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PRISON JUSTICE DAY
Sunday 10th August
1:00pm to 3:00pm
HMP Styal
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 4HR
(nearest stations Wilmslow and Manchester Airport).
In memory of all prisoners who have died as a result of prison brutality and negligence, and in celebration of the life and work of Pauline Campbell, who died in May, after five years spent struggling for justice following the death of her daughter Sarah in HMP Styal.
Called by No More Prison.
Supported by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, 325 Magazine, Brighton Anarchist Black Cross, Campaign Against Prison Slavery, MOJUK, Professor Joe Sim and others.
Enquiries/further details:
pikiebub2000@yahoo.co.uk
There will also be a solidarity demonstration organised by London FRFI at Holloway prison at 12 noon. For more information telephone: 020 7837 1688.
'SUPER-COMPLAINT' LAUNCHED ABOUT PRISONER PHONE CALL RATES
The National Consumers Council (NCC) have launched a so-called 'Super-Complaint' with Ofcom about the extortionate rates charged to prisoners by BT in England and Wales and Siemens in Scotland.
For calls to land line phones there is a minimum charge of 10p for 55 seconds, then prisoners are charged 1p for every additional 5.5 seconds. This compares with 40p for the first 20 minutes from BT pay phones. There are no peak or off-peak tariffs. Calls to mobiles from jails cost 19p to 63p a minute. [24/06/08]
NEW HEAD OF SPS INDUSTRIES
The latest recipient of the poisoned chalice appears to be one Jim Farish, ex-acting Governor of Dumfries Young Offenders Institution. What ever happened to that Ironside chappie?. [See] It seems that he has made the better career move [given the upheaval in SPS Industries - more on that in the near future!] of taking on the governorship of HMP Edinburgh.
PRISON CAMPAIGNER PAULINE CAMPBELL FOUND DEAD NEXT TO DAUGHTER'S GRAVE
It is with great sadness that CAPS learnt that prison campaigner Pauline Campbell has died. She was found early this morning [15/05/08] beside the grave of her daughter Sarah at Malpas in Cheshire.
Sarah, Pauline's 18-year-old daugher, died three days before her 19th birthday, at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester from an overdose of anti-depressants soon after she arrived in Styal women's prison in January 2003, the third of six women to die at HMP Styal over a 12 month period there.
GORDON BROWN VETOES PRISONERS'
4P PER HOUR PAY RISE
Political expediency has resulted controversy over an 11th hour intervention from Gordon Brown resulting to the Prison Service Management Board (PSMB) having to withdraw a planned increase in prisoners' pay rates, the first since the Incentives & Earned Privileges Scheme (IEP) was introduced in 1995. [30/04/08]
RICKY TOMLINSON
[Come on, you know who he is - he's that popular actor who's appeared in Brookside, Cracker, The Royal Family and Mike Bassett: England Manager. He was also known in a previous life as one half of the Shrewsbury Two.]
Q: What is the worst job you've ever done?
A: Winding cassette tapes in prison.
[The Guardian Weekend, April 26 2008]
BBC HIGHLIGHTS PRISONER'S WAGES ISSUE
In response to David Cameron's latest attempt to steal Labour's thunder and introduce the Tories' own plans to expand the Prison-Industrial Complex, the BBC have picked up on the ludicrous nature of his suggestion that prisoners use their paltry wages earned through prison work to compensate the victims of their crimes. [See] Clearly the man does not have the first idea about the day-to-day realities of existence in the British prison system. [04/03/08]
Just what is happening at SPS Industries? Our sources tell us that Paula Arnold, the woman responsible for the day to day running of that enterprise, is off to a new job starting some time in April. As we understand it, the powers that be have asked her stand down as Deputy Head of Prison Industries and to conduct a full review of SPS Industries itself. This review will almost certainly result in a radical restructuring of the SPS Industries set-up and involve the long mooted demise of the Central Stores at Fauldhouse. [29/02/08]
"AS CHEAP AS CHIPS"
It seems that the senior managers in SPS Industries are more than a little contemptuous about their roles in the great machine of the UK Prison-Industrial Complex and in particular about the efforts of the poor inmates that the machine chews up and spits out with little or no 'value-added' skills to show for their bout of involuntary servitude. These fine upstanding ladies and gentlemen regularly refer to the products that they push as being "as cheap as chips".
