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Rule 39 Correspondence - guidance - issue September 2010 - Solicitor David Wells highlights the ignorance that still exists around legal mail
Lie detector tests and you - issue September 2010 - Geoff Massey gives you the low-down on what’s involved when undergoing a polygraph test, and describes the safeguards and consequences of a test
The rules are simple, choose your own loophole
- issue September 2010 - Billy Little asks why bother with PSOs and PSIs when governors have the final say?
Your Children Your Rights - issue September 2010 - Many people lose contact with their children when they are in prison. But what are your legal rights? Action for Prisoners’ Families in collaboration with Rights of Women have published a four part series entitled ‘ Your Children,Your Rights.’ In the first of four articles based on these guides, APF Communications Manager Jessica Berens discusses the issues that face parents when they are in prison.
The innocence of prisoners’ children - issue September 2010 - Karen Mellor is concerned by the lack of official understanding of children on prison visits
What’s a ‘psychopath’, a ‘DSPD’ and should Peter Sutcliffe ever be released?
- issue September 2010 - Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Bob Johnson asks some pertinent questions …
‘Shout OXO’ before you die - issue September 2010 - Paul Sullivan reviews the ‘Physical Control in Care Training Manual’
Sentencing review: what’s it all about? - issue September 2010 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust, highlights the government’s review on sentencing policy
The lamp must still burn - issue September 2010 - Barrister Stanley Best looks at what prisoners can do to combat the slashing of Legal Aid funding
Halden Prison, the stuff of dreams - issue September 2010 - David Guy, formerly of HMP Ranby, explains how the British prison system should be taking its lead from Norway
My Precious - issue September 2010 - Carl Martin explains exactly how it feels to be an addict
Month by Month - issue September 2010 - Rachel Goes to the Hustings to check out the Labour leadership and celebrates the founder of Fine Cell Work
Recent developments in The Law of Confiscation - issue September 2010 - Specialist fraud barrister Christopher Foulkes and criminal defence lawyer Darryl Lockwood examine the Switalski Briefing: Recent Developments in The Law of Confiscation
Parole woes! - issue September 2010 - Solicitor Lisa Gianquitto is worried the Parole Board are reading reports that are already 8 months old
Abuse of Process - issue September 2010 - When will a Judge throw a case out of Court because of the behaviour of the Prosecution?
What’s in your file? - issue September 2010 - Keith Rose lays out a comprehensive list of what you can claim under the Data Protection Act
Prison psychologists - biased practitioners - issue September 2010 - Solicitor Niall Brooks in ‘Taking the Risk’ (Inside Time August 2010) clearly and so succinctly describes how the ‘risk society’ in which we live has impacted on the criminal justice system.
Guilty until proven innocent - historic cases - issue September 2010 - Stuart Morris reflects on how legislation has changed over the years for those accused of rape
£2bn Cuts - issue September 2010 - The Ministry of Justice is to cut £2 billion from its £9 billion budget. But where will this 20 percent cut come from?
Taking The Risk - issue August 2010 - Solicitor Niall Brookes examines our risk averse prison system
The Role of the Expert Witness - issue August 2010 - Cases involving allegations of murder are more likely to involve expert evidence than most others. Because the allegation is so serious the
prosecution are likely to be willing to incur the
costs involved. The defence must not be disadvantaged by second rate resources; solving
the classic ‘whodunnit’ can be influenced by such evidence. However phone schedules and cellsite evidence are now also commonplace in more mundane cases.
Changes to funding of prison law cases - issue August 2010 - As of 14th July 2010, significant changes have taken place to the way in which prisoners receive
funded advice and assistance in relation to prison law issues. These follow a Government review designed to tackle the dramatic rise in
spending on prison law, which rose from £1 million in 2002 to over £20 million last year.
Your Children, Your Rights - issue August 2010 - Jessica Berens introduces four free new guides that, while written for mothers in prison, may also be of use to fathers
Government admits to child abuse in Secure Centres - issue August 2010 - Whenever the Government tries to conceal a document it is most likely that it contains information that would be ‘embarrassing’ rather than a security threat; and never more so than the manual detailing the institutionalised abuse of children in privatised secure accommodation which has just been prised from the Government’s grasp.
Should IPP Deportees Escape Offending Behaviour Courses? - issue August 2010 - John O Connor asks whether special dispensation should be given to foreign national IPPs.
Probation, Police, Pleasantries & Attitudes - issue August 2010 - I’m a firm believer in giving credit where credit’s due. During my seven and a half years ‘inside,’ such was the state of affairs behind the walls of her majesty’s prison estate, I seldom had any need, nor the will, to exercise this belief. I also expected this ethos to be predominantly redundant upon my release too. Though it pains me to say it – how wrong I was.
It’s Better to Have Loved and Lost - issue August 2010 - Stanley Best asks why were Raoul Moat’s threats, reported by another prisoner, not taken sufficiently seriously by police? And is the Prison Service geared up to detect and to deal with prisoners who are mentally ill upon entering prison or who become so whilst they are detained?
The unsustainable cost of criminal justice - issue August 2010 - David Silver says he sees prolific waste and extravagance that could easily be stopped, at no extra risk to public safety
Month by Month - issue August 2010 - Rachel heralds the final year of Wormwood Scrubs’ portakabin, meets the parents of missing children and prays not to meet Melvyn Bragg or J.K. Rowling.
The Prison System... - issue August 2010 - too big to fail, and too big to succeed
An open letter to Michael Howard - issue August 2010 - ‘Prison works and protects the public’; you, as one time Conservative Home Secretary, have on many occasions claimed. But, for all your sabre rattling and alarmist politicisation of crime and order issues, you remain where you belong, which is firmly in the political wilderness.
The Joy of Six - issue August 2010 - A radical overhaul of the criminal justice system requires a Minister of Justice with balls the size of space-hoppers, writes Simon Radley
Lifers – A Time For Change - issue August 2010 - Kenny Carter calls for a fairer system for lifers who have passed their tariff dates.
Trafficking - issue August 2010 - Strategy & Tactics in Defending in Trafficking Cases
‘DSPD Units are creating psychopaths’ - issue August 2010 - Dangerous Severe Personality Disorder Units are no longer fit for purpose claims Terry Leggatt.
For whom the bell tolls - issue August 2010 - Keith Rose explains why the days of the DSPD Units at Whitemoor and Frankland are numbered.
‘To describe NOMS as a monster bureaucracy is crap’ says former DG - issue August 2010 - Philip Martin Wheatley (pictured left), Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, has resigned as Director General of the National Offender Management Service. His resignation, the Chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association said, ‘is an opportunity for a new beginning’. A
gracious tribute indeed to the first Director General to have himself previously been a prison officer and with a distinguished career in the Prison Service spanning 40 years!
Eric McGraw met him before he closed the door to his now empty office.
A massive change... - issue August 2010 - ...in sentencing imprisonment and the management of offenders is on its way
Dartmoor, Dorchester, Exeter - issue August 2010 - A leaked government report ‘Vision for Estate’ hints that Dartmoor, Dorchester and Exeter prisons may be closed
Civil Recovery Orders - issue July 2010 - … the latest way to lose everything
Does prison fail inmates with mental illness? - issue July 2010 - Solicitor David Wells argues that controlling mental illness by punishment is not the answer
Flawed sentences - issue July 2010 - Barrister Philip Rule highlights domestic burglary and that some prisoners have been unlawfully sentenced or sent to the Crown Court
“They know who you are, where you are, what you are doing and who you are doing it with!” - issue July 2010 - Inside Time’s Paul Sullivan highlights the British obsession with public surveillance
Deliberately inflicted powerlessness - issue July 2010 - John Bowden is angered by what he considers to be disinformation and rhetoric intended to camouflage the reality of the Wakefield CSC
Reducing isolation … increasing socialisation - issue July 2010 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust, highlights the Trust’s work on older people
Anonymity Until Trial - issue July 2010 - Stanley Best discusses granting anonymity until trial to those charged with rape and kindred offences.
Trials, timing and influence - issue July 2010 - Tony Joyce highlights the psychological process he believes underpins many of today’s prosecutions
Ben's Blog - issue July 2010 - Lifer Ben Gunn’s Prison Blog … the only blog by a serving British prisoner which ‘looks stupidity
and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate’.
The learning experience - issue July 2010 - Prison is actually a good place for acquiring and developing new life skills says Ryan Penn
Prison is whatever you want it to be … - issue July 2010 - Former robber Ian Charley reflects on his own years in prison and argues that the key to change rests with the individual
A matter of life and death - issue July 2010 - Charles Hanson reflects on the austere, often brutal regimes that existed before the liberalisation of the prison system
Month by Month - issue July 2010 - Rachel feels like Alice in Wonderland as she goes to The Clink restaurant in HMP Highdown
Housing... - issue July 2010 - brick by brick!
Quality not quantity - issue July 2010 - In 2001, Inside Time’s Rachel Billington and John Bowers interviewed Dame Anne Owers at the beginning of her appointment as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons. Nine years on, with Dame Anne announcing that she will be retiring from the post on 14 July, they return to the same office.
‘An open letter to Kenneth Clarke MP, Secretary of State for Justice’ - issue July 2010 - John O’Connor challenges the government to implement measures that would lead to a better criminal justice system
‘Prisons are awash with drugs’ - issue July 2010 - An estimated £100 million worth of drugs are smuggled into prisons every
year but there is a worrying lack of knowledge about how they get there
Fraud: Tax evasion and money laundering … the new favourites
- issue June 2010 - In this short article we consider the law on tax evasion and money laundering – two separate types of offences which are often to be found on the same indictment.
Beware of the men in tights! - issue June 2010 - Arshid Khatana is more than a little concerned at the activities of the Regional Asset Recovery Team
Common humanity - issue June 2010 - Shahida Begum maintains that legal safeguards and the protection of fundamental rights must be afforded to prisoners by the ECHR
A visit to the Scrubs - issue June 2010 - The recent ITV programmes entitled 'Life Behind Bars' will have excited some interest in viewers but were the public at large really better informed thereby? One thing that would, I suspect, have puzzled many was the ratio of Non-Governing Governors (NGG) to every simple prison officer. Non-Governing Governors have always appeared to me a contradiction in terms. Can you imagine a Non-Prime Minister? No wonder prisons are in such a muddled state.
Judicial review – doing it yourself - issue June 2010 - Keith Rose offers a route down which prisoners might consider going in order to prepare their own Judicial Review
Equine assisted learning - issue June 2010 - Caroline Sherwood is convinced that communicating with horses can have enormous benefits for prisoners in terms of enhancing decision making skills
The good, the bad … and the ugly! - issue June 2010 - … with apologies to Clint Eastwood
In the final instalment of his series for Inside Time, former prisoner Michael Fielding categorises prison officer attitudes and how he reacted to them
Da’rryl Durr on the death penalty - issue June 2010 - In a remarkable interview, Erwin James describes a telephone call from death row in which Da'rryl Durr describes capital punishment as 'murder by the state'.
The Criminal Justice System in a nutshell - issue June 2010 - An extract of a presentation by Jon Collins, Campaign Director of the Criminal Justice
Alliance to the Centre for Parliamentary Studies on May 18 2010
Ben’s Blog - issue June 2010 - May 8 2010 … theatre of the absurd
Beyond the Prison Bars: Rehabilitation and the Urban Prison - issue June 2010 - Architecture students Justin Johnston and Sophie Hamilton Grey employ an approach they feel represents the best way to deal with the complex issue of prison design
From Kampala to Castleford - issue June 2010 - “Teach the sinner to remove sin, but not to kill the sinner to remove sin.
The testimony of a transformed prisoner corrects the broken hearted.”
Alex J Nsubuga, Luzira Upper Prison, Kampala (condemned section)
Month by Month - issue June 2010 - Rachel pays a visit to Rikers Island and comes out a more thoughtful person, before enjoying nature notes from a prison in Rutland
Flogging a dead course - issue June 2010 - A £240m scheme to treat some of Britain’s most dangerous prisoners should be abandoned.
Bank accounts - issue June 2010 - In the third instalment of Andy Thackwray’s series following his release from prison earlier this year he reveals problems experienced whilst in prison in opening an external bank account.
‘Great well of psychiatric morbidity’ - issue June 2010 - Barbara Davis challenges the criteria for allocation to Close Supervision Centres and insists that men held in them are being subjected to psychiatric torture
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue June 2010 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden examines a murder case where the evidence clearly points to a major miscarriage of justice
Hiding behind tradition - issue June 2010 - How does the prisoners’ right to vote get past the censorship of the tabloid press, asks Billy Little
It could not happen in Britain … - issue June 2010 - Bruce Kent says he is astonished that decent principled lawyers agreed to have anything to do with the whole system of secret evidence trials which make Control Order detention possible
Prisoners’ votes could have changed Election result - issue June 2010 - The General Election of 6 May took place without the benefit of some 70,000 votes of sentenced UK nationals in prison.
With 160 prisons located in parliamentary constituencies, prisoners’ votes might well have made a big difference to the result. Some 40 constituencies had a majority of less than one thousand.
Fraud Act 2006
- issue May 2010 - … 3 years on
Challenging decisions - issue May 2010 - Claims for judicial review need to be brought on well established grounds says Solicitor Michael Robinson
The criminal appeal system: an overview - issue May 2010 - Solicitor Chris Saltrese explains the essence of the appeal system
Mandatory drugs tests - procedure and reliability - issue May 2010 - Solicitor David Wells explores the challenges that are open to results of positive drug tests
Too cautious by half - issue May 2010 - Authoritarian governments cannot or do not want to see injustice says Barrister Stanley Best
A recipe for disaster - issue May 2010 - Julian Young wonders why those acquitted at court can’t access property and cash instead of literally being left to fend for themselves
Ben’s Blog - issue May 2010 - Lifer Ben Gunn’s Prison Blog … the only blog by a serving British prisoner which ‘looks stupidity and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate’.
The good, the bad … and the ugly! - issue May 2010 - In my April issue article I examined the powerful influence prison officers have on the lives of those in their charge and that I would expand on how I saw ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’, and hopefully offer some pointers on how to deal with the latter two. So I’ll explain, briefly at first and then in detail, what I mean and how I (at least) draw the distinctions.
Benefits …or lack of ‘em - issue May 2010 - In the second instalment of Andy’s new series for Inside Time, he shares with readers his fruitless and unsettling encounter with the prison’s resettlement department and discloses the numerous problems he experienced with the state’s benefits agencies after his release earlier this year.
Guilty by association - issue May 2010 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden reports on joint enterprise prosecutions and argues that the CPS should avoid them and concentrate on establishing the identity of the actual culprit
Ombudsman confidentiality - issue May 2010 - Keith Rose believes the independence of the Ombudsman can on occasions be open to question
Making your savings work - issue May 2010 - Prisoners who want to invest their savings should always shop around for the best product says Troy Eames
A thirty year stretch - issue May 2010 - Stephen Shaw CBE, the outgoing (in every sense of the word) Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales talked to Eric McGraw, Managing Editor of Inside Time before he left office
Month by Month - issue May 2010 - Rachel admires prisoner’s art in the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, enjoys poetry from Askham Grange and wonders about spring gardens.
