Wednesday 16 November 2022

Prison Sentence or Death Sentence

This from the LancashireLive website yesterday serves to highlight many disturbing aspects of our Criminal Justice System:-

'Model prisoner' found dead at Leyland prison after being refused parole

Ryan Barry James Jewell had been in prison for "most of his adult life", having spent the last 10 years behind bars after being given a sentence of indeterminate imprisonment for public protection. The 28-year-old had been imprisoned at HMP Garth near Preston for a few years before he was found dead in his cell on January 9 of last year.

Although Mr Jewell was at a Category B prison, he had been downgraded to a Category C prisoner, which allowed him to be moved to a lower security jail, and he had hoped to be further downgraded to Category D which would mean he could have been moved to an open prison where he could spend time in the community.

Prison capacity and availability meant Mr Jewell remained at Garth but, as well as being downgraded, he was also on the highest level of privileges - known as enhanced - which is afforded to the best-behaved prisoners. These privileges typically include the use of a TV in a prisoner's cell, a maximum spending allowance of £25 a week, and for family and friends to be able to bring in items such as clothing, games and DVD players.

As he had been given a sentence of indeterminate imprisonment for public protection, Mr Jewell had no release date scheduled and so would have to apply to the parole board to be released or re-categorised. He had already served the minimum jail term for his sentence at the time of his death.

An inquest which started today (November 14) at County Hall in Preston heard that Mr Jewell, who was born in London, had "behaved well" during his time in jail and was well-regarded by staff and his fellow inmates. Despite this, on December 8, 2020, Mr Jewell was informed that his request to be re-categorised as a Category D prisoner had been refused by the parole board "contrary to the Probation Service's assessment".

Assistant Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said that Mr Jewell was "very disappointed" with the decision. The coroner added: "He said things like 'I can't see myself doing another five years in prison'."

One month after Mr Jewell was refused permission to move to an open prison, an officer was conducting their check of D Wing at 5.26am on January 9 when they found him unresponsive in his cell. Paramedics were called but Mr Jewell was pronounced dead.

In a statement read out by the coroner, Mr Jewell's sister Sasha Richardson described her brother as a "kind and caring soul". She said: "He was a son, brother and uncle who was loved very much. He would do anything for anyone and was highly thought of by other inmates and staff. He was hard-working and he enjoyed his job in the prison and he spent time socialising in the gym and in the library."

Miss Richardson said her brother had an "infectious laugh" and would be sorely missed. She highlighted the impact of his death on their mother. "Our family is heart-broken," she said. "My mum especially. A part of her has died with her son. There is a part missing that can never be replaced."

The inquest, which is due to last five days, heard from Kerry McLaughlin, one of the governors at HMP Garth, who described life for inmates in the prison. She explained that there was a "backlog of spaces" in allowing prisoners to be moved to lower security prisons after being downgraded.

"From everything I have seen [Mr Jewell] was a model prisoner who was doing everything correctly," she said. "He worked in the woodwork shop and he had quite a flair for woodwork."

The governor was asked if there was a problem with illicit drugs at Garth. "There is and unfortunately it's not a situation unique to Garth Prison," she replied.

"Every prison in the country has drugs. We suffered during the pandemic when we had issues with drones being flown into the prison which would fly to people's cell windows. We've also had an issue with drugs being sprayed onto mail and mail looking like legal mail when it's actually full of drugs."

The inquest, which is being heard by a jury, continues

--oo00oo--

Guardian Opinion piece from 31st October:-

In Britain, a jail sentence is often a death sentence. What’s going on in our prisons?

Britain has the most draconian prison system in western Europe. Recent deaths in police custody have increased public consciousness of state violence and its relationship to institutional racism and sexism. And yet we are still often oblivious to the inherently harmful and too often fatal consequences of imprisonment that affect our most vulnerable people beyond the scrutiny of the general public.

Last year, 371 people in England and Wales died in prison behind closed doors – the highest death toll since records began. Yet, despite this, there has been near silence on the issue. On the few occasions when prison deaths have garnered attention on a national scale, they have often been dismissed and even rationalised on account of the status of those who die as prisoners – as if they deserved what was coming to them.

People in prison are some of the most marginalised in society, with experiences of institutional care, homelessness, educational disadvantage, addiction, mental and physical ill health, and abuse, underpinned by poverty and inequality. Many have been failed by other statutory agencies before entering the criminal justice system.

What is clear is that deaths in police custody and in prison are two sides of the same coin. Both occur at the hands of the same criminal justice system that disproportionately polices, prosecutes and imprisons the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people, and are most sharply felt across the intersections of race, gender, disability and class.

