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.

12 August 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

“Cruel But Not Unusual” punishment of women in U.S. prisons

originally published by: Mr ZINE
5th August 2010

After years of neglect, the issue of women in prison has begun to receive attention in this country [US]. Media accounts of overcrowding, lengthening sentences, and horrendous medical care in women’s prisons appear regularly.

Amnesty International — long known for ignoring human rights abuses inside United States prisons and jails — issued a report, two days shy of International Women’s Day 2001, documenting over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse of U.S. women prisoners by their jailers. However, we seldom hear from these women themselves. And we never hear from women incarcerated for their political actions.

21 July 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

‘Secret’ manual reveals brutal methods used on youths

originally published by: Mail on Sunday
18th July 2010

A government manual instructing prison staff on how to inflict pain on teenage inmates was today labelled ‘state authorised child abuse’.

The Ministry of Justice was forced to release details of its approved ‘restraint and self-defence techniques’ for children in secure training centres after a lengthy freedom of information battle. The secret manual, Physical Control In Care, authorises staff to ‘use an inverted knuckle into the trainee’s sternum and drive inward and upward.’ Officers at youth prisons, such as HMP Young Offenders’ Institution in Feltham, were given guidelines on how to restrain children as young as 12.