TRANSPARENT TRANSACTIONS

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Core Civic, corey donaldson, crime, criminal, education, ethics, featured, jail, justice, katie Allan, linda allan, Polmont, prison, prisoner, reform, stuart allan, transparency.

by David Breakspear

As an active prison reform campaigner, I have wanted the fences and walls which surround our prisons to become metaphorically invisible. But why is this important to me?

As a former prisoner who, due to sentence and not a conviction, will always have to disclose parts of my criminal record, and who will forever have my life open to scrutiny, privacy is not an option; I had or have no choice in the matter. If I’m asked, I must tell. This despite the fact that I am not involved with the system as a ‘resident’ or ‘service-user’ anymore and no longer considered a risk to society. A reformed character, my new label? Continue Reading

THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

Posted on September 7, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged courses, crime, criminal, deterrent, Dr Beth Weaver, education, ethics, featured, Fergus McNeill, HE, higher education, ICT, IT, jail, justice, Office, Open University, prison, prisoner, reform, schools, technology.

by David Breakspear

“ICT and digital systems in prison must support more flexible access to learning that is tailored to the needs of individual learners and enables participation in distance and other learning.” (Coates, 2016)

People are sent to prison as punishment for a crime they are alleged to have committed. I say alleged as I am no longer confident that a finding of guilt in court is an indication of whether the alleged guilty party, is in fact, guilty; however, this is a separate debate.

Why are ICT and digital systems, and of course education, important in prison? Continue Reading

NATURE OR NURTURE

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anomie, crime, criminal, death penalty, deterrent, Emile Durkheim, ethics, featured, felony, Feltham, HMOY, jail, justice, law, norms, prison, prisoner, privilege, reform, report, Robert K Merton, schools, self harm, sociology, suicide, terror.

by David Breakspear

CW: mentions suicide, self-harm

In my previous article ‘Consequence of Conscience’, I mention a work titled Suicide by sociologist Émile Durkheim. In Suicide, Durkheim introduced us to the term ‘anomie’, suggesting it to be a breakdown of social norms resulting in a lack of standards and values. He also used this same term and definition to explain a reason as to why some members of society embark on a path of crime or ‘deviance’ – straying from the norm. Durkheim saw deviance as an inevitable part of life which is needed for innovation and change.Continue Reading

CONSEQUENCE OF CONSCIENCE

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged crime, criminal, death penalty, deterrent, Emile Durkheim, ethics, featured, felony, jail, justice, law, prison, prisoner, Priti Patel, reform, suicide, terror.

by David Breakspear

CW: mentions suicide

Recently appointed Home Secretary Priti Patel stated in an interview that she wants criminals to “literally feel terror” at the thought of committing crime. In my opinion, to make a statement like that shows how far removed from reality some of our politicians are.

In America, a lot of the States still use the death penalty. I would say that is the ultimate consequential terror for anyone to face. In the UK, the final execution took place as recent as 1964; in fact, the death penalty in the UK was only, totally completely abolished in 1998.

If the sceptre of losing one’s own life is not enough of a consequence to stop breaking the law, then what is the Home Secretary’s version of ‘terror’?Continue Reading

TRANSPARENT REFORM

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #VisitAPrison, Bob Neill, crime, ethics, family, FAMM, featured, felony, jail, Julie Stewart, justice, law, life sentence, Nelson Mandela, prison, prisoner, Prisoner Policy Network, PRT, reform, support, transparency, walls.

by David Breakspear

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.
N. Mandela

A message I have carried whilst campaigning for reforms in our prison system has been one of making the walls of justice invisible. The walls that ensconce societies; mums, dads, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, other family members and loved ones and/or friends.

As someone that became, somewhat, institutionalised to the safety and comfort of prison, I saw those walls as keeping people out. I also saw this as a good thing. How ironic then, that here I am now, writing an article promoting transparency to those very same walls that were my protectors.Continue Reading

TOGETHER WE CAN

Posted on July 13, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Albert Pierrepoint, behaviour, crime, Derek Bentley, ethics, featured, felony, jail, JE, jengba, join enterprise, justice, Kenneth Foster, law, Law of Parties, legalities, life sentence, Mauriceo Brown, Michael LaHood, parole, prison, prisoner, reform, rehab, Rick Parry, Ruddock, Texas, uk, Wandsworth.

by David Breakspear

It wasn’t until February 2016 when the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in a criminal case under the doctrine of ‘joint enterprise’ (JE), decided that intent and not just foresight would need to be proven to find a secondary suspect guilty of a crime, such as murder.

