C: The €41bn public money pumped into Ireland’s banks during the worst days of the economic crash risks never being fully recovered, a new report has warned.
Special Report: Man who unlocked secrets of the prison service now feels confined: Whistleblower David McDonald says there have been reprisals for his claims, among others, that prison officers had been put under illegal surveillance and that prisoners’ conversations with their solicitors were monitored, writes Michael Clifford.
Whistleblower smear Garda avoids most of legal bill: The former Garda press officer who helped run a smear campaign against whistleblower, Maurice McCabe, and then lied to the Disclosures Tribunal about the nature of his involvement is to get the bulk of his legal costs.
Is report on the prison service ‘locked away’?: The investigation into allegations of illegal surveillance in prisons concluded in March, but the findings have yet to be published, says Special Correspondent Michael Clifford.Kinlen was an unrelenting scourge of what he perceived as the official mindset that rules our prisons system. His view that "the obsession of some few in the Department [ of Justice] to adhere to the principle of POWER, CONTROL AND SECRECY is long established". The capital letters are his own, and illustrate a depth of feeling informed by decades of experience.
I Have Put This On A Lot Of My Blogs,Plus Your Television Interview.A Massachusetts man who served 32 years in prison before his conviction was overturned two years ago will be put on trial again, after a judge denied defense attorneys’ attempts to throw out what they argued was faulty evidence.
In a 39-page decision, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove denied Darrell Jones’ attempt to suppress witness identifications from the 1985 Brockton murder of Guillermo Rodrigues.
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Defense attorney Paul Rudof claimed police intimidated and coerced five eyewitnesses and used improper techniques when showing them photo lineups. He also argued that some of the witnesses were high on cocaine and intoxicated at the scene of the crime.
Cosgrove ruled that despite using outmoded methods of photo identification that would not be permitted as evidence in court today, the police did not violate due process or prejudice witnesses into identifying Jones as the shooter.
“Eye witness identification is an invaluable law enforcement tool in obtaining accurate convictions, but also the greatest source of wrongful conviction,” the judge wrote.
The judge said Jones’ attempt to suppress the evidence “did not meet his burden that the identifications were suggestive or conducive to irreparable misidentification.”
The day of the murder, Nov. 11, 1985, Brockton police detectives interviewed five people who were in a parking lot on the rainy, near moonless night when Rodrigues was shot and killed.
All of the witnesses described the killer as being several inches shorter than the victim. Jones was just an inch shorter.
The eyewitnesses’ testimony before a grand jury frequently contradicted each other and what they would later testify at trial. In the 1986 trial, none of the witnesses could identify Jones in court.
Jones conviction was overturned in 2017 when another judge found the lead investigator had falsely testified in the original trial about a key piece of video evidence, a recording of a witness interview that had been edited. The judge also ruled that Jones had been denied a fair trial because the all-white jury was racially prejudiced against Jones. An investigation by WBUR into Jones’ conviction led to a juror testifying that two other jurors said they thought Jones was guilty because he was black.
Rudof, the defense attorney, called Judge Cosgrove’s ruling “shocking and wrong,” and that the decision “is based on testimony of a detective who three judges have now said intentionally lied at the first trial.”
The ruling demonstrates “that it’s fine for the police to pressure witnesses to make an ID as long as the police themselves think they’re doing the right thing,” he said.
The Plymouth County district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, issued a short statement repeating the facts of the case.
“Judge Cosgrove has issued a ruling denying the defendant’s motion [to suppress witness identification] and, as a result, the Commonwealth may now present those prior identifications in evidence at the re-trial of the defendant,” the statement read.
Jones has been out on bail since 2017, pending a new trial. He declined to comment, saying he wanted his attorney to speak on his behalf. Jones is attending a conference in Atlanta being held by the Innocence Network, an organization that provides pro bono legal and investigative services to those seeking to overturn their convictions. The meeting includes 200 people wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Jones’ new trial for the 1985 murder is scheduled for May 20, in Brockton Superior Court.
I Have Put This On A Lot Of My Blogs,Plus Your Television Interview.A Massachusetts man who served 32 years in prison before his conviction was overturned two years ago will be put on trial again, after a judge denied defense attorneys’ attempts to throw out what they argued was faulty evidence.
In a 39-page decision, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove denied Darrell Jones’ attempt to suppress witness identifications from the 1985 Brockton murder of Guillermo Rodrigues.
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Defense attorney Paul Rudof claimed police intimidated and coerced five eyewitnesses and used improper techniques when showing them photo lineups. He also argued that some of the witnesses were high on cocaine and intoxicated at the scene of the crime.
Cosgrove ruled that despite using outmoded methods of photo identification that would not be permitted as evidence in court today, the police did not violate due process or prejudice witnesses into identifying Jones as the shooter.
“Eye witness identification is an invaluable law enforcement tool in obtaining accurate convictions, but also the greatest source of wrongful conviction,” the judge wrote.
The judge said Jones’ attempt to suppress the evidence “did not meet his burden that the identifications were suggestive or conducive to irreparable misidentification.”
The day of the murder, Nov. 11, 1985, Brockton police detectives interviewed five people who were in a parking lot on the rainy, near moonless night when Rodrigues was shot and killed.
All of the witnesses described the killer as being several inches shorter than the victim. Jones was just an inch shorter.
The eyewitnesses’ testimony before a grand jury frequently contradicted each other and what they would later testify at trial. In the 1986 trial, none of the witnesses could identify Jones in court.
Jones conviction was overturned in 2017 when another judge found the lead investigator had falsely testified in the original trial about a key piece of video evidence, a recording of a witness interview that had been edited. The judge also ruled that Jones had been denied a fair trial because the all-white jury was racially prejudiced against Jones. An investigation by WBUR into Jones’ conviction led to a juror testifying that two other jurors said they thought Jones was guilty because he was black.
Rudof, the defense attorney, called Judge Cosgrove’s ruling “shocking and wrong,” and that the decision “is based on testimony of a detective who three judges have now said intentionally lied at the first trial.”
The ruling demonstrates “that it’s fine for the police to pressure witnesses to make an ID as long as the police themselves think they’re doing the right thing,” he said.
The Plymouth County district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, issued a short statement repeating the facts of the case.
“Judge Cosgrove has issued a ruling denying the defendant’s motion [to suppress witness identification] and, as a result, the Commonwealth may now present those prior identifications in evidence at the re-trial of the defendant,” the statement read.
Jones has been out on bail since 2017, pending a new trial. He declined to comment, saying he wanted his attorney to speak on his behalf. Jones is attending a conference in Atlanta being held by the Innocence Network, an organization that provides pro bono legal and investigative services to those seeking to overturn their convictions. The meeting includes 200 people wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Jones’ new trial for the 1985 murder is scheduled for May 20, in Brockton Superior Court.
Irish man cleared of murder 74 years after hanging
Harry Gleeson to become first recipient of posthumous pardon following case review
Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 09:42 Updated: Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 12:12
Mark Hilliard
Almost three quarters of a century after being sent to the gallows for a murder he had nothing to do with, Tipperary man Harry Gleeson (above) is to become the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State
Almost three quarters of a century after being sent to the gallows for a murder he had nothing to do with, Tipperary man Harry Gleeson (above) is to become the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State
Almost three quarters of a century after being sent to the gallows for a murder he had nothing to do with, Tipperary man Harry Gleeson is to become the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State.