Sex offenders win legal challenge over register - issue May 2010 - Two convicted sex offenders have won the right to challenge their inclusion on the UK's Sex Offender's Register.
Prisoner’s legal challenge to vote - issue May 2010 - Leon Punchard, currently serving an 18-month sentence at HMP Norwich, is planning to sue the government...
Barred from voting:
- issue May 2010 - The right to vote for sentenced prisoners.
What MPs think of prisoners - issue May 2010 - Sometime before the General Election was announced, Inside Time sent a letter to 27 Members of Parliament (pictured) in which we included two questions, to each MP, posed by prisoners. The 27 MPs we chose to write to were either members of the Home Affairs or Justice Select Committees.
WHO GETS YOUR VOTE? - issue May 2010 - The Labour Government has failed to implement a ruling made 6 years ago by the European Court to give sentenced prisoners in the United Kingdom the vote. Despite this deliberate defiance of the rule of law by the Government, we invite prisoners to exercise their civil and political right to vote by using the Inside Time ballot paper in the PRISONERS VOTE! section
Conspiracy - issue April 2010 - Law Tactics & Strategy in Defending in Conspiracy Allegations
This is no April Fool’s joke - issue April 2010 - Solicitor Advocate Julian Young offers a glimpse into the crazy world of our legislators
Highly subjective assessment - issue April 2010 - Lisa Gianquitto examines the OASys assessment tool and considers it to be far from an exact science and not set in stone
The Special Investigations Unit is coming! - issue April 2010 - The legal aid’s own fraud squad are hot on the trail of legal aid cheats, warns John Atkins
Short sentences are not the answer - issue April 2010 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust, says prisons need a breathing space
A purveyor of myths and propaganda - issue April 2010 - Charles Hanson is convinced alcoholism is not a disease and that AA is not what it claims itself to be
Prisons ineffective as crime control tools - issue April 2010 - With Britain following trends dangerously similar to those which exist in the United States, John Bowden highlights the launching of a public campaign geared against prison expansion
A farewell to arms - issue April 2010 - Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Stephen Shaw writes exclusively - and for the last time - for Inside Time
Can rehabilitation be designed into a prison? - issue April 2010 - Architecture students Justin Johnston and Sophie Hamilton-Grey highlight the importance of rehabilitation and consider the determining factor in prison design seems to be cost rather than the betterment of society
The good, the bad … and the ugly! with apologies to Clint Eastwood - issue April 2010 - In the first of a three-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Michael Fielding examines the influence officers have on the lives of those in their charge
Suffer little children - issue April 2010 - Written from the perspective of the hypothetical son of a long term prisoner, Gerard McGrath refers to the often forgotten secondary victims of crime
Survey of Scottish Prisoners - issue April 2010 - Each year the Scottish Prison Service conducts an anonymous survey of its prisoners to find their views on various issues relating to their imprisonment. The results of the 2009 survey have just been published.
Month by Month - issue April 2010 - Rachel meets some keen new readers on the Toe by Toe
project at HMYOI Brinsford and later in the month listens in as judges and magistrates react to a Clean Break drama
Straw announces legal aid reforms - issue April 2010 - The Ministry of Justice has announced new proposals for the tendering of criminal legal aid services with the aim of delivering significant savings to taxpayers and a more sustainable future for the legal aid budget.
Grave concerns over OASys assessments - issue April 2010 - Representatives from the NOMs OASys team were clearly taken aback by concerns raised about inaccurate details prison lawyers regularly see in their clients’ OASys reports and the ways in which the assessments were being conducted (John Roberts writes).
The Butler Trust Awards 2009-10 - issue April 2010 - In its 25-year history The Butler Trust has presented over a thousand awards for good practise. This year, 332 nominations were received from 133 different prisons and probation areas including 18 nominations from prisoners. Here we focus on just a handful of the 32 people who received Awards and Commendations this year.
Out and about - issue April 2010 - In the first instalment of a series focussing on topics surrounding release from prison, Andy Thackwray (pictured) says he will never again take freedom for granted
British prisons to relocate overseas? - issue April 2010 - Apparently the relocation of British prisons to the Indian subcontinent is on the cards, claims Matt Adlard
The nature of the beast - issue April 2010 - Mark Sleman is angered by the prison system’s continued attempts at legitimising its charade of rehabilitation
How to waste £200 million - issue April 2010 - If only Justice Secretary Jack Straw had read Inside Time he would have saved £200 million
Jon Venables and the modern justice system - issue April 2010 - We shouldn’t be surprised by the Bulger killer’s return to jail, says Erwin James
Time out of cell: - issue April 2010 - Calculations by prisons ‘not accurate’ says Chief Inspector
PSO Watch - It's political - issue March 2010 - In his monthly feature exclusively for Inside Time, former prisoner John Hirst simplifies
Prison Service Orders. John spent a total of 25
years in prison (his tariff was 15 years - discretionary life sentence for manslaughter) and
is the author of the Jailhouse Lawyer’s blog. Prior to release in May 2004, he proved to be the
most prolific prisoner litigant of modern times and, he says, unlike Perry Mason and Rumpole
of the Bailey, he never lost a case against the Prison Service
Cycles of the Planets - issue March 2010 - A monthly column devised by astrologer Polly Wallace exclusively for readers of Inside Time as a follow on to ‘Wheel of the Year’. In this new series the focus is the planets themselves - providing
a set of profiles that showcase
each planet in turn
War Torn - issue March 2010 - A short story from an ex inmate
Transfers from prisons to mental health units - issue March 2010 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust, considers that prisoners with severe mental health illness should be diverted away from the criminal justice system before arriving into prison
Prosecuting Serious Fraud
- issue March 2010 - ... a glance at the future
Supporting evidence - issue March 2010 - ‘It’s time to get rid of the dead wood and bureaucracy and allow solicitors and barristers who care for justice before profit to get on with their work unhindered’ insists Stanley Best
POCA’s furry feline friends - issue March 2010 - Early planning and a defence strategy are vital ingredients when preparing for confiscation proceedings says Shahreen Khatana
The inside story - issue March 2010 - Chris Stanton gives an insight into the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous prison groups and how they have offered support and guidance to literally thousands of prisoners seeking to ‘throw off the chains’
Proactive progression - issue March 2010 - Prisoners would derive many benefits from preparing a personal CV says David Silver
Public persona … private person - issue March 2010 - Gerard McGrath is angered by the ‘hypocrisy of the gutter press’ and considers the price to pay for public roles is the forfeiture of privacy
Doing Things Differently - issue March 2010 - A new report from the National Skills Forum, Doing Things Differently: Step Changes in Skills and Inclusion, is calling for extra and improved education and training for offenders and ex-offenders, in order to give them a better chance of finding a good job on release and to help break the cycle of offending
The best brains? - issue March 2010 - Does the Prison Service actually think through the introduction of systems and schemes, asks Keith Rose
The forgotten victims - issue March 2010 - Charles Hanson praises the work done on behalf of prisoners’ families
Twice the punishment - issue March 2010 - Jenny Richards is angered by what she believes is blatant discrimination against pensioner prisoners
Double invisibility - issue March 2010 - Inside Time’s Lucy Forde meets Peter Dunn, director of The Griffins Society, to discuss a report on the problem of female prisoners recalled for breaching licence conditions
Methadone concerns - issue March 2010 - Professor Neil McKeganey (pictured), Director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow, has said there needs to be a ‘full review’ to work out exactly how many people are on methadone. He also questions the long term use of methadone.
Month by Month - issue March 2010 - Rachel just misses a massive earthquake in Chile, learns more about Arthur Koestler’s prison experiences and admires John Hirst’s calmness under fire.
Petition to make trainee psychologists answerable to a higher body - issue March 2010 - A petition has been started urging Gordon Brown to seriously review and revise the issue of allowing trainee psychologists working within the UK prison system not being answerable to a higher body
250 prison teaching jobs to go - issue March 2010 - The contracting-out of prison education has again proved to be a flop, as Manchester College plans
to slash 250 jobs from its teaching team in UK jails, reports Private Eye
Influenced by inner anger - issue March 2010 - Peter Garsden asks whether solicitors should be allowed to advertise for historic child abuse cases
Unexpected ‘special’ Legal Visits - issue March 2010 - Kristen Bender, a leading prison law solicitor, contacted Inside Time expressing concern in the way that the National Prison Intelligence Unit (NPIU) dealt with one of her clients in a surprise ‘legal visit’
All-white juries do not discriminate - issue March 2010 - Juries overall appear ‘efficient and effective’ and convict on almost two thirds of all charges presented to them, according to a ground-breaking study by the Ministry of Justice into the secrets of the jury room. Paul Sullivan reports.
Conservatives ‘want change’ - issue March 2010 - Alan Duncan is a perspicuous, zealous and goodhumoured man who, if the Conservatives win the
forthcoming General Election will, he says be ‘on a mission to start a rehabilitation revolution’. The Shadow Minister for Prisons told Eric McGraw, Managing Editor of Inside Time he was a revolutionary, ‘a sort of Che Guevara of the prison world.’ He began by describing what he regards as the big picture
Progress is threatened by cuts - issue March 2010 - In spite of the progress made, prisons remain caught between the irresistible force of an increasing population and the immovable object of budget cuts warns Anne Owers HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, in her eighth and final Annual Report
Anonymous witnesses - issue February 2010 - … knowing your accuser
Fear of getting it wrong - issue February 2010 - The Parole Board is becoming progressively risk averse regarding decisions made in many cases, says Rajan Mawji
Facial mapping - issue February 2010 - Solicitor David Wells maintains that the reliability of facial mapping as evidence is very much open to question
Busy Doing Nothing - issue February 2010 - Shahida Begum argues the case for female lifers, particularly younger women, being given far more opportunities to progress through the system
Your Valentine Messages - issue February 2010 - Valentines messages from inmates to their loved ones
Hospital visits for prisoners - issue February 2010 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager at the Prison Reform Trust, highlights the difficulties prisoners experience getting to hospital for appointments
The policing pledge? - issue February 2010 - Keith Rose examines practices employed by a ‘typical’ rural police force and comes to some alarming conclusions
Connected by stories - issue February 2010 - Offenders in and out of prison are discovering that sharing stories - whether in the form of poetry, books or drama and regardless of anyone’s literacy levels - really can change how they view themselves and others, says Mary Stephenson
When SORI is not the hardest word - issue February 2010 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time
A Disturbing Tale - issue February 2010 - In the September 2009 issue of Inside Time, Richard Marks QC wrote an article ‘Solicitor or Barrister … You have the right to choose’ in
which he advised readers to ask significant questions before choosing a solicitor to take a Crown Court case instead of instructing a barrister. The article provoked several responses, in particular one from the mother
of a prisoner who wrote to Inside Time, she described how her son had asked for a barrister only to find out after the trial that he wasn’t one. Eric McGraw went to meet her and her recently released son and was given access to all the relevant papers.
Boost for prison privatisation? - issue February 2010 - A combination of fresh thinking and prisoner involvement is required when cost cutting measures
are implemented, says John O’Connor
Rough justice? - issue February 2010 - Former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning wonders how many elderly men live in fear of the possibility of court action and disgrace for a ‘fling’ in their teens, when circumstances and attitudes were very different
Consequences - issue February 2010 - Prisoners need to come to terms with the consequences of their actions, which may manifest themselves one way or another for the rest of their lives, says Gerard McGrath
Bob Woffinden writes... - issue February 2010 - At the end of last year, the Court of Appeal produced a very important judgment on the safety of DNA evidence. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, given the timing – judgment was given at the start of the Christmas period, on 21 December – hardly anyone noticed.
Role of the prison officer report published - issue February 2010 - Paul Sullivan reports on what the House of Commons Justice Select Committee describes as a ‘disturbing and potentially dangerous chasm’ between insights provided by their witnesses and the approach currently adopted by NOMS
Renaissance in prison law - issue February 2010 - Lifer Ben Gunn is convinced that the number of ‘jailhouselawyers’ needs to be increased and suitably equipped with the proper tools
Where is the evidence? - issue February 2010 - Charles Hanson challenges ‘believers’ to provide more concrete evidence than what he considers to be centuries of unconvincing proof of an afterlife
Month by Month - issue February 2010 - Rachel joins a huge crowd at the Prison Ministry Conference and attends a celebration of four years work by the Feltham Community Chaplaincy Trust followed by a guided tour of Westminster Abbey
JUSTICE calls for ‘new parole system’ - issue February 2010 - JUSTICE, the all-party law reform and human rights organisation, has called for major reform of the parole system in England and Wales
Restraint & Receivers - issue January 2010 - ...your money or theirs?
Prisoners can sue - issue January 2010 - Prisoners can now sue the Ministry of Justice where
prison officers cause a prosecution solicitor Kate
Maynard explains
Foreign Nationals and the secret policy - issue January 2010 - Matthew Stanbury and Emma Burkinshaw challenge an
agreement between NOMS and the UK Border Agency to
segregate foreign nationals in designated prisons
What Choice? - issue January 2010 - Barrister Stanley Best considers that some Higher Court Advocates may be no different than ordinary solicitors, and provide a service which fails to meet ‘reasonable requirements’ of clients in prison
Access to banking - issue January 2010 - Being able to open a bank account could considerably enhance a prisoner’s prospects of success upon release says Chris Bath
Bloody politicians - issue January 2010 - Ben Gunn believes we should brace ourselves for further knee-jerk reactions as Labour struggles to retain power
Partners or wives - issue January 2010 - Charles Hanson challenges the growing trend to
use ‘partner’ as a replacement term for marriage
Where there’s a will… - issue January 2010 - John O'Connor maintains that it is vital to recognize and negotiate the practical side when dealing with death
That was the week that was - issue January 2010 - The government’s sentencing policy is geared entirely towards winning the next general election says Gerard McGrath
‘Security should not strangle regimes and innovation’ - issue January 2010 - Paul Sullivan and John Roberts report for Inside Time on progressive thinking and straightforward approaches used by the Scottish Prison Service
If I had the vote - issue January 2010 - David Silver pledges allegiance to the President of Europe and looks forward to the day he can express political beliefs at the ballot box on his wing
‘Prisoners are civically dead’ - issue January 2010 - In the eyes of the government, prisoners are deemed less deserving of human rights argues John Hirst
Women in male prisons - issue January 2010 - Craig Topping argues the case against female officers serving in male prisons
An injection of truth - issue January 2010 - Andy Thackwray wonders why a highly respected former government adviser was sacked for simply stating the obvious
New Year Resolutions - issue January 2010 - Daniel Goldsmith offers ten resolutions for prisoners that could be set for 2010 …
Suppression of literature - issue January 2010 - John Bowden is angered by prison governors continuing to exhibit contempt for the law by preventing the circulation of certain material to prisoners
Internet for prisoners in Norway - issue January 2010 - By the end of 2009, 25 prisons will have access to Internet through a national network. By the end of 2010 the rest of the Norwegian prisons will join the network. In the following we will discuss the background for this revolution and describe how this Internet works.
