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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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!
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!