In 1940, Mr Gleeson walked into a garda station in New Inn, Co Tipperary to report his discovery of a dead body. Moll McCarthy was lying in a field having suffered two shotgun blasts to the face.
In the run up to his 1941 conviction for her killing - which then carried the death penalty - the prosecution had withheld information in Mr Gleeson’s trial, encouraged witnesses to hand over falsified statements, beating one, and ignored an alibi for their suspect.
Now, he is to be cleared of the crime decades after it took place in a dramatic development representing the dedicated work of the Griffith College based Irish Innocence Project and the Justice for Harry Gleeson group.
Part of a global organisation of the same name, the project was formed here in 2009 with the mandate of unearthing new facts in cases where there is a belief a miscarriage of justice has taken place under the remit of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 and the posthumous pardon procedure.
“Nothing can adequately comfort those who have fought to exonerate Harry Gleeson but this posthumous pardon and the clearing of the good name of Mr Gleeson is a proud moment for everyone involved,” David Langwallner, dean of law at Griffith College and Project director said yesterday in the aftermath of their success.
The Department of Justice had received a submission on the case last year, claiming several threads of new evidence, much of which had been compiled by the Justice for Harry Gleeson Group which subsequently contacted the Project. It was compelling.
The case review found the prosecution had successfully withheld crucial information highlighting discrepancies in their case (in particular relating to the registration of the firearm); that gardaí encouraged witnesses to lie and beat one. Forensic evidence from a US pathologist also proved Mr Gleeson had an alibi.
“This case was a tragic miscarriage of justice and the hanging of Mr Gleeson for a murder he never committed is a dark stain on the memory of the State,” said Professor Diarmuid Hegarty, president of Griffith College.
“However his posthumous pardon shows that justice is not blind to injustice.”
The Irish Innocence Project currently has 21 students from Griffith College, Trinity College and Dublin City University working on approximately 25 further cases under the supervision of eight lawyers working on a pro-bono basis.
Garda scandals: Force dogged by controversy over number of decades
We list the big controversies to hit the Garda since the 1970s
Nicky Kelly after he was freed from prison in 1984. Photograph: Tom Lawlor/The Irish Times
Nicky Kelly after he was freed from prison in 1984. Photograph: Tom Lawlor/The Irish Times
Gardaí at a checkpoint in Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times
Gardaí at a checkpoint in Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times
Conor Lally Security and Crime Editor
Updated: Thu, Apr 6, 2017, 18:28
The Garda has been dogged by controversy and scandal over the last number of years in particular. However, controversy has not ever been far from the force. Here are some of the main reports and debacles dating back as far as the 1970s.
Sallins train robbery:
On March 31st, 1976, the Cork to Dublin mail train was robbed near Sallins in Co Kildare, with about £200,000 stolen. Five members of the IRSP group were arrested: Osgur Breatnach, Nicky Kelly, Brian McNally, Michael Plunkett and John Fitzpatrick. During interrogation by the Garda, all except Plunkett signed alleged confessions, and all displayed injuries they claimed were inflicted by gardaí.
However, they were convicted after the longest criminal trial in Ireland at the time, heard before the non-jury Special Criminal Court.
A first trial was abandoned when one of the three Special Criminal Court judges, Circuit Court Judge John O’Connor, died mid-trial after constantly falling asleep in court.
Breatnach received a 12-year sentence, as did Kelly (who had jumped bail and fled to America). McNally got nine years.
In May 1980, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the convictions of Breatnach and McNally. In the same month, the IRA claimed responsibility for the theft.
Nicky Kelly had returned from America in June 1980 but disappeared into a judicial and custodial black hole which he did not break free of until July 1984.
This was because the courts ruled he must serve out the sentence, the same one just set aside for his co-convicted, because, technically, the time during which he could appeal his conviction had passed.
He was freed on humanitarian grounds in 1984 and later received a presidential pardon. All three were also compensated with sums said to be between £400,000 and £750,000 each.
Heavy Gang
The moniker was applied to a group of Garda members who were alleged to have assaulted and threatened suspects and used other forms of pressure on them during the 1970s.
Allegations of coercion littered murder trials, with lengthy legal argument taking place regularly about the admissibility of evidence.
At the time, especially with the Troubles worsening in the North, some gardaí believed they had licence to extract confessions by force. And because forensics were only in their infancy, confessions were heavily relied upon.
A 1977 Amnesty International report alleging ill-treatment of prisoners by gardaí looked at 28 cases involving such allegations while in police custody. They were backed up medical and other evidence.
It found the names of certain Garda members appeared repeatedly in cases where they were dispatched from Dublin to serious crime investigations nationwide and where confessions were then secured.
The abuses ranged from pushing and shoving to severe beatings, and food and water deprivation.
The Criminal Justice Act 1984 and the regulations made under it introduced a code to ensure the appropriate treatment of persons detained in a Garda station. It also provided for video recording of interviews and complaints if maltreatment began to stop.
Kerry Babies
In April 1984 a newborn baby boy was found on a beach, White Strand, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, stabbed to death. A woman who lived locally, Joanne Hayes, was arrested. She had been pregnant around that time. Confessions were secured from her and her family over the murder of the child.
However, the confessions were withdrawn and the family said they had been beaten and coerced by the Garda. They said Joanne had given birth to a baby on the family farm in Abbeydorney. They added the baby had died after birth and had been buried in secret on the farm.
Tests on remains later found on the farm supported their version of accounts. The baby found on the farm was found to have blood type A - the same as Hayes and Jeremiah Locke, the married man who fathered the child. The baby found on the beach had blood type O.
While the charges against Joanna Hayes were dropped she was subjected to very strong cross-examination at the subsequent Kerry Babies Tribunal.
Joanne Hayes at the Kerry Babies Inquiry in 1985. Photograph: Tom Lawlor/The Irish Times
Joanne Hayes at the Kerry Babies Inquiry in 1985. Photograph: Tom Lawlor/The Irish Times
Gardaí advanced the “super fecundation” theory that Joanne Hayes had been impregnated by the man with whom she had been having a relationship and another man about the same time and had given birth to twins with different fathers.
Mr Justice Kevin Lynch cleared the Garda of coercing the confessions but never explained how the false confessions were obtained. The murder squad was disbanded in the aftermath of the controversy.
Morris Tribunal
The tribunal investigated allegations of wrongdoing and corruption in the Donegal division and ran from 2002 to 2008. It concluded that some gardaí in Donegal had fabricated explosives finds and had planted firearms in order to justify the arrests of targeted people.
It also found some members had fabricated informants and intelligence received. In general terms it concluded subordination was rife in the Garda and discipline in the force was breaking down.
The Garda Complaints Board was held ineffective in dealing with complaints from the public about wrongdoing by individual gardaí.
Members of the public viewing a video link to the hearing of the Morris Tribunal in Donegal. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times
Members of the public viewing a video link to the hearing of the Morris Tribunal in Donegal. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times
The State’s response was the Garda Síochána Act. It provided for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) and the Garda Inspectorate. Gsoc is an independent agency that investigates allegations against Garda members. The inspectorate examines areas of policing and advises on reform.