We here at CAPS have been wondering if this is one of the lines that their sales [misspell that word and spelllcheck will offer you sleaze by way of correction] people use when they are cold-calling customers...."Blah blah...good workers...blah...no sick pay...desperate for the few crumbs we offer...blah blah...and the bottom lines is we pay them so little that the products that we are offering you are priced so competitively that they are as cheap as chips ." [24/02/08]
TONY SIMPSON LEAVES THE SINKING SHIP
Tony Simpson head of SPS Industries, who we understand has been more than a little bit unhappy about the adverse publicity that his job has been attracting recently has finally abandoned ship like the proverbial.....to become the main man at the new prison being built at Addiewell, West Lothian. HMP Addiewell will be the third and latest PPP prison to be built in Scotland. The 25-years contract between SPS and Addiewell Prison Limited, jointly owned by multinational prison profiteers Sodehexo [in the guise of UK Detention Services], Royal Bank Project Investement Services Ltd. & Interserve PFI 2005 Ltd. for the construction of a prison with 700 prisoner places. This will take the proportion of prisoners in private prisons in Scotland to over 20%.
We understand that Tony Simpson's place will be taken by Nigel Ironside, currently Governor of HMP Dumfries. Does he really know what he's letting himself in for? [24/02/04]
NEW BIG ISSUE SCOTLAND ARTICLE
Another article has recently appeared in the Big Issue Scotland [issue dated 23rd November?] about the on-going Airsprung Beds saga [see].
A "duff deal" between a bed-making firm and a leading public sector body came under scrutiny this week after the government was accused of misspending thousands of pounds of tax-payers' money. The Scottish Prison Service was accused of "subsiding" Airsprung beds, a company based in Wiltshire, to the tune of £15,000 as part of deal where beds are manufactured in Shotts maximum-security prison, near Lanarkshire.
WOMEN IN PRISON MAGAZINE
The October 2007 issue of Women In Prison magazine features a small article on CAPS. Women In Prison is a quarterly magazine issued by the Women In Prison (WIP) organisation free to women prisoners. WIP is a charity working with women at risk of going to prison, in prison and after release to promote their resettlement, personal development, education and training.
They also campaign to educate the public and policy makers about women in the criminal justice system and we promote alternatives to custody.
MORE COMPANIES DITCH THEIR CONTRACTS WITH SPS INDUSTRIES
Due to the continued bad publicity that having slave labour contracts with SPS Industries seems to bring on private companies, a number of these firms have recently cut their losses and ran. We understand that the following companies have now ceased to deal with SPS Industries :
BISON SAFETY SYSTEMS
CHALLENGE FENCING
HILLHOUT LTD
LOMAX MOBILITY &
MARTEC ENGINEERING, GLASGOW. [11/07]
SPS INDUSTRIES AND THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPERING FSC ACCREDITATION
It has come to our notice that SPS Industries are continuing to claim that they have Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Accreditation for the wood that they use to produce their Athol range of garden furniture. [see their on-line catalogue] In fact SPS's FSC accreditation lapsed almost a year ago. We at CAPS wonder if the firms such as KDM International and Champfleurie Estate know of this interesting little omission? [07/07]
UPDATE:
We have just received a copy of the nice new embossed upmarket catalogue in regal purple [dated 09/07] for the Athol Range of "Inspirational Garden Furniture" and, despite the loss of the FSC Accreditation and having to remove the FSC logo from the catalogue, SPS still claim "We are committed to producing our product range from timber from well managed and sustainable forests."
We here at CAPS are forced to ask how SPS Industries know whether the timber they purchase is from their suppliers is from sustainable sources? Do they actually ask for the relevant certification? And how did SPS Industries come to loose their FSC Accreditation? Was it simply through negligence in failing to renew an expired accreditation or was it something more serious than that? Maybe SPS Industries failed to comply with an audit of their status or maybe they failed to fulfil some other duty necessary to maintain their accreditation status? Why not try contacting SPS Industries directly and let us know if you have any success in dragging any useful information out of them.
