Monday September 7, 2009
Shamed singer BOY GEORGE is planning to revive his music career just four months after he was released from prison.
The former Culture Club frontman, real name George O'Dowd, was jailed in January (09) for the false imprisonment and assault of male escort Audun Carlsen in 2007.
He served just four months of his 15 month sentence and was released in May (09) for good behaviour - and is now hatching plans to head back to the studio to record a new album of cover songs.
He tells British newspaper The People, "I'm choosing songs that speak to me and have lyrics that reflect my personal journey and experiences."
BROWN ACCUSED OF DEPORTATION 'SHAM'
The Tories denounced Gordon Brown's vow to deport foreign criminals as a 'sham'
Sunday September 6, 2009
Gordon Brown's promise to deport foreign criminals has been denounced by the Tories as a "sham" after it emerged that three foreign murderers were freed from life sentences within a single year without being sent back to their home countries.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw revealed in response to a parliamentary question that only one of the three men - all discharged in 2007 from mandatory life sentences, which can only be imposed for murder - was even required to live in a probation hostel after release.
Mr Brown told Labour's annual conference in 2007 that any immigrants caught selling drugs or using guns would be thrown out of the UK, and in this year's Building Britain's Future plan he promised "automatic deportation" for any foreign nationals sentenced to a year or more in jail.
But Tories said that the Justice Secretary's statement made a mockery of the pledge.
In a written reply to a question from shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve, Mr Straw said: "Of the three prisoners discharged from a mandatory life sentence, one was an Irish national, one an Indian national and one a Pakistani national.
"None of the offenders was subject to deportation or, therefore, taken into UK Border Agency custody. One of the three was released into approved premises; the other two were released into alternative accommodation, which had been risk-assessed by the probation service."
Mr Grieve said: "Gordon Brown's pledge to deport foreign criminals has been exposed as a sham. The public will be shocked to learn that foreign murderers are being released here, rather than deported. This Government is failing to discharge its first duty, which is to protect the public.
"These revelations raise serious questions for Jack Straw and (Home Secretary) Alan Johnson.
"Why were they released and not deported? Why was only one of the three released into secure premises? Have any now re-offended since their release in 2007?
RIGHTS HOTLINE FOR VEGANS IN JAIL
Vegans can use the hotline if they feel their belief system is under threat
Monday September 7, 2009
By Daily Express Reporter
VEGAN jail inmates have been given an emergency hotline to call if their “belief system” is put under threat from prison officers.
The number puts them in touch with an ethical expert who advises them of their legal rights not to use products made from animals or tested on them.
It means they do not have to perform certain jobs such as cleaning, prison farm labour or kitchen duties. Last month, the estimated 800 vegan inmates won the right to ethically- sourced food, toiletries and cosmetics.
A spokesman for the Vegan Prisoners Support Group said: “Our case workers often need to explain why a vegan is unable to clean, as general products are currently not vegan.” The Home Office was unavailable for comment.
A Crown Court judge has urged the Government to increase the maximum sentences for serious motoring offences and violent crimes.
By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent
Published: 3:12PM BST 02 Sep 2009
Judge Ian Pearson said he and his colleagues on the bench often wanted to impose length jail terms on convicted criminals but found they were prevented from doing so by guidelines.
He said that a bad driver who left their victim permanently injured could only be sent to prison for two years, while a pubgoer who attacked someone with a broken glass would face a maximum of three years behind bars unless their intention could be proven.
It comes just weeks after another judge was reported to the judicial watchdog for criticising the Government’s “completely lax” immigration system.
Judge Pearson, who has sat at Portsmouth Crown Court for four years, said at a crime prevention meeting: “Dangerous driving is a maximum of two years when it should be at least five.
“You can get 10 years for killing by dangerous driving but only two if you maim them for life.
“Grievous bodily harm is a maximum of five years, unless made with intent which can be life.
“There's an argument for there being a mid-range offence carrying 10 years.
“If someone is glassed in a pub and badly scarred, unless you can prove it was with intent, you can only really give them three years.
“If you can prove it was with intent you can give them life - it's an anomaly.”
The judge - who earlier this year jailed a fisherman after he faked his own death to avoid a fraud prosecution - added that he believed prison did act as a crime deterrent and courts “shouldn't shirk away from imposing prison sentences when appropriate”.
He said: “Obviously crown court judges can only sentence in accordance with the law and in accordance with the views of the appeal court.
“So we would like frequently to impose heavier sentences.”
The judge also said that members of the public were right to view community punishments as an easy alternative to jail. He said offenders who breach terms of the penalties have to be punished quickly.
“The public, rightly in my view, have some concern over community penalties.
“It shouldn't be a soft option. If they step out of line they will come back to court straight away.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The Government supports the need for stiff penalties for those who present a danger on the roads.
“Where a person commits a serious driving offence he will be charged and sentenced accordingly.
“GBH without intent carries a maximum penalty of five years but the courts can extend the sentence for public protection.
“The independent Sentencing Guidelines Council issues guidelines on all offences to which courts must take into consideration.
“The council issues definitive guidelines after full public consultation and must consider from time to time whether to review their guidelines.
“The sentencing framework for all offences will remain under constant review.”
Earlier this summer Judge Ian Trigger, a High Court judge, claimed that "hundreds and hundreds of thousands'' of illegal immigrants were abusing the benefits system during the sentencing of a drug dealer.
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From Times Online
September 2, 2009
Legal battle over cosmetic surgery on birthmark
Philippe Naughton
The Justice Secretary Jack Straw found himself at the sharp end of his own nephew's legal acumen today when the High Court ruled that he had acted unlawfully in preventing a prisoner from having cosmetic surgery to remove a birthmark.