A number of other reviews were also carried out including into how the Garda handles informants, with a register of informants introduced. A number of measures were also implemented to make it easier for Garda whistleblowers to come forward including the creation of a confidential recipient to receive complaints in confidence from gardaí about malpractice in the force.
Shooting dead of John Carthy
The tribunal of Inquiry into the siege and shooting of John Carthy in Abbeylara, Co Longford, was known as the Barr tribunal after its chairman, Mr Justice Robert Barr.
John Carthy (27), who suffered from manic depression, was shot by two members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) outside his Abbeylara home on April 20th, 2000, following a 25-hour armed stand-off.
The Barr Tribunal found that Garda negligence and defective management led to his death. The Garda was criticised for its lack of preparedness to respond to and management armed sieges.
However, then minister for justice Michael McDowell was critical of what he saw as the Tribunal’s failure to tackle the events that resulted in John Carthy being cleared by a medical professional to possess a firearm.
The Tribunal resulted in an overhaul of the Garda’s training and equipment for armed incidents, including the introduction of non lethal weapons. And when the Garda Inspectorate reviewed the Barr Report it recommended pepper spray and stab proof vests for all Garda members.
Members of the Garda ERU at seige of a house in Abbeylara, Co Longford where John Carthy was shot. Photograph: David Sleator/The Irish Times
Members of the Garda ERU at seige of a house in Abbeylara, Co Longford where John Carthy was shot. Photograph: David Sleator/The Irish Times
It also said a number of Regional Support Units - mini ERUs based around the country - should be established to faster respond to spontaneous armed incidents rather than unarmed gardaí waiting for the ERU to arrive from Dublin. The recommendations were acted upon with the last armed unit rolled out last year.
Smithwick Tribunal
The Smithwick Tribunal was set up by the government in 2005 in response to allegations of collusion between members of the Garda based in Dundalk and the Provisional IRA in the 1989 killing of two RUC officers. It ran from 2006 to 2013.
Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were shot dead by the Provisional IRA shortly after leaving a meeting at Dundalk Garda station in March 1989 at an ambush point in south Armagh.
Judge Smithwick said he was “satisfied there was collusion in the murders” and that “the evidence points to the fact that there was someone within the Garda station assisting the IRA”. But it did not specify what form the collusion took or who was involved.
The bullet-riddled car belonging to RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchannon. Photograph: Pacemaker
The bullet-riddled car belonging to RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchannon. Photograph: Pacemaker
The report was also critical of what he deemed a collegiate sense of loyalty among gardaí, saying two earlier Garda investigations into the killings were “inadequate”.
He also found the force in the current era was one that valued loyalty to a colleague above telling the truth.
Kieran Boylan case
In May 2013, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) said it was unable to substantiate allegations that the Garda permitted convicted drug dealer Kieran Boylan to sell drugs and had dropped serious criminal charges against him because he was a Garda informer.
It said its investigation had been blocked for years by a deliberate lack of cooperation from Garda headquarters.
The then Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, vehemently rejected the charges. Minister for justice at the time Alan Shatter was forced to intervene to end a public war of words between Mr Callinan and Gsoc, saying it undermined public confidence in both.
MacLochlainn Commission
Ronan MacLochlainn (28) from Ballymun, north Dublin, was shot dead during an armed robbery by a Real IRA gang on a Securicor van at Cullenmore Bends near Ashford, Co Wicklow, on May 1st, 1998.
A Commission of Investigation, under Mary Rose Gearty SC, was established by the Government in July, 2014, after the dead man’s partner Gráinne Nic Gib took her case to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled MacLochlainn’s shooting dead was never properly investigated.
The gang was under surveillance at the time and when it tried to ambush the van in busy traffic just after 5pm on the Friday of the bank holiday weekend, members of the NSU and emergency response unit moved in.
MacLochlainn had hijacked a Mazda car at gunpoint from a couple who were passing. As he tried to drive off while pointing a gun at gardaí, he was fatally shot.
The other gang members were arrested at the scene and were subsequently convicted and jailed for their roles in the incident.
A colour party forms a guard of honour at the funeral of Ronan MacLochlainn. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
A colour party forms a guard of honour at the funeral of Ronan MacLochlainn. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
The commission is yet to report and while its findings may be unfavourable for the Garda in relation to how well prepared or otherwise the force was at the time, the passage of time is likely to soften the impact.
However, any comment by the commission on how cooperative and forthcoming the Garda force proved during the process will be closely watched.
Initial reports into Sgt Maurice McCabe allegations
A report by the Garda Inspectorate into the motoring penalty points system was published in February 2014.
It was requested by former minister for justice Alan Shatter following allegations by whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, among others, that there had been widespread quashing of penalty points.
A report by Sean Guerin SC was carried out on foot of other allegations by Sgt McCabe that the Garda mishandled cases of murder, assault and abduction in the Cavan-Monaghan division where he worked.
Sgt Maurice Mc Cabe arriving for a Public Account Committee meeting in Leinster House.Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
Sgt Maurice Mc Cabe arriving for a Public Account Committee meeting in Leinster House.Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
It also examined how claims by whistleblowers were handled by the Department of Justice. Its findings led to the resignation of Mr Shatter from Cabinet in 2014.
In 2017, however, the Court of Appeal found that the report had made “seriously damaging” conclusions in a manner that breached Mr Shatter’s constitutional rights. Mr Shatter has said he was forced to resign by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
“Bugging” of Garda Ombudsman
The Cooke Report in June 2014 investigated the alleged bugging of the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc). It concluded there was no evidence of surveillance at Gsoc’s offices.
The allegations first arose in The Sunday Times which secured part of an internal report prepared for Gsoc by a UK-based security contractor Verrimus.
In his report published by the Government in June, 2014, Judge Cooke found there was no evidence to suggest the offices of Gsoc were bugged, let alone that gardaí were involved.
However, he said the reaction of a landline in the Gsoc offices in ringing when tested for bugging in the early hours of the morning was unexplained.
He also noted that personnel from UK security company Verrimus - which carried out the security sweep for Gsoc - were adamant when interviewed by him that the anomalies they found suggested bugging.
The office of the Garda Ombudsman Commission on Abbey Street Upper, Dublin 1. Photograph: Collins
The office of the Garda Ombudsman Commission on Abbey Street Upper, Dublin 1. Photograph: Collins
When it emerged in February, 2014, that Verrimus had been asked to conduct the review and had kept the findings from the Government and the Garda it created significant controversy in that it suggested a breakdown in trust between the bodies.
And when Gsoc released a report saying there was no evidence the Garda was suspected of the alleged bugging the then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan was irate, saying that statement effectively appointed the Garda as chief suspect.
Public statements were exchanged between Garda and Gsoc, sinking an already turbulent relationship to a new low.
Second wave of Sgt McCabe inquiries
The Fennelly Commission was established in April 2014, primarily to investigate the taping of phone calls at Garda stations but also to issue an interim report on the resignation of Martin Callinan as Garda commissioner in early 2014. Its interim report concluded Mr Kenny “did not intend” to put pressure on Mr Callinan to resign. The full report published in April 2017 found no criminal cases were materially affected by the recording of telephone calls in and out of Garda stations around the country.
