Prisons - new material (44)
01 January 2001
Zahid: failed by the prison system, Suresh Grover. Legal Action January 2001, pp6-8.
In March 2000 Zahid Mubarek was battered to death in his cell at Feltham Young Offenders Institute by his cellmate, a self-confessed racist, hours before he was due to be released. In this article Grover, chair of the National Civil Rights Movement and co-ordinator of the Mubarek Family Campaign, cautiously welcomes the formal investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality, but asks why the Mubarek family's demands for a public judicial inquiry have been ignored.
Andar Ki Larai [The struggle from Inside]. Campaign Against Racism in Prisons, Issue 2 (January) 2001, pp8.
The most recent issue of the newsletter contains a report from the public meeting at which the campaign was launched, and pieces on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Freedom and Justice Campaign for Samar and Jawad (who are appealing against their wrongful conviction for the 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and Balfour House).
Recent developments in prison law, Hamish Arnott & Simon Creighton. Legal Action, February 2001, pp10-14.
Update on the law relating to prisoners: "parole and lifers", "prison discipline", "close supervision centres, Category A and Escape List prisoners", "Sentence calculation", "Rights, privileges and communications".
Frankly, I'm appalled, Simon Hattenstone. Guardian 2.2.01.
Interview with chief inspector of prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, on the state of the UK's prisons.
Die Rote Hilfe, 4/2000, Nov/Dec 2000, C 2778 F, pp30, DM 3.50.
This issue of the bi-monthly civil liberties bulletin focuses on the conditions in detention, specifically in deportation prisons. It gives legal details of immigration detention in Germany (length, age, psychological pressure, conditions) as well as an outline of Project X in Lower Saxony, which was introduced "as a real alternative to detention", but in reality means the intimidation and exertion of psychological pressure on asylum seekers who cannot be deported due to lacking travel documents. Attention is also given to the export of Germany's model for isolation cells (used for RAF prisoners) to Turkey. Available from: Die Rote Hilfe e.V., Postfach 6444, 24125 Kiel, Tel/Fax: 0049-431-75141.
Parliamentary debates
HM Prison Chelmsford Commons 29.11.00 cols 256WH-262WH
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Lords 14.12.00 cols 483-486
HM Prison Blantyre House Lords 17.1.01 cols 1166-1193
Young Offenders (London) Commons 18.1.01 cols 627-634