Tag Archives: prison

As Palestinians are released from Israeli prisons, we’re finally hearing their stories

Israa Jaabis: her face was badly burnt when her car caught fire. Israel jailed her for attempting a car-bomb attack and refused to allow her to have reparatory surgery.

Remember those Israeli hostages who were released before the current Israel/Hamas ceasefire, and their stories of being well-treated by Hamas? Here’s the flipside.

It seems that of the 150 Palestinians we were told would be released during the truce, which ends tomorrow (November 27, 2023), 78 have so far been released – in exchange for 26 hostages who were taken from Israel on October 7.

But the numbers seem to vary, depending on who you ask.

The BBC has been publishing the stories of some of the freed Palestinians, but these seem to be in very short supply in comparison with those of the freed Israelis.

What we’re hearing stands in stark contrast to the claims of Israel’s apologists on the social media, who claimed they were all convicted hardened criminals and terrorists.

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Instead, the majority of those released so far had been held in administrative detention – some for many months. And those who have been convicted by Israeli courts seem to have been jailed for the most specious of reasons.

One such case is that of Israa Jaabis, imprisoned in Israel since 2015 because her car broke down.

Here‘s the BBC:

Her car broke down on a highway 1.5km (0.9 miles) from a checkpoint in the West Bank.

The reason for the breakdown is disputed. Israelis said back then it was an attempted car bombing but Arab media said the engine of her car failed causing a fire.

Jaabis sustained fire injuries in the accident and her face was badly burnt.

She was sentenced to 11 years in jail, of which she spent eight years before she was released.

Last year, Jaabis filed a request with the Israel Prisons Service for a nose job to repair the damage to her face, and was rejected.

Mohammad dar-Darwish, 17, was convicted by a military court of throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers in April. He denies doing it. And how was he treated? Here‘s the BBC again:

After the 7 October attacks, Mohammad told me, guards took the blankets, cooking equipment, radios and televisions of Palestinian prisoners.

“They only gave us one portion of food between seven or eight people – we were always hungry. They couldn’t get to Gaza, so they punished us.”

Until his release, the only information about the war in Gaza came from new arrivals at the prison, he said.

He described people arriving in custody with fresh injuries: broken teeth, a badly bruised hand, and a large cut to the head that was left to heal untreated.

It’s a stark contrast to what we’ve been told by Israel’s spokespeople on the social media.


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Privately-run prison’s officers ignored pregnant teenager in labour – so the baby died

Bronzefield prison: the death of baby Aisha happened after at least four other incidents involving pregnancy there.

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

This is what happens when you let your government put people’s lives in the hands of a private corporation that exists only to make a profit: PEOPLE DIE.

That is exactly what happened at privately-run Bronzefield Prison, on the outskirts of Ashford in Surrey, which is run by Sodexo Justice Services.

An inquest has found that teenage mother Rianna Cleary was found in her cell, covered in blood, her dead baby Aisha cradled in her arms, after she had twice called for help after going into Labour during the night – and both calls were ignored by staff. She had to bite through the umbilical cord.

She should have been monitored five times during the day before the birth but the nurse who had been on duty at the time admitted that this had not happened. A nurse had tried to get Ms Cleary moved to the prison’s healthcare facility but no bed was available.

When she went into Labour, Ms Cleary used the cell’s intercom system to tell an officer she needed a nurse or an ambulance – but the officer on duty did not call for any help. About half an hour later, in what was described as “unbearable” pain, she repeated her request – but the call was disconnected in the guard’s control room. This meant the call bell from her cell was disabled from that point onward.

The senior coroner for Surrey, Richard Travers, said systematic failings at both the prison and the hospital that looked after the mother meant Aisha died; she might have survived if Ms Cleary had been discovered in Labour and transferred to hospital.

These events occurred in September 2019 and the inquest has only just happened – taking a month to be heard.

A glance at the prison’s history shows that this outrage is far from unique: at least four times in the two years to 2019, women gave birth in upsetting and potentially dangerous conditions.