The report of the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation into the Cavan-Monaghan region of An Garda Síochána was published last year. It was established on foot of the findings of the Guerin report. The O’Higgins report found Mr Shatter, Mr Callinan and the Department of Justice handled complaints made by Sgt McCabe in a professional and appropriate manner “at all times”. It identified serious flaws and failures in criminal investigations in the Cavan-Monaghan division in 2007 and 2008, but found no evidence of Garda criminality or corruption.
Retired judge Iarflaith O’Neill carried out a report into allegations of a smear campaign within the force against Sgt McCabe. Judge O’Neill recommended a commission of investigation into the issue, although Sgt McCabe objected to this approach, as did various political parties. The investigation was upgraded into a full tribunal of inquiry, which has now begun its work under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Peter Charleton.
The Government also intends to carry out a “root and branch” review of An Garda Síochána following concern over the exaggeration of the number of drink driving breath tests carried out. It is an expansion of a previous review requested by the Independent Alliance into the management and culture of the force. The precise approach of the inquiry has yet to be worked out, but Ministers at this week’s Cabinet meeting cited the example of the review of policing in Northern Ireland following the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Phantom alcohol tests, wrongful convictions
In March 2017, the Garda was forced to admit that of the two million alcohol breath tests it claimed were carried out on motorists between 2012 and 2016, one million were bogus.
They had been recorded on the Garda’s Pulse computer database but had never actually happened.
On the same day the Garda also revealed major problems with the fixed charge notice system related to road traffic enforcement and penalty points.
It said 1470,000 had been wrongly summoned to the court to answer charges. Some had been summoned despite having been sent an FCN in the post and paid the fine. And in other cases no FCN was ever sent and the case went directly to a summons.
The Garda said just over 14,600 of the people summoned to court were convicted and sanctions were imposed. And it must now contact those people and have their convictions set aside in the courts.
The Garda must also repay the fines of those motorists involved and other costs arising from all of the cases.
Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan remains under extreme pressure about the breath testing data in particular.
Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Suillivan, during a press briefing in March 2017. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times
Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Suillivan, during a press briefing in March 2017. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times
The Policing Authority had not been notified about an audit into the data and its members read of the audit’s existence in The Irish Times in March 2017.
Ms O’Sullivan is under pressure because, as suggested by Fianna Fail, it appears senior Garda management did not make fulsome efforts to get the accurate breath test data until after a story revealing there was a problem was published in this newspaper on February 20th.
There is dissatisfaction in political circles of Ms O’Sullivan’s handling of the issue and doubts that the Garda would have ever revealed the nature and extent of the breath test problems if the issue hadn’t been exposed in the media.
Fianna Fail is currently considering a motion in the Dáil that would express no confidence in senior Garda management.
Gardaí at a checkpoint in Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times
Gardaí at a checkpoint in Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times
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Minister for Finance Michael Noonan kept batting away requests for the truth on the IBRC/Siteserv deal for more than six months through the course of 19 parliamentary questions.publish Oberstown review ‘deeply problematic’Authors of report into period of disorder at children’s detention centre in 2016 speak outMon, Aug 6, 2018, 01:00Maresa FaganMinister for Children Katherine Zappone said an operational review of the children’s detention centre will not be published because of the “passage of time”. Photograph: Nick BradshawA decision by the Minister for Children not to publish a report that followed a period of disorder at Oberstownchildren’s detention centre two years ago has been described by the report’s authors as “deeply problematic”.Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zapponesaid an operational review of the children’s detention centre, commissioned in response to significant challenges at the facility in 2016, will not be published because of the “passage of time”.A major fire causing €3 million in property damage, protests by youths, and strike action by staff over health and safety concerns during 2016 were among a series of incidents to trigger reviews of security, health and safety, behavioural management and operations at the facility.Prof Barry Goldson, a child law expert from the University of Liverpool, and Prof Nick Hardwick, former chair of the UK’s parole board, were commissioned to assess the Oberstown facility against international human rights standards and best practice. They also looked at the use of restraint and single separation at the facility, which can hold up to 54 young offenders.Speaking publicly on the issue for the first time, Profs Goldson and Hardwick said the decision not to publish the report was “deeply problematic”.The UK-based academics told Belfast-based website The Detail: “We have very grave concerns about what we learned, what individuals told us, and what we discovered during the operational review and believe it would serve the public interest for our findings to be published.Punishment and rehabilitationPrison population increases sharply following years of declineTougher anti-corruption laws to tackle white collar crimeRedacted version“A number of boys involved in an incident at Oberstown in 2016 were given extended prison sentences when they came before the courts this year and further children have been issued with lengthy prison sentences for incidents that occurred shortly after we completed our review. If our report had been published it may have been of interest to the courts and relevant to the sentencing of these children.”The authors said a redacted version of the report could be published.A representative for the Minister said: “The department is aware of the view that publication of the report is in the public interest. However, given the passage of time it is considered that it would be misleading to publish the report now, having regard to progress that has been achieved in the interim.“The review was carried out following a particularly difficult time in Oberstown. There had been serious incidents involving young people which threatened the safety of the campus. However, we are advised by Oberstown management that the environment in Oberstown is now more stable. There is evidence of positive change in the day to day operations.”Asked to clarify the reasons for not publishing, a representative for Oberstown said: “While due to legal advice it was not possible to publish the report in full, the recommendations of all reviews have been published in full, and a review implementation group was established in March 2017 to consider these recommendations.”‘Legal risks’The board of the facility confirmed legal costs of more than €19,000 between February 2017 and April 2018 to assess the operational review findings.Profs Goldson and Hardwick, however, have broken their silence on the unpublished report, which has been the subject of protracted correspondence between the UK-based academics and the board of management of the centre and the Department of Children.Documentation obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation reveals the children’s experts sought clarification on the decision not to publish their 67-page report and on “legal risks” associated with their findings.The Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) requested a copy of the Goldson/Hardwick findings and was given an opportunity to read the report on site in May 2018.The State watchdog said: “While it would be preferable if Hiqa were to be issued with the report, as Hiqa has had access to the content of the report, our statutory powers of inspection and monitoring have not been hindered.”In May, three youths were handed down sentences of five years for their role in a “rampage” at the facility in August 2016, which involved a fire causing more than €3 million in property damage. In a separate case, a youth detained at Oberstown was sentenced last month to four years in prison for causing €50,000 in damage at the facility during four incidents between January and October
Public Inquiry · Unanswered questions: “From someone who has experianced and observed the criminal justice system since 1964 who met shan mohangi and many other murderers while still a teenager,it was the stories u heard that only many years later made some kind of sense ,for instance i cant recall the exactdate but a peggy flynn who had just come back from lourdes {she was supposed to be a prostitute}was found murdered on sandycove beach, by coinscidence i met the person who was on remand in mountjoy accused of this crime he told me that even though he was going to plead guilty he would never go to prison?i was told a lot of other things which i took with a pinch of salt but these other things were confirmed to me by by an m,w, whos then girlfriend was a prostitute as were most of her friends,the person did stand trial was repersented by frank martin who went on to be a judge of the irish courts and as he said he did not go to prison for that ladys murder,thats one example,”THOSE WORKING-CLASS CHILDREN THAT ARE CONDEMED TO A LIFE OF HELL BY THE “POWERS THAT BE”?
