�

Lifes Battles

The Fight goes on, Sam Cole

HMP Whitemoor, Segregation unit, 15th April 2002

=====================================================

Appeal from the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation Scotland (MOJOS)

Robert Brown, HMP Wymott, on home visit to his ailing mother.

=====================================================

False Accusations Ruin Lives

Hi Y�all,

just to update you on the latest re my dispute with the CCRC. I was due back to the High Court to challenge the decision of the CCRC, not to refer my case to the court of appeal.

This was due to be heard on 11th April. However prior to this date, I had been severely ill, so bad I couldn�t even walk, and tried to have the appeal postponed.

On the 10th April i was literally carried to the phone and rang the court to request an adjournment. The clerk of the court thanked me for ringing and requested I should fax them, which I did. I also rang the CCRC and asked them to do the same, which they said they would do. Having done all that was required I thought I had nothing more to worry about, just sit back and wait for a new date.

On the 13th April, I received a letter from the adminsitrative court, which I was expecting and opened it to see what the new date was.

Did I get that wrong. The letter stated that the claim between myself and CCRC was dismissed by the court on April 11th as neither party had shown up and the matter was now closed by the court.

I asked myself how an oral hearing case could possibly be dismissed, when the arguments hadn�t even been heard. There were no names of the judges who had dismissed the case.

Now, as if I hadn�t a fucking enough to do fighting the CCRC, I now have to do battle with the high court to get my hearing reinstated.

If any of you have had dealings with the CCRC and are not satisfied with the way they have handled your case, please write and let me know. I have a questionnaire, which I would like to get to you.

The longer you take my rights away. The harder I will fight. You may have bowed me down, but you will never beat me!

Phil Taylor, HMP Wandsworth

================================================

==================================================================

It�s the Same the Whole World Over

Robert King Wilkerson - Framed In The US For Murder to Visit UK,

A speaking tour of the UK is being planned for Robert King Wilkerson in May 2002. Whilst he will be speaking out about the US prison system and for the release of Woodfox and Wallace we hope his visit will also help to highlight cases here with visits being made to framed prisoners. The tour is being organized to raise solidarity with those in the US who are suffering the same injustice under a far more brutal and reactionary regime.

Robert King Wilkerson, one of the prisoners known as "the Angola 3," was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary on Feb. 8, 2001, after spending 29 years in solitary confinement for a murder he did not commit.

Now that he is free, Wilkerson plans to travel and speak out against the imprisonment of the two other Angola 3: Woodfox and Wallace and the continuing growth of the American prison-industrial complex. All three men entered prison on unrelated robbery charges and quickly joined the prisoners' rights movement that was sweeping the country in the late 1960s. In the ensuing years, the men continued their activism from within solitary confinement by organizing hunger strikes, educating other prisoners, and by becoming highly-skilled jailhouse lawyers.

Background: Angola

Known as "The Farm," Angola is the largest prison in the United States. Around three-quarters of its inmates are African-American. According to the Academy-Award-nominated documentary The Farm, 85 % of the inmates who are sent to Angola will die there. Angola is an 18,000-acre complex of antebellum plantations that the state of Louisiana purchased and converted into a prison around the turn of the century. The penitentiary is called Angola because most of its former slaves came from the African country of the same name. Angola still operates on the plantation model. Prisoners perform back-breaking labour, harvesting cotton, sugar cane, and other crops from dawn to dusk. In the early 1970s, Angola was known as the most brutal prison in the United States, with stabbings an almost-daily occurrence. Armed "Inmate guards" patrolled the prison, and they frequently used their state-issued rifles to settle scores with other inmates, sometimes at the behest of Angola officials. On one occasion, a prisoner died after five men were locked together in a sweltering isolation cell, without food or water, during the hottest days of summer. Dozens of bodies are rumoured to be buried in the swampland where Angola borders the Mississippi River.

Among the men who have been marooned at Angola are Albert Woodfox, Hertnan Wallace, and Robert King Wilkerson. Of the world's political prisoners, few have been held in solitary confinement for as long as they have: 28 years. All three men initially arrived at Angola with sentences for robbery and a dedication to political activism. Their activism led them to found a chapter of the Black Panther Party at Angola, but it also made them targets of the all-white prison administration. In 1972 and 1973, in an effort to put a stop to their organizing, prison officials concocted murder charges against Woodfox, Wallace, and Wilkerson, and placed all of them on permanent lockdown. Relying on the testimony of prison snatches and arguing their cases to all-white juries, Angola officials won convictions against the three men, all of whom received sentences of life without parole.

