Name withheld Renamed Carl for the perpose of the article
A number of years into his sentence hefound a course that was held in a prison and went on there waiting list for a year and when he was about to start this course one evening he was taken from his
cell and informed he was being moved to
another prison. Carl was not allowed to say goodbye to friends
he had met over the years and whom was supporting him.
Poor operation of the IPP sentence had hudge consequences
on a massive scale and continued despite protests from prisoners and their
families for over a decade .
Carl who was sentence to an IPP 99 years for ABH
and given a five year tariff. Over the years he moved to diverse prison
that claimed to have courses that was required he was told as part his sentence plan and nessary to for parole but it became clear they did not have these courses.
he pleaded withguards to let him speak to staff that he was about to start a
course he needed that he tranfered for and waited a year for on the waiting list .to keep him quite they told him the course was at the prison but he new diffrent protesting that he was threatened with force to get in to a prison van.
" Progression stolen and years taken "
on arrival it was clear the prison was not sutable and did not have courses but nebver wrote to me. not sutable they never wrote and told me.
He applied for a move from a private prison which takes 3 months but 4 months past and after 6 months he
contacted his family who reported the issue to the Mp only then he
was moved. He quick ly realised private prisons made it difficult for you to tranfere and
delay you as much as they can since every day is a wage to them because they are a it’s
a business. Other proson may not want to take a prisoner so your left in a prison with no courses and no way out your trapped.
"Having an IPP with no end date is a lottery
win to a private prison I quickly realised he must get out and hope for a tranfare ."
Part of his sentence plan he had to do courses to
prove to the parole board he had changed but there was no courses and the few
there was took years on a waiting list.
Carl was transferred to a HMP prison and recalls
numbers of failings inaccurately accused of passing something in the visiting room
to a said family member but the family had not visited on the day mention in their
letter. They Punished him with a ban on family visiting for 3 months but this
was lather lifted once investigated.
Surprised to learn in his report he smoked and was a heroin
addict and that he was being asked to start a programme. An investigation from
his MP revealed they had mixed him up with another person with the same name one
was Caucasian and the other afro Caribbean?
He clearly had no offence of a Sexual category but was asked to take course relating too since it
was the only course
available and quit rightly he refused.
Funds was persistently taken from account leaving
him with no money to call a defence solicitors. Though this was reported it was
unforgiving the length of time it took to resolve issues it
became necessary to get others involved to get the answers.
The prisoner’s complaints system was painfully
slow that he was forced to give up trying and seek outside support such as
family. Feels that complaints should be independent of the prison and ministry
of justice who clearly failed prisoners.
Legal aid solicitor are hard to find or near
impossible for specialised cases such as IPP sentence and that once you
get one you get little time and they don’t have the time get back you or you don’t
have the money. For natural justice the service needs to be free for all
prisoner.
When first sentenced he received his document stating
he had a 5year tariff next to that was the figure 99 years a IPP sentence |? He was sure this was a mistake shock though he
phoned his family and solicitor since they was at the sentencing but not one
person heard the IPP sentence been handed down, only the tariff of five years.
So it seemed the judge added this to the sentences after as a discretion with the understanding the courses
was available and one could apply for parole once the tariff was ended and not
forgetting the need for legal aid being available.
Phone a prisoner is in limited to certain prisons family pay to pass on messages to love ones a
life line for some but I
realised i was not getting all my messages. i was told informed
this was due to lack of staff which became a repetition.
The mental toture of this sentence its so crual i canot put into words"
Carl
is not alone this echo's across the board. A letter the family received
from the Ministry of justice clearly demonstrates courses only starting in
2010.The Poor operation of the sentence clearly delayed hundreds of prisoners
with colossal repercussions and manger concerns going UN answered by a government
institution who responsibility is to regulate
THESE COURSES AS PART OF PRISONERS SENTENCE PLAN
Carl quickly identified the problems at
an early stage and brought this to the attention of the Ministry of justice? He
personally never received a letter stating they made mistakes it was only until his family made complaints they realised. But what did they do in 2010 so it never
happened again “nothing” internal complaints” nothing.
