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Home
| 26th July
1996 | Issue 83 SchNEWS 83IT
COULD BE YOU!
ONE
IN A THOUSAND BRITONS NOW IN NICK
Yes
that's right! With Britain's prison population spiralling out of
control SchNEWS has learnt the real reasons behind Home Secretary
Michael Howard's "prison works" mantra. He's angry at
being upstaged by the National Mockery! It could be you? Last week
prison figures topped a soaraway 56,000 - that's a record one in
every thousand of the population. So while people round the country
keep their fingers crossed every Saturday that it will be their
'lucky break'; others are finding free food and accommodation they'd
rather do without. "I
thought
people went to prison for doing something wrong but now with the
re-definition of what's wrong ( Criminal
Justice Act, Security Services Bill, Public Order Act etc) there's
an increase in the number of people being made criminal" - Tash,
One Eye on the Road. John Bowden - a politicised prisoner (see SchNEWS 34) - said "The vicious screw down of prison regimes and prisoner rights over the past two years has transformed the atmosphere within British prisons into a cauldron of rage and repression that will spill over into open and bloody revolt. Michael Howard be warned." Doesn't Howard remember the Strangeways prison riots? In the last three years Howard has:
*
Clamped down on bail, home leave, parole, cautions and early release Keith
Mann said exactly what's pulling Howard's strings: "It's all
about money.More and more money is going into security and
retribution. There's satisfaction there. Nothing else matters.
Education is being cut, the food is crap - even more so- basic and
cheaper. It's a stricter, harsher,
prison regime all round." So
why the prison clamp down? Nikki, a prisoner support activist told
SchNEWS "It's just a PR exercise driven from the so-called
'law and order party'. A kamikaze scheme that they even admit they
can't afford to implement." If
that's not convincing enough, even ex-Home Secretary Douglas Hurd
said prison was "an expensive way of making bad people
worse" nuff said! But we hear you ask - why should SchNEWS
and society in general be soft on people who've mugged, raped and
pillaged? We haven't worked out any kind of SchNEWS manifesto on
prisoner support but maybe Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) have drawn
some sensible conclusions. Unless there's good reason they will not
support anyone involved in crimes such as rape, child abuse,
racist attacks, mugging/ burgling other working class people...
WHAT'S
NEXT?
*
Last
year 18 offenders were sentenced to electronically monitored curfew
orders, and so far mis year 47 people have been given the electronic
'ball and chain'. Total costs of the first nine months of the trials
was £1.6 million. CONTACTSABC
- network of autonomous prisoner support groups - produce
quarterly mag 'Taking Liberties' 60p + SAE 121
Railton
Rd. London, SE24 0IR
WRITE
TO A PRISONER NOT YOUR MP!
Prison
life is extremely boring, so letters are
generally the highlight of the day. Don't know what to say? Talk
about your life, things you're up to - just be careful not to say
anything that will get anyone into trouble. Most prisons do not
allow letters in without a return address. Some get stopped, read,
'diverted' and 'lost'
so it's
often worth sending the
first
letter via recorded delivery as these have to be opened in the
prisoners presence. Most prisoners are not the 'mad beasts'
portrayed by the tabloids, they are ordinary people, and the only
way they are going to know you support them is if you tell them so
GET WRITING. Saptal Ram is serving a life sentence tor murder alter defending himself against a racist attack. The man killed had refused medical treatment, after attacking Satpal with a knife and subsequently being stabbed with a small knife Salpal used for his work. He has been subject to continual harassment inc. forced strip searches, punishment for a string of petty and trumped up reasons, he is now being ghosted around various prisons. At the moment he is in Norwich. SATPAL RAM E94 164, Norwich Prison, Mousehold, Norwich, NR11. Sky,
a traveller on the road for 13 years has
just been locked up for 4 years for running over a copper's foot. He
writes: "I am sad and very much alone... I
am locked up without any vibes from anyone... can you help me by
finding someone to write to me?" CLIVE DALRYMDLE, PB 2529,
HMP Pentonville. Caledonian Rd, London, N7
8TT SchNEWS
in Brief
If
anyone picked up a silver plated bangle at the Levellers gig at the
Corn Exchange in Brighton last Tuesday
could they give the Justice? office a ring. It's the only piece of
jewellery Emily got from her boyfriend who was tragically killed in
a car crash last Christmas. MAN
OUTSIDE POLICE STATION
Maybe
not the place you and I would chose to have a home,
but Kim Fielding has decided to live in his caravan outside
Wallingford police station. Kim had his caravan seized after being
accused of assault. When he was cleared in court of the charge he
was told he could have his caravan back. Having no way of
towing the vehicle back to where he was previously living he decided
to stay put.