Formation of the Black Panther Party at Angola

In 1971, Woodfox and Wallace organized the Black Panther Party at Angola. Woodfox had joined the Party in New York, where he had fled after a daring 1969 escape from the courthouse in New Orleans. After spending time imprisoned under an assumed name in New York, where he helped organize several rebellions in the New York City correctional system, Woodfox, along with his newfound politics, was extradited back to Louisiana. Wallace became a Panther while he was incarcerated at the New Orleans Parish Prison with the political prisoners known as the "New Orleans Panther 12. " When they were shipped off to Angola, Woodfox and Wallace took the Black Panther Party with them.

The Angola Panthers not only challenged the 'son administration, but they also organized to end aspects of the inmate social order that hindered prisoner unity and played into the hands of the guards. The Panthers risked their lives to protect younger and weaker inmates from the rape, prostitution, and sex slavery that pervaded prison life. As Woodfox puts it, "It wasn't much help to go to the, security because most of the security people were condoning that type of activity. They would benefit from it because they would get money or favours for allowing rapes to happen. Some of the guards themselves would be involved in the rapes."

The Panthers worked to mend the schism between black and white prisoners that the prison officials manipulated to their advantage, a difficult feat considering that the prisoner housing, dining halls, and worksites were still racially segregated, with privileged living arrangements and work assignments going to white prisoners. The BPP also exposed the widespread corruption of the people who ran Angola, many of whom came from families that had lived on state land and had worked at the prison for several generations. Guards often diverted food, grown by the prisoners for their own consumption, to their own families and friends or sold it in town. The administration of the prison responded to the rise of the Panthers by filling its isolation units with activist prisoners. The associate warden of the 'son, Hayden Dees, testified in court proceedings to the need to keep "a certain type of militant or revolutionary irunate, maybe even a Communist type," on permanent lockdown.

Indeed, Woodfox and Wallace believe they were targeted for prosecution and long-term lockdown because of their organizing. "I think the fact that they were never able to break my spirit or Herman Wallace's spirit, the fact that they could not shake our political beliefs or convictions, contributed to the reason why we were held in CCR [Closed Cell Restricted, or solitary confinement]," Woodfox says.

Robert King Wilkerson, profile.

Wilkerson, 58, was convicted of the 1973 murder of a fellow Angola prisoner despite the fact that another man confessed and was convicted of the murder. After two prisoners who testified against Wilkerson - the only evidence ever presented against him - retracted their testimony and revealed that it had been coerced by prison officials, the United States Court of Appeals in December issued a ruling that almost certainly would have led to his release.

In response, in what his supporters characterised as a face-saving move, the state offered Wilkerson a plea bargain, which he accepted. Six hours later, to the cheers of a throng of family and supporters, Wilkerson walked out of Angola a free man.

He has pledged to dedicate his life to winning freedom for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, the other two members of the Angola 3, and for all of the other innocent men with whom he was incarcerated for the past three decades. "I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me," Wilkerson said.

Woodfox and Wallace have also been held in solitary confinement for 29 years. They were convicted of the 1972 murder of an Angola prison guard - a murder that they have unwaveringly claimed they did not commit. In recent years, new evidence of their innocence has surfaced. Even though the new evidence was suppressed at the time of their trials, they have thus far been unable to win Justice from the courts.

Wilkerson, Woodfox, and Wallace have always believed that they were framed by prison officials because they organized the Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party. Prior to being placed in solitary confinement, the men led campaigns to end prisoner rape, improve race relations, and ameliorate conditions at the slave plantation-tumed- prison. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently pursing a federal lawsuit alleging that the merf s 29-year stay in solitary confinement amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

================================

MOJUK would like to give a warm welcome to MOJO Scotland

Miscarriages of Justice Organisation Scotland (MOJOS)

Mission Statement

The Miscarriages of Justice Organisation was launched from the House of Commons on the 14th March 2001. Our patrons include Baroness Helena Kennedy, John McDonnell MP, Professor Derek Pounder, Dr Adrian Grounds, Dr Jim Thorpe and Gareth Pierce.