Do you have similar evidence
For privacy names, addresses, codes are removed if requested
Email: katherinegleeson@aol.com
Po Box Address :
2 Eyesford Road, Leagrave,
Luton Beds ,LU49FH
For privacy names, addresses, codes are removed if requested
Email: katherinegleeson@aol.com
Po Box Address :
2 Eyesford Road, Leagrave,
Luton Beds ,LU49FH
................................................................................................................................
I want to see evidence of what
prisons held courses Ssince the sentence begain , what courses in what prisons over the years , the dates , how long, those who held courses but took it off and did they report this t parole board or other, i think i will demand this first perhapes freedon of information and if they dont know im sure the goverment intututions will tell us
Complaint
to the independent Press Standards Organisation
| independent Press Standards Organisation - Our reference [IPSO: #00084-19#] | |
| From: | Jonathan Bell <Jonathan.Bell@ipso.co.uk> |
| To: | katherinegleeson@aol.com <katherinegleeson@aol.com> |
| CC: | IPSO No-Reply <no-reply@ipso.co.uk> |
| Date: | Fri, 4 Jan 2019 15:45 |
Dear Katherine,
Thank you for contacting the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
We are looking at the points you
raise, and will be in touch shortly. In the meantime, please do not
hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
If you
have submitted a formal complaint and we decide that your complaint does
not raise a possible breach of the Editors’ Code, we will write to you
to explain why and send a copy of your complaint, including
your name and any contact details you have provided, and our letter, to
the publication.
If
we decide that the concerns you have raised fall within our remit and
raise a possible breach of the Code, and you have not previously
exhausted the publication’s
internal complaints procedures, we will send the publication:
Complaint regarding an article by StokeonTrentlive on IPP prisoners
Complaint regarding an article by StokeonTrentlive on IPP prisoners
I
would like to make a formal complaint under the Editors code pointing
out the article written about IPP prisoners ........calling them murderers .
Im sure I don't have to
remind the paper making a false statement is damaging to those in
questions reputation." Its slander" defame someone's
character, blacken someone's name, , speak ill/evil
of, drag through the mud/mire, its libel to smear prisoners and
families running a smear
campaign against, cast aspersions on, spread scandal about".
Can you pass my complaint to the publication itself. I
further like to point out A correction has been done by the independent on the same issue.
IPP prisoners should have an apology and damage corrected over a month by the news paper
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/many-prisoners-serving-life-sentences-2377513
Johttps://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/many-prisoners-serving-life-sentences-2377513
Systems Handler |
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| Tommy Nicol described his indeterminate sentence as ‘psychological torture’ | before he died in 2015. Nicol’s sister, Donna Mooney, is calling for IPP prisoners on minimum tariffs of four years or less to be immediately switched to determinate sentences. |
he sister of a prisoner who took his own life when being held under a
now-abolished sentencing regime has called for urgent action to deal
with thousands of inmates still jailed under the widely derided system.
Tommy Nicol was jailed under an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence – a form of indeterminate sentence that he described as the “psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years”.
He made the comment in a handwritten formal complaint at Erlestoke
prison around five years into his IPP sentence for robbery and about
nine months before he killed himself.
The horror inflicted by the perceived neverending nature of IPP was
acknowledged by the government’s decision to scrap their use in 2011.
The scheme was applied far more widely than intended, with some IPP
sentences issued to offenders who committed low-level crimes.
But despite the use of the sentencing power being scrapped, nearly
2,600 prisoners still remain locked up under the defunct regime, which
saw offenders given a minimum jail tariff but no maximum for a range of
crimes.
Since his death in September 2015, his sister Donna Mooney has
discovered more about Tommy’s experience in the prison estate than she
is sometimes able to bear.
Now she is calling for the remaining IPP prisoners on minimum tariffs
of four years or less to be immediately switched to determinate
sentences. She wants to meet with the justice secretary, David Gauke, to
discuss what happened to her brother. The proportion of the IPP
population who have gone beyond their minimum tariff continues to
increase – 89% of IPP prisoners were post-tariff as of 30 September.
“In all of this I’m not justifying what he did,” she says at her home
in south-west London. “He did something and there should have been
consequences for that but he is still a human being.”
She explains that her brother was the eldest of six children – three boys, three girls – and struggled with a “traumatic” childhood.
“We had a difficult childhood and I guess consequently he went off the rails a bit,” she says.
Nicol was in and out of young offenders’ institutions and prison from
his teenage years – but Mooney always felt as if his emotional and
rehabilitative needs were ignored.