The publicly-funded legal challenge by Dennis Harland Roberts, a 59-year-old double murderer, could lead to other inmates being considered for treatments they might otherwise have been denied because of an undisclosed policy operated by Mr Straw.
The policy restricts prisoners’ appointments for cosmetic and certain other treatments regarded as non-urgent - even though the Government has said prisoners were entitled to the same NHS treatment as the rest of the population.
Roberts won a declaration at London’s High Court that Mr Straw acted unlawfully and “contrary to good administration” in failing to disclose his full policy on medical appointments.
Coincidentally, Roberts, a Category A prisoner, was represented in court by the barrister Adam Straw - the Justice Secretary’s nephew.
The court case led to the full policy being publicly revealed for the first time last week. Following its disclosure, the Ministry of Justice agreed to reconsider Roberts’s application to be escorted to hospital for laser treatment, if he could show the birth mark was having a negative impact on his health.
Nonetheless, Roberts and his lawyers continued the fight for a formal High Court declaration to make the legal position clear for other prisoners.
Roberts said the large, congenital port wine stain on the left side of his face, neck and shoulder had led to him being bullied at school and was linked to a violent temper.
He had previously received hospital treatment to remove it on three occasions, the last in July 2007. But appointments in 2008 were cancelled.
Roberts, who lived in a caravan near Newhaven, East Sussex, was convicted at Lewes Crown Court in March 1991 of murdering an elderly couple after breaking into their home.
He is currently at Durham’s Frankland Prison and must serve at least 17 years of his life sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.
All prison officers should be educated to degree level.
By Caroline McClatchey Wednesday, 2 September 2009
The Howard League for Penal Reform believes all prison officers should be educated to degree level. However, those working on the front line believe practical skills are more useful.
She may have a degree, but one prison officer counts her experiences as a barmaid, benefit office adviser and bouncer infinitely more useful to her career.
"When you are dealing with a drunk customer and you are trying to negotiate the best outcome and they don't want to hear, that's exactly what it is like when you are a prison officer," she says.
The 41-year-old, who wants to remain anonymous, has a degree in recreation and leisure management but has worked in prisons for the past 15 years.
The experienced officer has worked in both closed and open prisons and she argues open prisons require better interpersonal and negotiating skills "because you cannot throw them behind a door".
She says her degree was useful because it included work experience, but she questions the relevance of studying subjects such as criminology, prison law or sociology, suggested by the Howard League.
'Life skills'
"Text book stuff is one thing but actual experience and interacting with people is another," she says.
"Often people with those degrees have no common sense or a sense of humour. Sometimes when you are facing an aggressive situation, a sense of humour can deflate it.
"No-one has any idea what it is like being a prison officer. When I first started it was frightening. You forget everything you have been taught and it is just down to your ability to deal with the situation."
She describes how she is required to wear several hats as a prison officer - drug counsellor, bereavement councillor, job centre adviser.
"Our job is to help and support inmates, and make them respect and trust authority, and I don't see how a degree is going to help," she says.
Born into a middle class family, she denies those with a "grittier" background make better prison officers.
"I was lucky that my parents taught me morals and values, and also to be tolerant and see other people's point of view," she says.
She points out the prison service has lowered the starting age of officers to 19 and "very few of them have the life skills". She argues the best officers are ex-members of the military who are used to diffusing situations and managing crises.
'Completely silly'
Nigel is one of those who served in the Army before joining the prison service, where he rose to the rank of principal officer.
An electrician by trade, he followed his 12 years in the forces with a job at Onley Young Offenders' Institution in Northamptonshire and Wormwood Scrubs in west London.
But after 15 years, he became tired of what he terms the "targets and cutbacks".
Sudbury open prison
2/9/09
Advertiser reporter TIM FLETCHER and photographer MARK DUDLEY visited the prison to see at first hand its progressive approach towards criminal justice.
Sudbury prison is — as I am told on more than one occasion during our visit — not a holiday camp, but on first impressions it does bear more than a passing resemblance.
With its rows of prefabricated huts revealing the site’s origins as a US Air Force hospital during World War Two and immaculately-tended gardens, it appears to be more Pontins than Parkhurst.
“We have always taken a pride in our surroundings here and we always keep the prison and its grounds neat and tidy,” says Jane Bucknall, the prison’s head of performance.
“It gives the prisoners employment — many of them work in the garden — and also gives them pride in where they live so that hopefully they will take some responsibility for their environment.”
As an open prison, you won’t find high walls, barbed wire and searchlights here and the prisoners’ rooms (they’re not referred to as ‘cells’) don’t even have bars.
“Being an open prison means there is no physical barrier keeping the prisoners in, but it also means there is a more open regime than in highersecurity prisons,” says Jane.
“They get themselves up in the morning, get themselves off to breakfast and to their workplace and come back for lunch they have to manage their own time.”
Sudbury is a category D prison, for ‘low-risk’ offenders, but its inmates number those convicted of all kinds of crimes except for sexual offences including the most serious offences, such as murder.
However, the prisoners who come to Sudbury are those nearing the end of their sentence, having served a stretch at a higher security prison, and having been subject to rigorous monitoring before being sent to the open prison.
“You don’t walk around in fear because you know that the prisoners have been thoroughly risk-assessed,” says Jane.
“If they were not ready to come to an open prison, they wouldn’t be here. They are deemed to be a low risk to the staff, the local community and each other.”
The 500 or so prisoners spend their days working, either inside the prison itself where they can do educational courses or work in the prison workshop or garden or outside the prison gates on work placement schemes.
The emphasis is on preparing them for life on the outside world, according to Jane.
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