High Down 11

For a number of years I've had  a passing interest in the Criminal Justice system.
I was a member of an Independent Monitoring Board , and regularly visited a prison and spoke to inmates and staff and contributed to a series of Annual Reports. The 2014 reports from every prison in the UK can be seen here .I've also remained an Associate member of AMIMB, the Association of members of IMBs, and for my £20 /year receive the quarterly publication , Monitor.

In various places (including the November 2014 issue of Monitor)  but not an any of the main newspapers there have been a number of reports of the  

High Down 11 .

 11 inmates refused to go back their own cell when instructed by prison staff.  They barricaded themselves into a cell and committed an offence under Section 1 of the Prison Security Act (1992), 

“....when two or more prisoners, on the premises of any prison, engage in conduct which is intended to further a common purpose of overthrowing lawful authority in that prison. The offence is aimed at behaviour intended to make a prison, or part of prison, ungovernable.”

When the accused prisoners were told to go into their cells they responded:

“F*** off, we want our association, we are not going behind our doors”.

 They then barricaded themselves into one cell for over seven hours. They pushed a note under the door

‘The reason for these capers is we are not getting enough food, exercise, showers or gym and we want to see the governor lively’. and were ‘........not getting any association and [were] banged up like kippers’.

 They offered to end their protest if they were given ‘mackerel and dumplings’ to eat. this went to a 3 week trial. Called to give evidence was the Governor , Ian Bickers.  He outlined the pressures prisons faced because of a Whitehall regime which enforces austerity.

Anyway the jury decided unanimously to acquit the 11 defendants.   Presumably they thought it was a legitimate protest about the conditions and the Governments' austerity packages. 

 So Grayling, the worst Prisons Minister anyone can recall, thought that teaching these prisoners a lesson in court rather than using the internal disciplinary processes,  would be a good idea, has has a kicking thanks to the jury. 

 There is a more considered  insiders view of the whole business from Alex Cavendish and on the politics.co.uk website