Public Inquiry · Unanswered questions: “From someone who has experianced and observed the criminal justice system since 1964 who met shan mohangi and many other murderers while still a teenager,it was the stories u heard that only many years later made some kind of sense ,for instance i cant recall the exactdate but a peggy flynn who had just come back from lourdes {she was supposed to be a prostitute}was found murdered on sandycove beach, by coinscidence i met the person who was on remand in mountjoy accused of this crime he told me that even though he was going to plead guilty he would never go to prison?i was told a lot of other things which i took with a pinch of salt but these other things were confirmed to me by by an m,w, whos then girlfriend was a prostitute as were most of her friends,the person did stand trial was repersented by frank martin who went on to be a judge of the irish courts and as he said he did not go to prison for that ladys murder,thats one example,”THOSE WORKING-CLASS CHILDREN THAT ARE CONDEMED TO A LIFE OF HELL BY THE “POWERS THAT BE”?
Public Inquiry · Unanswered questions: “From someone who has experianced and observed the criminal justice system since 1964 who met shan mohangi and many other murderers while still a teenager,it was the stories u heard that only many years later made some kind of sense ,for instance i cant recall the exactdate but a peggy flynn who had just come back from lourdes {she was supposed to be a prostitute}was found murdered on sandycove beach, by coinscidence i met the person who was on remand in mountjoy accused of this crime he told me that even though he was going to plead guilty he would never go to prison?i was told a lot of other things which i took with a pinch of salt but these other things were confirmed to me by by an m,w, whos then girlfriend was a prostitute as were most of her friends,the person did stand trial was repersented by frank martin who went on to be a judge of the irish courts and as he said he did not go to prison for that ladys murder,thats one example,”THOSE WORKING-CLASS CHILDREN THAT ARE CONDEMED TO A LIFE OF HELL BY THE “POWERS THAT BE”?
Removal of 'outspoken' Master of the High Court criticised by mortgage relief campaigners
25/01/2019 - 07:43
By Digital Desk staff The decision to remove the Master of the High Court from cases involving debts has been questioned by mortgage relief campaigners.
Edmund Honohan has been highly critical of the way banks and vulture funds treat mortgage holders struggling to pay their debts.
He has also helped draft legislation designed to prevent the eviction of distressed mortgage holders.
Edmund Honohan
The decision to reduce his caseload was made by the president of the High Court.
David Hall from the Irish Mortgage Holders Association thinks it is bad news for people trying to hold on to their homes.
"He actually cared about due process and ensuring the process took place and that the paperwork was in order and that people got a fair, dignified and respectful hearing," said Mr Hall.
"That has now been removed and the only people who have benefitted from this are the banks."
"Outspoken is a word that is used but telling the truth is effectively what he was doing which is representing a set of circumstances."
"People were coming before him in court - lay people without legal representation - and he was helping them with the process, guiding them through the process and challenging the banks.
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Lynn Ruane
Independent Senator
Lynn Ruane: People with a criminal record for minor offences deserve a second chance
Convictions for minor offences can hold people back from accessing employment and education long after they have completed their rehabilitation, writes Lynn Ruane.
Image: Shutterstock/Zolnierek
2 hours ago 7,284 29
MANY OF US made mistakes or did things we may regret, when we were young. For most of us, thankfully, those mistakes don’t follow us for the rest of our lives.
For some people though, who have a criminal record for minor offences committed in their youth their mistakes do follow them through life.
When a person has gone through a substantial period of rehabilitation and then tries to get back into employment, is it fair that a minor conviction sustained years earlier still has a profound effect on their options?
As a community worker, I witnessed people being refused entry to degree programmes to which they would have brought a wealth of experience and lived reality such as youth-work and social work.
They were refused because of minor offences on their criminal record; offences that were simply no longer relevant due to a combination of the passage of time, changes in behaviour and circumstance and major, substantive rehabilitation.
Spent Convictions
A ‘spent conviction’, sometimes also called an expungement, is a conviction that does not have to be disclosed to potential employers during the Garda vetting process.
Garda vetting takes place for certain employment and education opportunities so the idea behind spent convictions is the principle that a person who has committed an offence in the past should be provided with the opportunity to reintegrate into society.
The need for a spent conviction regime is rooted in the principles of rehabilitative justice, that is that after a certain period of time, individuals deserve a ‘second chance’ and the opportunity to move on without the inevitable negative effects involved in disclosing a criminal conviction.
This is especially true for young people where a criminal conviction can have a disproportionate impact on life prospects.
It is commonly accepted that society benefits both socially and economically from the reintegration and rehabilitation of those with a conviction by reducing recidivism; a spent convictions regime must have these principles at its core.
Current Law
Ireland was the last European Union country to introduce a spent convictions regime with the passage of Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act in 2016 but its rehabilitative nature is limited, both in practice and also when compared with other European countries.
The maximum length of a custodial sentence that can become spent is 12 months or less and for a non-custodial sentence, the upper limit is 24 months or less. The Act also places a limit so that only one conviction can ever become spent.
The Act also sets the rehabilitative period after which a conviction becomes spent at a blanket seven years, without distinction as to the nature of the sentence and with no proportionality between the length of the sentence and the following rehabilitative period.
The Act also contains no recognition of the disproportionate impact of a conviction on the prospects on a young person.
Debates
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Several pieces of spent convictions legislation were debated from 2007 onwards and it has been widely acknowledged both within and outside the Oireachtas that the provisions of our current regime are restrictive.
During a second stage debate on the Spent Convictions Bill 2007, the current Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan TD, suggested that the conviction free period of 7 years for a custodial sentence and 5 years for a non-custodial sentence were too long.
In the debate on the identical Spent Convictions Bill 2011, later introduced as an opposition bill by Fianna Fail, these issues were also raised.
Even during the Oireachtas debate on what was to become our current law, Deputy Niall Collins stated that the cut-off for eligible custodial sentences of 12 months was too short and should be extended to 30 months. By comparison, it was 30 months in England and Wales at the time and has since been extended further in those jurisdictions.
Time and time again throughout the course of these debates, it was stated that the provisions of our current regime do not get the balance right between the rehabilitation of individuals and the protection of society as a whole.
When the 2016 Act was being debated, we were told that since this was the first time any form of spent conviction law was introduced in Ireland, we needed to tread carefully.
We’ve now had almost three years and it’s time to make changes that ensure our spent convictions law are actually achieving their rehabilitative aims.
Restrictive rules on spent convictions, do not help to protect society. Society is best protected by the re-integration and rehabilitation of minor offenders.
Proposals
On the final day of the Seanad before we broke for the Christmas break, I introduced new legislation with the intention of addressing some of these issues and which would provide for broader and fairer access to spent convictions.
My proposed law is entitled the Criminal Justice (Rehabilitative Periods) Bill 2018 and will have its first Oireachtas debate in the spring. I’m aiming to make four substantive amendments to the 2016 Act:
Currently, convictions can only become ‘spent’ if they attracted a custodial sentence of less than a year or a non-custodial sentence of less than two years. I’m proposing those limits be increased to two years for custodial sentences and four years for non-custodial sentences.
