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Articles by S Rockfellows
More misery from Raab
Once again, IPPs, Lifers, EDS prisoners have been picked on by the one and only former Justice Secretary Dominic Raab. First, he makes it harder to get from Category C to Category D, by introducing a 3-way test to prove how you have changed, then he brings back public hanging by letting Parole Board hearings go public and with the media involved, which can put prisoners lives at risk once they are released.
LGBTQI+ in Scottish prisons
Credit: Jaxor84 / Pixabay Being a prisoner who is LGBTQI in a Scottish prison is very difficult and you face a lot of adversity and, at times, verbal and physical abuse and you become very introvert and reclusive, and that is wrong. There is a lack of support for the LGBTQI community in our prisons. In this prison, there are individuals who claim to be ‘jail gay’, which is disgusting and embarrassing.
The ROTL impossible
I have been here in this category D prison for 7-months and have still had no ROTL board. They are still waiting on a report from my outside community offender manager. In January I completed 15-years on a 7-year tariff IPP, all reports completed by healthcare and all other departments will have to be updated. The good news is my solicitor is getting my IPP back to the courts for re-sentencing as we now have backing. I urge everyone to get in contact with their solicitors, don’t delay.
Cosmetic changes from Raab
It is good to see that the Justice Secretary recognises the importance of education and in-cell technology. Therefore, it’s a shame that his White Paper proposals are merely cosmetic and fail to address the core problems. The biggest of which is that the government remains determined to send more people into prison for longer, prisons that are already overcrowded, understaffed, and underfunded.
Tips for artists
I needed to do some touch-up on a picture I am doing but I didn’t have a paintbrush. Then an idea came to me. I had some felt pens which had dried up, so I got my tweezers and poked around until the white seal at the top of the pen came out. I disregarded the inner cloth and put the pen in boiling water for a few minutes until the pen-nib was white in colour and left it to dry. The pen is now great for painting and each pen-casing has its own colour so each paint colour can have its own pen.
Dodgy vapes
I am writing in reply to Will Parker of HMP Durham, and Charly of HMP Low Moss, regarding the very low quality of 88vapes. This seems to be a recurring problem across the prison system. Apparently, the correct procedure is to submit a COMP1 prisoner’s complaint form and a Canteen Item Refund form, highlighting your complaint, together with the low quality/damaged vapes.
Homeless no help
I had been working with St Mungo’s after I was made homeless in the second wave even though my rent was paid, on the day of release St Mungo’s said I had a hostel only to be told when I got to Probation that it was a referral, Probation have done nothing to help me get housed. Westminster council won’t reply to me, it’s like I’m being set up to go back to prison, I contact a homeless charity who send me a Wizard app, which don’t work and now landlords won’t house you with violence on your record.
Prison, its own worst enemy
Regarding Dominic Raab’s comments – ‘Prisons keep people safe by taking dangerous criminals off the street…and keep the public safe in the longer term if they properly reform and rehabilitate offenders’. We are not being rehabilitated in prison, we cannot study, and, in most instances, we cannot work due to Covid. Our mental health is suffering, as is our physical health, from the removal of any general activity or pain relief.
What a disgrace
There is an old Turkish proverb that says – ‘When a clown moves in to a palace it does not make him a king, it just makes the palace a circus’. Of course, it perfectly tells the truth of the bunch of clowns who are now running our country into the ground. Never, in all my 57 years of living in this country, have I felt ashamed of it, until recent years. On the out I am a floating voter, meaning I don’t vote for any political party, I vote for policies.
Tagging us all - insidetime & insideinformation
If the government is now making those offenders who have been jailed for theft, robbery, burglary wear CPS satellite tags, then why not release all of us IPPs who are years over our tariffs on the tags? This would keep the public safe and also protect the offenders from being dragged into a police station on suspicion, the satellite tag will prove where you have been. That will be less work for the police and less unnecessary recalls, which will save a lot of grief and money.
Book ban still in force?
For the past 10 months I have been complaining to a Prison about not giving my relative books which have been sent to him. This is despite the Court ruling in December 2014 that Prisoners have the right to receive books following the case brought by a prisoner. I made 3 complaints the last one was on 26 March 2021.
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