International Law

Race Relations

Posted on January 02, 2009
Race RelationsBy: Ben Gunn - HMP Shepton MalletLifer Ben Gunn has learnt from race relations work that it?s very difficult to appreciate what it?s like to be other than who you are.How could it come about that efforts intended to reduce the weight of imprisonment on some groups can have the effect of causing disillusionment amongst others? Is this merely another sign that the Prison Service couldn?t get their leg over in a brothel? I have had a varied interest in race relations...

Past their shelf life

Posted on January 02, 2009
Past their shelf lifeBy: Charles Hanson - HMP Blantyre HouseLifer Charles Hanson questions why the Prison Service has no coherent national policy or strategy for dealing with elderly prisoners.In its obsessive and compulsive drive to promote notions of diversity, embracing and so-called ?celebrating? different needs and inclusion which, in its usual knee-jerk responses to specific minority interests always seems to place race, religion and sexual orientation above all else, the Prison Service has continually failed to recognise any other special needs group, and by far the most neglected has been the aged and disabled prisoner population...

Offenders face public vote on punishments

Posted on January 02, 2009
Offenders face public vote on punishmentsMinisters revive Respect agenda with plans to extend community justiceThe public may be able to vote for what form of punishment is handed out to convicted criminals in their neighbourhood under plans being drawn up by ministers...

Dinosaurs not extinct in the UK

Posted on January 01, 2009
Dinosaurs not extinct in the UKDinosaur fossils found in China are world's largest collectionScientists in China say they have found the richest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world in the north eastern province of Shandong.If dinosaurs are extinct how come Brian Caton, General Secretary of the Prison Officer's Association, pictured below, is alive and well in the UK? In relation to the story below he had this to say: "As far as I am concerned they are convicts, they are prisoners, they are inmates...

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Prison suicide rate cut in 2008

Posted on January 01, 2009
Prison suicide rate cut in 2008The number of prison inmates who killed themselves in England and Wales fell to 61 in 2008, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Britain ready to take in Guantánamo prisoners

Posted on January 01, 2009
Britain ready to take in Guantánamo prisonersDeal will help Obama to close down terror jailBritain is preparing to receive foreign terror suspects from Guantánamo Bay so that Barack Obama can shut it down, The Times has learnt.Government sources say that Britain now supports moves to rehouse the detainees, despite previous refusals to help President Bush...

The setting of a dangerous precedent

Posted on January 01, 2009
The setting of a dangerous precedentLast year, albeit yesterday, I reported that the European Court of Human Rights had issued an injunction preventing the UK from handing two Iraqi prisoners over to the Iraqi authorities.This year, today, the Telegraph is reporting that the Defence Secretary, John Hutton, has defied the Court ruling and handed over the prisoners to the Iraqi authorities and thereby has breached their human rights...

Warning from America: Reject the big idea in 2009

Posted on January 01, 2009
Warning from America: Reject the big idea in 2009Building American-style Titan prisons to warehouse thousands of prisoners could seriously undermine the ability of the justice system to cut crime by reforming offenders and instead set England and Wales on the fast-track to copying the damaging and discredited US prison system, a leading US civil rights lawyer warned when he addressed the Prison Reform Trust 2008 Annual lecture...

Outbound email service for prisoners

Posted on January 01, 2009
Outbound email service for prisonersGreat news for EMAP and for prisoners!By: Inside Time ReportAfter successfully introducing the email system into over fifty UK prisons, a contractual agreement with NOMS has now been formalised. Two trials are planned to commence in January with an enhanced version of the EMAP service that will allow outbound emails (prisoners to families) and the ability to send attachments with emails inbound and outbound...

Glen Erin Pipe Band Auld Lang Syne/Amazing Grace

Posted on December 31, 2008
Glen Erin Pipe Band Auld Lang Syne/Amazing GraceThat's your lot for 2008. No more posts until next year. I wish you all A Happy New Year.

Can links kill?

Posted on December 31, 2008
Can links kill?Linking to online content is the essence of the web. But for newspapers, when does it cross the line to stealing content?The future of online journalism may depend on the outcome of a legal battle between two financially ailing media giants...

European Court blocks UK handover of Iraqi detainees

Posted on December 31, 2008
European Court blocks UK handover of Iraqi detaineesBy Geoff Meade in BrusselsWednesday, 31 December 2008The European Court of Human Rights blocked the handover to the Iraqi authorities of the last two remaining prisoners held by British forces in Basra yesterday? just hours after the Court of Appeal in London ruled that they could be transferred...

The Gambian President is a madman

Posted on December 31, 2008
The Gambian President is a madmanA missionary couple from Britain have been sentenced to a year?s hard labour in an African prison for calling the Gambian President a madman.