We also received a copy of their latest price list dated 14/08/07. It is interesting to note that SPS Industries still claim on that that they "can supply FSC Products" but have removed the "Under Chain Of Custody Certificate No. SGS-CoC-0247" as appeared on the previous price list. [10/07]
ARE THOSE NAUGHTY PEOPLE AT SPS INDUSTRIES AT IT AGAIN?
CAPS on occasion has applied to SPS Industries under the Freedom Of Information Act to try and wheedle out the disturbing facts behind the lucrative contracts, lucrative that is for the private companies not for the Scottish taxpayer, that continue to exploit the cheap captive labour force held in Scottish prisons. Now we realise that we are not exactly SPS' favourite organisation and fully understand their reluctance to be particularly forthcoming with the information we seek, particularly as this can lead to SPS Industries losing contracts from the undesirable publicity that can follow. But our latest round of FOI enquiries about their contract with Airsprung Beds has produced a particularly lethargic and mealy-mouth set of responses. We are beginning to think that they may have something to hide. See what you think .
GLENEAGLES HOTEL CANCEL CONTRACT
Yet another company that up till now has been making a pretty penny exploiting the slave labour of Scottish prisoners has pulled out of its contract with SPS Industries due to adverse publicity. GLENEAGLES HOTEL, recently featured as one of CAPS Companies of the Month, has just decided that its corporate image is more important to it than the profits to be made using the cheap labour provided by the inmates of HMP Low Moss to make its bespoke laundry bags. As SPS Industries is currently undergoing, as we understand it, an extensive review of its future, this cancelled contract could be yet another nail in its coffin. [05/07]
BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY NOW OPPOSES PRISON LABOUR!
An article entitled "Prisoners Used As Cheap Labour" dated 14th May on the BNP website appears to signal the far right coming on board the prison labour abolition bandwagon. Although we here at CAPS are sure the tone of their article is more 'hang 'em and flog 'em' than prisoner welfare or class solidarity lead.
Convicts, some of whom have been convicted of violent crimes such as attempted murder, are being employed to maintain Britain's railways.
CAPS ARTICLE IN THE 'INDEPENDENT MONITOR' MAY 2007
The Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards have published an article in their May 2007 issue of the Independent Monitor by CAPS' very own Joe Black putting our "controversial view of the incentives and earned privileges scheme". Below is the text of that article.
This year sees the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, with a collective bout of mutual backslapping. However there are voices off reminding the celebrants that there are still millions of men, women and children around the world today forced to lead lives as slaves...
GUARDIAN LETTER
Here is the text of a heavily edited letter as it appeared in the March 7th edition of The Guardian:
While acknowledging the exploitation of migrant labour and the appalling plight of sex-trafficked women and children, there is another section of the population who are, in effect, modern-day slaves - prisoners. This government and the previous Tory one have been far from negligent in their legislation when it comes to the exploitation of this captive work force. With the introduction of the incentives and earned privileges scheme and the 1991 prison rules, prisoners are now forced to work for pennies an hour or face the removal of "privileges" and docking of the "pay" that is often their only source of everyday essentials like toothpaste, stamps and phone cards. And where is the only place prisoners can spend their cash? The prison canteen/shop - the modern-day equivalent of the company store.
[Unfortunately it loses some of the meaning by missing out "a feature of peonage or indentured slavery of the past" from the end of the last sentence and not having Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme and Prison Rules capitalised.]
THE BIG ISSUE SCOTLAND
The Big Issue Scotland are publishing an item in Issue 616 February 1st - 7th on the state of prison labour in Scotland, prompted by a letter from a current prisoner to the paper. In it he complained that he was frustrated and depressed at not getting any real training, and that he felt he was only there to make profits for the companies that use these prison labour schemes. We understand that there will probably be a follow up article in a later issue. [31/01/07]
Here's the text of the article by Kirsty Taylor for those of you who are not regular Big Issue Scotland readers:
The cycle of re-offending in Britain’s crisis-stricken prison system is being worsened by “slave labour” practices in jails.
Campaigners criticised the Scottish Prison Service for producing goods at low costs for profitable private companies ranging from bed manufacturers to Highland G8 getaway, Gleneagles Hotel.