MOJOS is a unique organisation that has been set up to help those who have been wrongfully convicted for crimes they know nothing about. MOJOS is setting up to monitor and raise awareness of the treatment of innocent Scottish people in jail both before and after their release. MOJOS, has already received support from, John Scott at the Scottish Centre of Human Rights, Alistair Duff Conenor of the Law Society, Dr Alan Miller and a number of Scotland's leading criminal lawyers and advocates.

Aims and Objectives

The substantive issue for MOJOS is to seek the help of the Scottish Executive to provide assistance in setting up an aftercare programme to help people who have served long terms of incarceration, and have had their convictions quashed at the appeal court. At the present moment there is no provisions to aid innocent people on their release from Scottish prisons.

The uniqueness of MOJOS is that the aftercare programme will be run in conjunction with professional medical expertise and individuals who have been themselves miscarriages of justice; thus helping to empower the victim. We are confident that clinical psychologist at Scotland's top Universities will work in conjunction with top forensic psychologists Dr Adrian Grounds to set up a programme in Scotland. We then intend to monitor the problems facing the wrongfully convicted by funding two post graduate psychology students to work with MOJOS.

We ask the Scottish Executives support in applying for funding, from the Through-Care programme, to purchase a property to set up a half way home for the those who are wrongfully incarcerated and released back into society, either on bail, or once their conviction has been quashed at the appeal court. The half way home would have sleeping quarters, workshops, rest and recreational areas. In general it would be designed to be of similar communal layout to that of the natural habitat they have been accustomed to; obviously designed with the freedom to allow them to make the choice to come and go when they please. It would include therapy programmes of arts, crafts, and other others skills that they have acquired whilst imprisoned. We would also set up training programmes like computer literacy that would enable them to deal with acquiring new skills in this New World they find themselves in. Empowerment and choice are crucial aspects for individuals who have been psychologically scarred due to the institutionalised nature of prison life. There is no doubt about the long-term effects that wrongful incarceration has on the personality disorders of the individual.

MOJOS would also be a human rights monitoring watchdog. We know from our experiences, and human nature, that everything is fallible. Nothing is perfect. If we take this stance then it is imperative that a group like MOJOS has the backing of the Scottish Executive.

What we foresee is a small group of full time workers, who while few in numbers would have the access to a broad range of key people in crucial areas: experienced campaigners, lawyers, journalists. Once someone contacts MOJOS and applies for help, his case would be thoroughly studied. An assessment would then be made as to whether he was indeed a victim of a miscarriage of justice. Once a case was accepted the expertise of people who had led previous campaigns would be used. Lawyers with the right experience for a particular case would be approached; the media and MSPs would be presented with details and lobbied to take an interest. With the ultimate aim to get the innocent back into court quickly and ensure that all the facts be presented to the court so that freedom would be the only outcome.

At the present moment our Memorandum and Articles of Association are being drawn up by lawyers at the Scottish Centre of Human Rights for Companies House and should be completed by the end of February. It is in our opinion that MOJOS is a necessary organisation that will benefit Scotland, and the Scottish people, in restoring public confidence in the police and judicial systems. Consequently we are hoping for the help of the Scottish Executive to provide core funding, as well as support for the Through-Care application programme.

Yours Sincerely,

John McManus, Paddy Hill, Dr Jim MacGregor

Miscarriages of Justice Organisation Scotland (MOJOS)

C/O Scottish Centre of Human Rights

146 Holland Street, Glasgow

==================================================================

Welsh police 'assaults' on prisoners condemned

Europe�s anti-torture watchdog has criticised the police in Wales for a number of alleged assaults against prisoners and for keeping "dirty and poorly ventilated" cells.

A report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) says there is a noticeable gulf in standards between England and Wales.

A number of young people interviewed by the committee's five-strong delegation claimed to have been ill-treated by police officers in different parts of Wales. Most said the incidents had taken place as they were arrested while some alleged that they were abused in their police cells, including being punched and kicked.

The report, published on 22/04/2002, says: "A number of young persons interviewed separately at both Parc Prison [in Bridgend] and Hillside Secure Centre [at Neath] alleged that they had been ill-treated by police officers in different parts of Wales."