Month by Month - issue January 2010 - This month Rachel Billington admires Sir Hugh Orde's
Longford Lecture and is impressed by Maria Eagle's efforts to improve the position of vulnerable women in prison
Prison overcrowding ‘is to be deplored’ - issue January 2010 - Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee says:
Prison overcrowding ‘is to be deplored’
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - issue December 2009 - Challenging the Surveillance Evidence
Setting the record straight - issue December 2009 - In our July issue a correspondent wrote regarding SED and LED. The answer and subsequent erratum led to some confusion. Inside Time is grateful to Sarah Holland of Millerchip Murray Solicitors who has investigated the question and provided a definitive answer on the subject and subsequent changes that apply.
Appealing against sentence - issue December 2009 - Solicitor David Wells and Barrister Stephen Field explain the procedure for appealing against sentence and the powers held by the Court of Appeal
Challenging Deportation - issue December 2009 - Steve Bravery and Sarah Daley highlight how deportation decisions can be challenged
Targeting failure - issue December 2009 - Keith Rose questions the bonus culture that includes senior management at Prison Service HQ
Second Class Citizens - issue December 2009 - Ben Gunn is angered by prisoners being forced to comply with society’s various obligations and responsibilities then denied the benefits permitted to others
Dehumanising process of risk assessment - issue December 2009 - Charles Hanson believes OASys and current approaches to probation work is a total failure in providing what is really needed to reduce the risk of offending behaviour
Psychology breaking the rules - issue December 2009 - Lloyd Sanderson challenges the role of trainee psychologists working in prisons and considers
they are breaking many of the rules laid down by the Code of Conduct
Defending the indefensible - issue December 2009 - Gerard McGrath is dismayed at the reaction of many, in terms of hypocrisy and disdain, to the arrest of Roman Polanski, who fled US justice over thirty years ago
The European Court of Human Rights to be reformed in the New Year - issue December 2009 - The news comes following a Round Table discussion in Bled, Slovenia on 21-22 September 2009. John Hirst reports exclusively for Inside Time
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue December 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden pays tribute to a man who spent a lifetime investigating and righting miscarriages of justice
Excursions in the blogosphere - issue December 2009 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time
Prisoners' 'holidays' - issue December 2009 - Paul Sullivan challenges a recent media report on resettlement release for prisoners he considers maligns the commitment of many to start law-abiding lives on release and also seriously belittles the work of prison staff
Been there, done that … - issue December 2009 - It's not how you start, it's how you finish...
Dental treatment in prison - issue December 2009 - Prisoners should receive the same standard of dental treatment as afforded to those in the wider community, argues Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust
Canteen service lacks professional touch - issue December 2009 - A National Offender Management Service response to complaints over canteen prices in the November issue doesn’t take on board prisoners’ legitimate concerns says John O'Connor
Eat free range haggis - issue December 2009 - Bob Jenkins believes the bad old days have returned for Scotland’s treasured haggis industry
Month By Month - issue December 2009 - This month Rachel Billington celebrates the launch of insideinformation in the company of the great and the good, including the Director General
of NOMS, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and ex-prisoner Paul Sullivan
whose brainchild the book was.
British prisons: Incubators for Islamist extremism? - issue December 2009 - For over 50 years, Islamist extremists around the world have used prisons as places to recruit followers ...
Radical Muslims are spreading extremist propaganda from inside British prisons, a new report claims - issue December 2009 - Areport by the Quilliam Foundation, a Home Office funded think tank, on Islamist extremism in British prisons
Small victory for freedom of speech campaign - issue December 2009 - The Government has made some concessions at the eleventh hour on the ‘Criminal Memoirs’ law. Robert Sharp, Campaigns Manager of English PEN reports.
Foreign Intercepts - issue November 2009 - Challenging Admissibility
Parole Board delay - issue November 2009 - Solicitor Sara-Jayne Pritt and barrister Melanie Plimmer highlight a significant judicial review case that could have implications for many prisoners
Human trafficking - issue November 2009 - Criminal Defence Solicitors Cassandra Bligh &
Sandra Cacchioli argue that despite safeguards
and guidelines, victims of human trafficking are
still falling through the net
Overseas recruitment - issue November 2009 - Barrister Stanley Best regrets that the emphasis for lawyers has swung from excellence to diversity or membership of an ethnic community
Exercising choice - issue November 2009 - Julian Young, an experienced Solicitor Advocate, responds to the article by Richard Marks QC featured in the September issue of Inside Time on questions needing to be asked before choosing a solicitor to take a Crown Court case instead of
instructing a barrister
Examining the flaws - issue November 2009 - The Annual Conference of the Association of Prison Lawyers was held recently at Doughty
Street Chambers in London where Judges, psychologists and Ministry of Justice staff faced a day fielding critical questions posed by prisoners and by practitioners. Andrew Sperling reports
Net Loss - issue November 2009 - Prisons and prisoners need to be involved in the government's work on digital inclusion, argues Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for thePrison Reform Trust
The route to rehabilitation - issue November 2009 - Former Conservative councillor Daniel Smy, sent to prison for fiddling his expenses, reflects on his
experience and feels there is much to be gained by prisoners pursuing their hidden talents
A writer’s time - issue November 2009 - Andy Thackwray advocates writing as therapy, something he insists has helped him retain his sanity whilst in prison
Prisoner support - issue November 2009 - Robert Maynard wants prisoners to share their skills and utilise previously wasted potential
Reaching for the Summit - issue November 2009 - James Dewes highlights the work of a remarkable enterprise where the training really does make a difference
Utilising time inside - issue November 2009 - Former Beirut hostage Terry Waite CBE writes about his harrowing years of solitary confinement and how he believes prisoners should take every opportunity to step onto the educational ladder
Dispelling the myths - issue November 2009 - Following numerous complaints from prisoners about the DHL pricing structure, and the quality of service they provide, NOMS Procurement Directorate & Offender Employment Skills and Services Group address these concerns
Horses for courses - issue November 2009 - Former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning compares the vastly different regimes between prisons in the UK and those of a more austere nature in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Reforming the character - issue November 2009 - The reality of life within Blantyre House, contrary to lurid media headlines, really is geared towards effective rehabilitation
Life after Life - issue November 2009 - Recently released Lifer Charles Hanson finds he is destined to be defined by his past, "shackled by a criminal identity", yet remains committed to challenging injustice and oppression
Autopsy of duplicity - issue November 2009 - Karl Watson maintains that justice is expendable and has suffered purgatory for his continued stance of maintaining innocence
A complaint about complaints - issue November 2009 - Gerard McGrath is less than impressed by how prisons deal with complaints and says prisoners have lost confidence in the internal system
Shamed by statistics - issue November 2009 - Both the Army and Government have an appalling record of letting down the vulnerable in society writes Joseph Kotrie-Monson
Hero of the underdog - issue November 2009 - Rachel Billington and Barrister Robert Banks meet Michael Mansfield QC, who will shortly be helping launch Inside Time’s Insideinformation, the comprehensive guidebook for prisons and prison related services.
Threat of call-centre "junk justice" - issue November 2009 - Government proposals could well find a person go "from walking down the street to being a convicted criminal without seeing a legal professional" fears journalist and former prisoner Michael Mann
When is an "offender" not an offender? - issue November 2009 - Paul Sullivan is concerned at the vast number of people in prison who clearly should not be described as offenders
"You will die in prison" ... - issue November 2009 - It’s not the judge but increasingly the prisoner who decides whether he wants to die in prison says Lifer John O’Connor
Cuts "foolhardy" say prison governors - issue November 2009 - Budget cuts of £65 million will mean "safety, security and decency will be thrown out of the window": Paul Tidball, President of the Prison Governors’ Association, told the annual PGA Conference
Challenging the Evidence - issue October 2009 - The Exclusion of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence. When a breach of the rules leads to evidence being excluded
A culture of impunity - issue October 2009 - Solicitor Kate Maynard reports on a disturbing case of assault where evidence given by key prison officer witnesses was dismissed as ‘inaccurate and unreliable’ and a member of the then Board of Visitors dismissed the assaulted prisoner’s complaint out of hand
Legal guidance on healthcare - issue October 2009 - Solicitor David Wells and Clinical Nurse Specialist Fran Springfield outline the right of prisoners to expect a decent standard of NHS treatment and how to complain should that standard fall short of guidelines
Recalled: to face 14 months false imprisonment! - issue October 2009 - Solicitor Pippa Carruthers, who represented a prisoner urgently in need of legal assistance with licence recall, wonders why a calculation mistake wasn’t spotted much earlier
Black history … shared history - issue October 2009 - Musician, poet and author Yasus Afari shares his views with Inside Time readers …
Conceal the sin … or express it openly? - issue October 2009 - If the Sex Offender Treatment Programme is against the religion of Islam, Muslims may not be able to take part say Shahida Begum and Simon Rollason
An independent eye - issue October 2009 - How much do Inside Time readers know about the Criminal Cases Review Commission or about how and when it can help? Justin Hawkins, head of communications at the CCRC, offers enlightenment on their role
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue October 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden examines the case of a man convicted of murdering his stepfather when a Cup Final played a significant part …
Psycho-babes, care bears and control freaks - issue October 2009 - A disproportionate number of female trainee psychologists, probation officers and social workers dominate these services, argues Charles Hanson
Carry on blogging - issue October 2009 - Former prisoner John Hirst challenges the Prison Service on their stance against prisoners writing blogs and encourages others to join the 'blogosphere'
Prison politics - issue October 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn is surprised and angered by criticism hurled at him, some from unexpected quarters, following his attempt to introduce solidarity amongst prisoners and to stop them adopting a defeatist attitude
Smoke and mirrors - issue October 2009 - Despite the introduction of legislation in 2007 banning smoking in public places, many prisoners still suffer from the unpleasant effects of passive smoking says David Silver
Transsexual confusion - issue October 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager
for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on how transsexuals in prison can seek help, even though clear guidance on how they are cared for is long overdue
Lose your liberty ... find your mind - issue October 2009 - Mental health expert Simon Thompson believes that stress and pressure can be managed and controlled in a prison setting by adopting a healthier lifestyle
The changing face of prison complaints - issue October 2009 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time
Exploiting the captive labour force - issue October 2009 - Prisons campaigner Joe Black is convinced that after the next election the commercial sector will become ever more involved in the exploitation of the prison labour force
Repeating History - issue October 2009 - We are often told that history repeats itself on an endless cycle, so let's test the theory says Keith Rose
Visits mean everything - issue October 2009 - Former prisoner Paul Sullivan is angered by current visiting arrangements and the lack of effective solutions to historical problems
A cog in an unfeeling wheel - issue October 2009 - Mary Spencer shares her experiences of being the mother of a prisoner and the accompanying change in identity
Day fifteen in the house - issue October 2009 - Sid Wright is appreciative of the MP's expenses scandal as it has given him not only 'entertainment' but a clear conscience
Supreme Court Opens for Business - issue October 2009 - With very little consultation, a centuries-old judicial system replaces the Law Lords as the highest court in the land. About 100 appeals will be heard each year at an annual estimated cost of £14 million
Book Review - Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in
the Isle of Wight by M J Trow
- issue September 2009 - Gerard McGrath is suitably impressed by a book that dispels any misconceptions previously held about the tranquility of the Isle of Wight.
Book Review - Coast and Beyond by Steve Evanson - issue September 2009 - Jane Andrews embarks on a tour of the British coastline and discovers some wonderful sights along the route.
Abuse of Process - issue September 2009 - When will a Judge throw a case out of Court because of the behaviour of the Prosecution?
Getting help with mental health - issue September 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on the help available for prisoners with mental health problems.
Here Come the Screws: The Prison Officer Autobiography. - issue September 2009 - Former prison governor Professor David Wilson is deeply concerned at the levels of brutality highlighted within prison officers’ autobiographies.
Keeping the spotlight on psycho-babes - issue September 2009 - Keith Rose explains why he considers the focus should remain firmly on the prison psychology system.
Numbers Game - issue September 2009 - There is no statutory authority for more than one prisoner per cell claims John Hirst.
Learning support at Foston Hall - issue September 2009 - Prisoners say that support for learning at Foston Hall is ‘amazing’. The prison offers an impressive range of education and training opportunities says Pat Jones, Director at the Prisoners’ Education Trust.
A more efficient review system - issue September 2009 - Glenn Gathercole, Senior Operations Manager at the Parole Board, responds to the legal comment article on Parole Board delays by Matthew Stanbury and Rachel Baldwin in the July issue of Inside Time.
Beware plagiarism! - issue September 2009 - John O'Connor highlights plagiarism problems frequently experienced by newspapers and magazines.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing - issue September 2009 - Gerard McGrath challenges the motives of the BNP and expresses disgust at what they represent.
Drugs in prison - issue September 2009 - BBC Panorama was given exclusive access to Woodhill, a high security and local prison in Milton Keynes. With drug addiction seen as the root cause of many crimes, it is hardly surprising
prisoners want to continue feeding their habit even when they are in jail. But if rehabilitation of offenders is ever to become a reality, it is essential to stop drugs being smuggled into prisons either by prisoners, or their visitors, or by prison officers, reports Panorama. Here we select some snapshots from the programme.
Samaritans are listening - issue September 2009 - Linda Pyatt, National Prisons Support Co-ordinator for Samaritans and the Listeners’ scheme, responds to concerns expressed by Andy Thackwray in his recent ‘Are You Still Listening?’ series for Inside Time.
Looking after its own - issue September 2009 - Recently released lifer Charles Hanson admires the manner in which the French Foreign Legion has adapted to become one the world’s most respected military units.
Synergy Scriptwriting Competition
- issue September 2009
Month by Month - issue September 2009 - Rachel admires better painters than herself, finds the link between Clint Eastwood and Boris Johnson and airs doubts on modern forms of communication.
Bridging the gap - issue September 2009 - Clive Jones considers that responsibility must be taken for the denial of prisoners’ educational opportunities.
The ‘bash a prisoner’ crusade - issue September 2009 - Former Conservative councillor Daniel Smy was sent to prison for fiddling his expenses and wonders why there have been no MPs put on trial for fiddling their expenses.
After all …everybody wants the same thing. - issue September 2009 - Sharon Harrop praises the work of POPS and calls for the prison service to embrace such family support charities.
Solicitor or Barrister …you have the right to choose. - issue September 2009 - Richard L Marks QC believes that significant questions need to be asked about the competence of solicitors choosing to take Crown Court cases themselves instead of instructing a barrister.
Justice …the CPS way - issue September 2009 - David Silver maintains that the criminal justice system uses distraction techniques in order to keep its reputation intact following exposure of miscarriages of justice.
Crime memoirs can help turn the page - issue September 2009 - Proposals to stop convicted criminals receiving money from their memoirs will prevent, not encourage, their rehabilitation says author Caspar Walsh.