Currently, only one offence is eligible to become spent – under these proposals that would increase so that two minor offences could become spent.
We should also introduce the principle of proportionality to the relationship between the length of the sentence and the length of the rehabilitative period the person has gone through. So instead of everyone waiting seven years, in some cases when a person has gone through substantial rehabilitation – that could happen sooner.
We need to recognise the specific rehabilitative needs of young people. Under these proposals, young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 would be given an opportunity for a spent conviction after a shorter period of rehabilitation.
Time for Change
I know first-hand how beneficial it is, if the people working in professions like addictions treatment, homelessness and social work, have relevant life experience.
Some of the best community workers and drug workers I have known had previous minor convictions themselves before going through a process of rehabilitation and changing their lives.
I’m aware of cases where students have reached the second or third year of their degrees in the social sciences but have then been refused work placement because of old, minor offences still being on their record.
This is not only harmful to the individual but detrimental to society too as our laws are literally forcing such people out of education and employment which flies in the face of rehabilitation.
I am hopeful we can change this in 2019 and work towards a criminal justice system that is fair, promotes rehabilitation and progression and is in line with other European countries.
Lynn Ruane is an Independent Senator
Friday, January 11, 2019
Convicted drug dealer branded ‘neighbour from hell’ as residents reveal long-running ordeal over constant visits to Dublin house by hoodies and druggies overdosing outside
The Irish Sun on Sunday today lifts the lid on 47-year-old Lena Moran’s litany of criminal convictions — as we lay bare the ordeal her fed-up neighbours in Swords, Co Dublin, have been subjected to
Exclusive
6th January 2019, 9:00 am
Updated: 6th January 2019, 9:00 am
A CONVICTED drug dealer has been branded “a neighbour from hell” as we reveal the long-running ordeal that other residents have endured.
Mother Lena Moran, 47, is being probed by the Gardai and council officials over constant anti-social behaviour at her local authority house.
Moran is a local horror
Moran is a local horror
The Irish Sun on Sunday today lifts the lid on Moran’s litany of criminal convictions — as we lay bare the ordeal her fed-up neighbours in Swords, Co Dublin, have been subjected to.
The council house tenant has been busted with heroin and cocaine on numerous occasions. And she has one conviction for unlawful possession of drugs for sale or supply in 2007.
Frantic neighbours of Moran — who first became addicted to heroin at the age of 14 and subsequently got involved with criminals — told us how they were “living in fear”.
Locals in the Castlegrange estate revealed there could be dozens of visitors a day to her pad — with “all sorts” of anti-social behaviour day and night by them.
Neighbours of Moran have told us how they were 'living in fear'
Neighbours of Moran have told us how they were 'living in fear'
One desperate dad declared: “It is a living nightmare. She is the neighbour from hell.
“We can’t take any more. Something has to be done about this madness. We are at our wit’s end.”
An Irish Sun on Sunday investigation team noticed a steady stream of visitors dropping into the property on a daily basis.
Some of the visitors, including hooded individuals, stayed at her gaff for short periods of time — heightening neighbours’ fears of anti-social behaviour.
Some of the huge number of visitors who turned up at Moran’s property, with some only staying for a very short period of time
Some of the huge number of visitors who turned up at Moran’s property, with some only staying for a very short period of time
And our photos show discarded syringes in a play area just 60m from Moran’s pad as horrified residents revealed they have had to stop their kids going out to play.
Terrorised families have also complained about criminal damage to their vehicles by some individuals, with one car even being stolen and set on fire.
Locals say they have to “put up with” a series of overdoses directly outside Moran’s council house and “never-ending” late-night and early-morning disturbances.
Some of the noisy disturbances — which include shouting, rows and physical fighting — have started as early as 5am while others have happened during daylight hours.
Exasperated residents told the Irish Sun on Sunday they have had to install security cameras and wear earplugs to get any sleep.
Locals say they are speaking out about the chaos due to real concerns resulting from the presence of Moran’s acquaintances in the area.
We understand the Gardai have carried out a number of raids on the property. Fed-up residents have repeatedly complained to the cops and council chiefs about problems in the estate coming from Moran.
Locals say there have been issues with the tenant and drugs for years. But they lashed out at Fingal County Council and accused the local authority of a lack of action.
Ireland is facing the worst housing crisis in its history. Yet the council allow a woman with a drug dealing conviction to live in a council home when there are families with children living on the street or in hotels.
Furious resident
One furious resident said: “We are fed up and tired of the non- responsiveness of the council.
“After numerous Garda raids and nightly disturbances, we now have to put up with hooded individuals lurking on our street and looking into our sitting room windows for items to steal.
“We are starting a signed petition to present to the council for action.
“Ireland is facing the worst housing crisis in its history. Yet the council allow a woman with a drug dealing conviction to live in a council home when there are families with children living on the street or in hotels.
“Fingal County Council should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring our pleas for action. We are speaking out as a last resort effort to receive help for an entire housing estate. We are desperate, this is an intolerable situation.”
Moran was previously given 150 hours of community service in lieu of a three-month prison sentence for the unlawful possession of drugs for sale or supply after being busted with cocaine in 2007.
Among her other raps, the addict mum was given a €400 fine for the unlawful possession of heroin in July 2016. Moran was further charged with the obstruction of a garda relating to the case after she discarded a bag of heroin at the side of a vehicle and swallowed another bag.
In May 2016, Moran was fined €200 for another obstruction charge after she refused to be searched in a Garda station. She was also convicted and fined €200 after being caught with heroin in September 2016.
Syringe in the play area
Syringe in the play area
Swords District Court heard Moran became addicted to heroin at the age of 14 and then “got in with an undesirable crowd of criminals”. Her barrister also said her father had gone on TV alleging he was involved in the drugs trade and this had implications on the family as they received threats.
On Facebook, Moran says she works “at home” and lists her favourite TV shows as Crimewatch, Forensic Files and Love/Hate.
But her neighbours say they are “truly terrified” by what’s happening on their doorstep — and are putting together a petition as they now don’t feel safe.
One local said: “For many years now Fingal County Council has allowed a woman with drug convictions to live in a council house on our street.
“Despite numerous complaints for many years to Fingal County Council from many of the residents in the estate, this woman has been allowed to remain here.
“Gardai have raided this house numerous times for years. Both the Gardai and the emergency services have been called in for very frequent late-night disturbances.
“Drug addicts are collapsing on the street and the ambulance service has been required to come and give necessary medical assistance.”
They added: “Residents do not feel safe walking on our road anymore as many hooded addicts roam the street at all hours of the day and night. Even the children don’t play on the street anymore.
“Fingal County Council has been informed numerous times by email and phone. The answer we get, if we ever get one, is that they are investigating.
“Still, for years now, no action has been taken by the council. We are now gathering names of all protesting residents on a petition to have Moran removed.
“We believe that Fingal County Council should take action and remove her from our estate. We are begging for help. Another resident said: “I’ve never seen the like of it.
“The anti-social behaviour is so blatant. You would hear the noise all the time, people calling to her house day and night, shouting for Lena Moran. It’s hard to live here.
“We complain to the Gardai, we complain to the council, the council don’t do anything.”
The Irish Sun on Sunday has seen a series of emails sent by the concerned residents to Fingal County Council.