A report by The Guardian in November that year states that in addition to Ms Cleary’s case, “On at least four occasions in this period, women held at the privately run Surrey prison have given birth in distressing and potentially unsafe circumstances, including one woman who gave birth in her cell and another who was left in labour at night-time supported only by another pregnant prisoner.

“In December 2017, one woman suffered a stillbirth and another baby was admitted to neonatal intensive care, in both instances after women were transferred from Bronzefield to hospital at a late stage of labour. In the latter case, it is understood that the woman alerted the prison to concerns two days before she was eventually taken to hospital.

“Board meeting minutes from Ashford and St Peter’s NHS trust, from July 2018, refer to the two incidents, stating: “Adverse outcomes were reported in both cases … significant learning and process change were identified for both hospital and prison teams.”

“The minutes state that Bronzefield, Europe’s largest female prison, intended to review its policy concerning the transfer of pregnant women to hospital and its criteria for risk assessment.

“Sodexo Justice Services, which runs the prison, said that following the December 2017 incidents it had worked with Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital and changed arrangements with its midwives.”

So there can be no excuse for what happened.

But: “The Guardian also heard of a woman who alerted prison staff that she was in labour in July 2018. She was not seen by a midwife and was left in labour during the night, supported only by another pregnant prisoner.

“In March 2019 a woman, understood to have been in the prison on remand, gave birth in her cell with no midwife or doctor present. A nurse reportedly delivered the baby.”

The Ministry of Justice, contacted in November 2019, said that Sodexo had not incurred contractual penalties relating to the levels of care to pregnant women in custody in the previous three years – and declined to comment on then-recent incidents at HMP Bronzefield.

Former prisoners, including one from Bronzefield, said midwife appointments and scans were frequently missed as a result of prison staff shortages.

It all adds up to a failure of service caused by privatisation, in This Writer’s opinion. Private corporations, brought in to run a service like a prison, do so in order to make money and cut corners in order to achieve those profits.

Even when they are found to be at fault, those failings continue to go unremedied, meaning more – and worse – tragedies are likely to happen.

And what is done by the government that hired these – call them what they are – incompetents? It turns a blind eye.

One final point: if you think what happened at this privately-run prison is a traumatically-shocking outrage, ask yourself what will happen to the National Health Service when it is given to private firms like Sodexo.


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Most of us want water bosses to face prison for pollution – apart from the regulator

Water: people supported the privatisation because they were told private enterprise would invest in system improvements while making bills cheaper. How much more gullible could they have been?

Here’s a double-whammy:

Most people believe that jail sentences are a fitting punishment for water bosses when their companies are responsible for major pollution spills in our rivers, waterways and shores. The strength of public feeling is revealed by an exclusive YouGov poll commissioned by Good Law Project.

The polling of 2,112 people across Great Britain has revealed that:

  • 60% of respondents believe that the chief executives of water companies should receive prison sentences if they are found to be responsible for serious incidents of water pollution. Only 21% disagree.
  • 82% have heard something about sewage discharges from media coverage about the issue.
  • 53% blame the water companies for sewage discharges into our rivers and seas.

People have had enough. This disgraceful situation needs to be brought to an end urgently.

It follows – doesn’t it? – that the privatisation of the UK’s water supply has been nothing but a horrifying failure and an ecological disaster.

And how do the water firms respond to calls for them to act?

Like this:

Water firms are making ‘a mockery’ of efforts to link executive pay to environmental performance by refusing to measure how much raw sewage is spewing into rivers and seas, experts say.

Industry regulator Ofwat wants private water companies to align bosses’ bonuses to pollution targets.

But companies do not monitor the amount of sewage being dumped into waterways.

Instead, they collect data on when the spills occur and how long they last.

Campaigners say weak regulators and budget cuts have allowed water companies to get away with a decades-long lack of investment in the Victorian-era sewage network.

And while firms monitor when spills happen and how long they last as part of a range of performance indicators used to set executive bonuses, none of the water companies contacted by the Mail said they monitored the amount of sewage being dumped into waterways.

Bonuses can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

United Utilities, the monopoly water supplier to 7m customers in north-west England … was responsible for 40 per cent of all spills last year.