Across successive governments, prison expansion has become a de facto policy. In 2021, the government outlined plans for the biggest prison-building programme in England and Wales in more than 100 years. It would raise the prison population to close to 100,000 by 2026.

This latest project fits neatly into a broader historic move towards punitivism. In the last 30 years alone, the prison population in England and Wales has ballooned by 70%, with Britain having the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe.

Official statistics provide useful quantitative analysis of deaths in prison, but they can obscure the human stories behind them.

Tommy Nicol was a 37-year-old mixed-race Middle Eastern man who was being held under an indeterminate imprisonment for public protection sentence. He took his own life in 2015, six years after he was jailed on a minimum four-year tariff.

Sarah Reed was a 32-year-old mixed-race Black woman who was remanded to prison for the sole purpose of obtaining psychiatric reports. Her mental health worsened severely in prison and she was treated as a discipline problem.

Mohammed Afzal was a 22-year-old man of Pakistani background who lost almost a third of his body weight during his 48 days in prison.

Garry Beadle was a 36-year-old white man on remand with a history of mental ill health and was briefly homeless. He told an officer he was a suicide risk, but the officer did not fully record this. He died after only six days in prison.

Thokozani Shiri was a 21-year-old Black man with HIV/Aids. Prison healthcare failed to provide him with life-saving antiretroviral medication during two periods of imprisonment. He told a prison officer: “I can’t breathe … I need to go to hospital,” but an ambulance was not called until five days later. While he was in an induced coma, prison staff restrained him with handcuffs.

An 18-year-old mother gave birth on her own in prison without medical assistance. Her child, Baby A, died, with a pathologist unable to determine if they were born alive or stillborn.

These tragedies reflect recurring issues arising from deaths in prison. Prisons, by their very nature, are dehumanising places that create and intensify vulnerability to violence and premature death.

The poor standard of mental and physical healthcare, ignored risk warnings, a failure to implement suicide prevention plans, the overuse of segregation, and slow emergency responses – as well as indefensible levels of neglect and despair – are problems that cut across all deaths in prison.

Our latest report reiterates that the deaths of racialised people in prison are among some of the most violent, contentious and neglectful of all prison deaths, with racial stereotyping and the hostile environment surfacing as specific issues. The death of Baby A and condition of countless women in prison demonstrate the broader systemic neglect of women’s health.

A constant stream of prison inspectorate reports, inquiries and inquest findings have produced rigorous, evidence-based recommendations to protect the health and safety of prisoners. However, these have been systematically ignored.

Families engage in post-death processes with the aim of ending preventable and premature deaths and seeing meaningful change.

And yet we see similar deaths repeated with depressing regularity, often in the same prison. This raises questions about the lamentable complacency around accountability at all levels of the Prison Service and government.

Prison is an expensive intervention that does not work, as demonstrated by high re-conviction rates. It fails prisoners, victims and communities. Instead of protecting the public from harm, it in fact perpetuates the cycle of harms and deaths. The morally indefensible tide of prison deaths, and the contentious nature of so many of them, reveals the intrinsic problems of the system.

To prevent future deaths, we must immediately halt prison-building, dramatically reduce the prison population and redirect resources from the criminal justice system to welfare, housing, education and health and social care. Through holistic investment in communities, we could address the root causes of crime and violence.

To build the public pressure required to do this, we need the public to stand with us in shining a light behind the closed doors of prisons, and speaking out about the deaths of people in their care. Say their names, and stand with their families for justice and change.

Deborah Coles is the executive director of Inquest, an independent charity working with families bereaved by state-related deaths; Jessica Pandian is a policy and research officer.

19 comments:

  1. Once upon a time a former Napo Assistant General Secretary Harry Fletcher would have been encouraging Napo to campaign on this issue. He had his faults but he did an excellent job in researching amongst Napo members to pick up on matters of concern and bringing issues to members attention to gauge interest and determine where things were most problematic and thereby to stimulate wider campaigning and liaison with MPs etc. Sadly with TR both main Unions have been preoccupied with terms&conditions etc but in my opinion, members should not let slip further their Unions not being involved with issues like the wretched mess created by IPP sentences. From a retired Probation Officer

