THE DAILY EXPRESS NON-STORY
It is typical of the redtops and even the 'quality' Tory press to take cheap shots at prisoners and to generally bang the 'hang 'em, flog 'em' drum, but the Express have excelled themselves with the 'Scandal As Prisoners Claim £100m In Benefits' non-story. The article is laughable; so farcical we all should be rolling in the aisles in stitches, if it was not for the fact that the Express' readers just lap up this sort of disinformation as it panders to their ignorance and anti-prisoner prejudices.
A cursory glance at the article appears to show that the paper is claiming that this £100m is being paid in 'unemployment' and 'sickness benefits' to prisoners, but a closer look reveals that "over three years, the Ministry of Justice has paid out a total of £93.5million in “earnings” to convicted criminals", hidden in typical tabloid fashion deep in the article so you would just as likely miss it because your Express-reading blood would already be at boiling point.
So let's have a good look at this story. First off, this is hardly a 'revelation'. The Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme has been in place since 1995 and the £2.50 rate for those willing to work but unemployed because there are not enough jobs (a typical situation in local jails across the country) is the same now as it was then. As is the £3.25 'unemployment' rate. Both are paid to prisoners irrespective of whether they are 'convicted criminals' in the words of the Express or the 10% or so of prisoners at any one time on remand, and therefore technically innocent (though clearly not in the eyes of Donna Bowater, author of this tripe).
The IEP scheme was brought in in the wake of the Strangeways prisoners’ rebellion as a 'carrot and stick' control method [see: Are Prisoners Slaves?). Toe the line and work and you'll get rewarded, refuse to work and you get nothing. And just to keep the prisoners on their toes they would have to compete for a strictly limited number of jobs, there only being enough for a third of the prison population. Those god boys and girls will then get rewarded with more pay and more privileges, whereas those who do not acquiese get their pay rates reduced and earn fewer 'earned privileges'.
Now obviously there had to be a safety valve for those willing but unable to work through no fault of their own as there's not enough work to go round, hence the unemployed and sick rates. Since then participation in education is also paid under IEP, so the unemployed rate is paid to fewer and fewer prisoners - it would be interesting to find out exactly how many but we are sure that the figures are not centrally collated and therefore not open to a FOI question (being too expensive to ascertain and therefore excluded).
Back to the article:
"The jail benefits culture came to light when an inmate wrote to national prison newspaper Inside Time to find out how much he could claim." No it didn't. This sort of letter has been appearing in Inside Time since it was launched. What in fact appears to have happened is that somebody pointed out the letter to a Sunday Mercury reporter who wrote a non-story about it yesterday, the same sort of stupid outrage piece that the Express is now doing because someone at the Express happened to see the Sunday Mercury article and copied it.
"It was admitted that prisons where workshops are full allow inmates to claim £2.50 a week in unemployment benefits and the same in sick pay." "Inmates across the country can claim dole money if they are able to work but cannot find a job within the prison service." Both incorrect, the IEP sick rate (including those too old or infirmed to work) is £3.25 (a figure the Mercury at least managed to get right, its is not 'the dole' and one does not claim it. It is 'awarded' by the powers that be based upon your behaviour.
"Around 10,000 prisoners earn £4 a week on prison-run workshops while others work for external companies, such as Virgin Air where they repack headphones." Oh dear! Donna has obviously been reading the CAPS site but she can't even get the plagiarism right. £4 is the basic rate and few prisoners working in prison workshops are paid that any longer. The average appears to be somewhere around £8, higher in private prisons. Plus, most prisoners work in Administrative Tasks not prison workshops, as you would have read on the CAPS site.
Then we get the arrant hypocrisy of Dominic Grieve “It’s a reflection of its inability to provide purposeful work for all prisoners that it is now being obliged to make these payments when no work is being done.” The Tories brought the IEP scheme in, 4 years after the conclusion of the Woolf report, and back then there was even fewer prison workshop jobs unless you count the non-job of either sewing or unpicking mailbags, depending on which nick you were in. [1]
That the Tories want to double prison workshop provision if they get in is nothing to trumpet about either. The likelihood is that the new jobs will be exactly the same monotonous, low skill jobs that exist in prison nowadays, jobs that provide little 'purpose' and have little rehabilitation value. Unless of course one wants a job 'on the out' packing screws or greeting cards.