Prisoner sues after pet parrot dies

Posted on December 31, 2008
Prisoner sues after pet parrot diesA dead parrot named Freddy is the focus of a US lawsuit after his ex-con owner claimed prison guards denied him a phone call that would have saved the bird's life. Thomas Goodrich is seeking a total of $500,000 (£347,000) in punitive damages from the Delaware Department of Correction Commissioner and a warden at the correctional institution where he was held for 12 days over an outstanding arrest warrant and an expired driving licence...

Jailhouselawyer shows off his new toy

Posted on December 30, 2008
Jailhouselawyer shows off his new toyIn my view, the video quality is very good. I agree with the reviewer below that the one touch YouTube upload is a load of bollocks. Even if it was as simple as JVC claim, a big downside is that this short 3 minutes and 10 seconds film took a whopping 90 minutes to upload to YouTube! The facility provided on the software by PowerCinema for the one touch upload to YouTube does not work...

Israel guilty of war crimes after declaring war on 5 innocent sisters

Posted on December 30, 2008
Israel guilty of war crimes after declaring war on 5 innocent sistersFive sisters killed while they sleptIsrael's target was the mosque next door. But the rocket attack claimed the lives of innocent children

Battle of the Titans

Posted on December 28, 2008
Battle of the TitansIn the face of opposition from experts the British government may be reconsidering its plan to build three large new prisonsJacqui Smith's recent announcement that proposals for direct elections to police authorities have been dropped is a rare example of consultation really making a difference...

Pine martens return to England and Wales

Posted on December 28, 2008
Pine martens return to England and WalesPine martens have returned to England and Wales nearly 15 years after they were officially declared extinct in those countries. Back in 2005 I was up on the North Yorkshire Moors, Close to the Cleveland Way, and I thought it was a young pine marten chasing a baby rabbit...

White deer roam the forest

Posted on December 26, 2008
White deer roam the forestThese white fallow bucks make the perfect seasonal picture

A very merry Christmas to all my readers

Posted on December 24, 2008
A very merry Christmas to all my readersI will leave you with this until after the holidays.

Why is Lord Ahmed not being prosecuted to the full extent of the law?

Posted on December 23, 2008
Why is Lord Ahmed not being prosecuted to the full extent of the law?br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/285x214/76875_1.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 214px;" src="http://images...

Merry Christmas Otis Ferry, ho, ho, ho

Posted on December 23, 2008
Merry Christmas Otis Ferry, ho, ho, hobr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44862000/jpg/_44862273_ferry226.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://newsimg...

Guantánamo: Robert Gates accused of perjury over torture

Posted on December 23, 2008
Guantánamo: Robert Gates accused of perjury over torturebr /br /a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/23/robert-gates-guantanamo-torture-affidavit"Lawyers for a British resident held at Guantánamo Bay have accused Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, of signing a "flagrantly false" affidavit to avoid having to disclose evidence of torture/a...

Lunching with the ghosts of Devil's Island

Posted on December 23, 2008
Lunching with the ghosts of Devil's Island br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/images/2008/12/22/devilsisland_2.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 385px; height: 288px;" src="http://timescorrespondents...

A nut climed into Knut's enclosure to keep the polar bear company

Posted on December 23, 2008
A nut climed into Knut's enclosure Ato keep the polar bear companybr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01210/knut-polar-bear_1210907c.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 460px; height: 288px;" src="http://www...

Christmas survival guide: Pets

Posted on December 23, 2008
Christmas survival guide: Petsbr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01210/pxmas2_1210767c.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 460px; height: 288px;" src="http://www...

Fan's fate is agonising dilemma for Straw

Posted on December 22, 2008
Fan's fate is agonising dilemma for Strawbr /br /a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/22/michael-shields-marcel-berlins"I do not know whether or not Michael Shields was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted by a Bulgarian court in 2005...

Zimbabwe's inflation means jail wardens steal from prisoners to stay alive

Posted on December 22, 2008
Zimbabwe's inflation means jail wardens steal from prisoners to stay alivebr /br /a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5380607.ece"Another passenger was a warden at Bulawayo's infamous Khami prison. The previous month he had earned 200 million Zimbabwean dollars - less than US$1 at today's rate...

Hen harriers in danger of becoming extinct

Posted on December 22, 2008
Hen harriers in danger of becoming extinctbr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01210/henharrier_1210078c.jpg"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 460px; height: 288px;" src="http://www...

Girl 8 refused a divorce

Posted on December 22, 2008
a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/3884696/Saudi-court-rejects-plea-to-annul-8-year-old-girls-marriage-to-58-year-old-man.html"Girl 8 refused a divorce/abr /br /There is something quite shocking about a 8 year old girl being married off by her father, without her knowledge, to pay off a debt...

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