�����Anyone wanting to experience a visit to a jail within a jail should book a visit to see Ray Gilbert currently buried alive at H.M. Woodhill Milton Keynes.

�����It is a real life (unbelievable) Alice in Wonderland encounter complete with so many strange people in uniform (they asked my female colleague if she was Bruce Kent -can you believe that?). I saw you stretch your imagination there (a milimetre!). Then comes the endless maze of doors/gates/gates/doors. I bet the cement mixer was working over time to construct HMP Woodhill and it would seem that the love of concrete by one prison governor even extended to manufacturing a flock of concrete sheep to graze on the Inner compound's grass. Our escort officer told us that 'once one of them absconded one year' (an inmate or a sheep?). He said it eventually turned up wearing an absconders badge (naughty concrete sheep eh?) Oh those fun loving screws with nothing else to do all day!

�����The howling cries of Killer dogs in the distance had me considering that the terror tones were taped like a church plays bells on tape if it does not possess the real thing. My friend asked if 'Killer Dog' was loose today' and our escort assured us that he wasn't lose that day ( Our lucky day then?).

�����We lost count of how many doors and gates were creaked open for us ( we were told that they don't get too many people at the special control unit), and to be fair I did not see any other viistors. The ladies who were cursing the prison ( one said it was the arse hole of England) had gone to the regular visiting room with semi soft chairs set at weird angles, and a tea bar ( I presume). We were siphoned off from the ladies with jewellery smelling of exotic perfume, hugging stereo systems. Yep, you can hand in goods there!

�����After walking through another sentry box (that wasn't switched on) I was obliged to purchase expensive drinks and chocolate from a tricky machine. You had to decide what you wanted and press the button before the money could be rejected and waste more time. Not a machine for the faint hearted - you have to KNOW what you want.  ( I doubt prison staff use it then).

�����Finally the last door is open and we see Ray there.He was the only one out of 6 wearing a  green and hideous yellow boiler suit so he was quickly identified as the man who has been trying to clear his name for 20years from a jail within a jail. The other 6 were wearing a black and white uniform (over kill or what?) Ray is Someone I befriended a short while ago. He is an innocent man kept in a jail within a jail, sat on a metal park bench, with a partition between him and his visitors from elbows down.  Thankfully without glass, though there is a Closed visits room  in the jail within the jail. It's like Russian Dolls. You feel like you have suddenly checked into Hell, and what you hear confirms that is the nearest Death Row experience I and my friend have ever witnessed (and we have been around a lot of top security jails). It strikes me as the place that drives men so insane that they harm themselves as an activity - because they have nothing else to do. When they are damaged enough by constant torment from their jailers, (feel free to visualise Solitary on Devil's Island - Alcatraz etc) they hit rock bottom and have only one desire and that is to seek an exit from their torment in the only way possible.

�����Woodhill seems to have attracted media attention - none of it good. So when we were escorted back the not much visited Special Control Unit the officer asked me if We had been before. I replied no, but felt compelled to come as I had read so much about it.........'You know' says me, 'the deaths and neglect'. It's a blessing that the H.M.P. sheep are made of concrete - God help them if  they were real!

�����So if an inmate tells you that all they have to do all day is peer out of their bars and view the concrete sheep - believe him, and sigh with relief as Ray Gilbert cannot extend his view much beyond the card board furniture 'gold fish bowl' where he exists. It not difficult to believe that at one stage I asked him if he'd seen the film 'A Fish Called Wanda' - it was good to see him smile, then grin, then laugh! It was the feeling you get when a friend starts to emerge out of a coma perhaps. Pity Ray could not see the screw behind him jolt out of his Daily Star!

�����I suppose just getting in there was a miracle - given that my female friend was asked if she was Bruce Kent.................and these same people (with uniforms and killer dogs write prisoner reports?) You don't have to be a genius to work out why so many prisoners are a part of this corrupt clogged up system.

�����Anyone with a gate door - door gate - jail within a jail -  Evil within Evil -Russian Doll  mentality should go there as a past time. It's torturous, claustrophobic, a roomy card board tomb, food comes through a hole in the door, and torment comes in various forms. I could recommend it, but I don't know any High Court judges.

Karen Walsh

�����On 14TH March 2002, two of Ray's supporters travelled to visit him at HMP Woodhill. We were pleased to see that Ray was on good form- he'd had a visit from his new solicitors on the morning of the visit and was glad to know that they were enthusiastic about raising his case with the Criminal Cases Review Commission again. The solicitors-Stephensons-have expressed their willingness to work with Ray's supporters to help publicise both his renewed CCRC application and his pending parole review.

�����The parole review gives some indication of the problems Ray currently faces. None of the parole reports compiled so far make any recommendations for parole-all refer to the fact that he continues to maintain his innocence and "refuses to address risk factors and offending behaviour." Ray has always refused to co-operate in the parole process -stating that he doesn't want Cat C or open conditions-he will leave jail only when his innocence has been established. However,Ray's supporters and legal team have persuaded him that this review at least allows an opportunity to put the Parole Board on the spot- the successful appeal of Ray's co-defendant,John Kamara,and the consequent damage to the evidence against Ray-make the safety of Ray's conviction impossible to sustain. Given that Ray has been willing to address issues surrounding offending behaviour prior to his conviction in 1981,and given the fact that he is 6 years over tariff (having now served 21 year for a crime he didn't commit) the negative approach the reports compiled take towards the prospect of parole show clearly how miscarriages of justice can be further compounded by the decisions of the Parole Board. To give you an idea of what hostages are up against,in earlier review noted that Ray was not suitable for open conditions because "He has not yet undertaken offence focused work and has demonstrated …an unwillingness to plan for the future." Recent decisions in cases such as R v Parole Board exp Zulfikar (1995) Times 26 July DC and R v Secretary of State for the Home Department exp Lillycrop (1996) Times 13 December DC are supposed to have established that maintaining innocence is not an automatic barrier to release. The Parole Board time and again acts as if this case law doesn't exist. As to how Ray is supposed to plan for the future while being buried in the prison system with no prospect of release-maybe the Parole Board can make sense of it,but we can't !

     Both Ray and his supporters are optimistic about the chances of new reps to the CCRC succeeding-given both the issues raised by John Kamara's appeal,new expert evidence and issues around the trial judge's comments about the importance of aspects of the scene of crime evidence. What's needed at this stage is for co-ordination between those of us who've been involved in supporting Ray-and with this in mind, a public meeting will be held in Liverpool in May to raise the profile of the case and it is hoped that all Ray's supporters will attend and plan to work together more closely.

In the meantime-Ray Gilbert needs our support. Write to:

Ray Gilbert (H10111
HMP Woodhill
Tattenhoe Street
Milton Keynes
MK4 4DA