'burned out' and no longer a danger to anyone,

Dear MOJUK,

I am hardly surprised at the response of the Prison Service in the case of the wheelchair bound inmate Roger Zoppola whose case featured in 'Inside Out' 60

Mr Zoppola was fortunate in that he had the benefit of legal advice and a solicitor willing to take up his case, for there are other inmates who languish in prison hospitals because of inadequate facilities.

At Kingston we have an elderly lifers wing (E Wing) which houses 25 aged life sentence prisoners, to staff and inmates alike, E Wing is referred to as Death Row.

If the Prison Service want to talk of dignity and human rights, perhaps they will explain why in their twilight years those housed in E Wing many who have no contact with the world outside are crammed in three and four to a room with hardly any space between their beds.

Why is there no purposeful activity for these prisoners which the Prison Service is seemingly committed to as a feature of Key Performance

Indicators and targets?

When such measures feature in the reports of Kingston, E wing is not identified as a separate wing. Purposeful activity for the rest of Kingston inmates such as workshops, gym, walking on the prison field, education activity (which is a climb up a set of stairs) and general associated activity does not apply to those in E wing many who have no desire to leave their beds.

With no occupational therapy or organised activity and an inmate orderly who is relied upon for shaving one or two of the elderly, it certainly beggars belief mat the Director General of the Prison Service can claim to be committed to me dignity and human rights of prisoners.

For those in E wing there exists little privacy when at an advanced age they should come to expect it, indeed all prisoners within the confines of single accommodation.

Some time ago Kingston received a delegation of Japanese prison officials who toured the prison including E wing and what they saw it was reported to have appalled them. This was perhaps that the Japanese culture demands that the elderly are afforded the respect of old age and that is certainly lacking for the elderly at Kingston.

This group of prisoners some of whom might fit the criteria for NHS residential home care are destined to remain on Kingston's Death Row for no other reason than they are considered a burden.

Many have served beyond the tariff of their sentence and are considered 'burned out' and no longer a danger to anyone, indeed they are more likely to be a danger to themselves.

However the world outside has no interest in an elderly convicted murderer, no matter how long ago the offence, Kingston E wing is where they are destined to remain in undignified circumstances until that burden is removed by death.

Charles Hanson

VV 1638,

HMP Kingston

Milton Road

Portsmouth

Hants

PO3 6AS