What happens when miscarriage of justice victims get out of prison? Is the criminal justice system too embarassed by its mistakes to deal with the wrongly convicted decently?

The Observer Crime and Justice debate

Paul Donovan, Sunday August 11, 2002

It must be a perplexing experience to be cleared of a crime you did not commit. First, the individual is taken from the solitude of the prison cell to endure a brief moment of media fame. But then they are quickly returned to a different type of a solitude: life beyond the prison wall. Take the case of Frank Johnson, cleared recently by the Court of Appeal had cleared Frank Johnson of a murder he was supposed to have committed some 26 years ago he was literally shoved out onto the streets. As he emerged blinking into the light outside Swaleside Prison in Kent the only thing that Johnson had to show for more than a quarter of a century behind bars was a plastic bag full of his belongings and �40 from the prison service.

A quarter of a century is a long time to be locked away. Remember, when Johnson first went into prison the Bay City Rollers were top of the charts and Harold Wilson was Prime Minister. Of course, Johnson follows a long line of innocent people to be released from behind bars over recent years. While it is now more than a decade since the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four were released but little has changed in terms of providing support structures for such people whose psychological state was likened by one consultant to the victims of war atrocities.

For Johnson life would have been made much easier on his return to society had he actually committed the crime. There would have been careful preparation made for his release which would have come much earlier courtesy of the parole board.

By insisting on his innocence all of these years Johnson finished up serving six years longer than was on his original tariff. "Guilty prisoners get trips out into the community to prepare for their return to society,"said Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers. "There would have been training in social skills, information about the outside economy, teaching about cooking, cleaning and general survival. All in all there would have been preparation for a life where the door was not bolted at night."

Because Johnson was innocent he received none of these things. Instead he serve more time than a guilty man and was then put out onto the street to fend for himself - an embarrasment to a system that would rather not admit it makes mistakes.

In the event Johnson was met as he left the prison by Billy Power and has been living with the former Birmingham Six member and his wife Nora ever since. Billy has campaigned for Johnson's exoneratioin and release since the two were together in prison.

"You have to ask why if you are an innocent person in prison, life is that much harder than if you are guilty. If you insist on your innocence they treat you as being in denial. If you are guilty they let you out and there are various support processes put in place" said Power. "What people need after a successful appeal is help with signing on for benefits, getting registered with the doctor, opening a bank account and dealing with housing needs. Then there is the question of the psychological damage done to innocent prisoners who have done long periods inside."

There have now been a steady stream of innocent prisoners coming through the doors of the Court of Appeal over the past 13 years yet all seem to have been treated in the same shabby way.

Two early miscarriage of justice victims were Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four and Judy Ward, who was cleared of the M62 coach bombing after 18 years. Both spent their first few months of freedom staying at solicitor Gareth Peirce's house. "They gave me �35, a handwritten note to produce at the DSS and threw me on the street," recalled Ms Ward.

When Ms Ward wanted a morgage the lender wanted to know where she had been for the previous three years and before that. "I would never have got a mortgage but for the estate agent who knew my situation and took a personal interest. If he had not given his backing to my application there would have been no mortgage," said Ms Ward.

People who have been incarcerated for many years find the most basic of tasks difficult to comprehend. "All the prisoners found traffic difficult to cope with and needed help crossing the road," recalled veteran campaigner Paul May who was chair of the Birmingham Six and Bridgewater Four campaigns."Yet no one at the Home Office ever asks released innocent prisoners if they have anywhere to go the night they are released."

A consultant who examined the Birmingham Six likened their psychological state to that of victims of war atrocities who need to relearn the skills they acquired in childhood. Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six has described in graphic details the difficulties of the innocent prisoner coming out into the world outside. Hill has testified that he feels more common ground with prisoners inside."I've probably spent half of my time out here wishing that I'd never come out of jail. I don't feel a part of it," said Hill.

Hill has set up the Miscarriage of Justice Organisation (MOJO, http://www.mojo.freehosting.net/) which campaigns to free innocent prisoners inside but also provides support for those prisoners once they are released. However, when the Home Office recently considered who should win the contract to run a pilot scheme to provide a national expert advice and counselling service for miscarriage of justice victims MOJO lost out. The working group recommended instead that the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaus should be invited to deliver the service for a pilot period of 12 months with a view to continuing on afterwards.

Paddy Hill was disgusted with the decision. "What do the Citizen's Advice Bureaux know about prisoners. This is just so typical of the way the government works, putting someone in charge who knows nothing about the subject," said Hill.

Fletcher was also surprised that the NACAB had won the work. "This is highly specialised work reintegrating people into the society who have been locked up for 20 years. Many suffer with psychological problems, trauma and stress", said Fletcher. "This is not an area where the NACAB has any type of track record."

Labour MP Kevin McNamara welcomed the development but condemned the length of time it has taken to happen. "It is 10 years now since the Birmingham Six were released and only now is it beginning to be addressed. It is a scandal that people so badly wronged by the state have been forced to go on suffering for so long," said McNamara. "The scars of the time spent in prison effects the innocent victims for the rest of their lives."

McNamara expressed his hope that the new support service that was set up would be comprehensive in providing support for these damaged individuals. "Too many people believe that miscarriage of justice victims receive compensation and that should be enough - the damage done requires far more than just having money thrown at it," said McNamara.

The compensation awards for miscarriage of justice victims are what hit the headlines but little consideration goes into how such a damaged individual survives up until the award of at least an interim payment is made. The Birmingham Six have only just agreed final compensation settlements some 10 years after they were released from prison.

There is also the question of how miscarriage of justice victims use the money. Most of the people who have come out have wasted large amounts of the money. Paddy Hill has referred to using his first interim payment of �50,000 to try to buy his families' love and affection.

Mark Haffenden, the community, education and project development officer at the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) believes the present situation for innocent prisoners is completely unacceptable and what is needed is for the system of redress to be speeded up. "A speeding up of the system of redress is what we are looking for - it is a time scale thing rather than the level of redress itself. The levels of compensation are not bad, though you can never fully compensate people for the loss of so many years of their lives," said Haffenden.

Whatever the pluses or minuses of compensation and the new NACAB scheme there still remains no support for innocent prisoners at that most crucial time when they are released from prison.

Fletcher would like to see a programme established for the resettlement of miscarriage of justice victims as soon as their case is referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to the Court of Appeal. There is usually a gap of some months if not years between a case being referred and heard at the Court of Appeal. "Once the case is referred the prison service should put in place a programme to help that person reintegrate into society. The probation service should also have a role as it does with guilty prisoners helping with housing provision and such like," said Fletcher.

Haffenden has problems with this suggestion regarding what happens to those prisoners whose appeal is rejected at the Court of Appeal stage. "There would be a large amount of work put in on the supposition that a prisoner is going to be released and that is not always the case. There would also be a real danger of raising false expectations," said Haffenden.

Whatever the whys and wherefores, the present system for dealing with miscarriage of justice victims is unsatisfactory. The NACAB pilot proves that there is some grudging recognition by the Home Office that something needs to be done to address the problems but overall there still seems to be a desire to brush victims of miscarriages of justice under the carpet and hope that they and the embarassment they have caused to the system will go away.

http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,771363,00.html

Paul Donovan is a freelance writer specialising in criminal justice issues.

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