Prisoners and the media (Part 1), by The Jailhouse Lawyer

Below is a post by the Jailhouse Lawyer and I won't go into the content - that's for you, the reader to consider. As well as the issue considered below, there is the issue of whether there are some topics and some bloggers who should or should not get space on this blog. It was suggested by a fellow blogger recently that they shouldn't.

So I'm left with a dilemma. If I restrict this blog to only "respectable" people, as seen by the respectable, then my own reputation is protected and I can be reassimilated into the blogging club but at the cost of this blog's prime directive - to pursue truth with neither fear nor favour.

Or I can let any point of view get an airing - the Imams', the BNP's, the cultists, whoever's - and having been put in writing here, it can then run the gauntlet of you, the readers. Anything put up for consideration can either be embraced or torn down. It's fair game, once posted.

Ad hominem

I'd like to specify more clearly this blog's policy. It's not so much attacking another person that's out but the utilization of incendiary, non-specific phraseology when applied specifically to a reader/blogger. I can call Brown the most gutless, arrogant, incompetent and destructive PM this country has had because there are instances to support that contention but if I say he's a piece of excrement, then that crosses the line, being neither verifiable nor to the point of the political issues. I was once called out by a reader for calling Merkel "vermin". You get the idea.

Thus to the post:

Writing blogs

NOEL ‘RAZOR’ SMITH - HMP
BLANTYRE HOUSE

The prison system has strictly forbidden me to write for publication or have any contact with the media therefore my query for the prison service (or whatever bunch of initials they are calling themselves these days) is this: according to Standing Orders and Prison Rules, convicted prisoners are not allowed to write for publication for payment, however there is no mention reference prisoners writing a blog on the internet; for which there is no payment but merely a chance to express an opinion.

So as a serving prisoner can I write a blog? And if not, can they point out the rule or Standing Order which forbids it? Obviously I do not have direct access to the Internet, but I have someone outside who will convert my typed words for the web, so I am anxious to find out what the objections might be.

I believe this is an important issue which may open up a new avenue for serving prisoners to express their opinions, so I look forward to hearing their reply; though they'll probably draft a new rule forbidding it as soon as they are asked the question. Cynical? Moi?

The Ministry of Justice writes:

There is no specific Prison Service policy on prisoners using or posting blogs, as they do not have direct unregulated access to computers or the Internet. However, in terms of the restrictions placed on the contents of prisoners’ correspondence, PSO 4411 Prisoner Communications Correspondence, paragraphs 7.1 (10) (a) to (e) specifically covers the issue of publishing or broadcasting material by newspaper, radio or television transmission. Whilst the policy does not explicitly mention publication or broadcasting on the Internet, such activities would be viewed similarly to any other form of media outlet, as previously mentioned.

Therefore, if any part of a prisoner’s correspondence on a blog contained material which fell under any of these paragraphs, appropriate disciplinary action could be taken
for breaching these restrictions.

As for the setting up of a blog, by a third party on behalf of a prisoner, paragraph 7.2 of PSO 4411 states that ‘a prisoner may not ask, in writing or otherwise, another person to make on his or her behalf a communication which he or she would not be allowed to make directly, or which would contravene this Prison Service Order’. While this has often been interpreted in the context of one prisoner asking another prisoner to write/send something out illegally on their behalf, this could be applicable to anyone outside of the prison.

"The only blog by a serving British prisoner. Looking stupidity and ignorance in the eye whilst attempting to inject some neurons into the criminological debate. As British prisoners are denied internet access, I post via the Royal Mail and the kind efforts of friends".

Should prisoners be allowed to blog?

By Lifer Ben Gunn

That's the wrong question, really. As long as I don't identify staff or cons, charge money, or rabbit on about guns, bombs or escape plans then the law allows me to inflict myself upon you for as long as I want. Some would find this objectionable.

Whilst I appreciate that view, my response is - tough, deal with it. As a matter of law, my punishment was the loss of my physical liberty; not the loss of anything else. And you need to endure that to appreciate its weight. Having a Blog or a TV doesn't quite make up for loss of liberty. But we are not really talking law here, but more a sense of morality. Should a convicted murderer ever intrude into the public arena?

I blame you that I feel the urge to. I don't write this to feed my giant ego. I write this because there is a total absence of genuine, informed debate around imprisonment. The ether is swamped with trite opinion, fuelled by a mixture of bile, anger and ignorance, and some occasional thoughtful interjection may be useful. Who better to offer that than a serving prisoner, whose life's work has been the study of prisons? On a wider point, don't forget that I remain a part of society.

I may be tucked away in an obscure and dull corner, but nevertheless prisons are part of the whole. Every law, every social obligation and each cultural and politico-economic shift falls as heavily upon me as it does the free person. As a sovereign individual in a liberal democracy I assert an untrammelled right to voice my views. There are those who will instantly argue that my first post should be a profound apology to my victims. And that I should stop at that point. Patience, my enemies, I will of course discuss these things. And my lifetime’s effort to live a non-¬violent life may suggest that I do recoil from my crime and intend to try, no matter how futile it is, to repair some of the social harm that I have caused.

But I refuse to be defined solely in terms of my crime and my past. In the meantime, I hope to inform, provoke and entertain by offering insights into imprisonment that our Glorious Leaders and media fail to deliver. Imprisonment should be a perpetual discussion; the human suffering that follows from crime should be carefully considered, and not relegated to atavistic headlines. Isn't it rather pathetic that it is left to a prisoner to call for this debate, rather than political leaders?