One of the most famous JE cases saw, at 9am on January 28th, 1953, 19-year-old Derek Bentley hung, at the hands of Albert Pierrepoint at HMP Wandsworth in London. Before I continue, please bear in mind that the person who “let him have it,” the one who pulled the trigger that killed the policeman Sidney Miles, Christopher Craig, was released in May 1963. Ten years after Derek was hung. Three years before Derek’s remains were removed from the prison burial ground to a family grave. Two lives were taken, one by Christopher, one by the state. Continue Reading

WHERE DO YOU STAND?

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged behaviour, Butler Trust, crime, criminology, dostoyevsky, ethics, featured, felony, jail, justice, law, legalities, prison, prisoner, reform, rehab.

By David Breakspear

“Freire’s central notion is that ‘hope’, as an idea, ‘is rooted in [our] incompleteness’ and that what makes us human is the ‘constant search’ to become more fulfilled. This is something we pursue collaboratively, and in communion with others.” (Smyth, J., Critical Pedagogy for Social Justice, 2011)

The question I ask, ‘Where do you stand?’, is in relation to our prison system. I could ask instead: “Does your perspective and belief of prison match the experience of those it holds?”Continue Reading

CHECHNYA: NORWICH PRIDE, SOLIDARITY, ACTIONS

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged action, Amnesty International, arrest, bisexual, camp, Chechnya, demonstration, erasure, gay, Gay Russia, Grindr, homosexuality, Hornet, Igor Yasin, imprisonment, lgbtQ+, Matthew Rycroft, Nikki Haley, norwich, norwich pride, petition, police, pride, prison, prisoner, protest, queer, Ramzan Kadyrov, Russia, Russian Embassy, solidarity, theresa may, torture, united nations, violence.

by Cherry Somersby

This week, Norwich Pride held an emergency demonstration outside City Hall to protest a new wave of abductions, imprisonment, and killing of LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya. Over 50 people gathered on the steps of City Hall to hear speeches from local activists, and to show solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya. These acts of solidarity are vital, and it has been encouraging to see similar displays across the country, but our actions must go beyond this.Continue Reading

THE IMPRISONED: UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND REHABILITATION

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged democracy, ECHR, election, electoral, European Court of Human Rights, government, human rights, imprison, imprisonment, ministry of justice, norfolk, norwich, people, politics, prison, prisoner, right to vote, society, United Kingdom, vote.

by Adam Edwards

If this is how the Queen treats her prisoners, she doesn’t deserve to have any.
— Oscar Wilde

Every few months the ongoing tit-for-tat between the UK government and the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg develops. Strasbourg will insist that the UK must extend suffrage to the country’s imprisoned populace, and UK politicians will line up to express how nauseating they find the idea. It’s a piece of political theatre that unfolds with the predictable reliability of a soap opera.

It should serve to remind us as to the purpose prisons serve. Episodes like this ought to help us scratch the Ministry of Justice’s PR varnish enough to remember that prisons exist primarily as an expression of the power of the state over the individual; cross the line and we will lock you up. Not only will we take your liberty, but inasmuch as we seek to ‘rehabilitate’ and ‘reform’ you, we will take your identity too. We will arrest your body and your conscience alike; we will isolate you and remove you. While we’ve got the keys, you don’t exist. Just cross the line.

prisoner

TRANSPARENT TRANSACTIONS

THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

NATURE OR NURTURE

CONSEQUENCE OF CONSCIENCE

TRANSPARENT REFORM

TOGETHER WE CAN

WHERE DO YOU STAND?

CHECHNYA: NORWICH PRIDE, SOLIDARITY, ACTIONS

THE IMPRISONED: UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND REHABILITATION

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