Its chief executive Steven Mogford received a £727,000 bonus last year as part of his £3.2million pay packet.

United has a £230 million investment at 15 of its 575 treatment work sites to reduce spillages ‘by more than 10m tons a year – the equivalent of 4,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’, a spokesman for the firm said.

If United has a reliable model to measure volume then, as an environmental campaigner asked in the article,

“Why not share it with the public and the wider industry?”

And what of the regulator?

Ofwat confirmed that so-called ‘event duration monitors’ that companies are installing only measure the number of spills and their duration, not volume.

It has also drawn up plans to block dividend payments – which have totalled an estimated £66billion since privatisation three decades ago – telling boards to ‘take account’ of environmental and customer performance when deciding payouts.

But it has only fined only one company – Southern Water – since sewage spill rules were introduced in 1994.

So: a toothless regulator means privatised, profit-driven water firms have no incentive to invest in improvements to their archaic system, or to stop filling our waterways with untreated sewage.

And they’ll make us pay through the nose for this “service” so they can pay themselves a fortune each year.

Did you vote for this?

And, more to the point:

Would you vote for a political party that would put a stop to it?

Source: Exclusive YouGov Poll: Nearly two-thirds believe water company bosses should face prison over serious incidents of pollution – Good Law Project


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Angela Rayner caught lying (?) about Labour’s attack ad on Rishi Sunak

Angela Rayner: her blink rate means her comments about the Labour ‘child sex’ attack advert on Rishi Sunak are not credible.

Angela Rayner is the latest Labour bigwig to come out in support of that vile attack advert that claims Rishi Sunak doesn’t want child sex criminals to go to prison.

Party leader Keir Starmer has said he supported it, after initially saying he had not been informed of it and what it contained. He was a member of the sentencing panel that approved the current guidelines for child sex offences, back in 2012 – so in fact the current situation is more his doing than Sunak’s.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also spoken up in support.

And now Angela Rayner. But we have a doubt about the wholeheartedness of her comments:

Yes – the blink rate gives her away.

I did an article about this after seeing James Cleverly being interviewed on Laura Kuennsberg’s Sunday morning show. Here‘s what I said then (and don’t worry – the relevant part is quite early in the clip):

“The normal blink rate is around 16 times per minutes but Cleverly is going 19 to the dozen, all the way through,” I say on the clip.

“When we’re really interested in something, our blink rate slows down because we’re trying to take in more information – but when we’re stressed or anxious, which is normal if we’re trying to deceive someone, the blink rate goes up.”

Now go back to the Rayner clip, in which she blinks 13 times in 16 seconds.

If she had been in a television studio, she might have had an excuse – because studio lights may be harsh on the eyes. But from the background, it looks as though she was at home or in an office.

So there seems no other explanation for her blink rate but stress.

Is she lying about the advert? Or is she just unhappy to be having to support it? You be the judge.


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Starmer stands ‘by every word’ of Sunak child sex attack ad. Hypocritically?

Keir Starmer has said he stands “by every word” of a Labour attack advert accusing Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak of not wanting child sex criminals to go to prison – but isn’t this hypocritical, as he was on the sentencing council that devised the relevant penalties?

In a widely-reported Daily Mail article (and doesn’t it speak volumes about how far the Labour leadership has sunk that he is willing to write an article for the paper that once supported the Nazis), he made “absolutely zero apologies” for the advert:

I make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt about this. I stand by every word Labour has said on the subject, no matter how squeamish it might make some feel.

When 4,500 child abusers avoid prison, people don’t want more excuses from politicians: they want answers.

But Keir Starmer was on the sentencing council that set the current guidelines for sex crimes, back in 2012.

At that time, Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry wrote to him, objecting to a different part of those guidelines – so she was aware that they were passed by Starmer:

But on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she made a remarkable display of selective amnesia:

And all the while, the public outrage against Labour’s position continues to grow, both in the mass media…

… and in the social media:

And it is leading to hard questions about Starmer’s strategy and the likely end result of his bizarre choices:

This could be the scandal on which Starmer loses not just the local elections next month, but also the next general election.


