Penal Affairs Panel: News Issue 5 2010

Hello again to PAP News . The Penal Affairs Panel of the Unitarians wants you to know some of the concerns and the good news of the criminal justice system. In particular, we want to tell you what Unitarians are doing about those concerns and the good news.

Do tell us about your activities so we can pass the news to other Unitarians through the PAP News . Do print copies for your own meeting.

1. "Do Better Do Less" Report by Commission on English Prisons The final report of the inquiry commissioned by the Howard League was published at the end of 2009. The Commission, presided by Cherie Blair QC, came to radical conclusions including a significant reduction in the prison population with the closure of establishments, the replacement of short prison sentences with community-based "responses" and the scrapping of the NOMs and the centrally managed prison service. Cherie Blair wrote "Since early in the 1990s, England and Wales has been set on a course towards becoming a jurisdiction which punishes excessively, harshly and with little attention paid to.the impact on prison numbers. The result is. we now jail more of our population than almost any other country in western Europe, despite the fact that there is no evidence to say we are any more crime-prone than our neighbouring countries." See www.howardleague.org/do-better-do-less/

2. Employment Appeal Tribunal upholds Green beliefs A Mr Nicholson claimed he had been dismissed because of his "green" beliefs and the Employment Tribunal judge found his beliefs to be "philosophical". His dismissal was unlawful. The Appeal Tribunal has now stated that if a person could establish he held a philosophical belief based on science as opposed to religion, it should also be protected by Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003. See www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2009/0219090311.html

3. European Court of Human Rights cuts down "Stop and Search" In Gillian and Quinton v UK , the court found that the decision to apply the "stop and search" powers in the Terrorism Act 2000 to the Excel arms exhibition was unlawful. For the decision to be "expedient" rather than based on facts was not sufficient. There was also "a lack of temporal and geographical restraint on authorisations" which could be renewed after 28 days and applied to entire police areas. See the Human Rights Bulletin or www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2010/28.html

4. Failed Asylum Seekers unable to apply for driving licences The BBC reports that the Transport Minister has announced that only those persons granted permission to stay in the UK for 185 days or more will be eligible for UK driving licences. The change in the Rules was not debated. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8587223.stm

5. Blurring the Boundaries between Crime and Mental Health The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has issued a report warning of the convergence of justice and health. It points to the growth of the "forensic" mental health services, a new mental health treatment order with community sentences and the use of indeterminate prison sentences. In particular, the report is critical of the new mental disorder, the "Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder", on which patients, less than 400, some £60 million has been spent. See http://sn126w.snt126.mail.live.com/default.aspx?wa= wsignin1.0

6. Prison Inspectors Report on Yarl's Wood Detention Centre After an unannounced visit, Dame Anne Owers reported that force was used to separate children to split families before deportation. "Particularly troubling" was that 420 children had been detained in the previous six months of whom half had then been released back into the community. The detention of these children could be seen to be neither "exceptional nor necessary". The Guardian has also reported that three doctors from Yarl's Wood Centre are to be investigated by the GMC following numerous complaints of substandard medical care. See
http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmiprisons/docs/Yarls_Wood_2009_rps.pdf and www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/22/yarls-wood-doctors-investigation

7. Chief Inspectors call for Review of Indeterminate Sentences The Chief Inspector of Probation, Andrew Bridges, and the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers, have together called for the government to review the controversial policy of open-ended prison sentences. Dame Anne has said repeatedly that the surge of prisoners subject to the new sentences is flooding the prison system and now Mr. Bridges considers the probation service is overwhelmed. See www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmi-probation/docs/IPP_report_final_2-rps.pdf

8 Parliamentarians call for Counter-terrorism Laws to be Scrapped The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights recommends that all such legislation since September 2001 should be reviewed by Parliament as to whether it is necessary. The Committee accuses government ministers of making and repeating unjustified allegations over many years about threats of terrorism which have had a "deleterious effect" on the public's view about anti-terror laws. See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200910/jtselect/jtrights/86/8610.htm

And, finally, do read the latest PAP Issues Paper 11 "Illicit Drugs" and email your news for the PAP News to bruce_chilton@hotmail.com