Change is possible
Most of my time is taken up campaigning for criminal justice reform, especially within our prisons. Rather than tell people what to think, I try to influence how they think. I do this by sharing my experiences and perspective from both the negative and positive aspects of my life. However, in my spare time, I … Continue reading Sit-Down and Drop the Knife to Save a Life.
Once again we have an announcement from the UK government, over a weekend or bank holiday, with regards to our prisons. This heading and sub-heading coming from Bloomberg politics. 'U.K.’s Johnson Unveils $3 Billion Jail Plan to Ease Overcrowding' U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he plans to spend as much as 2.5 billion pounds … Continue reading Wrong answer.
In part one of Facts, fears and fables: Silent Battles, I had described my time in the two Approved Premises (AP) (one in Luton and one in Norwich) which I was made to reside in as part of my licence conditions during my first three months of release. I also discussed two of my relapses. In … Continue reading Facts, fears and fables: Silent Battles (2)
As you can see by the image I have included below, I am still, eagerly I must say, awaiting delivery of my copy of this excellent collection of poems and drawings by parents and children affected by imprisonment in the UK and abroad which has been edited by Lucy Baldwin & Ben Raikes. I'm fortunate, … Continue reading SEEN & HEARD
By David Breakspear Part two of a three-part series CW: graphic mentions of sexual harassment, voyeurism, and physical and mental abuse In the first instalment of this story I chronicled the sworn Affidavit of Corey Donaldson, a former immigrant inmate at a low security prison in Georgia at McRae C.I. Corey provided evidence of industrial-scale … Continue reading CORE CIVIC CAUGHT CONDUCTING SEX-BASED EXPERIMENTS UPON IMMIGRANTS WITH A SECOND IMMIGRANT WITNESS COMING FORWARD — The Norwich Radical
Allow your mind to visualise prison, if you can - even if for only the briefest of moments - as a chess board. You have two opposing sides, made up of many: labels? titles? names and so on, or even pieces? Within one arena, all going in different directions. Some more restricted than others, confined … Continue reading Gary Kasparov the learner driver!
At midnight tomorrow night - with no pomp and circumstance, no fan-fare, no appointment to be met, no paperwork to sign, not even a "see ya later" - my time as a service user, after many decades, of our criminal justice system comes to an end, as my time on licence from prison expires. One … Continue reading Facts, fears and fables: Silent Battles
I am not aware of how other, former, prisoners who were also once listeners, or even prisoners now, feel in respect of talking to someone else themselves. I always found it an awkward position to be in, especially as I was involved in the training of listeners as well. It never felt right to get … Continue reading Lost Inside!
For four decades, the U.S. has been engaged in a globally unprecedented experiment to make every part of its criminal justice system more expansive and more punitive. As a result, incarceration has become the nation’s default response to crime, with, for example, 70 percent of convictions resulting in confinement — far more than other developed nations with comparable … Continue reading RIKERS – An American Jail
Journey of a reformed man 