84,000 - issue September 2009 - Prison population in England and Wales hits a record level.
Trafficking … strategy & tactics in defending in trafficking cases. - issue August 2009 - Whether the ‘commodity’ is drugs, contraband, guns or people, trafficking offences share some similar characteristics. Police operations are invariably intelligence led with the usual concerns for defenders that association alone, e.g. telephone links and so on, can make an innocent associate look guilty. Here we outline some of the practical issues we have come across in tackling trafficking allegations.
Errors and Omissions - issue August 2009 - The author (David Anderson) of the article 'Barrister or Solicitor - what's the difference?' (Inside Time, July 2009) offers a timely attempt to explain matters to readers for whom the distinction might have become blurred. I fear that some misunderstandings may increase rather than decrease. The difference is in fact very much more substantial than the author allows.
Poca for ever and ever and ever after … till death do us part - issue August 2009 - Shahreen Khatana highlights her experiences with the implementation of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Transfers - issue August 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on prisoner transfers.
Through the gates and beyond - issue August 2009 - Recently released lifer Charles Hanson reflects on the valuable accommodation support given by the St Giles Trust, who now face an uncertain future.
Two hundred years of Ombudsman history - issue August 2009 - Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Stephen Shaw writes exclusively for Inside Time.
‘The second sentence’ - issue August 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn believes the families of prisoners get a raw deal and are often viewed with suspicion and benign indifference.
But are YOU listening Andy? - issue August 2009 - Keith Rose resents the suggestion that his motivation for becoming a Listener is anything other than voyeuristic.
Are you still listening? - Listener Screening and Selection. - issue August 2009 - In this final instalment of my series, I cover what will no doubt be the most controversial issue involving the Listener scheme - who exactly should apply to become a prison Listener and why they choose to do so.
Why a million isn't enough - issue August 2009 - David Silver believes that a radical new approach is needed when awarding compensation to miscarriages of justice.
NOMS reforms - issue August 2009 - Journalist Michael Mann advocates the abolition of the National Offender Management Service.
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ - issue August 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden shares a belief held by many who have become increasingly disillusioned with the performance of the CCRC in recent years.
A thankless job - issue August 2009 - Lewis D Wood offers a view on the role of prison officers.
Month by Month - issue August 2009 - Rachel Billington visits the site of 18 executions, admires the aboriginal approach to rehabilitation and joins in with a play about boxing, identity and pepper sauce.
Battling against injustice - issue August 2009 - Former lifer John Hirst explores how the media consistently use lurid and sensationalist headlines that are generally biased against prisoners.
Nice work if you can get it - issue August 2009 - David Greaves examines the astonishing number of people employed within the criminal justice system and who make a living out of prisoners.
Brainwashed - issue August 2009 - Paul Sullivan challenges vote-seeking rhetoric from politicians and considers the public are brainwashed by tabloid scaremongers.
'Here’s your money – now get out and get on with life!' - issue August 2009 - Sean Hodgson's Lawyer Julian Young is concerned at how miscarriage of justice cases are financially left to fend for themselves.
Manners maketh man - issue August 2009 - Gerard McGrath maintains that common courtesy costs nothing and if applied could well improve the quality of life for prisoners.
Shake up for the Parole Board - issue August 2009 - John O'Connor wonders whether changes at the top of the Parole Board will actually bring about essential change.
Civil Recovery Orders … the latest way to lose everything - issue July 2009
Parole Board Delays - issue July 2009 - Seven years after a landmark decision, Matthew Stanbury and Rachel Baldwin consider whether arrangements for the provision of lifer parole reviews have improved in any meaningful way.
Access to justice - issue July 2009 - David Wells believes that the Government has further erased justice and fairness from the political dictionary.
POCA ever after? - issue July 2009 - Shahreen Khatana maintains the essence of success in POCA cases is to have not just a good team but the best and most dedicated team of professionals from all the fields … certainly not obtained by the ‘one size fits all’ strategy.
Barrister or solicitor … what’s the difference? - issue July 2009 - David Anderson draws the distinction between solicitors and barristers and what clients need to be aware of reference their respective ability to handle cases.
Is the Prison Service making up to 30% profit on your Argos orders? - issue July 2009
Blantyre - Fact and Fiction - issue July 2009 - Noel ‘Razor’ Smith is convinced that the moral outrage frequently displayed by certain tabloids towards prisoners does absolutely nothing towards solving serious resettlement problems.
Reducing Reoffending Behaviour - issue July 2009 - Category A prisoner Gerald Deaffern asks why Frankland can’t constructively encourage prisoners to maintain proper family contact.
Betrayal - issue July 2009 - Andrew Watkins exposes the ‘spin’ and hypocrisy employed by the Government when claiming to care about ex-Forces personnel, and highlights the massive problems they face integrating into ‘civvy street’
Help with healthcare - issue July 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on getting help with healthcare in prison and how to make a complaint.
Babylon Blues - issue July 2009 - Buddhist Chaplain Martin Huiskens advocates the ‘twelve steps’ towards encouraging addicts in freeing themselves from addiction and isolation.
Prison: it’s in your head - issue July 2009 - For many older prisoners, good mental health may be less about medicine and more about opportunity writes Nick Le Mesurier of Staffordshire University.
Are You Still Listening? - Listener Training - issue July 2009 - Such was the mixed response to Andy Thackwray's controversial article Now ‘Listen’ to This, published in the April issue of Inside Time, that together with Andy we decided to run a three-part series covering the main areas of concern the article brought to light: Listener Confidentiality, Training and Screening; with a view to improving this much needed and valued service. We continue the series by looking at Listener training.
Interrupted education … interrupted life - issue July 2009 - Dr Anita Wilson is concerned at how the criminal justice system interrupts the lives and educational progress of young offenders.
Solidarity - issue July 2009 - Lifer Charles Hanson reflects on the sad passing of prisoner solidarity and how the public thrive on sensational reporting.
The Real Holloway - issue July 2009 - Leo Gilbert reviews the three part documentary series on Holloway Prison shown recently on ITV and asks why the public only ever get to see the negative side of prison life?
Lifers and the open estate - issue July 2009 - Craig Topping challenges the prison system’s attitude towards lifers progressing to open conditions.
Inside Time Censored - issue July 2009 - The June issue of Inside Time was withdrawn from prisons. Lifer Ben Gunn is angered that many people are so insecure in their beliefs that they run and hide from words and ideas they disagree with.
Month by Month - issue July 2009
When fantasy turns serious - issue July 2009 - Mark Newby reveals how a fantasist with serious psychological problems was wrongly convicted of murder.
Wrong end of a conviction - issue July 2009
Does child abuse cause crime? - issue June 2009 - Solicitor Peter Garsden examines the theory that an abusive childhood leads to offending behaviour.
Conspiracy to Murder: To Plan a Death - issue June 2009
Confiscation Orders Quashed - issue June 2009 - Evan Wright and Claire Berrington report on the review of certain confiscation orders after a ‘fortunate accident’ was discovered by a Revenue & Customs lawyer.
The application of judicial review to prison law issues - issue June 2009 - A Judicial Review should, where appropriate, be contemplated as a way of seeking appropriate redress, says David Wells.
Email a Prisoner - issue June 2009
The long walk to freedom - issue June 2009 - Sean Hodgson’s Lawyer Julian Young asks: what of the future in possible cases of miscarriages of justice involving DNA evidence?
Bob Woffinden writes: - issue June 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden looks at one of the most spectacularly unfair trials of recent times, involving anonymous witness evidence in a case that took two years to come to trial.
Setting the record straight - issue June 2009 - Consultant Glyn Maddocks reflects on a classic example of chance and luck, good and bad, influencing a person’s life.
Legitimate expense or exploitation? - issue June 2009 - Barrister Stanley Best reflects on the current scandal regarding MPs expenses, most of whom claim were simply ‘following the rules’
Innocence a handicap to progression - issue June 2009 - Anita Bromley explains the remit of a working group whose mission is to investigate cases where prisoners are penalised for consistently refusing to acknowledge their alleged offence. There is not much light at the end of the tunnel she argues.
Restorative Justice - issue June 2009
Month by Month - issue June 2009 - From painting to cooking to award-winning radio; from Kensington, London, to Kaduma, Nigeria … Rachel Billington reviews her month.
New website for miscarriage of justice cases - issue June 2009
Adjudications and IEP: which is the fairest of them all?
- issue June 2009
A toothless bulldog - issue June 2009 - Richard Todd highlights the inadequacies of IPCC investigations.
Victims and justice - issue June 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn is concerned about the role of the victim in seriously affecting the parole procedure and public policy.
Are You Still Listening? - issue June 2009
Is your budgie a psychopath - part 2 - issue June 2009 - Keith Rose concludes that despite the best efforts of ‘psycho-babes’, his budgie is not in fact a psychopath!
Pensions unlocked - issue June 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on pension rights for prisoners.
Prison officer recruitment and training - issue June 2009 - The House of Commons Justice Select Committee has launched a website asking for views on prison officer recruitment and training, and has received over 11,000 comments; mainly critical and almost exclusively from prison officers who generally think that the recruitment process is too lax and the prison service is employing unsuitable people.
Sex offenders and their place within the prison estate - issue June 2009 - Lifer Craig Topping advocates the use of secure hospitals to house sex offenders
The power to suppress - issue June 2009 - John O’Connor believes that criminality should never be allowed to detract from creative genius
Awash with Gods; slaves to Christianity - issue June 2009 - Lifer Charles Hanson challenges the importance of religion over constructive development, education and freedom of thought.
In pursuit of re-education - issue June 2009 - Dermot Donovan explores the similarity between life under the brutal Pol Pot regime and that of today’s long term prisoners under the current Government’s ‘modification’ agenda.
Rape: lowering the standard of proof - issue June 2009 - New statistics are forcing a rethink on how we deal with rape allegations.
Book Review - Send them to Hell by Sebastian Williams
- issue May 2009 - Gerard McGrath marvels at a remarkable example of human resilience in the face of inhumane treatment.
Book Review - Marley & Me by John Grogan
- issue May 2009 - Jane Andrews is reduced to reaching for the Kleenex by the story of one man’s best friend and his antics.
The real cost of prison - issue May 2009 - In 1993, the UK prison population was 51,880. Today it is over 92,400. This trend is set to continue: the government has recently announced an extra £3.8bn to create 20,000 more prison places
Has ETS reduced your impulsivity? - issue May 2009 - The report on the evaluation of the ETS Programme is 60 pages of psycho-babble says Keith Rose
On the 1st June an exciting new extension to www.insidetime.org will go live - issue May 2009
Disturbance at Ashwell Prison - issue May 2009 - The disturbance at Ashwell Prison, the Prisons Minister statement, and an eyewitness account of events
Unfair calculation - issue May 2009 - Simon Paley offers a forensic accountant’s take on confiscation proceedings
Thinking skills? Think again! - issue May 2009 - The long awaited evaluation report on the Enhanced Thinking Skills Programme (ETS) offers no convincing evidence that the programme is effective writes Charles Hanson
The tide is turning - issue May 2009 - America is the world’s highest incarcerator of people in prison but hard financial times are now causing the US to close prisons. Enver Solomon urges the UK Government to do the same
The overlooked good guys - issue May 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn in praise of voluntary groups
Servicemen in Prison - issue May 2009 - Former Detective and Royal Marine now turned author Simon Bywater highlights the staggering statistic that more men from the Falklands War have committed suicide than those who were actually killed fighting
Month by Month - issue May 2009
Managing challenging behaviour - issue May 2009 - Those who formulated the ‘Managing Challenging Behaviour Strategy’ are guilty of trying to institutionalise a system of repression that violates the basic human rights of prisoners, writes John Bowden
Licensed to kill - issue May 2009 - Author Noel ‘Razor’ Smith is convinced that Britain is only a short step away from government sanctioned death squads
Let’s kill all the lawyers - issue May 2009 - We cannot afford a ‘fight it at all cost and never mind the expense’ approach to conflict resolution writes John O’'Connor
No vote means no voice in Parliament - Let prisoners speak out! - issue May 2009
Insuring against the future - issue May 2009 - ‘Second Chance’ scheme is an insurance firm’s efforts to provide affordable and adequate cover for those with a criminal record. John Roberts went to see Sale Insurance Services (SIS)
Heaven on Earth - issue May 2009 - We need to place faith at the heart of prison life says Buddhist Chaplain Martin Huiskens
Fair trials - a thing of the past? - issue May 2009 - David Wells, partner with Wells Burcombe Solicitors, reflects on the gradual erosion of a defendant’s rights
Disclosure and PII Procedures - issue May 2009 - In this article, we shall attempt to give a short explanation of the recent history of disclosure and developments in Public Interest Immunity (PII) so that those facing the current regime(s) may better understand the reality of what is expected of them, and what they can hope to gain from the current processes.
Disability unlocked - issue May 2009 - Francesca Cooney, Advice and Information Manager for the Prison Reform Trust, advises on facilities and benefits available for those prisoners with disabilities
Conning the Cons - issue May 2009 - Bobby Cummines, Chief Executive of UNLOCK, believes that prisoners are ‘vegetating whilst sealed in concrete boxes and fed a steady diet of Nintendo and East Enders’
A taxing matter - issue May 2009 - Gerard McGrath is angered by MPs expenses irregularities and politicians’ ‘collective arrogant disdain of the electorate’
‘Angry’ Andy’s Column - Life's a Riot - issue May 2009
Prison officers’ role must evolve - issue May 2009 - The role of the prison officer has not evolved significantly in a hundred years compared with many other professions, said Howard League Director Frances Crook, addressing the House of Commons Justice Select Committee.
Book Review - Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram - issue April 2009 - Jane Andrews discovers a treasure of a book with innocence flowing from the pages
Book Review - Criminal by Caspar Walsh - issue April 2009 - Inside Time’s Lucy Forde concludes that ‘education’ doesn’t always come best served at the hands of the authorities
Locked Up Potential - issue April 2009 - Eric McGraw reports on a new report by the Centre for Social Justice ... 'Locked Up Potential - a strategy for reforming prisons and rehabilitating prisoners.’
Worshipping psychology - issue April 2009 - Keith Rose exposes flaws in psychology and how prisoners are frequently intimidated into participating on certain courses
Wheel of the Year - issue April 2009 - A monthly column devised by astrologer Polly Wallace exclusively for readers of Inside Time drawing on themes from both astrology and astronomy. The intention is to provide a range of information and ideas to coincide with the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of the birth of Astronomy (1609) celebrating Galileo’s first observation of the sky using a telescope.
