Paul Lyons - to Court of Appeal, Tuesday 22nd October 2002

Hi MOJUK,

Hope all is good with everyone, I myself am very well, strong and continuing to expose all those evil back bench hypocrites.

Their has been progress on my case since I last wrote, I had to sack my old legal team, solicitor/barrister/QC, well rid of them and have a completely new team.

They only had the papers for a few weeks, when we got directions for a oral hearing earlier this month, but they got of their arses and put together new grounds and were in court on Tuesday 10th September, it went relatively well, only one of the grounds was refused. So now it's time to see if this time I receive what I was denied at my trial, 'Justice'.

Jointly with my appeal against conviction, I have another appeal against a four year sentence for 'prison mutiny', whilst I was in HMP Full Sutton.

Myself and my two co-defendants have now got four weeks to get our ducks in a row, the appeal starts Tuesday 22nd October and has been given four days. So right now I'm running around like a headless chicken.

My case goes back to 1995, convicted and sentenced early 1998. So its took nearly five years to get leave to appeal, I am more than ready for it now, and consider myself one of the lucky ones, so few make it to the court of appeal.

It's also great to have a family who have put their lives on hold, while assisting me in proving my innocence, without their support I would have had serious problems.

My heart goes out to all those who are fighting their convictions on their own because my experience has really opened my eyes wide to how solicitors really work - with out anyone to keep on at them pushing - prodding and above all watching them, we are lambs to the slaughter.

Other hostages who have told their stories in 'Inside Out' have given me a surge of strength, just to know that I am not alone in fighting and exposing the rotten judicial system. My beliefs are that we are strong and getting stronger and getting the message out that justice in the UK is a farce.

I feel confident in myself and Paddy Hill's word are etched in my brain, 'Prepared for the worst - hoping for the best - and will take what comes', I'll never stop fighting until I get my conviction quashed, regardless how long it takes. One thing's for sure I'll continue to be a thorn to the prison service for the duration.

I spent nearly all of '2001', on a dirty protest and my heart is with those four men in HMP Frankland, on dirty protest, right now nothing is more certain I would like to be with them all the way. Shame is a lot of others don't even as much as consider showing solidarity - trouble is, now prisoners worry more about losing their colour tvs or play-stations, they are too engrossed with pleasure to give a minutes thought to all those prisoners up and down the country who are on basic or in segregation. My heart is with all those under the hammer of the prison service and I will never cease to support them.

I am very grateful for all the letters of support and solidarity I have received and hope to hear from a lot more of you outside, I will write back to anyone who writes in.

As I head for the court of appeal, "I have nothing to hide and no one to fear - my hopes will be high as I sit in front of the judges - but until they correct what they got so terribly wrong five years ago, then I assure each and everyone of you - there will be no surrender- so lets get ready to rumble,

In struggle and solidarity,

Paul Lyons

RP1464
HMP Whitemoor
Longhill Road
March
PE15 oPR

Prisoners Fight Back - Prisoners at Frankland continue protest at segregation

On 14 September a noisy demonstration took place outside Frankland prison in support of three prisoners protesting in the segregation unit. A fourth prisoner, Keith Pringle, had been ghosted out of the gaol the day before the demonstration took place.

The protest began after Tony Daniels was moved to Frankland from Long Lartin, where he had been held in the block since March this year, following a spurious accusation of involvement in bullying other prisoners. Tony is a black, life sentence prisoner, who has always been vocal in defence of his rights and those of other prisoners. He was kept in the segregation unit at Long Lartin on a series of pretexts from March until August, when the Prison Service finally agreed to move him to another prison. He was led to believe that his transfer to Frankland would involve a short initial period in segregation, after which he would go onto an ordinary wing. However after three weeks waiting patiently for this to happen, he was told by the Board of Visitors that he would remain in the block for another 28 days, with no guarantee that at the end of that period, he would not simply be told the same thing again.

Tony and four other prisoners supporting him then began a ‘dirty protest’, which has continued ever since. As we go to press, those still on the protest are Tony himself, Greg Newlands and Tony Woods.

The Prison Service has produced guidelines on how to deal with prisoners on dirty protests. These say that the prison has a duty to find out what the protest is about. By extension, this should mean they have a duty to negotiate or attempt to bring it to an end. However, no member of prison staff other than those screws already employed in the block seems to have been anywhere near the protesting prisoners to ask them anything. Faxes from lawyers and campaigners to the prison and Prison Service have been ignored. This has left the screws in the block a free reign to contaminate the prisoners’ food, limit the amount of liquid they are getting to three cups of water a day, and threaten them repeatedly with physical violence.

