rottweiler Chris Grayling is pursuing what appears to be his two favourite pastimes, attempting to give the prison population a good kicking (knowing, as all bullies do, that they are little able to fight back)... [Read More]
[04/04/13]
BASIC REGIME: INCENTIVES AND EARNED PRIVILEGES (IEP) SCHEMES IN PRISON
This is the latest article from Miscarriages of JusticeUK, the fruits of an investigation by John O into how the Basic Regime level of the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme works across the country in light of the Coalition's desire to curry favour with the tabloid press and make the prison regime more punative. It can also be found on our Prison Texts page.
[15/03/13]
EDUCATION IS SUBVERSIVE IN PRISON
The fate of Kate Hendry, a new creative writing teacher at the HMP Shotts' Learning Centre, is a sad reflection of the power of prison officers to destroy anything that empowers prisoners, that treats them as human beings rather than as problems of controland discipline. John Bowden's article 'Education Is Subversive In Prison' lays bare her discgraceful treatment.
[15/02/13]
LANDMARK PRISON LABOUR DECISION IN FRANCE
In what is seen by many as a significant court decision about the treatment of prisoners employed by private companies, Marilyn Moureau, a French prisoner who had been employed telephoning customer on behalf of Societal MKT, a call centre outsourcing company... [Read More]
[10/02/13]
RIPPED OFF
The following is a letter that appeared in the February 2013 edition of the Inside Time:
I would like to bring to your attention the scandalous behaviour of some management and staff at HMP Wolds who, in my opinion, are in fact criminals... [Read More]
[10/02/13]
PRISONER NUMBER A6379CN: AN OLYMPIC PRISON DIARY
Mike Wells is a journalist, photographer and film maker, who was making a documentary about the controversy surrounding the giant basketball hall built by the Olympic Delivery Authority on protected recreation land in April last year when he was assaulted... [Read More]
[07/02/13]
ON LABOUR CONSCRIPTION
The EUobserver.com blog has an interesting article on the wider use of forced labour in the wake of the recent Greek state's response to strikes in public sector industries.
[06/02/13]
MIXED-UP VICTORIAN VALUES
The truth is out: Chris Grayling really does want to return England and Wales' prisons to the post-Victorian hell holes that they were in the 1980s. In an interview for (whose else could it be but) the Daily Mail, he supports the sending of children up chimneys... [Read More]
[04/02/13]
SLAVE LABOUR DOWN UNDER
If we thought the constant round of revisions to the so-called Rehabilitation Revolution (RR) was making us all dizzy, then we should spare a thought for the plight of prisoners in New Zealand where they are introducing their own version of RR... [Read More]
[31/01/13]
DIME-AN-HOUR WAGES
The basic pay rates for prisoners in England and Wales have not seen an increase since the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme was introduced in 1995 (although local pay rates for a select number of jobs have risen and private sector prisons... [Read More]
[25/01/13]
WHAT IS THE POINT OF OPEN PRISON?
With the news that the authorities at the Category D HMP North Sea Camp will no longer allow day release for prisoners prior to their earliest release dates, it appears that the very reason for the existence of open prisons, namely to gradually reintegrate long term prisoner... [Read More]
[24/01/13]
TITANIC STUPIDITY?
Just as the prisoners across England and Wales are starting to feel a little less like battery chickens as the prison population shows its first significant drop for twenty years, down nearly 3,000 since the beginning of 2012, Chris Grayling has announced that he is going... [Read More]
[11/01/13]
GENIUS PLAN?
Let's get private companies [it can only be large well-funded private companies given the 'payment-by-results' structure, which means that charities and other smaller-scale providers will be further squeezed out of the 'market'] to employ and train-up newly released prisoners... [Read More]
[21/11/12]
IKEA AND PRISON LABOUR
So IKEA have finally been forced to admit that they used forced labour in East German Stasi-run prisons, something that the company has consistently denied since the issue was first raised in 1982, and despite all the evidence to the contrary... [Read More]
[19/11/12]
BRAND NEW COMMUNITY PUNISHMENT
In the wake of the call by Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley for people carrying out community punishments to wear Guantanamo Bay-style "orange dayglo boiler suits" with the word 'offender' emblazoned on their backs rather than the current yellow... [Read More]
[14/11/12]
MINISTERS, TVS & IEPS
For some further sanguine thoughts on the pontification of mMinisters on the subject of TVs in prison check out Ben Gunn's latest blog post: 'Happy Campers?'
[30/10/12]
W(H)ITHER THE DISCHARGE GRANT?
Exactly what is the point of taking away the prison release grant Mr Cameron? Admittedly issuing £46 to a prisoner on release (plus travel warrant) it hardly seems worth the bother - though at 1995 prices, when it was first introduced, it was actually worth something... [Read More]
[22/10/12]
ITCHING TO GO HOME
A group of 90 male work-release (roughly equivalent to Category D) prisoners at York County Prison in Pennsylvania have just had a welcome bonus - 3 days home leave - all because the trailers in which they are housed whilst on work-release had become infested by bed bugs and were in need of fumigating.
[21/10/12]
SOME POSTERS
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