Tools of the trade - issue April 2009 - Gerard McGrath takes issue with modern teaching methods that have led to a generation of young people without a proper concept of English language skills
The future is in our hands - issue April 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn announces that he is the newly appointed General Secretary of the Association of Prisoners and challenges all prisoners to play their part in bringing about change
The forgotten victims - issue April 2009 - Clare Algar, Executive Director at Reprieve, says secrecy and cover-up surrounding the UK government’s role in rendition must stop
Only lawyers with good expert knowledge to advise prisoners - issue April 2009 - Andrew Sperling and Michael Purdon from the highly influential Association of Prison Lawyers highlight the Legal Services Commission Consultation on funding of prison law work and its implications for prisoners seeking legal advice
Now 'Listen' To This - issue April 2009 - Andy Thackwray considers the Listener scheme needs a transformation in order to function properly and provide the kind of support structure that challenging, complex and vulnerable prisoners need and deserve
Month by Month - issue April 2009
Lags and Wags - issue April 2009 - Continuing her series exclusively for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson has more zany adventures from Sue and her friends …this month they are off to the Partners in Severe Stress (PISS) annual conference at St Mary’s scout hut and the ladies are raring to go. They meet at Sue’s house however some are more eager to go than others!
Conspiracy - issue April 2009 - Law Tactics & Strategy in Defending in Conspiracy Allegations
Categorisation of foreign nationals - issue April 2009 - Barrister Matthew Stanbury and Prison Law Advisor Emma Burkinshaw emphasise the plight of many foreign national prisoners and how the prison service attempts to deal with the question of categorisation
Carrot or stick? - issue April 2009 - A former teacher with several years experience of working within prison education departments is highly critical of methods employed by security to undermine teachers’ efforts
Adjudications - issue April 2009 - Solicitor Harjit Chana draws attention to the adjudication process and says that departure from natural justice within the disciplinary process should be challenged
Political correctness - issue April 2009 - Lifer Charles Hanson looks at how several areas of prison life have fallen foul to an insidious ‘politically correct ideology’
Rehabilitation revolution - issue April 2009 - Former prisoner Paul Sullivan responds to Conservative proposals for reforming the justice system
Report from Court 4 - issue April 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden raises the issue of retaining and properly storing all the forensic science material in any given case
Petition demands votes for prisoners in EU Elections in June - issue March 2009
Book Review - The devil’s children - a history of
childhood and murder by Loretta Loach - issue March 2009 - Inside Time’s Lucy Forde enjoys a riveting read that provides much ‘food for thought’ and considers those who maintain that children are not born bad, but develop as a result of social circumstances, will find a book that comes down on both sides of the argument
Book Review - That’s another story - the autobiography by Julie Walters - issue March 2009 - Jane Andrews reviews a book that goes through the life of a British film and TV institution
Women In Prison is 25! - issue March 2009
What price imprisonment? - issue March 2009 - The annual lecture of the Legal Action Group was given by Lord Ramsbotham in which he examined the failure of the prison system to cut rates of re-offending and suggested an alternative approach. Inside Time has selected extracts from the speech.
Ministry of Justice responds - issue March 2009 - In our February issue we reported the story of ‘Harold (not his real name) a 74 year-old wheelchair user who was released after serving a 5 year prison sentence at privately run Dovegate. According to Harold, he was dropped off at the train station and then left in his wheelchair on the platform to wait for the train to take him on his five hour journey home.
We asked the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) whatever happened to their policy of providing a ‘through the gate service’. Inside Time has now received a reply from the Briefing and Casework Unit at NOMS and so we asked Harold to comment on their account of what happened.
Which statistic? - issue March 2009 - Cokisa Shude questions why prisoners have to fight to actually get on necessary programmes and her disappointment at the whole rehabilitation process
Wheel of the Year - issue March 2009 - Introducing a monthly column devised by astrologer Polly Wallace exclusively for readers of Inside Time drawing on themes from both astrology and astronomy. The intention is to provide a range of information and ideas to coincide with the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of the birth of astronomy (1609) celebrating Galileo’s first observation of the sky using a telescope.
‘They just don’t know what to do with us’ - issue March 2009 - ‘Sally’ looks at yet another tragic suicide and how female lifers face an uphill struggle and are relentlessly being backed into a corner
The Listeners - issue March 2009 - As Belmarsh prison celebrate their 15th year of the Listeners scheme, Samaritan volunteer Ruth Acty explains what the scheme does and how to become a Listener
Searching questions - issue March 2009
Respecting the elders - issue March 2009 - Andy Thackwray highlights the valuable role played by Age Concern in coping with the special needs of the hundred plus elderly prisoners at HMP Hull
Recipe for further offending - issue March 2009 - The cost of crime to the country is already appallingly high without HMPS providing the recipe for further offending that makes a mockery of so-called ‘resettlement’ writes lifer Charles Hanson
Serious Fraud - a glance at the future
- issue March 2009
Month by Month - issue March 2009
Jonathan King writes … - issue March 2009
IPP sentences … release from Category B conditions - issue March 2009 - Barrister Rajan Mawji highlights the case of the first ever release of an IPP prisoner from category B conditions
Conjugal visits - issue March 2009 - Guardian columnist Erwin James considers that in a genuinely humane prison system, how we deal with human sexuality for those held captive will have to be acknowledged and accommodated
Ballot box bandits - issue March 2009 - Gerard McGrath says the enfranchisement of prisoners could go a long way towards removing the sense of exclusion that many feel
An email from the Governor - issue March 2009 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time
A leap of imagination needed … - issue March 2009 - Our prisons are creaking along like an arthritic donkey says lifer Ben Gunn
Adjudications and the Tarrant criteria - issue March 2009 - Alan Burcombe, partner with Wells Burcombe Solicitors, highlights problem areas for prisoners having adjudications before the Governor.
Judicial Review to challenge Government over prisoners right to vote - issue March 2009 - A legal challenge to the Government’s refusal to give prisoners the vote is being planned, Inside
Time has learnt.
Book Review - My word is my Bond, The autobiography
by Roger Moore - issue February 2009 - Jane Andrews enjoys the autobiography of a British TV and film legend who in the eyes of many people was the best ever screen spy James Bond.
Fraud Act 2006… the new offences - issue February 2009
Update on the Association of Prison Lawyers - issue February 2009 - Inside Time caught up with Rikki Garg, a prison lawyer himself, to find out the latest developments with The Association of Prison Lawyers (APL), the group he helped to form.
Justice Select Committee - issue February 2009 - Interviews Jonathan Aitken, Chairman, Prison Reform Working Group, Centre for Social Justice.
When childhood dies - issue February 2009 - Child abuse is common but under-reported says a series of articles on child maltreatment published in The Lancet medical journal.
Prison psychologists are breeching Code of Ethics and Conduct. - issue February 2009
Education Survey Results - issue February 2009 - In our October issue, Inside Time conducted a Prison Education Survey on behalf of the Prisoners’ Education Trust aimed at finding more about education prospects for prisoners.
Outbound Email Service for Prisoners - Update - issue February 2009
Further protection for non-smokers - issue February 2009
Virtual Nightmare - issue February 2009 - Buddhist Chaplain Martin Huiskens highlights the Virtual Entertainment industry and asks whether 18-certificate Playstation games actually lead to more violence.
Rehabilitation a distant second - issue February 2009 - John Bowden wonders why the Ministry of Justice does not get into step with the Scottish Prison Service and provide a more integrated system of training opportunities for prisoners.
Probation officers – friend or foe? - issue February 2009 - Lifer Charles Hanson looks at the modern role of probation and how it has become more punitive and bound up in bureaucracy.
Prison Councils - issue February 2009 - Enver Solomon says prison councils should be promoted in order for prisoners to be viewed as informed participants.
Pensions for prisoners - issue February 2009 - The denial of prisoners’ pension rights is an issue about which we are increasingly out of step with the rest of Europe. Former prisoner Paul Sullivan reports on the support of the National Pensioners Convention.
Lags and Wags - issue February 2009 - In the sixth instalment of her series exclusively for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson continues the zany adventures of Sue and life in Turpin Close …
Education failing to meet needs - issue February 2009
Diversity … bring it on! - issue February 2009 - Lifer Benn Gunn argues that encouraging diversity of thought forces us to examine our beliefs and is good for us.
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue February 2009 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights the case of Karl Watson, convicted of murder almost entirely on evidence given by a person who was ‘easily led’ and ‘abnormally suggestible’
Appeals against conviction - conduct of trial lawyers - issue February 2009 - David Wells, Partner with Wells Burcombe Solicitors, suggests that although criticism of trial lawyers is a common complaint, successfully raising such issues remains difficult.
A Poca-lypse now? - issue February 2009 - The Home Office’s long term target is £1 billion of ‘seized assets’ every year writes Arshid Khatana
Book Review - Buddhism, Eight Steps to Happiness By Dieter Glogowski - issue February 2009 - Lucy Forde defies anyone not to gain anything but wisdom from a beautifully illustrated book.
Month By Month - issue February 2009
Whatever happened to the idea of a 'through the gate' service? - issue February 2009
Book Review: Ten Greatest Conmen by Roger Cook and Tim Tate - issue January 2009 - Gerard McGrath recommends a collective that in his view simultaneously outrages and titillates.
Book Review: The Biggest Issue? by Sue Smith with Ian Rayner - issue January 2009 - Jane Andrews is struck by a powerful story of pain, addiction and ultimate freedom.
Parole Board under a duty - issue January 2009 - Barrister Matthew Stanbury and prison law advisor Emma Burkinshaw summarise a High Court judgment which effectively rejected Parole Board claims regarding enforcement powers.
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 and Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 - issue January 2009
The blind leading the blind. - issue January 2009 - Des Glasten wonders just how historians will come to view the current generation of penal policy thinkers.
Parallels in history - issue January 2009 - Keith Rose says that an examination of modern
Britain reveals close parallels with totalitarian states.
Outbound email service for prisoners - issue January 2009 - Great news for EMAP and for prisoners!
Finals - issue January 2009
How the internet would change learning in prison. - issue January 2009
Too old to be cared for? - issue January 2009 - Peter Byard introduces ‘Fred’ and the various challenges he faces as a despairing, disabled prisoner.
State sponsored execution - issue January 2009 - Craig Topping argues that lethal injections bring nothing but eternal shame on the US.
Searching Questions - issue January 2009
Race Relations - issue January 2009 - Lifer Ben Gunn has learnt from race relations work that it’s very difficult to appreciate what it’s like to be other than who you are.
Past their shelf life - issue January 2009 - Lifer Charles Hanson questions why the Prison Service has no coherent national policy or strategy for dealing with elderly prisoners.
Offensive language - issue January 2009 - Jon Keeler considers that absolutely everything lies within a name
Magna Carta to Europe - issue January 2009
Lest we forget - issue January 2009 - Andy Wright wonders why paying due respect to those who gave us our freedom is, for many, seemingly too much to ask.
Learning your lessons - issue January 2009
Jonathan King writes … - issue January 2009
Hypocritical in the extreme - issue January 2009 - Prisoners who want to prove their innocence must be allowed to use lie detector tests too, says Guardian prison correspondent Eric Allison.
Fresh evidence and the Criminal Cases Review Commission - issue January 2009 - David Wells, Partner with Wells Burcombe LLP, highlights applications to the Commission and how fresh evidence is interpreted.
Bootlegging and duty evasion … nearly the oldest profession - issue January 2009
Month By Month - issue January 2009
Lags & Wags - issue January 2009 - In the fifth instalment of her exclusive series for
Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison
Henderson continues the zany adventures of Sue and life in Turpin Close …
Warning from America: Reject the big idea in 2009. - issue January 2009 - Building American-style Titan prisons to warehouse thousands of prisoners could seriously undermine the ability of the justice system to cut crime by reforming offenders and instead set England and Wales on the fast-track to copying the damaging and discredited US prison system, a leading US civil rights lawyer warned when he addressed the Prison Reform Trust 2008 Annual lecture.
Votes for prisoners: time for action not words. - issue December 2008 - Former prisoner John Hirst, one of those primarily responsible in forcing the government to change its stance on voting rights for prisoners, highlights the government’s delaying tactics, which may well have serious consequences at the next General Election.
Babies in prison: could reach 200 this year - issue December 2008
Scottish children in adult jails. - issue December 2008
Lags and Wags - Xmas Special - issue December 2008 - In the third instalment of her series exclusively for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson invites readers to take a break from the zany adventures of Sue and life on the estate and enjoy a Mr & Mrs special via video link!
Month by Month - issue December 2008
Zimmer Frame Society - issue December 2008 - Winston Churchill Irvine highlights an initiative that might signal a whole new way of caring for elderly and disabled prisoners
Short tariff IPP sentences - issue December 2008 - George Cassidy wonders whether they are a just punishment for criminals or a cash cow for everybody else.
Restraint & Receivers … your money or theirs? - issue December 2008
Muslims Rule! - issue December 2008 - Lifer Ben Gunn wonders whether Muslim prisoners ‘organising’ is solely around their religion.
Is your budgie a psychopath? - issue December 2008 - Keith Rose looks at a risk instrument that is fundamentally flawed and cannot be used as a measure of what an individual may do in the future.
If it was left to me - issue December 2008 - In the final part of his series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan further identifies what he considers needs changing about the failing prison system; looking this month at older prisoners; staff selling ‘stories’ to the tabloids; hospital appointments and misinformation fed to prisoners.
Factories of repression - issue December 2008 - John Bowden considers that prison revolt and protest has been rendered far from redundant.
Appeals procedure - issue December 2008 - David Wells, Partner with Wells Burcombe LLP, highlights the procedure for appealing against a conviction and/or sentence from the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division.
Looking back on 2008 … and beyond - issue December 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson reflects on the approach of other prisoners relating to ‘doing time’
A decade of change - issue December 2008 - Looking back over the last ten years of education in the criminal justice system, there are many similarities between the concerns then and now.
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue December 2008 - Leading investigate journalist Bob Woffinden looks at a highly controversial conviction he considers riddled with inconsistencies
Ho! Ho! Ho! - A modern Christmas Tale - issue December 2008
A Pawned Soul - A Tale of Love, Loyalty & Devotion - issue December 2008
Independent review of prison work accuses Prison Service of incompetence. - issue December 2008 - When the Howard League for Penal Reform was founded in 1866 one of its main concerns at the time was ‘the poverty of prison work’. One hundred and forty years later the Charity launched an experiment of real work in prison for real pay that trains long-term prisoners. Eric McGraw reports on why this radical work initiative is now being closed down.
Book Review - The Death of Justice by Michael O’Brien with Greg Lewis - issue November 2008
Book Review - Jeremy Bamber: Evil, Almost Beyond Belief? by Scott Lomax - issue November 2008 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights a startling reassessment of one of the most notorious crimes in British history.
Book Review - Ekaterinburg - the last days of the
Romanovs (by Helen Rappaport) - issue November 2008 - Jane Andrews recommends a fascinating insight into the last days of the Romanov family.
Age Concern - Older Offender Project - issue November 2008
Entrapment - issue November 2008
Outrageous presumption - issue November 2008 - Consultant solicitor Susan Twyman looks at the repercussions of incorrect sentence calculation.