The police are putting
pressure on the
Council to rehouse him, before
they
go to the expense of taking civil action to evict. A chirpy Thames
Valley bobby told SchNEWS "All I can say is good luck to
him!" RANK!
The
Rank Organisation arc planning to build a 432 acre holiday village
in the middle of the ancient Lyminge Forest - an area of Outstanding
Beauty, eight miles
west of Canterbury, Kent. The Centre Parcs
style development will destroy 25% of the forest and a diverse
eco-system, and close off a thousand acres to the public. They plan
to construct a 9 hole golf course, 850 buildings, artificial
waterways and a lake - in an area that has seen a hose pipe ban
since February. The development is expected to attract up to 5,000
people and 3,500 cars, daily. Rank are a huge company with holdings
in Butlins and the Hard Rock cafe and are currently no. 50 on
Friends of the Earth's top 100
list of secret polluters (companies with permits to discharge toxic
metals into the sewers). The Flat Oak bods are trundling up there as
you read this, taking to the
trees to register their protest. They need more people, so set up
there if
you can. Contact 01227 463368 (the
return of...)
crap arrest
of the week
For
being pushed by security whilst in possession of a giant snail.
Balin was taking a peaceful if quite slow walk down a path in
Newbury with a giant wicker snail in protest against the mass
upheavel of the smaller version. Everyone present was told by the
police that if the security felt the need to push them on that would
constitute Aggravated
Trespass.
So guess what happened? He was pushed by the security
and nicked - then stuck away in remand for refusing bail
conditions... Reclaim
the Wot?!?
"Now
is the time for our struggle to reach. out and embrace everyone with
a desire for freedom and justice, there is much work to be done....
our parades need street theatre and music; our struggles needs
creative activism! Everyone has their pan to play." Editorial
in An Phoblacht - Irish Republican paper. Sorry
folks, but due to fuck ups by the (dis)organisers, Brighton Reclaim
The Streets is being put off till we get it sorted. If you want to
help out in any way, we're having a huge public meeting to get
people involved next Wednesday (31st). If your band wants to play,
you fancy making a banner,
doing some street theatre or whatever then come along. We're also
showing a video from this summer's London Reclaim The Streets. and
Finally...
Not
only are the
Olympics hideously boring, nationalistic and full of fucked-up
machismo and testosterone but
they 'aint
much fun for the good
people
of Atlanta either. The fabulous Olympic city is cracking down on all non-banal behaviour with a new bylaw giving the cops the power to arrest anyone "acting in a manner not usual for a law abiding individual". Crossing a parking lot or sitting on the ground are also now arrestable offences. 300
people used to live in downtown Atlanta where the
Olympic stadium now is. Three blocks of low-income publicly owned
housing were demolished to make room for the stadium with promises
that other accommodation would he provided elsewhere. Surprise,
surprise this hasn't happened and homeless shelters in the city are
now all full
up leaving people with nowhere to go. And to add insult to injury 9,000
people who have "no fixed abode" have already been
arrested this year in a drive to clean up the streets for the TV
cameras. Elaine Clemons
was sitting on a park bench when police approached her and asked
what she was doing. "I told them I was homeless and asked if
there was somewhere he could take me." she said. The police
responded by putting handcuffs on her and locking her up for five
days. Atlanta has now become miraculously free of the poor and homeless.
And the people of Sydney can see what they've got in store for them
at the Olympics in the year 2000. Disclaimer
Subscribe! Keep SchNEWS FREE.' Just send 1st Class stamps (eg 20 for next 20 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?) Mark Original if you plan to copy: SchNEWS c/o on-the-fiddle PO Box 2600 Brighton East Sussex BN2 2DX SchNEWS is free to prisoners tel/fax: (01273) 685913 This issue dedicated to our founding father and guru (happee birthday) MI5 know who you are - and unfortunately we know who Flannel are...
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