Of all the six siblings, Nicol
remains the only one who ended up in trouble with the law.
“He
was very institutionalised,” she says. “Outside of that, he was happy,
friendly, a kind person. He would rather have had a family and a job. He
just wasn’t able to do that.”
In 2009, he committed his most serious offence – he stole a car from a
mechanic’s garage. The owner caught him in the act, a tussle broke out
and the man’s arm was injured. Nicol was jailed at St Albans Crown Court
in 2009.
“At that point he didn’t really know what an IPP was,” Mooney says. “When he told me I thought, ‘it can’t be true’.”
Nicol started his prison sentence at HMP Rye Hill in Warwickshire.
His understanding was that it would benefit his prospects for release to
access a therapeutic community, only available in a small number of
prisons.
i n 2013, his tariff completed, he received his first knock back from the
Parole Board for release – who informed him he should access a
therapeutic community. This frustrated him but he persevered and
requested a jail transfer. He applied to two therapeutic communities,
but was unsuccessful.
In June 2014 he was transferred to HMP Coldingley in Surrey where there
were no relevant courses for him to complete. While there he filed a
formal complaint that he had been transferred to a prison that could not
offer him the relevant support.
It was in Coldingley where serious difficulties began to emerge, but
which Mooney says were ignored. Nicol moved himself into solitary
confinement – known as the care and separation unit (CSU) – in protest.
He spent 48 days alone and went on hunger strike for four days. No
mental health support was provided.
In November 2014 he was transferred to Erlestoke prison in Wiltshire,
where he made another formal complaint in which he labelled IPP
sentences “psychological torture”.
In June 2015, six years into his sentence, he received another
knockback from the Parole Board and was told the next review would be in
2017 – eight years after he was jailed on a minimum four-year tariff.
A month later he returned to the CSU where he languished for 80 days.
He went on hunger strike for seven days. His behaviour started to
become increasingly unusual.
Mooney breaks down in tears as she continues her brother’s story.
“That’s for me where you see it really starting to affect him,” she
says.
He was transferred once again on 15 September 2015 to HMP The Mount,
in Hertfordshire. His behaviour became increasingly erratic. He
self-harmed, setting a fire in his cell. He was moved to the CSU in the
Mount, where he was observed rocking on his knees, groaning. He wrapped
himself in sheets and made a paper plate mask. But no mental health
support was provided.
On 19 September 2015 he was moved to an unfurnished cell – the
harshest prison environment available – for 24 hours. A video of guards
restraining Nicol as they moved him was recently played at his inquest
in front of Mooney and other horrified family members.
He was heard chanting and talking to imaginary people while in the
cell. “It was awful,” she says. “He was having this mental health
episode, and four guys go in and restrain him.”
Donna Mooney: ‘He had a complete loss of hope
Four days later he was pronounced dead in Watford general hospital. Despite being unresponsive, he had been held in restraints in his hospital bed. His family were not informed until he had died. He was 37.
“I can just see how much this sentence has impacted him – it’s made my brother take his life,” Mooney says. “He had a complete loss of hope.”
She also believes had Nicol known he had a fixed release date – even if it was longer than the period he ultimately spent in jail – he would still be alive.
Dr Dinesh Maganty, a consultant forensic psychiatrist who gave evidence to the Harris review into deaths in custody, gave evidence at Nicol’s inquest.
Explaining the issues around the impact of the IPP sentence, he said that one crucial element in any self-inflicted death is loss of hope.
“I would hope that if I say something it will stop other families having to go through this – this is traumatising,” Mooney says. “It’s not just the person in prison it affects – it has affected every single one of us.”
post date it was said the death toll of IPP prisoners was 16 but now figures are said to be even higher. I can say sucides are higher this year than last so here goes another justice minister who thinks things are working
Prison praised for installing photobooth for inmates and visitors
Inmates at privately-run HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire can use the facility to capture group shots with relatives during visits, which Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) described as a “good innovation”.Continued : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/08/prison-praised-for-installing-photobooth-for-inmates-and-visitors?CMP=share_btn_tw
Families can use booth to take group shots as part of effort to improve visits for children
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/10/family-ipp-prisoner-tommy-nicol-indeterminate-sentence Photograph: Martin Godwin Guardian
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