In their most recent response to residents, officials said the matter was under investigation and said they had contacted cops. An official in their housing department wrote: “I wish to acknowledge receipt of your recent email regarding allegations of drug dealing and criminality from a council tenancy in the Castlegrange estate.
“Please be assured that the Council’s Estate Management Team investigate all allegations received. I note the allegations reference significant criminal activity.
'It looked like a man had overdosed & was dying on the green'
By Gary Meneely
FED-up residents have been highlighting how anti-social behaviour has being taking place on their doorstep for years.
Here are excerpts from emails sent to Fingal County Council by concerned residents as far back as 2017 — and the local authority response.
MARCH 21, 2017 — EMAIL FROM CONCERNED RESIDENT TO FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL
I SPOKE to a colleague of yours on the telephone this morning and I was speaking to him regarding a tenant in (the house in) Swords, Co Dublin.
The Gardai have searched this house on numerous occasions and there have been public nuisance rows and at the moment on St Patrick’s Day a young person passed out on the doorstep and she put him in her car and drove away.
I am disappointed in the area I live in. I have lived in the house since the 1990s and it was always a good place to live. Why are the Council allowing this tenant to bring this area into disrepute when there are thousands of people homeless and living in Emergency Accommodation who would be ecstatic to have a three-bedroomed house to raise their families in? I await your reply.
APRIL 3, 2017 — COUNCIL RESPONSE
I WISH to advise you that your email has been noted. Kind Regards.
JUNE 23, 2017 — CONCERNED RESIDENT
I AM writing to you to report an incident that happened yesterday afternoon.
I was driving home yesterday around 6.50pm. As I turned the corner, [I could see a man] simply falling about unable to walk properly. There were small children on the street and several neighbours looking on at this spectacle from across the street and also the neighbouring houses...
I called the Guards to report what was happening and told them it looked like the man was overdosed and dying on the green.
The Guards simply told me that they had received about seven calls already and that they would send someone as quickly as possible. They advised me to call an ambulance and tell them exactly where the man was and also wait for them on the street to show them the way once they arrived.
I called 999 and after about ten minutes the Fire Brigade arrived. I waved to them and showed them where the body was lying. Fortunately they revived the man and shortly after the man’s brother showed up and took him away.
We have been complaining for YEARS . . . and Fingal County Council does absolutely nothing! We have even found used needles along the walkway around the estate especially the walkways around the green area at the end of the road.
None of the children living in this estate are safe and we as tenants have taken enough of this.
NOVEMBER 26, 2018 — CONCERNED RESIDENT
WELL just to let you know we did not have a nice weekend on our road . . . .
On Sunday morning approx 2.30am there was a very loud altercation which continued for approx 45 to 60 mins. My husband rang the Gardai but to be honest they were obviously very busy or else they could not be bothered coming up to deal with the same old.
I first awoke to loud banging which I now believe was the front door of [the house] being kicked . . . then shouting and I mean shouting because I could hear loud and clear what was being said . . .
Can you please advise me what I can do to feel safe in my home again?
NOVEMBER 27, 2018 – RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL
I WISH to acknowledge receipt of your email dated November 26, 2018, in relation to the above tenancy.
Please note these matters are under investigation by Estate Management Section. Please be advised that the Gardai are the statutory body responsible for investigating any reports of alleged drug dealing.
I regret the delay in replying to this email as I was on leave. Can you please address any further emails to estatemanagement@fingal.ie in order that you receive more prompt attention going forward.
Please do not hesitate to contact me . . . should you wish to discuss this matter further with me.
“I expect that you have also referred this matter to An Garda Siochana for investigation. As part of the council’s investigative process, I can confirm that Fingal County Council have contacted the Garda Superintendent in Coolock on the matter.” The local residents have also contacted their local TD Clare Daly who has raised the matter with Fingal County Council.
When asked for a statement by the Irish Sun on Sunday, Fingal County Council said they couldn’t comment on “individual tenancies”.
But the council said they make “strenuous efforts within our powers under current legislation, to resolve a range of problems emanating from anti-social behaviour, understanding the detrimental effect on the quality of life for communities, where it occurs”.
They added: “The increased incidence of anti-social behaviour has become a marked feature of society generally in recent times and local authority estates have not escaped.
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“It is important to point out that there are several categories of anti-social behaviour and various levels of seriousness within these categories.
“Unfortunately, it is our experience that in an increasing number of cases, anti-social behaviour is of such a nature that it is properly a matter for the Garda authorities to deal with it.
“It would be inappropriate in some cases for us as a local authority to engage beyond our competence, particularly where cases of criminal behaviour are involved.”
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Having just finished the last of the christmas cake, a project upon which I have been working devotedly and unaided for a full week, I finally settle down to writing again, considering it marginally preferable to the physical exercise I ought to be contemplating if I’m ever to get into anything with the word skinny in the title again.
This blog used to practically write itself, my ire erupting volcanically at weekly intervals. In the beginning every story from the slammer was so implausible and fascinatingly horrid that words rained down onto the page like molten lava. Fiery red. Burnt orange. My pen used to be inked by tears, but I am rarely moved to pick it up now. Hot rage has become cold with the time and prison time is time like no other. Those who have never served it do not understand. Tattoo artists the world over depict its unique torture perfectly as a clock with no hands.
The love is still there. I feel it occasionally in fractional thaws that surge like meltwater when we hold each other tightly at the end of a visit, but even when the officers hang back kindly as they clear the hall, heads bowed to give some scant privacy to our last desperate moments together, time is never on our side and soon I am leaving again, waiting by the grey perimeter fence, then back to the car and the dark motorway home. They don’t call it the chiller for nothing. We are human deep freezers now, trying to preserve the lovers we used to be and dream we’ll be again.
Nothing flows anymore in this arctic emotional landscape. Blogging has begun to feel curiously like childbirth and Mary Mother of Jesus herself (plus any other mother who has gone into labour over Christmas) will attest that this is an inadvisable pursuit during the festive season, hence no December blog this year.
It’s not that there is nothing to write about: in November Prisonbag won the Longford Prize for outstanding achievement making it’s mum proud as punch. There’s precious little dignity in prisonwifery and this was a small moment of unexpected triumph, plus I got to wear heals, read aloud in Westminster and kiss Jon Snow (the broadcaster not the Game of Thrones hottie, but still…). I was invited onto Woman’s hour again too for a special New Year’s Day edition, which pretty much means I’ve arrived at the pinnacle of my ambition and can die happy, and yet still the page stays blank.
On the last day of the year comes the inevitable fall. Rob is refused his long awaited move to Dcat (open prison) on the basis that there is an unsatisfied confiscation order against him. This is not actually grounds for refusing a person’s passage through the prison system, but that is slightly beside the point here as no such order has even been issued against Rob anyway.
This is prison all over. They get it wrong. You say “Rubbish, show me some evidence, like say, the confiscation order…?”, they say “chocolate starfish cardboard” or something equally senile, and that is the end of it. They always win because they hold the power and the keys to your cell. We’ll appeal. We’ll wait. But it’s hard to keep faith with the injustice system.
