A story
I thought I might tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a man who did something bad, very bad. It was a once in a lifetime explosion of anger, and he killed the person he loved.
His penalty was a life prison sentence. He served the years, many years, many many years. As he grew older, he got calmer and more mature. His regret was palpable. He worked hard in prison and was trusted. In his late middle age, he applied for parole and was given a date for his hearing months ahead. He was already long past the date the court had given him to be considered for release. He looked forward to being listened to, seriously considered, and the hope of release, supervised, but release. As the date for the hearing got near, he was told it was cancelled because a probation officer couldn’t attend. He has not been given another date and may now have to wait months, possibly years for another date.
It is only the parole board that can consider if someone is safe to be released. It is possible that this man could have been released, everything in his prison record indicated that to be the likely outcome. If he has to wait another six months to be released it will cost the taxpayer £25,000. The wheels of justice are slow and not very efficient.
Related posts:
- Complex rules for release from prison We took a
- Victory in the high court Today we h
- Support on release Our solici
- A few random comments before Easter I am off t
- Deaths following release from prison As directo
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
December 12, 2009
Tags: Prisons Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons
Twitter
6 Responses
This is happening all the time to people who have Indeterminate sentences. My son got an 19 month tariff and is still in prison three years later. He should get parole in March but there is nothing to go in his dossier – so he too will be kept there costing the tax payer thousands of pounds and destroying his family and friends. Could the Howard League take up the cause to get the 162 people with a less than 2 year tariff on an indeterminate sentence released?
Even worse is the scenario where an innocent person has been given an Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection. (IPP)
Since the Parole Board and prison authorities will not recognise the pleas of the innocent because by law they have to adhere to the decision of the courts, an innocent person, wrongfully convicted can serve far longer in prison than a murderer!
An innocent prisoner on an indeterminate sentence has to prove to the Parole Board that they are no longer a threat to the public in order to be released and to go on offender treatment programmes before they can have any chance of parole. An innocent person will obviously not require this rehabilitation and is caught in the catch 22 situation of possibly admitting to crimes they did not commit.
For further details read the following articles:
http://www.helium.com/items/1298631-
innocent-prisoners
http://www.helium.com/items/764263-readers-share-views-on-innocent-people-in-prison
http://www.helium.com/items/909940-essays-societys-forgotten-citizens
http://www.helium.com/items/780575-testimonies-wrongly-convicted-and-doing-time
The issue about people who claim to be innocent is thorny. Whilst obviously anyone who is innocent should not be in custody but at the same time, someone who denies, for example, a rape or child abuse because they refuse to accept responsibility is not acceptable. The Parole Board has done aome work recently to respond to this dilemma, but Kaystell, you are right, more needs to be done for the innocent.
Jo, this must be terribly distressing for you. We do raise the issue whenever we can. The government has got itself in a tangle over IPPs and the pathetic imposition of a two year minimum is not going to solve the problem. Everyone knows the sentence is a disaster, clogging up prisons and failing to protect the public, putting prisoners in limbo and huge pressure on families. We will do what we can, I promise.
Thank you Frances and Kaystella for your replies. The pain of this sentence is indescribable – every single day I am overcome with grief and sadness and there is no hope that my son will ever be released – how does a ‘civilised’ society force it’s people to live in complete and utter misery for years on end? Whilstever my son continues to maintain his innocence of the ‘index’ offences we have no hope – he has so much integrity that he cannot admit guilt – what a dreadful situation we are in. If my son was guilty he is still in prison for something that the judge felt he should have an 18 month tariff for – where is justice?
Thanks Frances,
what then do you think society can possibly do for the innocent prisoner? Legal processes are long and tedious and expensive. I have an innocent loved one in prison serving an indeterminate sentence and he has been there for almost three years with little or no chance of parole.
He was convicted on pure hearsay and the malicious lies of his accusers and I remain powerless to do anything positive to help him even though I know he has committed no crime. I was prevented from taking the stand at his trial and I feel it should be the right of every citizen to defend and uphold the innocence of another if they wholeheartedly believe them to be so. I was denied that right.
Realistically speaking it does not seem as if he will get parole by the time his four year tariff is up in a year’s time because nobody is willing to fight for him from a legal point of view. Solicitors do not apparently get paid well for appeals so they don’t bother.
@Jo
I know what you mean Jo. I spent almost 20 years of a life sentence in custody, and that after realising that the tariff had been increased by the Home secretary (Douglas Hurd, chairman of the Prison Reform Trust!).
I challenged the tariff and after having it quashed 4 times I was finally released.
My advice is to get a good solicitor and apply for a move to a prison where he can do the courses he needs to do to be suitable for release when he comes up for parole. I know lifers and IPP prisoners are scared of using legal pressure because they believe that the system will keep them in for longer.
Well, he has already served longer than his tariff so he has nothing to lose.
Mo Riaz
Leave a Reply