While police cells in the London region were found to be "satisfactory", an inspection of Cardiff central police station found its cells were "dirty and poorly ventilated".

In its response to the report, the Government said chief constables in Wales were "anxious to make it clear that inappropriate treatment of detained persons is not acceptable".

By Richard Eden, The Telegraph

===============================

Inquest into the death of Kieran O�Donnell

kieran O'Donnell was the young man shot dead at his home on the 30th Oct 2000, North London,�after having suffered from a relapse in his mental health. Social services knew this and the Staff at St Lukes hospital wanted rid of Kieran because they did not have the resources to deal with Kieran he was dumped on his mother.

Kieran finally took his mother and girlfriend hostage because of fears and paranoia. Kieran should have received care and attention that would have quickly resolved this situation.

What Kieran got was 21 officers, 3 Sergeant, 1 Inspector all from the Territorial Support Group, plus 19 armed Officers from the Special Fire Arms Operations Unit, and the Armed Response Units, as well as the Staff from the Islington division of the Metropolitan Police, Specialist Hostage negotiatetors Team to mention just some of the people present at the time of Kierans death..

At the inquest!

The jury returned a verdict of lawful killing at the Inquest of Kieran O�Donnell

It can be said without doubt that PC Priestly pulled the trigger of the G3 Rifle that killed Kieran O�Donnell, and that the series of incidents, which lead up to Kieran�s death, could have been avoided. Only one thing needed to have happened in order to change things, and as a result Kieran O�Donnell would still be alive today.

What was that one thing? Kieran O�Donnell�s special needs as an ill person needed to be seriously addressed by both the Islington Social Services Mental Health Team and the N.H.S. The failure to provide real care in the community was the cause for the deterioration of Kieran O�Donnell�s mental health, which in turn, lead to the series of events which culminated in the Hostage situation that ended in the death of Kieran O�Donnell.

Kieran O�Donnell is a real example of how the failure of care in the community can kill the very people it is supposed to be caring for. At the very worst simply ignoring the people you are supposed to be caring for and at the very best paying lip service to the notion of community care, by way of an equal opportunity policy on paper only, is what very many vulnerable members of our community are actually receiving.

People with mental health care needs have the right to at least expect those who are employed and paid to care for them to at the very least protect their right to live. In the case of Kieran O�Donnell the basic right, the right to live was removed. A community that doesn�t at the very least protect the right to life of its most vulnerable members does not have the right to claim to be a community that cares.

Community care kills seems to be a rather strange claim but how else can we explain that in the 21st century a young man with mental health care needs ends up with a bullet in his body, which results in his death. His only crime is that of being mentally ill. A crime deemed so dangerous and heinous a crime that it allows the state the right to lawfully kill rather than lawfully care. This has got to change. And until it does we do not have the right to use the term Care In The Community. PC Preistly�s bullet was merely the end product of a Community that failed Kieran O�Donnell his Statutory rights as a Human being.

We demand an Independent Public Inquiry into all Deaths in Custody

Terry Stewart,Irish Deaths In Custody Campaign. PO Box 29644, London E2 8TS

=============================

'A Town Without Pity'

Book review by Karen Walsh

Stephen Downing became the longest serving miscarriage of justice, suffering 27 years in prison trying to clear his name within our system that continued to maintain he was 'IDOM' ('In denial of murder').His misfortune was to find Wendy Sewell a young woman with an intriguing background battered within an inch of her life in Bakewell cemetery where he worked as a gardener. He was 17 years old, naive and lacking literacy skills. �Bakewell police reputedly took bets as to how long it would take Stephen, who had to be shaken awake during long hours of gruelling questioning to 'confess'. Sadly Wendy later died and was unable to establish that Stephen brow beaten in custody without a solicitor present was not her assailant. Stephen's 'confession' sealed his fate for the next 27 years.

Don's book is 372 pages of determination against a background of numerous death threats, and sinister moves by the authorities to have Don believe that the evidence he was seeking to help him establish Stephen's innocence was 'destroyed.' Imagine Don's reaction when the supposed 'burned' pick axe handle murder weapon is found to be an exhibit in Derby POLICE MUSEUM! �With the help of inside contacts who risked their careers Don is able to unearth the crucial paper work and start to piece together a long awaited jigsaw puzzle.