And why would you keep a (hitherto) non-violent man who is no flight risk under constant guard in any case? Are we made of money in “Great” Britain? Don’t we need the cash to turn the M20 into a car park for Brexit or something? Rob’s immaculate behaviour whilst in prison is mentioned on the refusal letter but counts for nothing, else it wouldn’t have been a refusal letter…
This man has been bankrupted, all of his businesses have been dissolved, his pension has been taken and he is serving a nine year jail term. The family world he left will not be the one he will one day rejoin. The girls are almost unrecognisable from the children they were when he left. His mum, fully compos mentis prior to his conviction will probably never see him again or recognise him if she does due to the onset of full-blown dementia - “chocolate starfish cardboard” is a line I borrowed from her… He has nothing at all in the world except for his great spirit and a kindness and intelligence which make it possible to keep on loving him from all the way across the universe in the free world. He has us, but it takes every iota of strength we can muster to counteract the best efforts of the system to prise us apart.
When will the pound of flesh be had I wonder? After some really committed gluttony this year, aided and abetted by the efforts of my youngest who has been making sinfully good salted caramel in large batches, ostensibly as Christmas gifts but mostly for family consumption, I have several extra pounds to donate to the MOJ, but it is a hungry beast…
What will it take to change the prison system for one that works? It is a question I am asked daily in emails from despairing folk with loved ones held in British prisons. Seventy percent of the 61,500 people imprisoned in 2018 were sentenced for non violent offences. We lock up more of our population than any other European country and more of our prison population are now serving life sentences even than in the US and yet the national audit office confirms that there is no correlation between prison population and levels of crime. I.e prison doesn’t work. The public just think it does.
I see no sense of urgency in the corridors of power however. My friend and neighbour Jacob Tas, head of our biggest non governmental prison reform organisation NACRO (who also throws a mean New Year’s Eve party btw) is so utterly demoralised by the constant changing of ministers and the lack of bravery and action vis a vis prison reform in Westminster that he is leaving the job to work on the Dutch Lifeboats. He has given up and I am hard on his heels.
I used to think that telling our story might help, but I don’t think that anyone in power is listening. Perhaps we need more than words? Should we prison families begin sending in weekly tupperwares of rotting flesh and viscera to the Ministry of Justice as a symbolic representation of what their system is doing to our families and children whilst also failing to make our streets safer or reduce crime or reoffending? Is 2019 the year for action? My midriff certainly hopes so!
Having just finished the last of the christmas cake, a project upon which I have been working devotedly and unaided for a full week, I finally settle down to writing again, considering it marginally preferable to the physical exercise I ought to be contemplating if I’m ever to get into anything with the word skinny in the title again.
This blog used to practically write itself, my ire erupting volcanically at weekly intervals. In the beginning every story from the slammer was so implausible and fascinatingly horrid that words rained down onto the page like molten lava. Fiery red. Burnt orange. My pen used to be inked by tears, but I am rarely moved to pick it up now. Hot rage has become cold with the time and prison time is time like no other. Those who have never served it do not understand. Tattoo artists the world over depict its unique torture perfectly as a clock with no hands.
The love is still there. I feel it occasionally in fractional thaws that surge like meltwater when we hold each other tightly at the end of a visit, but even when the officers hang back kindly as they clear the hall, heads bowed to give some scant privacy to our last desperate moments together, time is never on our side and soon I am leaving again, waiting by the grey perimeter fence, then back to the car and the dark motorway home. They don’t call it the chiller for nothing. We are human deep freezers now, trying to preserve the lovers we used to be and dream we’ll be again.
Nothing flows anymore in this arctic emotional landscape. Blogging has begun to feel curiously like childbirth and Mary Mother of Jesus herself (plus any other mother who has gone into labour over Christmas) will attest that this is an inadvisable pursuit during the festive season, hence no December blog this year.
It’s not that there is nothing to write about: in November Prisonbag won the Longford Prize for outstanding achievement making it’s mum proud as punch. There’s precious little dignity in prisonwifery and this was a small moment of unexpected triumph, plus I got to wear heals, read aloud in Westminster and kiss Jon Snow (the broadcaster not the Game of Thrones hottie, but still…). I was invited onto Woman’s hour again too for a special New Year’s Day edition, which pretty much means I’ve arrived at the pinnacle of my ambition and can die happy, and yet still the page stays blank.
On the last day of the year comes the inevitable fall. Rob is refused his long awaited move to Dcat (open prison) on the basis that there is an unsatisfied confiscation order against him. This is not actually grounds for refusing a person’s passage through the prison system, but that is slightly beside the point here as no such order has even been issued against Rob anyway.
This is prison all over. They get it wrong. You say “Rubbish, show me some evidence, like say, the confiscation order…?”, they say “chocolate starfish cardboard” or something equally senile, and that is the end of it. They always win because they hold the power and the keys to your cell. We’ll appeal. We’ll wait. But it’s hard to keep faith with the injustice system.
And why would you keep a (hitherto) non-violent man who is no flight risk under constant guard in any case? Are we made of money in “Great” Britain? Don’t we need the cash to turn the M20 into a car park for Brexit or something? Rob’s immaculate behaviour whilst in prison is mentioned on the refusal letter but counts for nothing, else it wouldn’t have been a refusal letter…
This man has been bankrupted, all of his businesses have been dissolved, his pension has been taken and he is serving a nine year jail term. The family world he left will not be the one he will one day rejoin. The girls are almost unrecognisable from the children they were when he left. His mum, fully compos mentis prior to his conviction will probably never see him again or recognise him if she does due to the onset of full-blown dementia - “chocolate starfish cardboard” is a line I borrowed from her… He has nothing at all in the world except for his great spirit and a kindness and intelligence which make it possible to keep on loving him from all the way across the universe in the free world. He has us, but it takes every iota of strength we can muster to counteract the best efforts of the system to prise us apart.
When will the pound of flesh be had I wonder? After some really committed gluttony this year, aided and abetted by the efforts of my youngest who has been making sinfully good salted caramel in large batches, ostensibly as Christmas gifts but mostly for family consumption, I have several extra pounds to donate to the MOJ, but it is a hungry beast…
What will it take to change the prison system for one that works? It is a question I am asked daily in emails from despairing folk with loved ones held in British prisons. Seventy percent of the 61,500 people imprisoned in 2018 were sentenced for non violent offences. We lock up more of our population than any other European country and more of our prison population are now serving life sentences even than in the US and yet the national audit office confirms that there is no correlation between prison population and levels of crime. I.e prison doesn’t work. The public just think it does.
I see no sense of urgency in the corridors of power however. My friend and neighbour Jacob Tas, head of our biggest non governmental prison reform organisation NACRO (who also throws a mean New Year’s Eve party btw) is so utterly demoralised by the constant changing of ministers and the lack of bravery and action vis a vis prison reform in Westminster that he is leaving the job to work on the Dutch Lifeboats. He has given up and I am hard on his heels.
I used to think that telling our story might help, but I don’t think that anyone in power is listening. Perhaps we need more than words? Should we prison families begin sending in weekly tupperwares of rotting flesh and viscera to the Ministry of Justice as a symbolic representation of what their system is doing to our families and children whilst also failing to make our streets safer or reduce crime or reoffending? Is 2019 the year for action? My midriff certainly hopes so!