The Death of Justice - issue November 2008 - Michael O’Brien spent 11 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. His new book ‘The Death of Justice’ is a guide to surviving in some of Britain’s toughest jails and how best to campaign to prove your innocence. He talks exclusively to Inside Time …
Big Brother - issue November 2008
Cell confessions - antidote to PACE - issue November 2008 - Lifer Michael Stone argues that the police have discovered an antidote to PACE – the cell confession.
After Woolf - injustice still rules - issue November 2008 - Lifer Ben Gunn asks whether Lord Woolf’s recommendations following the Strangeways Riots in 1990 have brought about any appreciable changes for prisoners.
Lags and Wags - issue November 2008 - In the third instalment of her series exclusively for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson invites readers to follow the zany adventures of Sue and life on the estate …
Psychobabble and Psycho-Babes - issue November 2008 - Keith Rose is convinced that trainee psychologists are taking over management functions within the prison service.
The fallacy of mental health and disorders. - issue November 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson raises several questions that have not been satisfactorily answered; such as what is ‘mental illness’, what is a ‘mental disorder’ and what is meant by ‘psychological problems’?
Maintaining innocence - issue November 2008 - Peter Byard believes the potential for wrongful convictions in sex cases has increased enormously.
The facts of life - issue November 2008 - Barrister Stanley Best offers advice for those wrongly accused of sex offences.
If it was left to me - issue November 2008 - In the seventh of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan further identifies what he considers needs changing about the failing prison system; looking this month at Culture, Searching and Abuse.
If you treat prisoners like animals... - issue November 2008
Music In Prisons - issue November 2008
Into the music - issue November 2008
Month by Month - issue November 2008
Jail rates for under-14’s among Europe’s highest. - issue November 2008 - The number of children aged 10 to 14 sentenced to custody in England and Wales has increased 550 per cent in the last decade. This fivefold increase has occurred despite there being no significant increase in serious crime warns the children’s charity Barnardo’s in a new report:
Escape Artists - A creative approach to breaking free. - issue October 2008
Working in the Construction Industry - issue October 2008 - Brian Curry, Director, Learn Plumbing Ltd, offers guidance on how offenders can get their foot on the Construction Industry ladder.
Success in spite of the System - issue October 2008
PRISON EDUCATION - From uncouth youth to erudite adult. - issue October 2008
Distance Learning - issue October 2008
Arts in prison - issue October 2008
Offender learning matters and Prisoners’ Education Trust - issue October 2008
Distance learning - advice from the Prisoners’ Education Trust - issue October 2008
Prison Education - The Basics - issue October 2008
What’s the difference between being unhappy and being unwell? - issue October 2008 - With an ever-increasing number of ways of describing different behaviours or ways of being, it’s no wonder that people get confused about what is and what isn’t a mental illness, says Seaneen Molloy.
Urgent Witness Appeal - HMP Frankland - issue October 2008
The stress of helplessness’ - issue October 2008 - Max Rutherford and Joanna Keil highlight a report from the highly influential Sainsbury Centre that puts the spotlight firmly on the plight of IPP sentenced prisoners.
The POCA elephant - issue October 2008 - Arshid Khatana examines the implications of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA)
The real elephant in the psychology room - issue October 2008
Taking the Writing off the Wall - issue October 2008 - Stephen Wade from the Writers in Prison Network insists the Prison Service need to encourage writing and that there is one law for such as Jeffrey Archer and another for those who are not ‘celebrities’
Short Story - Killed in action - issue October 2008
Noble Cause Corruption - issue October 2008 - …"It is better that some innocent men remain in jail than the integrity of the English judicial system be impugned" … the late Lord Denning (pictured) following the overturning of guilty verdicts on the Birmingham Six.
Nacro join the prison business - issue October 2008 - Ben Gunn is concerned at Nacro leaping into bed with the private sector and considers their moral compass has gone astray.
Mental Health and the Prison System - issue October 2008 - Grant Stevens highlights the tragic failure of successive governments to cope effectively with prisoners’ mental health problems.
Lags and Wags - issue October 2008 - In the second instalment of her exclusive series for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson continues the zany adventures of Sue and life on the estate.
Knowledge counts for nothing in politics - issue October 2008 - Billy Little argues that there is a reluctance to listen to those within the community who really could make a significant and lasting difference.
Jonathan King writes ... - issue October 2008
If it was left to me - issue October 2008 - In the sixth of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan further identifies what he considers needs changing about the failing prison system and looks at Assessment, Parole and Release.
First Class Letter - issue October 2008 - David Honey tries to figure out just how to get a contribution in Inside Time!
Confiscation Orders - issue October 2008 - Jackie Kent and Peter Brunning from HM Courts Service offer significant advice for those facing outstanding confiscation orders.
Challenging the Evidence - issue October 2008 - The Exclusion of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence: When a breach of the rules leads to evidence being excluded.
Bob Woffinden writes … - issue October 2008 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights yet another example of a ‘crazy timing’ case.
Month by Month - issue October 2008
Right to a fair hearing is being breached at Forest Bank. - issue October 2008 - Cunninghams Solicitors have accused Forest Bank Prison in Manchester of being "consistently obstructive".
Emailaprisoner.com - issue October 2008 - Costs down 17%, prisons subscribing up 55%
Ofcom Report on the cost of telephone calls made by prisoners. - issue October 2008
Book Review...Child C - By Christopher Spry - issue September 2008 - Sophie Barton-Hawkins is emotionally touched by a story of cruelty and systematic abuse that defies belief.
Book Review...The Murder of Billie-Jo - By Sion Jenkins & Bob Woffinden - issue September 2008 - Barrister Flo Krause looks at a book that exposes the deep failings of the criminal justice system and the deliberate tainting of evidence by the police.
Book Review..On The Edge: My Story - By Richard Hammond - issue September 2008 - Jane Andrews looks at the life of a man lucky to be alive, yet still intent on living it to the full.
What It Feels Like ... to be a Prisoner at Guantánamo Bay - issue September 2008
What It Feels Like ... to be a Prison Guard at Guantánamo Bay - issue September 2008
An illegal immigrant from Russia served the Queen tea. - issue September 2008
Prisoners need protecting from the Home Office. - issue September 2008
Talk the Tale, Read the Tale at Morton Hall. - issue September 2008
Brainwashed by the therapy cult - issue September 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson argues that the therapy culture is cultivating a potentially dangerous sense of vulnerability.
Challenging Surveillance Evidence - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - issue September 2008
Barry George: A likely candidate - issue September 2008 - Barry George’s solicitor Jeremy Moore reveals to Inside Time the background to one of the worst miscarriages of justice in recent times.
A Policeman’s lot is not a happy one! - issue September 2008
Lags and Wags - issue September 2008 - In the first instalment of a series for Inside Time, writer and comedienne Alison Henderson introduces the various characters that will, over the coming months, become familiar names to readers
This Way Up - issue September 2008 - This month’s final instalment sees Colin among...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Who guards the guards? - issue September 2008 - Solicitor Advocate Julian Young highlights recent court of appeal scrutiny of legally privileged communications.
What prison is really like - issue September 2008
If it was left to me - issue September 2008 - In the fifth of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers needs changing about the failing prison system.
Intelligence Gathering - issue September 2008 - Lifer Ben Gunn considers prisoners are being ‘plotted up on by a horde of professional grasses’
A service with offenders in mind - issue September 2008 - Former director of therapy at HMP Dovegate Roland Woodward looks at the extent of mental disorder in prisons.
Email a Prisoner - issue September 2008 - Inside Time’s Operations Director John Roberts highlights a former prisoner’s innovative business venture and agrees to help him expand the service.
Yoga rocks - issue September 2008 - Andy Thackwray loses his scepticism and benefits from a ‘Houdini miming’ experience!
Political Pop Music - issue September 2008 - Andrew Cousins from Gema Records examines the influence of Two Tone Records on Music and Social Integration
Empty Courts – Full Prisons - issue September 2008 - Joseph Kotrie-Monson from Monsons Solicitors says police cautions and on-the-spot fines leave magistrates with nothing to do.
The Innocence Network - issue August 2008
Criminal Justice - BBC Drama - issue August 2008
Abuse of Process - issue August 2008 - This short phrase abuse of process will be well known to many Inside Time readers. In this article we set out to explain the basics of the abuse of process jurisdiction and the main issues that arise.
A Poca-lypse Now? - issue August 2008 - Arshid Khatana, Senior Consultant with POCA Consulting Ltd, once again shines the spotlight on those facing the wrath of the POCA elephant
Choosing the right solicitor - issue August 2008 - Barrister Stanley Best advises on what to look for when selecting legal representation
Lamb to the slaughter - issue August 2008 - Max Szuca relives the nightmare scenario of wrongfully being found guilty of sexual offences,
in no small measure due to inadequate legal representation
This Way Up - Donkey Madness - issue August 2008 - This months special double instalment sees Colin reflecting back to a stint of community service
Why Therapy? - issue August 2008 - Dr Cecilia dFelice,psychologist,
broadcaster and Mind Journalist of the Year 2007, explains what the results of therapy can be
Wounds into Gold - issue August 2008 - Buddhist Chaplain Martin Huiskens says we must reclaim the sanity we were born with
Scotland the Volcanic - issue August 2008 - After the political earthquake in Glasgow East, Keith Rose says Scotland is not part of England anyway.
Maybe Charles Bronson does have a point? - issue August 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson reflects on the days when everything was so much simpler and more straightforward.
If it was left to me - issue August 2008 - Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers needs changing about the prison system and this month puts the focus firmly on massive changes for prisoners based on motivation, training, confidence and responsibility.
Ombudsman - Peacekeeping over Responsibility? - issue August 2008
Retrospective Gratitude - issue August 2008
Thin end of the wedge? - issue August 2008 - Lifer John OConnor fears that lessons learnt from the Strangeways Riots will be ignored by the present generation of prison managers.
Blueprint for change - issue August 2008
Inside Time comment... - issue August 2008 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights the case of Rizwan Alvi who, it would appear, made the mistake of having faith in British justice.
Month By Month - issue August 2008 -
Pics for Prisoners - issue August 2008
Re-offending rates rise as the prison population expands - issue August 2008
Are Government crime statistics criminal? - issue August 2008 - The Government claims that crime has fallen by 30 per cent since it came to power in 1997...Eric McGraw examines the claim.
The National Consumer Council to launch an investigation into the cost of prisoners phone calls - issue July 2008
Managing your money - A resettlement checklist and guide - issue July 2008
A day devoted to the Good News - issue July 2008
"We have made 10,000 Bin Ladens.." - issue July 2008 - George Galloway lets loose his oratory on an empty House of Commons and asks why are we making new terrorists in Britain with our financial support of
Ethiopian forces who are not providing security in Somalia but instead causing more murder and terror.
From Jail to Jihad - issue July 2008 - A recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme investigated a distortion
of Islam emerging in British prisons. Here Inside Time highlights
some snapshots from the programme.
Stop Press Anonymous Witnesses - issue July 2008 - Knowing your accuser: new case on use of anonymous witnesses.
The chattering classes - issue July 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson has some strong views on what he considers to be the liberal elite and do-gooder in prison reform.
Reform Groups - Speak to us, not for us - issue July 2008 - Lifer Ben Gunn implores those who campaign on behalf of prisoners to enter into dialogue with them.
Recent changes in parole release - issue July 2008 - Tony Quinlan from the Prison Law Department at Switalskis Solicitors highlights significant new provisions for determinate sentence prisoners sentenced under the Criminal Justice Act 1991
POCA Realities - issue July 2008 - Arshid Khatana, Senior Consultant with POCA Consulting Ltd, fixes the spotlight firmly on the implications of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Not all bad at Doncaster! - issue July 2008
Month By Month - issue July 2008
If it was left to me - issue July 2008 - In the third of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers needs changing about the prison system and examines how he would reorganise, retrain and motivate the warder flock; force all staff to take and own responsibility; and start making prisons wholly effective as well as efficient.
Discharged prisoners rights - issue July 2008 - Matthew Evans, Managing Solicitor at the Prisoners Advice Service, highlights discharged prisoners rights to health care, housing and community care..
An Imp and a Daemon? - issue July 2008 - It was the 60's, that decade of flower power, Woodstock, free love and
groovy man. Whilst the world was becoming aware of the drop out
and turn on generation, the writer at about 19 was feeling his oats.
Porn Free - issue July 2008
This Way Up - The further experiences of Colin - issue July 2008 - This month Colin steps onto a career path, however as usual nothing is ever straightforward!
Hibiscus gives support to families of foreign national women in UK prisons. - issue July 2008
Common sense to learn from people who have been at the sharp end of the penal system. - issue July 2008 - Prisoners, ex-offenders, and their families should have a say in criminal justice policies, according to a new report by a Taskforce led by national charity Clinks.
A step in the right direction - issue June 2008 - Associate solicitor of Katy Cowans Henry Hyams Solicitors examines the highly contentious issue of IPP sentences and more recent developments, including categorisation, which should mean swifter progression for IPP prisoners
Living under the jackboot - issue June 2008 - Highly successful author Noel Razor Smith finds himself under investigation for doing nothing more than trying to rehabilitate himself and seek a worthwhile future
Conspiracy to Murder: To Plan a Death - issue June 2008 - Why write an article about such a specific offence? The answer is that this offence comes up so surprisingly frequently. There seems to be no end to the varieties of situations that can lead to this charge.
A lifetime of labelling - issue June 2008 - Enver Solomon, Deputy Director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, maintains that prisoners should be far more involved in decisions that affect their lives and futures
Law on the Landings - issue June 2008 - For some time I have been having odd thoughts about Mark Leech. Where does his heart lie - with the Director General? The bank manager? Or prisoners?
An open challenge - issue June 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson maintains that within the prison psychology paramilitary there exists cultural bias and an ignorance of the experiences and thinking patterns of those from different cultures
Prison Education - issue June 2008 - Prison Education
Keith Rose says prisoners have got to stop being their own worst enemies and start taking advantage of the education opportunities offered
If it was left to me - issue June 2008 - In the second of an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers needs changing about the prison system. He looks at reorganization; introducing proper management; dismissing the warder flock and hopefully making things better for warders and prisoners; and saving millions of pounds in the process.
Prison overcrowding - who's to blame? - issue June 2008 - John Allen looks at the enormous influence former Home Secretary David Blunkett had on the current prison overcrowding chaos
On the basis of a blood stain - issue June 2008 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights a case where Appeal Court judges apparently saw fit to ignore the blindingly obvious
Month by Month - issue June 2008 - The play, The long road - Synergy Theatre Project
At least four in ten offenders go back to crime - issue June 2008 - These latest Ministry of Justice statistics have been produced under new measures for adults and juveniles to cover the period 2000 to 2005 but the media reported the statistics differently.
Vile Pervert the Musical - issue June 2008 - Bob Woffinden reviews a remarkable film about the case of former pop mogul Jonathan King
This Way Up - issue May 2008 - Inside Time has been in touch with Col's creator, Andy Thackwray, who has developed This Way Up into a soon to be published novel. By popular demand, both Andy and prisoner illustrator Matthew Williams have agreed to team up once more and portray more of Colins hilarious, madcap and often poignant experiences.
