Dignity.

 

       The British establishment are always spouting about how we are leaders in the civilised and democratic world. Apart from the imperialist policies abroad, racism here in these UK establishment institutions, there is the appalling treatment of those enmeshed in the UK state's loaded justice system, (Julian Assange), I use the word "justice" with reservations. Of all the wrongs and injustices in this patch of the planet, the prison system ranks among the worst. These institutions of intimidation and repression, lack any form of humanity, compassion our even human decency. they are an anachronism in any free and democratic society. Prison walls are symbols of oppression. 

          British jails have been inhumane, violent and degrading for years. Now other countries are noticing

                                             Image courtesy of Guardian

 Barlinnie prisoners still held in cells condemned 25 years ago

                                              Image courtesy of Herald Scotland.

      One such example from UK prison system, make up your own mind.

From Enough is Enough:

I didn’t know I was Harry Houdini
  26/11/2021
       Today I was taken from the cells of G-wing, Bristol prison to the City Hospital under a security escort. This was to detect any reoccurrence of cancer in my abdomen and pelvis. In the reception area of the prison, I had the usual strip search, and I was forced to change out of my own clothes into prison-issue clothes.
       This offended my dignity as even when I was being held in Wandsworth prison in London under “antiterrorist” conditions I could at least go to the hospital in my own clothes. Whilst I was waiting for the screws to finish the paperwork, I got a glance of my cover sheet at my file – “escape list” marked in red. I was shackled to a screw with an escort and another two and I was driven by four screws in an unmarked van to the radiology unit. Along the way and back, of course, I was a witness to the pathetic, belittling ,racist, misogynistic “chats” of the screws who consider themselves experts of all aspects of life. At the radiology unit there were discussions between the medical staff and screws with some referral to their superiors, as, without any foresight on the screws part, they hadn’t realised that I couldn’t be shackled inside the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine. Despite the MIR machine being within a sealed room with a single door, I was forced to wear a pair of plastic zip tight cuffs which were tightened so tight they cut into my wrists.
         Due to my loud protests and demands for them to be removed, the screws cut them off with difficulty and pain and placed a second pair almost no less tight on my hands. I was then bound like so inside the MRI in considerable pain and discomfort and in no point in time did the medical staff ask if I was ok or raise any issue of me being treated like this while being told to “be calm” by the screw who had put these cuffs on me and who had remained inside the procedure room. If you have ever been inside an MRI you will know that you are already confined inside an impossibly narrow tiny tube wrapped up in sensitive equipment whilst a torus of magnets whirls around you at deafening volume.
        Hardly an easy place to escape from at the best of times. To add an insult to this injury the MRI technician gave the “panic button” which is a kind of pad the patient squeezes to indicate that there is an emergency, not to me who was undergoing the test, but to the disgusting screw who had remained into the room to observe me. One of the screws waited outside the room and one other, for unknown reasons, was asked by the technician to attend INSIDE the adjacent imaging room where the scans were being processed and the technician acted. This final fact is the most angering since these screws are not even medical staff nor technicians but merely lock and unlock doors, shout and abuse the imprisoned every day. I am not writing this as a “victim of oppression” nor to “establish my rights”. I write this to denounce the situation and to explain to others what to expect and especially for all the other prisoners who confront cancer.
       It is this civilization that makes us all sick. Strength to all those prisoners who have dreams of freedom in their hearts!
Toby Shone
HMP Bristol

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Human Ingenuity.

      Man cons prison in to letting him walk free!! I found this amusing, you have to admire the ingenuity of the human species. Perhaps all prisoners should take courses in IT.

This from Mail Online:

       A serial fraudster managed to con prison guards into letting him walk free from jail by sending them emails from the ‘courts service’ demanding his release.
       Neil Moore, 28, set up a fake website and sent emails purporting to be from the courts service to trick Wandsworth Prison into thinking he had been freed on bail by a judge.
      However, the ‘consummate and practiced’ conman appeared to have a ‘change of heart’ just three days after his release and was re-arrested after informing his solicitor of his actions.
      Moore, of Ilford, north east London, had originally been jailed for an elaborate web of frauds which saw him posing as bank staff to dupe major organisations into handing over more than £1million.
      He pretended to be employed by RBS, Lloyds bank, and Bank of America to dupe companies into handing over money.
     Cambia Autos was conned out of £46,000 in November 2013, Thomas Global Exchange handed over £140,000 to Moore, TD Banking gave up $120,751, and Hogan and Vest was duped out of $739,439 in 2012 and 2013.
      Moore also targeted Volkswagen by posing as an employee of the Bank of New York in December 2013.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

FREEDOM'S VOICE WILL CREATE THE CRACKS IN ANY REPRESSION.

         Omar Ibrahim was given an eighteen months prison sentence for throwing a joke-shop smoke bomb at a protest, but although banged up, he is still trying to do what we all should be able to do, let our voice be heard. His blog, banged up for protesting, written from Wandsworth Prison is always worth a read.

 

        This article was submitted to national prison magazine Not Shut Up. The editor approved it for print but the Head of Education at HMP Wandsworth blocked its final publication.

      The winter is closing in but still the Arab Spring bursts through the concrete like some unstoppable rose, spreading seeds across the globe. Over there, across the Mediterranean, Syrian and Egyptian resistance reintensifies in the face of relentless oppression and tyranny. These are obvious police states that slaughter their citizenry with the contempt and brutality that only a state can wield. Russia has not had bloodshed from its police state but there are mass arrests and a sincere mistrust of the questionably elected Putin regime. I wonder how our system compares.

Continue Reading.

 ann arky's home.

A BUNCH OF COMEDIENNES.

        I like this little extract from Omar Ibrahim's blog. Omar is in Wansworth for protesting in London during the the March 26th. protests. His blog is called "Bang up for Protesting" and is well worth a read, also a show of solidarity and encouragement by comments would help him through is spell at her Majesty's pleasure.

         "--- There was chubby cheeked David in Brussels when it all went wrong for him. The great Sarko, another entertainer from France had a bit of a spat with him it seems. A French diplomat described Cameron as ‘a man who turns up to a wife swapping party without his wife’. David Cameron had legitimate demands for a level of fiscal autonomy, but he was out of the loop. If only David had been at dinner with Angela Merkel and Sarko the night before things may look better for him. The problem is he made a stupid decision a while ago and has no friendships in Europe. No one likes him and is very alone.

          You see David Cameron won Conservative Party support by appeasing a load of right-wing ultra nationalists in his own party. He did that by signing the party to an EU voting bloc that is replete with anti-semites, homophobes and ultra-nationalists from Eastern Europe. The kind of people who have been so alienated during Soviet times that a social democratic state would send them running for the home made weaponry. People raised on stories about the halcyon days of royal rule when pogroms kept the Jewish population low.---"

Read the full article HERE.

ann arky's blog.

A POST FROM PRISON.

          Recently I posted a statement from Omar Ibrahim, who was sent to Wandsworth prison for his part in the March 26th anti-cuts protest in London. Well, Omar hasn't been idle while in prison and has set up a blog which he hopes to update on a weekly basis, or better, if possible.

This week's post includes the prison gossip on the Pakistani Cricketer Celebrity Prisoners!

        You can support Omar and his blog HERE.

ann arky's home.