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Labour bigwigs deny knowledge of controversial ‘child sex’ attack advert

Keir Starmer: did he really not know about a highly-inflammatory attack advert that went out in the name of his Labour Party?

Do we believe neither Keir Starmer nor Yvette Cooper knew anything about the Labour attack advert accusing Rishi Sunak of opposing prison sentences for sexual assaults against children?

That’s what the Labour leadership wants you to think, it seems:

Asked on Saturday whether Starmer had approved the graphic or knew about it in advance, a Labour source said the leader had not been aware of it and stressed Starmer would not usually be expected to sign off individual campaign materials.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, was not informed or consulted… The Observer has been told.

One well-placed party insider said they understood the digital poster was produced as part of a policy push by the shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed, whose team was keen to highlight the way in which too many criminals were receiving community sentences rather than custodial ones.

So it seems if anybody is going to take a fall for this, it’s likely to be Steve Reed. This is reminiscent of all those times Tory leaders have been accused, only to have a subordinate fall on their sword instead – isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Labour has released a second advert:

And it seems more are likely to follow.

But if large numbers of frontbenchers are denying prior knowledge of this one and disowning it, as the Observer article suggests, then I can only concur with former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s question:

“If any of this is true… why hasn’t the ad been taken down?”

Source: Yvette Cooper was ‘not told’ about Labour’s Sunak attack ad in advance | Labour | The Guardian


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Latest Labour attack advert lowers the party below gutter-level

Keir Starmer: yet another own goal to add to his impressive collection.

How can we best sum up the political mood this morning? Like this, perhaps:

James was responding to a new attack advert from the Labour Party. It looks like this:

Twitter provided “added context” from responses by readers, as follows: “Tweet implies that the PM, Rishi Sunak, doesn’t support prison sentences for sexual assaults against children. The current sentencing guidelines for this crime has a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown… There is no conservative party policy that plans to remove this. conservatives.com/our-plan

And economist Richard Murphy added the following in an outraged blog article: “Politicians do not sentence criminals, as Keir Starmer should know.

“They do not even bring cases to court, as Keir Starmer should know.

“And the provisions for sending abusers to prison for up to 14 years do exist, and have for a long time, as Keir Starmer should know. If they are not used we have to assume judges do not use them for good reason. As Keir Starmer should know.”

Skwawkbox went further:

Exploiting abused children to posture as the ‘party of law and order’ is not only disgusting, but also hypocritical: Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions when his department decided not to prosecute notorious serial rapist and abuser Jimmy Savile – and Starmer even went on to say that he thought this had been the right decision (Jimmy Savile: DPP to review 2009 police evidence | Jimmy Savile | The Guardian (archive.org)).

One of Starmer’s chief advisers, Peter Mandelson, was also close to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and has been pictured socialising with him.

The post was also at least arguably racist, feeding into stereotypes pushed by right-wing extremists such as the so-called ‘Tommy Robinson’ of ‘Asian grooming gangs’ – a stereotype thoroughly disproven this week when 21 white British paedophiles were convicted at Wolverhampton Crown Court – by showing a brown-skinned man next to a claim he doesn’t care about protecting children from sexual assault.

Labour politicians are already being hard-pressed on the issue in media interviews – and their answers are somewhat lacking:

Former Labour MP Chris Williamson tweeted: “Under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour is now giving lessons on how to swim in the gutter.”

Solma Ahmed tweeted: “I’ve seen many things in politics but this is just beyond belief. Who’s taken over Labour? The nasty party is back.”

Yes, but this time it is not the Conservatives – it’s Labour.

And only weeks ahead of an election, too.


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Barge to house asylum seekers looks like a prison and is treated like one. What is it?

Has the plan to house asylum-seekers on the 222-berth barge Bibby Stockholm come unstuck with its comparison to a floating prison?

Tory ministers may be claiming it hasn’t…

… but they would have been better-off checking their history books first.

Allow me to introduce you to HM Prison Weare:

Formerly known as the Bibby Resolution, HMP Weare was moored at – guess where? – Portland Port near Weymouth, where it held 400 prisoners between 2004 and 2005 when it closed due to costly running, being unnecessary and the cost of millions of pounds in order to refurbish it.

