29 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

SERCO and youth justice agencies condemned for unlawful treatment of vulnerable boy

originally by: INQUEST
27th January 2011

The jury at the second inquest into the death of 14 year old Adam Rickwood in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham on 8 August 2004 today returned a damning narrative verdict criticising failings by Serco, the private company running Hassockfield, the Youth Justice Board, Prison Service restraint trainers and the Lancashire Youth Offending Team.

Following today’s verdict, Adam Rickwood’s mother Carol Pounder said:

“Nothing can bring Adam back. I have waited over six years for truth and justice. All I have ever wanted is to find out the truth about what happened to my son and for those responsible for unlawful assaults to be held to account”.

7 December 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Father of graffiti artist found hanged blasts prison system

originally published by: News Shopper
published: 2nd December 2010

The father of a graffiti artist found hanged in jail has hit out at the “incompetence” of the prison system. An inquest into the death of 23-year-old Tom Collister, from Penge, has revealed multiple failures in the care provided.

Tom was found dead in his prison cell at HMP Camp Hill in Newport on the Isle of Wight on the morning of February 7 last year.

He had been serving a 30-month sentence for conspiracy to commit criminal damage, which had been slashed by 10 months four days earlier following an appeal hearing.

Tom, who lived with his mother in Stembridge Road, was in a gang of graffiti artists which carried out a two-year campaign of vandalism on trains and stations around south London.

10 May 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Why aren’t Black deaths in custody an election issue?

Parliament Protest originally published by: Chronicle World
2nd May 2010

In all the 2010 election brouhaha about fairness in society, no political party has made the alarming number of deaths of Black people in police custody a priority.

However, thanks to the GPI Generation (the heirs of the “Stop Police Brutality” marches) the anguish and concerns of Black communities and voters have gained a voice.

“Now is the time to empower people with “strategies of protest” against injustice in the hands of the law”, said Remi Harris, music producer, and Aisha Phoenix, graduate student as they welcomed speakers, campaigners and bereaved families to the George Padmore Institute meeting.