As Don's quest for justice starts to unfold the death threats mount. Phone calls of intimidation to his office where he is editor of 'THE MATLOCK Mercury newspaper are followed by similar calls to his home. His movements are known and Don details the many attempts upon his life. Who were behind these death threats? Who owned the vehicles that tried to ram him off the road? Who was behind the hit and run outside Matlock cinema incredibly witnessed by a policeman parked near by?

Don's search for the truth includes a patient's dying confession to his male nurse. A nurse who years later is dying of AIDS and contacts Don when the story has taken off in 'THE MATLOCK MERCURY' and consequently attracts the national press. Eye witness contributions ignored and scorned in 1973 by police start to emerge out of the woodwork from unlikely sources and from as far away as Greece!

Will Derbyshire police now investigate the reported and documented death threats endured by Don Hale? The force has ample opportunity to read detailed accounts of sinister moves and cover ups in this gripping book. Readers are guaranteed to be sweating from page one! Invisible people went to extreme lengths to silence Don who became even more determined to expose the truth. �The question is why did they?

The outcome was a hard won successful battle. Stephen is freed on appeal, and Don Hale is voted 'Journalist of the Year' and also scoops the title of' Man of the Year'. Derbyshire police I understand are reopening the case and I would say that this book can only assist that forthcoming investigation. It has to be one of the most compelling books anyone interested in justice and the system can read.

'A Town Without Pity' �the fight to clear Stephen Downing of the bakewell murder. by Don Hale with Marika Huns and Hamish McGregor. published by Century. price �14.99.

=========================================

Hi MOJUK,

"I've received a copy of the report from Her Majesties Inspectorate of Constabulary, on Jimmy's death. Its 135 pages long with 42 recommendations. The more fucking reports�we see the worse we feel. While these murdering bastards are walking free no reports can help us or even more importantly our poor Jimmy 6ft under."

"As if this was not enough to contend with, we have now been told, no action will be taken against Superintendent Chris Burton."

Regards,

����������� Pauline Ashley

===========================

Ashley death charge anger - No action: Supt Chris Burton

No action is to be taken against the police officer in charge at the scene of the James Ashley shooting.

His family has been told Superintendent Chris Burton will not face disciplinary action by Sussex Police.

Pauline Ashley, the dead man's sister, immediately called on Home Office Minister John Denham to hold a public inquiry.

Mr Ashley, 39, was unarmed and naked in bed when he was shot dead by a police marksman during a drugs raid on his St Leonards flat in January 1998.

PC Chris Sherwood was later cleared of unlawful killing during a trial at the Old Bailey.

Supt Burton, 44, and Chief Inspectors Kevin French, 48, and Christopher Siggs, 42, were later cleared of misconduct during a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The three also faced a total of 15 disciplinary charges brought by Sussex Police in connection with the incident.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman confirmed two charges of neglect of duty against Mr Burton had now been dropped.

The remaining 13 charges against Mr French and Mr Siggs still stand.

One of the officers faces three charges of neglect of duty and six of "making falsehoods".

The other faces four charges of neglect of duty but the spokeswoman could not confirm which officer faced which charges.

News that Mr Burton no longer faced action was broken to Mr Ashley's family in a letter from Sussex Assistant Chief Constable Tony Toynton.

Speaking exclusively to The Argus from her home in Liverpool, Pauline Ashley said: "So far, nobody has been held responsible for my brother's death. There is no doubt in our minds that the other officers involved will also not have action taken against them.

"This couldn't-care-less attitude does not reassure this family or, I'm sure, the public that action is being taken to prevent a tragedy of this enormity happening again.

"If the Government and Sussex Police believe that by wearing people down they will go away, they should think again.

"It makes us more determined, bitter and angry to continue our fight for justice for Jimmy Ashley."

Miss Ashley added: "We have written to John Denham in the hope that he will support us in our fight for a public inquiry." by Nigel Freedman, Brighton & Hove News, Monday 22nd April

=========================================

Secret review exposes police mistakes over two deaths

Justice for Errol and Jason McGowan - Telford errors revealed in report

Detectives investigating the death of Jason McGowan, a black man found hanging from roadside railings, made a string of errors that could have lost crucial information, according to a critical report police chiefs are keeping secret.