Prisoner of Silence - A Short Story - issue May 2008
Wars Won - But Tragically Lost - issue May 2008
Fraud: Tax Evasion & Money Laundering - The new favourites - issue May 2008 - Aziz Rahman and Jonathan Lennon highlight the increasing importance of tax fraud type offences and money laundering cases.
State Sanctioned Violence - issue May 2008 - John Bowden makes a powerful case against the use of brutality on young people in custody.
Somebody Is Listening - issue May 2008 - Keith Rose praises the Listeners scheme and offers enlightenment for those who may have misconceptions about their role within prisons.
Social Misfit - issue May 2008 - John OLeary wonders how much longer he will be considered an outcast and ostracized by society.
Memory, make-believe and the courts - what's the mischief? - issue May 2008 - Margaret Jervis and Chris Saltrese take a look at time travel in the Courts.
Month by Month - issue May 2008
Independence Day Postponed - issue May 2008
If It Was Left To Me - Part 1 - issue May 2008 - In an eight-part series for Inside Time, former prisoner Paul Sullivan identifies what he considers to be issues that must be addressed and altered and how, after serving ten years, he would change the prison system. In part one he highlights pay and why he feels prison officers are paid too much.
I Didn't Come Here To Die - issue May 2008 - Former prisoner Lucy Charman says that suicide prevention is better than being included in the next INQUEST report.
Building Its Way Out Of Trouble - issue May 2008 - Criminal Litigation Executive Nicola Dillon says to ease overcrowding, courts should be encouraged to use alternative punishments wherever possible.
Video Games: Mental Exercise or Brain Candy? - issue May 2008 - Andrew Cousins, Managing Director of Gema Records, explores the various benefits of video games and concludes that visual literacy has a significant role to play.
Another Eurovision Loser - issue May 2008 - Jonathan King reflects on The Brits and the Eurovision Song Contest and wonders whether this years UK entry is doomed to be yet another failure.
Court Removes Parole - issue May 2008
CCRC Refers Murder Convictions to Appeal Court - issue May 2008 - The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred the murder convictions of David Shale and Paul Branchflower to the Court of Appeal.
Inside Time Banned From The Wings! - issue May 2008
Over half of the prison population are drug users.. - issue May 2008
This Way Up - issue April 2008 - In 2006 we ran a popular nine-part series entitled This Way Up which portrayed the various troubles experienced by Colin, an alcoholic repeat offender. The series followed Colin's release from jail and the subsequent problems he faced as he tried to turn his life around.
Inside Time has been in touch with Col's creator, Andy Thackwray, who has now developed This Way Up into a soon to be published novel. By popular demand, both Andy and prisoner illustrator Matthew Williams have agreed to team up once more and portray more of Colins hilarious, madcap and often poignant experiences.
Creating Injustice - issue April 2008 - You might have thought that a government presided over by a son of the manse - Gordon Brown - would have been doubly anxious to avoid injustice in legislation, but you would sadly be mistaken.
We Act For Others... - issue April 2008 - Ryan Penn is reluctant to witness the demise of his true nature and attributes.
Rehabilitation Revolution - issue April 2008 - Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, highlights the Conservatives latest policy proposals for reforming our prisons.
Police Corruption - issue April 2008 - The Good, the Bad & the Bent.
Origin of a Sub-Species - issue April 2008 - Keith Rose identifies a recent, rather dangerous arrival to the prison service.
Month by Month - issue April 2008
"Well, how do you explain..." - issue April 2008 - Well, how do you explain the presence of your DNA at the scene of the crime if you weren't there?
Initial Categorisation of IPPs - issue April 2008 - Andrew Beetham, a caseworker at Michael Purdon Solicitors, highlights the implementation of a significant development for IPP prisoners.
How Journalism Works - issue April 2008 - Pampered lags get record number of TV's. Thousands have their own LCD flat screens and up to 40 satellite channels.
Head Games - issue April 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson learns the hard way that having a sense of humour can lead to cognitive skills deficits.
Does Life Now Mean Life? - issue April 2008 - Over 18 years into his discretionary life sentence, Allan Baker reflects on the effects of social engineering.
The Conservatives Plan To Reward Successful Prisons. - issue April 2008 - Prisons would receive a cash bonus each time a former prisoner stays out of jail for at least 2 years under proposals announced by David Cameron.
Bribe For Foreign National Prisoners Triples To 3000 - issue April 2008
A Lump on the Forehead - issue April 2008 - Last month, Sion Jenkins and I went to visit Victor Nealon. Sion, having had his own conviction for the murder of Billie-Jo quashed, still keeps in touch with some of those he knew while in Wakefield; and Nealon is one of them. His case is certainly intriguing.
A Sorry Milestone - issue April 2008 - The United States has passed a sorry milestone:
More than one in every 100 adults are now behind bars.
House of Lords Ruling On Abuse and Rape Victims Opens The Way For Compensation Claims - issue March 2008 - Peter Garsden says the decision brings much needed clarity for lawyers and justice for survivors.
House of Lords Ruling On Abuse and Rape Victims Opens The Way For Compensation Claims - issue March 2008 - Julian Young says this decision sets a dangerous precedent.
Creative Prison Project - issue March 2008 - Ben Gunn's article 'The Architect Is Our Enemy' in Januarys Inside Time does, of course, express the views of the majority of prisoners unfortunate enough to be incarcerated in any of the current design of prison cells. But towards the end of his article he states 'As far as I can discover, never in the history of imprisonment in Britain have prisoners been asked about their cells, or what they need. Never'. Not so...
This Way Up - issue March 2008
Stop Bugging Us! - issue March 2008
What's So Manly About Complaining? - issue March 2008
The Plastic Gangster - issue March 2008 - Keith Rose takes a look at a familiar species to be found in penal establishments everywhere.
The Magic of Science - issue March 2008 - Jon Keeler examines the implications of polygraph testing and comes to some uncomfortable conclusions.
Read My Brain - I Didn't Do It - issue March 2008 - Guilty or innocent, our intentions could soon be revealed using brain scanning technology according to experts in the field.
Nazi Law - issue March 2008 - Dermot Donovan highlights Germanys nightmare criminal justice system of the 1930s and certain uneasy parallels with current events both at home and abroad.
Month By Month - issue March 2008 - Occasionally prison really does work or, to put it another way, the prisoner makes it work for him.
Living With a Product of the System - issue March 2008 - Alison Henderson reflects on a sad encounter with one of lifes unfortunates who, from an early age, never had a chance.
Influential Music Albums of The Past Four Decades - issue March 2008 - Music, across its various genres, has evolved over the past four decades through the issue of certain seminal albums. Andrew Cousins looks at those albums that, in his view, have heavily influenced the shape and direction of music.
Beyond the Gate - issue March 2008 - Cathy Hillman from 'Beyond the Gate' tells Inside Time about a journey of recovery.
An Abuse of Power - issue March 2008 - Author Bernard OMahoney highlights the case of a young dyslexic prisoner he considers a miscarriage of justice that will stagger the mind of anybody that reads about it.
Community Sentences: - issue March 2008
Month by Month - issue February 2008 - Visiting prisons often gives me new experiences quite apart from meeting the men and women inside them.
Police interviews - Your words - for you or against you - issue February 2008 - The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) was introduced to tackle police abuses; especially the practice of verballing
Do you know? - issue February 2008 - Andy Stocks from Morgans Solicitors offers advice on significant issues that prisoners frequently find confusing
Community care law and services - issue February 2008 - Richard Payne highlights community care services and assessments
Correspondence and communication - issue February 2008 - Donna Peters from Parlby Calder Solicitors looks at issues surrounding prisoner communication
Legal aid changes - Reform or dismantling - issue February 2008 - In a cost-cutting exercise, major changes to the Legal Aid system are now being introduced which many see as a threat to the whole Criminal Legal Aid Defence system. Aziz Rahman, Principle at leading Defence Solicitors Rahman Ravelli, looks at the changes and issues.
Troubled retirement - issue February 2008 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights the strange case of haulier Geoff Hyde, whose good intentions turned into a nightmare journey
Distant Relatives - Lifes full of surprises - issue February 2008 - SHORT STORY
Theres No Place Like Home! - issue February 2008 - Dorothy Gail, it leaves me with no option but to recall you back to prison, said her defiant probation officer. But I was only 10 seconds late for my appointment! Dorothy replied glumly.
Clever people playing dead - issue February 2008 - Shah Mohammed Haque wonders just how impotent and brain dead certain politicians really are!
Freedom? - issue February 2008 - Jon Keeler disputes the concept of freedom and considers the culture of
suspicion and mistrust to be greater outside than inside
A raconteur of note - issue February 2008 - Keith Rose draws on real stories from a former San Quentin inmate rather than the sanitized TV versions currently purporting to present life in American prisons
Jonathan King writes - issue February 2008 - Coming up for Easter and the third anniversary of my release from prison.
Tabloid hacks parasites - issue February 2008 - Peter Byard gives tabloid hacks a taste of their own medicine
Censorship of thought - issue February 2008 - Lifer Charles Hanson highlights political correctness that often comes accompanied by hypocrisy and double standards
Prisoners to be tagged like dogs - issue February 2008 - A plan to implant microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders to create more space in overcrowded British prisons is being considered by the Ministry of Justice as an expansion of electronic tagging.
Le Chateau - issue January 2007 - A new book about the lives of prisoners is about to be published. It
is based on face-to-face interviews which we carried out with prisoners
in 2004. It looks at all aspects of life in prison and includes direct
testimony from a large number of men and women.
But these are not prisoners in Her Majestys prisons in England and
Wales; they are prisoners accused of genocide, held in prisons in Rwanda,
in Central Africa. In 1994, more than 500,000 people were killed in
three months in massacres against the minority ethnic group.
Providing leverage - issue January 2007 - Katy Barrow from Henry Hyams Solicitors (pictured) highlights
a recent case during which the court effectively criticised the
Parole Board for its failure to arrange oral hearings promptly
Custody time limits - issue January 2007 - How long can you be kept locked up whilst the powers that be get ready for your trial?
Child abuse victims hopeful of compensation boost - issue January 2007 - Hundreds of victims of child abuse are hopeful that Judges in the House of Lords will decide in their favour in a few weeks when they are set to give judgement in a series of cases which concern time limits for compensation claims for child abuse.
From property to paganism - issue January 2007 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, contributes his regular column
Aramark changes on the way! - issue January 2007 - John Roberts meets HMPS specifically to discuss Aramark
Prison and Homosexuality - issue January 2007 - Ken Hanson examines a subject he considers has always been conveniently swept under the carpet
End of conversation - issue January 2007 - Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, highlights government policy that has put the UK firmly on the road to mass imprisonment
The Architect Is Our Enemy - issue January 2007 - With Justice Secretary Jack Straw revealing that three super-prisons each housing 2,500 offenders are to be built to ease overcrowding, Lifer Ben Gunn criticises cell construction.
The Philosophy of Tea - issue January 2007 - Htein Lin, a Burmese artist and comic performer who recently had a show of his prison bedsheet works at Asia House in London was released in 2004 and here describes to journalist and travel writer Amy Spurling how he survived seven years in Burmese prisons.
Month by Month - issue January 2007 - Magazines that deal with prison matters come in a variety of forms
Prisoners WAGS ... - issue January 2007 - Lorna Smith, founder of Prison Chat UK (pictured centre), joins other volunteers - all wives or girlfriends (not and girlfriends) of prisoners - for a rare night out in the West End of London to see the stage production of Dirty Dancing.
Worst bang-up for nearly 40 years - issue January 2007 - Something to look forward to in 2008
Confiscation Orders - issue December 2007 - Matters to bear in mind before the trial
Dangerous convictions - issue December 2007 - Margaret Jervis and Chris Saltrese take a close look at injustice in sex trials and conclude that it has become a political problem
Notes from the Appeal Court - issue December 2007 - Barrister Teresa Pritchard, a specialist in prison law, highlights the appeal in the cases of two prisoners who challenged the current IPP system through the courts
Barry George’s conviction quashed - issue December 2007 - On 15th November, Barry George’s conviction for the murder of
Jill Dando in April 1999 was quashed by the Court of Appeal and he
now faces a retrial some time in 2008.
Smoking in prisons - issue December 2007 - The 1st July 2007 saw England and Wales join the rest of the United Kingdom in banning smoking in public and workplaces.
The Truth About Rehabilitation - issue December 2007 - Former prisoner Lucy Charman offers constructive solutions to the historic problem of rehabilitation for prisoners ... but will anybody actually listen to common sense?
What’s the point of OASys? - issue December 2007 - David Ferguson questions the integrity and reliability of an assessment
tool that appears to be subject to the whims and prejudices of the
Prison Service
ASBOs: Politically appointed badges - issue December 2007 - Billy Little considers the government’s ‘catch-all’ solution to anti-social behaviour by young people has been a dismal failure
The tools of domination - issue December 2007 - The Afro-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom is moving like an out of control freight train towards its final, irrevocable destination; self-destruction through loss of personal identity, says John Samuels
The fallacy of stress - issue December 2007 - Lifer Charles Hanson considers the ‘stress industry’ has harmed and disabled millions of people
Month by Month - issue December 2007 - The Longford Lectures, Open Book, Novas Gallery and Fine Cell Work.
Rough justice - issue December 2007 - Five years after the BBC Rough Justice programme first began investigating the case of Barri White and Keith Hyatt they have now had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal.
The Undercover Infiltrator - issue November 2007 - Undercover officers - creating or preventing crime?
Want a Second Chance? - issue November 2007 - Want a Second Chance? Then perhaps you could start by giving one!
Double or Quit - A real profile of a dilemma - issue November 2007 - Tony Jasinskys HMP Parkhurst examines DNA profiling and uncovers the
uncomfortable reality
Capital punishment by another name - issue November 2007 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden highlights the tragic consequences of numerous wrongful convictions
Behind closed doors - issue November 2007 - Prisoner’s partner Jacqueline Staniforth questions the independence of the Parole Board
What price innocence? - issue November 2007 - Stephen Lewtas highlights some of the ‘ridiculous’ sentences given for
sexual crimes against children
The risk assessment industry - issue November 2007 - Lifer Ben Gunn assesses the purpose of imprisonment
You couldn’t make it up! - issue November 2007 - Lifer Gerard McGrath highlights being left in a prison car park when two
prisons refused to accept him
Jewels in the Crown - issue November 2007 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, writes exclusively for Inside Time
Let excellence prevail - issue November 2007 - Respect was Tony Blair's almost final buzz-word designed, it seemed, to draw attention away from the shambles in Iraq, resulting from an illegal war, and his failure to produce in the NHS or in education a system delivering results, but how concerned are we all to show respect to each other and to seek excellence in all that we do?
The Music Scene in 1990 - issue November 2007 - With Inside Time having recently reached the milestone of 100 issues, Andrew Cousins of Gema Records indulges in a bit of nostalgia and looks back to what was happening on the Music Scene when Inside Time was first published in 1990.