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  2. A couple of years ago I seem to recall a Retired Members group was set up in Napo which I didn't join as I was concerned it might just be a clique of nodding heads(apologies to anyone in the group for my scepticism!)but thinking further to my post at 9.09 today I'm wondering if helping with campaigning might be a useful area for such a group to follow up if those still in Service have to focus so much on t&c etc to protect staff health and well being. I've now become active in new areas not directly connected with Probation but could be interested potentially in broader criminal justice campaigning involvement so will give this more thought. As has often been noted on this Blog, it is how collective concern is organised and supported that is so important or good will and energy soon seeks other channels! Thanks Jim for today's Blog choice and indeed your perseverance over the years in acting as a kind of lightning rod for discussions on such a range of Probation linked topics :)

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    1. Anon 16:44 Yes I gather the Napo retired members group is very active. Perhaps we can entice you to pen a guest blog for here? Cheers, Jim

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    2. I would like to encourage all writers on here to consider those who work. Those who are Napo members and who pay subs in order for this so called union to do it's single primary task. That is to improve members terms and conditions. The problems and excuses Napo use not function are led by this sort of campaigning expectation. The retired members nonsense was mainly a few but one in particular long serving representative who should pack it in. Retired members do not need a union as they are not working. Napo should focus it's initiatives on improving the lot of those who pay it's salaries. Go wild retired readers why don't you. Plenty of ideas sat in the armchair watching daytime TV and watering the roses. Please get realistic.

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    3. Anon 18:59 You clearly don't get it lol!

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    4. 18:59 an example of the malaise currently changing the ethos of what probation should be about?

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    5. JB thanks of course I get it but I made some serious points about how a basic union low capacity leader low staffing mainly drawn from no place are not well suited to what is being suggested. Where is anything from Napo on press and parliamentary briefings. Nothing. Readers retired should understand the actual business of the Union is it's paying membership. Sure it may want a campaign image but pick your battles . Napo is weak pathetic damaged it won't actually add to any campaign given its incoherent rambling general sec.

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    6. 21:05 malaise no read the exam question properly. This not what probation are for. Probation deals with the offenders in some community capacity. More recently a big drive inside with pom. Thie issue is about what a members union do in regard to prisoners who die in jail. Prisoners may well be described in some cases as victims. However your leanings the busines and I mean business is that of the members needs and protections. Gone are the days of Harry Fletcher a well connected media savvy spin and soundbite champion. He would have turned out a press release and it would have resonated with a response or commitment. Napo had credentials then that spoke of our standing. Any premature death needs to be prevented but dividing resources taking on every issue no matter how emotive must be strategically of value. Napo has nothing to offer on resources or pr capacity . The leadership are known as impotent and until we see Napo commentary resume on topical issues like Harry Fletcher used to be out there doing jumping on the awful deaths in jail won't help reduce them. Sadly I suspect if Napo has a view these days the responsible authority confidently ignore them. On campaigning we need appropriately able staff intelligent emotionally and media capable to bring together the right interested groups to have any impact on such a serious yet authority neglected area of concern. Mental health assesments and awful jail conditions have to understood as effectively as we try to measure risk to ensure prisoners are protected to get through the ordeals of short and long imprisonments.

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  3. I would love to join the retired NAPO group as long as everyone faithfully agrees to super glue themselves to various parts of Dominic Raab's body

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  4. More on the NPS West Kent Head (Siamack) or something like that - an unidentified group of POs are taking legal action against him with a view to a judicial review - apparently he is a complete tw**

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    1. Get Napo In watch the leadership give in concede on all points . Good luck those pos

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  5. Politicians seem determined to prove that release on license still means the offender is being punished. Many of you are responding to this challenge especially with sex offenders. Your favourite trick is weaponising victims to justify your sheer vindictiveness. let's see how suicide rates for people on probation rise in the next few years.

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  6. A prisoner wrote the word 'FREE' on his stomach with a biro moments before taking his own life after he was refused permission to move to a lower security jail, an inquest has heard.

    An inquest which started on Monday (November 14) at County Hall in Preston heard that Mr Jewell, who was born in London, had "behaved well" during his four years at HMP Garth near Leyland and was well-regarded by staff and his fellow inmates. Governor Kerry McLaughlin described the 28-year-old as a "model prisoner" who had a flair for woodwork.

    The inquest has heard that Mr Jewell had spent "most of his adult life" in prison but in the months leading up to his death on January 8 of last year he had voiced his ambition to lead a "normal, happy life". During an appointment with staff in August in 2020 Mr Jewell said: "I'm confident and motivated to do well in my life and never come back to prison again."

    Mr Jewell said his ambition was to make his family proud and he had recently been downgraded to a Category C prisoner as well as being on the highest level of privileges. He hoped to be further downgraded to Category D, which would have meant he could move to an open prison, but he suffered a devastating setback on December 8 in 2020 when the parole board refused his request despite it being recommended by the Probation Service.

