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Wednesday 9 December 2015

To be given opportunities by a penal system that believes in giving individuals another chance, responsibilities and the tools to improve. You are so right Mr Gove, offenders do deserve another chance.

| By SHANE WOODFORD - HMP HULL

‘Best of luck Mr Gove’
Oh, Mr Gove, what a beautiful, encouraging, idealistic speech you gave regarding prison and prison reform at the Conservative Party Conference on the 5th of October. I would love to be able to have the chance to ‘change my life for the better’, to ‘provide for my family and give back to the community’.

I would love for prison to encourage me, teach me new skills and help build or maintain relationships with family, friends and prospective employers on the outside.

I welcome a system that allows me to serve my time and come out as an improved, rehabilitated and useful individual. To be able to find employment in a sector suited to my skills, interests and abilities. To be respected and forgiven by society.

I would love to be able to move forward without judgement of my past mistakes. To have self- respect and pride in who I am now. To be given opportunities by a penal system that believes in giving individuals another chance, responsibilities and the tools to improve. You are so right Mr Gove, offenders do deserve another chance.

 But there are a few problems with your speech.

The main problem being how are you going to achieve this utopian vision at a time when the Prison and Probation Services are on their knees? Crippled by budget cuts, understaffed but working at near 100% capacity. A time of rife substance abuse and an inability to detect and stop the latest scourge of ‘legal highs’. With a lack of trained and experienced staff, an increasing prisoner population and a decaying prison estate. If the prison system was a patient it would be on life support with its relatives gathered around the bedside to say their last goodbyes!
To revive this patient would require massive injections of cash, the right people and serious changes to a system that operates more like a storage company than a place of rehabilitation. Here at HMP Hull the prison has a motto ‘Serving the community’, which always makes me smile. . The only service this prison provides is one of containment Don’t get me wrong, Hull isn’t a ‘bad’ prison, the staff do the best they can with what little they have. But we could do so much more. We could serve the community properly, with more money, staff and resources. So, best of luck Mr Gove, you are going to need it.

Inside times news.
http://insidetime.org/poa-gives-noms-28-days-to-put-its-house-in-order/

Just a snap shot.

8 years backlog of IPP prisoners though they have served more than 5 times there sentence.
No courses or lack of them, post and present
Who is responsible for the failings and who was responsible to inject cash or provide correct course?
Who is responsible to budget and to keep updates on the effects of the budget which has led to serious health and safety failings and violations?
who is responsible for the 16 death of IPP prisoners?
Who is going to stand up and be counted?


Who is going to stand up and be counted?

| By Katherine Gleeson  
 

 

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