The Guardian has learned details of the report which the family of Jason, 20, wanted to see before the inquest into his death.

He was one of two men from the same family found hanging within six months of each other in Telford, Shropshire.

Jason had been investigating the death of his uncle, Errol McGowan, who was found hanged after a campaign of racial harassment and death threats by a white gang.

Jason's family believe he was murdered by a racist gang and that detectives' prejudice led them to bungle their investigation and dismiss the death as suicide.

West Mercia police claim the review conducted by Scotland Yard into their first investigation into Jason's death, is not relevant to the inquest.

But the McGowans argue that the police investigation was so poor and that so much potential evidence was missed that an open or unlawful killing verdict should be returned, and not one of suicide.

They are threatening to seek a court order to try to force West Mercia to release the review.

The Scotland Yard review found West Mercia detectives had:

� Failed to gather CCTV footage near the scene early enough;

� Were too slow in tracking people from the pub where Jason was last seen;

� Criticised limited appeals for information about the events leading up to the death;

� Were too slow in securing Jason's mobile phone records after being told he had received calls shortly before he was last seen.

The review made more than 10 criticisms and recommendations about the first investigation. A source with knowledge of the review told the Guardian: "West Mercia assumed it was suicide and their errors followed from that. Their initial assumptions set them on the wrong track for the investigation."

Another source with intimate knowledge of the report said West Mercia had failed to learn any lessons from the death of Errol: "There's no doubt they took one look at it and they said 'oh yeah it's another suicide'.

"That meant they did not capture enough evidence at the beginning from the scene. They failed to close down other possibilities other than suicide.

"The criticism was that they had not learned anything from the first death.

"What was required was a Rolls-Royce job. What the family got was a very mundane local corner, cheap garage second-hand job."

West Mercia agreed to release the review into Errol's death to the McGowans' lawyers before his inquest last year.

Imran Khan, solicitor for Jason's widow Sinead, said: "West Mercia are continuing to mess the family around.

"They are not releasing the review because they are embarrassed about its contents. It's a return to the dark old days of policing. The home secretary should make them release it."

A West Mercia spokesman said it was up to the coroner to release the review and the spokesman refused to say what the force's stance was.

But in a letter, seen by the Guardian, written by West Mercia's solicitor Catherine Girvan last week, the force said the review "belongs to a class that is privileged [and] will not be disclosed."

In a letter written this month the force says the review's "contents are not relevant to the matters to be decided by the inquest."

West Mercia's position appears to fly in the face of one of the recommendations made by the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence case.

It concluded that "there should be advance disclosure of evidence and documents as of right to parties who have leave from a coroner to appear at an inquest".

Deborah Coles of Inquest, which campaigns for the rights of families at inquests, said: "Documents remain the property of the investigated force. They own that investigation and it's up to them to disclose it.

"The government should change that.

"How can the jury determine the facts of the death without all the facts being examined. It's just obsessive secrecy by West Mercia."

The inquest into the death of Errol in July 1999 concluded that he had taken his own life. It heard that he had repeatedly begged police for protection from a racist gang he feared would kill him.

West Mercia's second investigation into Jason's death sent files to the coroner rather than the crown prosecution service, a strong indication that the force viewed the newspaper production worker's death as suicide. Vikram Dodd, Monday April 22, 2002, The Guardian

====================================================

Three prisoners lose appeal against sentencing

this time 'MOJUK, Ain't Complaining'

A prison officer who assaulted a prisoner committed a breach of trust not only against the prisoner but against society itself.

The Court of Appeal so held on March 19, 2002 in dismissing appeals by Darren Fryer, John Nicol and Robert Andrew Lawrie against prison sentences of three and a half years, four years and four years, respectively, imposed, by Judge Byers at Blackfriars Crown Court, on their convictions of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, on a prisoner.

Justice Newman said that while the victim was being detained at Wormwood Scrubs Prison on remand, pending his trial for attempted robbery, he was subjected to a series of sustained assaults by the appellants who were all prison officers.

The appellants were in breach of trust not only towards the prisoner but, as prison officers, their breach of trust concerned society.Prisoners were entitled to the protection of the law from assault on them by prison officers. The onerous responsibilities of prison officers had to be discharged in a way which was not a perversion of the system.