Women’s prisons to be shut - issue November 2007
Prison officers guilty of misconduct - issue November 2007
Probation ‘facing meltdown’ - issue November 2007 - The probation service is ‘facing meltdown’ and the public will be put
at risk if cuts proposed by the Chancellor go ahead, NAPO has warned.
NOMS to be scrapped - issue November 2007 - NOMS to be scrapped after three years and £2.6 billion
Month by Month - issue November 2007 - Reports on a visit to HMP Blundeston
Financial Offences Defending in Money Laundering & Fraud cases - issue October 2007 - In this article we attempt to address some of the issues that often arise when a Defendant is charged with a ‘financial offence’
Prisoners’ families - issue October 2007 - Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies,
examines the enormous impact of imprisonment on prisoners’ families
Assumption and speculation - issue October 2007 - Eamonn Anderson looks at the ‘zero tolerance’ policy adopted
by the probation service in order to protect its image
The lowdown from Low Newton - issue October 2007 - A list of recommendations has been sent to us from the women’s prison at Low Newton on how the content of Inside Time could be changed to embrace female prisoners. Former prisoner Lucy Charman looks in detail at their comments and concludes that if women want more representation they have got to start writing.
British injustice - issue October 2007 - David Ferguson questions why the media conveniently chooses
to ignore or pays scant attention to blatant miscarriages of justice
British Transfer Treaty with Thailand ‘deeply flawed’ say British prisoners in Bang Kwang - issue October 2007 - On a recent stopover in Bangkok, Eric McGraw visited Bang Kwang prison and spoke to some of the British nationals. Here Steve Bristow, a prisoner serving a 261/2 year sentence, explains to him the ‘absurd situation’ where determinate sentence returnees end up serving a much longer prison term than returning ‘lifers’.
Are you listening? - issue October 2007 - Garry Davies questions attitudes to deaf people and offers suggestions that, in his view, would make life far easier for all concerned
Land of the second chance? - issue October 2007 - Ken Hanson highlights political expediency and the general public’s unwillingness to forgive offenders.
We are not amused … the pitfalls of ‘selective editing’ - issue October 2007 - Daniel Chadwick compares the media’s ability to ‘selectively edit’
to methods employed by certain prison report writers
Nobody is out to get you - issue October 2007 - Stephen Cousins defends prison personnel against accusations
from inmates who feel they are being persecuted
Jonathan King writes Rest in Peace - issue October 2007
Month by Month - issue October 2007
Five years on and still fighting for justice - issue October 2007 - Pauline Day, whose son Paul committed suicide in Frankland Prison in 2002, is still, five years on, fighting for justice for her son and has the full support of former Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham (pictued)
Custody death total 'too high' - issue October 2007 - Many of the deaths in state custody could and should have been prevented, according to a report.
17 years on: - issue October 2007 - Inside Time was first published in December 1990, the year of the Strangeways riots. Our aim has been to give a voice to the prisoner and be a bridge between those in prison and those outside. Over the years we have monitored prison policy and this special centenary issue puts the spotlight on what has changed in those 17 years.
Disclosure and PII Procedures - issue September 2007 - In this article we attempt to give a short explanation of the recent history of disclosure and developments in Public Interest Immunity (PII) so that those facing the current regime(s) may better understand the reality of what is expected of them, and what they can hope to gain from the current processes. Disclosure of so-called unused material is often very important to Defendants who are very interested in knowing about material the prosecution does not intend to use.
Short changing - issue September 2007 - Barrister Stanley Best advises prisoners not to be ‘caught
off guard’ when seeking legal representation
The case of Glyn Razzell - issue September 2007 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden examines the
bizarre case of a man sentenced to life for a murder that never
happened
Disability discrimination in open prisons - issue September 2007 - Disability discrimination is becoming an increasingly important part of prison law. Whether it be wheelchair use, bathing facilities or access to medication, it is clear that the prison estate is not very disability-friendly.
The fear factor - issue September 2007 - Former prisoner Lucy Charman offers a personal view on tagging and its overall effectiveness
Home detention curfew - issue September 2007 - Donna Peters from Parlby Calder Solicitors highlights what
prisoners need to know about ‘tagging’
As human as our victims - issue September 2007 - Lifer Ben Gunn wonders just how much and for how long society wants lifers to be punished
Pet Sounds - issue September 2007 - Stephen Shaw, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman,
writes exclusively for Inside Time
Crystal ball sentencing - issue September 2007 - Douglas Salmon offers a personal perspective on the highly contentious IPP sentence
Polygraph tests do lie - issue September 2007 - After extensive research, Professor Ray Bull concludes that even in the most favourable circumstances, polygraph lie-detection accuracy is not high
Can protest music influence social change? - issue September 2007 - Andrew Cousins of Gema Records highlights protest music and its significant impact on social issues through the years
Month By Month - issue September 2007
A Government’s shame - issue September 2007 - Reduced level of service … more wrongful convictions
High Court Judge orders immediate release - issue September 2007 - The High Court has ordered the release of Brett James, a prisoner at HMP Doncaster convicted of GBH and given an Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP).
The Exclusion of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence: - issue August 2007 - When a breach of the rules leads to evidence being excluded.
On the same side - issue August 2007 - Solicitor Elkan Abrahamson highlights current problems facing life sentence and other indeterminate prisoners
Super-Asbos - issue August 2007 - Solicitor Iain Cowie is far from impressed with the introduction of the new Serious Crime Prevention Order
Missing or damaged property - issue August 2007 - James Peterson advises Inside Time readers on the various procedures to follow when claiming against the Home Office for missing or damaged property
Doing things differently - issue August 2007 - Jason Grant charts his progress from a life of crime to a place at university
Thought crime - issue August 2007 - Paul Eaton highlights the highly contentious issue
of licence recall and asks how ‘precision punctuality’
protects the public
The changing face of probation - issue August 2007 - Lifer Charles Hanson challenges an assertion in his prison file that he has an unrealistic expectation of the criminal justice system, and considers that flexibility and discretion has given way to the language of compliance and rigidity
Journalistic pornography - issue August 2007 - Shah Mohammed Haque takes the already beleaguered BBC to task for their reporting of recent alleged terrorist incidents in London and Glasgow
Muslims are taxpayers as well as licence fee payers. Like the rest of the nation, Muslims also have expectations of a minimum of decency from broadcasters, including the BBC - if not especially from the BBC.
Parole Madness - issue August 2007 - Lifer Ben Gunn considers the parole board are ‘dredging the wilder excesses of dossiers and credibility to find any reason to give knock-backs’
CCRC maintains performance despite year of change - issue August 2007 - CCRC maintains performance despite year of change
Jonathan King writes … - issue August 2007 - Beating the bullies
Month by Month - issue August 2007 - Rachel Billington at the Koestler Trust Awards
Newspaper for Prisoners to be launched in - issue August 2007
What goes around comes around - issue August 2007 - We cannot just build our way out of prison overcrowding, says former Home Secretary Jack Straw and now the recently appointed
Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor.
Terrified by Technology? - issue February 2007 - Introducing any form of technology into prisons remains an issue fraught with controversy, with every move forward being blocked by spurious claims of ‘we have security concerns with this’. Whether these concerns are justified is of course debatable, as no real explanation is ever provided
Terrified by Technology? Yes! - issue April 2007 - Inside Time’s Operations Director John Roberts, once again highlights the apparent fear displayed by the Prison Service relating to making modern technology available to prisoners
Month by Month - issue July 2007 - Terence had been confident of his hat selection. There’s a line to get aspiring writers off the mark.
If music be the food of life ... play on - issue July 2007 - Andrew Cousins of Gema Records looks at the human enjoyment of music and the massive influence the Beatles have had on pop music throughout the years.
Independent Adjudications - issue July 2007 - Issues surrounding independent adjudications
Supergrass evidence - issue July 2007 - The law, practice and development of supergrass evidence in England
A Fresh Approach - issue July 2007 - Jaime Eastham went from working at Action for Prisoners' Families to serving on the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at HMP Brixton. She describes the various difficulties encountered, and remains concerned...
The Relaunch Project - issue July 2007 - Relaunch is an entirely new Project, designed to reintegrate the ex-offender back into the society left behind, possibly many years previously....
Security with a hole in it - issue July 2007 - If prisoners were asked to list their worst bugbear, I guess the actions of Security would be high up on the list. Security gets blamed for everything: the careless cell search, the sudden cancellation of association, the unexpected relocation or transfer.
When the Rope Breaks - issue July 2007 - Leading investigative journalist Bob Woffinden examines a case where he considers too little science has been stretched too far in the courtroom.
Trial Without Jury - issue July 2007 - John Clowes examines the jury system and concludes that although it is in need of a shake-up, it should certainly not be scrapped.
The Road to Resettlement - issue July 2007 - Lucy Charman visited HMP & YOI Swinfen Hall for the launch of a handbook on resettlement with a vested interest - having only recently been released from Morton Hall with no preparation, an all too common experience for the vast majority who leave prison throughout the UK every day.
It’s All About Attitude - issue July 2007 - Joe Chapman, a former prison officer who worked for 22 years as an individual counsellor and group therapy facilitator, examines the whole
concept of group therapy.
Community Sentences - issue July 2007 - Enver Solomon, Deputy Director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, says there are a number of important issues relating to the use and impact of community sentences which deserve to be given much more attention.
‘You can’t administer a hug from Westminster’ - issue July 2007 - Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System
Extracts from a report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee June 2007
Month By Month - issue June 2007 - Family Matters - Teaching young fathers to face their responsibilites.
Month By Month - issue June 2007 - Wise Magazine
Month By Month - issue June 2007 - Going live into hundreds of cells, courtesy of Radio Wanno.
Law Tactics & Strategy in Defending in Conspiracy Allegations. - issue June 2007 - Just what does it mean to be charged with conspiracy?
Jailhouse Frocks - issue June 2007 - We all know Milan is a hotbed for glamorous designs, but the latest creative force comes from a most unlikely source: the city’s prison.
Incentives and Earned Privileges - issue June 2007 - Donna Peters from Parlby Calder Solicitors highlights significant issues relating to the IEP scheme and how the process should work.
Licence Recalls - issue June 2007 - Solicitor Chris Cuddihee examines licence recall decisions, and offers advice regarding delays that might occur in the referral process leading to potential compensation claims.
The Inspector Calls - issue June 2007 - Taken from the most recent of Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers’ inspection reports, Inside Time highlights areas of good and bad practice at Norwich, Hollesley Bay and Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre.
Concerns About Healthcare - issue June 2007 - Jill offers guidance on how prisoners can access the NHS complaints procedure.
The Mens' Room - issue June 2007 - Initial experiences of the prison system, and now facing the prospect of what will almost certainly be difficult and pointless years inside.
Trial by Tabloid - issue June 2007 - No evidence to charge ‘Maddy suspect’ Robert Murat with anything, let alone for the abduction of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann - despite the best efforts of British tabloids.
Protecting Children - issue June 2007 - Lifer Ben Gunn looks at the highly emotive issue of child
protection and calls for more honesty and clarity, along with a national debate free of intervention from the terrible tabloids.
The hidden death penalty. - issue June 2007 - Marie Szewczyk describes how she embarked on a self-destructive journey and cultivated the illusion that to be thin would bring happiness.
Diversity - A diverse opinion. - issue June 2007 - Lifer Charles Hanson concludes that race and religion now appear to be the dominant features of diversity.
400% - issue June 2007 - Crimes by prisoners released on electronic tags have increased fourfold in the last 5 years.
Sarah's Law - issue May 2007 - The Home Office response is to give parents and teachers access to information about sex offenders in their areas.
Sex And The Single Man - issue May 2007 - Lifer Ben Gunn argues that the system’s current view of prisoners’ sexuality could have negative consequences.
Language Nightmare - issue May 2007 - Jozek Kotrie-Monson highlights the enormous language
barrier obstacles faced by East European inmates.
A Timely Word Of Advice - issue May 2007 - Moira Haynes highlights the work of the Citizens Advice Bureau, a vital service that prisoners can use to help them overcome a wide range of problems.
A Helping Hand - issue May 2007 - Deborah Cameron, Chief Executive of Addaction, highlights the work of a specialist agency that offers hope and support to drug-using offenders upon release.
Healthcare and Mental Health in Prisons - issue April 2007 - Natalie Matranga from Parlby Calder Solicitors Prison Law Department offers a view on prison healthcare and concludes that ‘getting the right medical treatment at the right time is not always as straightforward as one might hope’.
The Butler Trust Annual Awards - issue April 2007 - Trevor Grove reports on the Butlers Trust Awards which took place at Buckingham Palace in March 2007.
The Parole Fallacy - issue April 2007 - David Gorman highlights problems repeatedly faced by those sex offenders labelled as deniers in obtaining parole.
A Meaningful Alternative - issue April 2007 - Amara Clark and Diane Gault highlight the exceptional work
of St Giles Trust, a charity dedicated to offering an alternative lifestyle to ex-offenders.
Month by Month - issue April 2007 - Explaining the work which RAPT (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust)does in prisons.
Video Games... are good for you! - issue March 2007 - Andrew Cousins of Gema Records looks at the contentious issue of allowing prisoners video games, and considers they can actually prove educationally beneficial as well as a calming influence.
Unfit for Human Habitation - issue March 2007 - Sally Chidzoy, Home Affairs correspondent for BBC East, reports on a wing reopened because of overcrowding yet earlier described by the Chief Inspector of Prisons as ‘among the worst prison wings her inspectors had seen’
Fragile Progress - issue March 2007 - Has the £2billion spent on new prison accommodation had the desired effect.
Being prepared for the scrap heap? - issue March 2007 - Lifer Charles Hanson explores the world of the older prisoner and comes to some uncomfortable conclusions.
Educating Rita - issue March 2007 - Lucy Charman wonders why people who abuse prison education don’t pause for a moment to reflect on how much they might actually gain by listening to what’s on offer.
I have a dream - issue March 2007 - James Peterson argues that without proper training, prisoners will continue to leave prison with low levels of self-esteem, no skills, no drive and no desire not to return.
Month by Month - issue March 2007 - Rachel visits Robben Island, a prison which was home for many years for Nelson Mandela.
Telephone Evidence - Tactics and Strategy - issue March 2007 - Aziz Rahman and Jonathan Lennon look into why phone evidence is so prolific in prosecutions these days.
Help or Hindrance? - issue March 2007 - Malcolm Horsman wonders whether it is indeed sometimes better to be ‘cruel to be kind’.
In the Know - issue March 2007 - An insight into the workings of the Freedom of Information Act, and how the government is trying to limit access.
Governor Adjudications - issue March 2007 - Donna Peters of Parlby Calder Solicitors highlights the right of prisoners to request legal representation at governor adjudications.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt - issue March 2007 - George A Jensen, Chairman of the North Wales branch of FACT (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers) highlights the highly emotional and contentious issue of child abuse.
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Issue : September 2010
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