Then there is the Philip Davies rant: “It strikes me as being the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever heard. I always thought the criteria for receiving unemployment benefit is that you were available for work and you can’t be available for work if you’re in prison." It just goes to show you how ill-informed the average Tory MP really is.
"Taxpayers’ money is being wasted. I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life. The public will be absolutely incredulous that this could possibly even be happening. I just can’t even begin to believe it. You couldn’t make it up, and we wonder why we’re in so much debt.” Surely he means credulous, as in 'as credulous as I am'? The fact is that £100m is only 5% of the £2bn prison budget, a small price to pay to keep the lid on the prison system and not go back to the riots of the '70s and '80s one would have thought. It certainly would be interesting to hear his comments if a prison did go up in flames again?
And lets not even bother with the self-elected 'taxpayers’ leaders', who can't even get their sums right - 82,000 prisoners @ £2bn per year = £24,390 NOT £45,000.
Oh! And just in case you were wondering about how much this £100m means to the average prisoners here is a quick back-of-a-fag-packet calculation: [2]
82,000 x 1/3 x £2.50 x 3 x 52 = £10,660,000 at the IEP unemployment rate.
£93,500,000 - £10,660,000 = £82,840,000
£82,840,000 / (82,000 x 2/3) / 52 / 3 = £9.71 for a 32 hour week = 30p per hour.
[08/03/10]
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SPS FAULDHOUSE DEPOT TO CLOSE
News filtering out of the Scottish Prison Service is that SPS Industries and the Fauldhouse depot will have ceased to exist in their current format by April next year. All Industries staff will by then have been redeployed to other areas of the prison estate, and the work currently carried out at Fauldhouse will continue at individual establishments.
Replacing the stores will be a new National Training Facility which, according to the Project Information, is ", a bespoke facility is required to be built which replicates a typical prison accommodation unit setting" for delivering "training in incident management within a safe environment" that replicates "an authentic prison setting." i.e. riot training for Tornado Teams.
The "typical prison facility model within the identified area in SPS Central Stores, Fauldhouse", will consist of:
· Prisoner accommodation cells on two storeys;
· Stairways and gallery walkways for access/egress from those cells;
· Dining area and multi-function room area for prisoners;
· Staff desk, association area and access to cell area;
· Suite of offices to accommodate management;
· First aid room;
· Cleaners cupboard;
· Shower, toilet and changing facilities for male and female staff including DDA amenities;
· Kit store;
· Store room; and
· Training room with tea bar facilities.
The Prequalification Questionnaire for the project states "that all walls will be made from timber stud (with fair faced 19 mm plywood) while all stairways, walkways, balustrades and handrails shall be formed in steel and painted."
Construction of the replica cells in the old disused part of Fauldhouse was originally planned to be completed by the end of the summer but we now understand that it will be finished and operational by December this year. [08/11/09]
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THE CORONERS AND JUSTICE BILL
Peers are due to vote today on a bill to bring UK law into line with Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights outlawing forced labour. Currently there are no criminal statutes that explicitly outlaw involuntary servitude. The House of Lords will vote on the creation of two criminal offences when they debate the Coroners and Justice Bill: the holding of someone in servitude, punishable of up to 14 years in prison, and the subjecting of someone to forced labour, punishable of up to 7 years in prison.
Of course the UK is a signatory to both the ILO Convention on Forced Labour and the ECHR (with specific opt-outs) but both specifically allow for forced labour as part of 'normal civic obligations', military service, for conscientious objectors or in times of national emergency. The other area specifically excluded from all international forced labour conventions and law is in detention, be that in prison, immigration detention and those in detention "for the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts, or vagrants" [ECHR Article 5].
Now we do not wish to in any way take attention away from the plight of the thousands of people who are trafficked into the country and forced into involuntary servitude, those forced to labour in domestic servitude, in agriculture, construction, food processing and packaging, nursing, hospitality, or the restaurant trade. Nor do we want to diminish the seriousness of the crime being perpetuated against them.
Instead, we merely wish to point out that no one, whether they are exploited by relatives or employers who take away their passport and force them to work, if it is a people trafficker who forces them into servitude to pay off the 'debt' of their transportation or if it is the state forcing prisoners to work for the Prison Service or some private company to pay off their 'debt to society'/earn 'privileges' and peanuts in wages, and so 'progress their sentence', should be "held in slavery or servitude" or be "required to perform forced or compulsory labour." [26/10/09]
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