The prison was reopened a few months later for a short period. Not long after, the prison closed permanently and was sold off after conditions on board were criticised by the Chief Inspector for Prisoners, who complained that inmates had no exercise and no access to fresh air, also stating the ship was “unsuitable, expensive and in the wrong place”

So: poor conditions, costly and unnecessary.

May we expect to see the same conditions prevailing with HMP Weare’s sister ship, Bibby Stockholm?

Here’s a better idea for it:


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Message in a bottle begs for help for Manston concentration camp inmates

Message in a bottle: the imagery could not be stronger – these people consider themselves castaways on a hostile island. They are desperate for help but all they have received is cruelty.

The war of words over conditions at the Manston “migrant processing centre” in Kent has intensified after a young girl threw a message in a bottle – begging for help – over the fence.

It was picked up by a PA news agency photographer and may be read in the video clip below (with commentary by Professor Tim Wilson):

The claim that migrants are being kept from talking to journalists seems borne out by this comment from the Mirror:

Witnesses have said they have seen security guards at the site ushering detainees inside when journalists approach the fence.

The young girl reportedly broke past security and ran to the fence to toss the bottle.

At least one government minister has admitted that the Manston camp is not being operated legally – with people detained longer than the 24 hours that the law allows. This tends to confirm the refugee girl’s claim that it is a prison:

Climate minister Graham Stuart admitted that the situation is unacceptable to the people of the UK.

But he insisted on blaming illegal gangs who exploit refugees, rather than admitting that his government has cut off legal routes for them to get into the UK and claim asylum.

And he had nothing to say about the simple fact that people would not want to come to the UK if conditions were safe in their own countries. The Tory government has absolutely no interest in helping to change that situation and stop people from trying to get here.

Sadly, there is a lot of misinformation about the number of asylum applications here. George Eaton on Twitter reckons the number of applications the UK receives are among the lowest in Europe…

… but this is not borne out by the actual numbers. Cyprus has a very low population so despite the high number of applications per 10,000 population, its 30,000+ refugees are not more than the UK’s 57,000+.

Austria has only 38,000+ applicants.

Germany, on the other hand, has a massive 190,000+ applicants – nearly four times as many as the UK.  France has nearly 120,000 – nearly twice as many as the UK.

It is only as a proportion of the population that the number of asylum applications to the UK is among the lowest in Europe.

So there is a large number of applications and we should not let anyone abuse the different between percentages and real numbers to tell us otherwise.

But that does not mean that the asylum seekers themselves should be blamed for their plight.

That is what racist Tories – and their followers among the general population – are trying to tell us and it is a message that must be rejected out-of-hand.

Yes, criminal gangs who exploit refugees for money need to be tackled. But when was the last time you heard a news report saying any of them had been caught? The Tories aren’t doing anything about it at all.

And it is vital that the situation in the refugees’ home countries must be addressed. Again, there’s no interest in that direction from your government.

Persecuting innocent people like the child who sent the message is nothing but racist cruelty. Tim Wilson is right – it is disgusting and brings shame down on us all.

Source: Girl throws message in a bottle over fence of Manston migrant facility begging for help – Mirror Online

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Tories set to outlaw the kind of anti-war protests we praised so much in Russia


While you’re busy having your attention directed to Russia and Ukraine by your Tory-supporting right-wing media…

… and I’ll make this quick because it’s really easy to understand…

Remember those anti-war protests in Russia that we all praised last week?

These:

Well, while you were being distracted by the war against which these brave people were protesting, your own government has been busy outlawing the kind of protest they were carrying out.

This is important because we are being told that Russia is a repressive, authoritarian dictatorship. And it is true that protesters can expect to face lengthy prison sentences if they are arrested.

But just compare the jail terms they’ll get with what you’ll face if you protest against your own government after the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is passed into law:

The debate is in Hansard (although at the time of writing, not in full). You can read it here.

So much for the Tory UK’s freedom-loving democracy!

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