    Mr Jewell was "very disappointed" at the decision and, as his release was subject to the parole board's approval given that he was serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection, he was said to be distraught at having to spend "another five years in prison".

    Today Assistant Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg and the jurors who will determine the inquest's conclusion heard from the prison officers who found Mr Jewell dead in his cell in the early hours of January 9 last year. Prison officer Daniel Chadwick, who was on night duty on D Wing, was the first to realise something was wrong with Mr Jewell.

    "I saw his observation panel was covered, I tried to gain a response by knocking on the door and calling his name but I didn't get a response," Mr Chadwick said. "I kicked the door to make a bit more noise but there was still no response."

    Mr Chadwick then radioed to the control room, requesting assistance, and within a couple of minutes - a period which "felt like an age" - several other officers were on the scene. Then opened the door and found Mr Jewell "clearly dead".

    Austin Smith, who was the custodial manager on duty that night, said it was a scene he would "never forget". "We found Ryan suspended from the light fitting," Mr Smith said. "How his skin felt is something I'll never forget. It was just an awful scene."

    The officers noted that Mr Jewell had used a pen to write "FREE" on his stomach. Below this was an arrow pointing to a tattoo on the lower part of his abdomen which said "No regrets".

    The inquest heard that several changes had been implemented at Garth Prison following Mr Jewell's death. These include requiring officers to wear body cameras and having two nurses on duty at all times. Although Mr Jewell had given away some of his personal possessions prior to taking his own life, something which is considered to be a 'red flag' for potential self-harm, this hadn't been observed by officers.

    Prison staff were so concerned about how Mr Jewell's best friend Richard Davis-Jones would take the news of his death they stationed officers in his cell to monitor him at all times. One of the jurors asked Governor McLaughlin if suicide in prison is "common". "Sadly it's not unheard of but thankfully it's not common," she replied. "I think in the last five years we've had two others apart from this."

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    1. During the first day of evidence the jury heard a statement from Mr Jewell's sister Sasha Richardson. In it she described her brother as "a kind and caring soul". She said: "He would do anything for anyone and was highly thought of by other inmates and staff. He was hard-working and he enjoyed his job in the prison and he spent time socialising in the gym and in the library."

      "Our family is heart-broken, my mum especially. A part of her has died with her son. There is a part missing that can never be replaced."

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    2. Deaths in custody are only one part of a bigger issue.
      How many people come to an untimely end whilst still actively engaged with the CJS, whether that be in custody or on supervision?
      There are plenty that take their own lives whilst subject to probation supervision, and that number can only rise as more and more prisoners are released homeless and with limited access to the services they need.
      Maybe imprisonment and probation supervision have become so entwined that statistic should reflect deaths within the CJS as a whole rather then separate them into custody and post custody?
      HMPPS? Isn't it all part of the same system?

      https://www.russellwebster.com/probationdeaths18/

      'Getafix

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  7. I was reminded last night (during a conversation with an ex-colleague) of some wise words from the past: "Your job is to make yourself redundant; to give those you work with the confidence, knowledge & ability to manage their own lives such that they never come through that office door again."

    Pity that Grayling & his merry band of privateers took such sage advice literally, without actually understanding what was being said. So literally, in fact, that they rushed to make many of the skilled professionals redundant. They even wrote it into the contracts.

    For why? Being good at their job? Showing humanity to those who cared for other people? Or for being paid far too much for pandering to the criminal classes & thereby getting in the way of a fat fast profit?

    In fact they resented them so much that they stole most of their redundancy money. Just to teach them a lesson, no doubt.

    Huzzah for capitalism! It will bring the world as we know it to a premature end.

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  8. To the anonymous poster of a very long, extremely well-crafted and informed comment this morning at 08:40 - pretty well most of it has been said before at various times and to be honest I'd rather sleep easy at night and the discussion focus on the future of the Probation Service. Should you wish to put your head above the parapet and contact me privately, I'm more than happy to correspond, chat on the phone or even buy you a drink some time.

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  9. Nearly choked & inadvertently filled my diaper when I read this about probation staff:

    "The number of leavers has increased considerably since June 2021, which is likely attributable to competition in the labour market"
    (final sentence in paragraph below Figure 4)

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2022/hm-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2022--2

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    1. Am I right in thinking 'something' happened in June 2021?

      https://blog.govnet.co.uk/probation-services-are-returning-in-house

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