Undeterred, the three prisoners who remain on the protest are continuing to get messages out of the prison, even though none of their mail appears to be being posted. Publicity is therefore increasing around their situation, with local radio and TV stations covering it, and making inquiries of tight-lipped governors, and the websites of the Schnews and Asian Dub Foundation, among others, posting details, together with copies of model faxes to download and send to the prison and Prison Service in protest.

Add your voice and send a letter of protest about the length of time Tony Daniels has been in segregation and the way in which all three prisoners are being treated.

Letters of protest to: new governor of HMP Frankland, Phil Copple.

Cards of solidarity to:

Tony Daniels (KW3622)

Greg Newland (MJ2662)

Tony Woods (prison number not known).

HMP Frankland, Finchale Road, Brasside, Durham, DH1 5YD.

There are also dirty protests in the segregation units at Long Lartin and Swaleside. We have been told that the first is in response to racial harassment of black prisoners there. We don’t have any details of the second. Any information or letters/articles for publication in the next issue of FRFI would be very welcome.

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Scottish prisons - inhuman and degrading

The commitment of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to the eradication of inhuman physical conditions in some of Scotland’s oldest and most squalid prisons is seriously open to question, even despite censure from the courts.

Following the 1990 Strangeways prison uprising, the prison system in England and Wales initiated and completed a comprehensive refurbishment of gaols, that eventually saw virtually all cells equipped with toilets and sinks. The SPS pursued no such programme and even today hundreds of prisoners in places such as Saughton in Edinburgh and Barlinnie in Glasgow, the two largest remand jails in Scotland, exist in conditions that have barely changed in over 100 years.

The new Scottish Executive, with a Justice Ministry that now possesses substantial powers to improve prison conditions in Scotland, has turned its back on the issue of prisoners’ human rights, and the so-called Scottish Prisons Complaints Commissioner has yet to openly criticise conditions at Barlinnie or Saughton.

Inevitably, it is prisoners themselves who have been at the forefront of the struggle to challenge inhumane conditions in Scottish prisons.

On 26 June 2001, prisoner Robert Napier, at the time on remand in Barlinnie, brought a legal action in the Edinburgh Court of Sessions, arguing that the conditions of his detention contravened his human rights.

Napier described being held in a cell that was small, badly ventilated, inadequately lit, contained no toilet or sink, and was in a dilapidated condition. He was forced to share the cell with another prisoner and was allowed few periods of exercise or recreation outside the cell.

Judge Lord MacFadyen upheld Napier’s complaint and said a prima facie case of human rights abuse had been made. He gave prison ministers 72 hours to transfer Napier from Barlinnie to accommodation which complied with human rights legislation. Fearing that the ruling would encourage hundreds of other prisoners to seek a similar remedy in law, the Scottish Executive immediately appealed against the ruling. Justice Minister Jim Wallace claimed that the Executive is committed to ending the practice of slopping out in Scottish prisons, but refused to give a deadline for when that might happen. ‘There is no exact timetable’, he said.

Meanwhile, in places like Saughton, bad conditions are deliberately used as a tool of control and punishment. Of the four main wings, two are designated ‘downgraded’ wings, or punishment units, for prisoners who have failed drug testing or in other ways been deemed undeserving of accommodation that meets minimum standards of human decency. Conditions in one of the ‘downgraded’ wings, A Hall, almost defy description in terms of the squalor and filth. The message to the prisoners held there is clear: conform or you will be denied humane conditions. Acquiescence to authority is rewarded by transfer to an ‘upgraded’ wing with in-cell TV and sanitation; non-acquiescence is punished by confinement to stinking cells with slop buckets, broken cell call buttons, decrepit beds and the risk of body vermin. Conditions in A Hall are being kept deliberately bad as a negative inducement to conform.

On 5 June this year prisoners on the unconvicted wing at Saughton rose up and tore the wing to pieces, forcing staff to retreat for about 16 hours. Eventually riot squads retook the wing with maximum violence, beating some of the ‘ringleaders’ all the way to the segregation unit. Around a dozen prisoners have now been charged with prison mutiny and face ten year sentences. The SPS is allowed to breach the human rights of prisoners by forcing them to endure deliberately created squalor and the risk of ill-health, while prisoners who protest at such conditions are prosecuted.

John Bowden,

Prisoners Fight Back: c/o FRFI, BCM Box 5909, London WC1N 3XX