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Prisons - new material (66)

01 October 2007

Justice Delayed? Eamonn O'Neill. The Guardian G2 supplement 28.8.07, pp 4-9. Article on Ray Gilbert, who has served 22 years, ten years over his tariff, for the murder of John Suffield, a crime that he has consistently maintained that he did not commit. His view is shared by the father of the victim, and by his co-defendant, John Kamara, who has had his conviction quashed. Ray Gilbert has tirelessly campaigned for the overturning of this miscarriage of justice and it is widely held that the only reason he is still incarcerated is because he refuses to admit his guilt. This article concludes with the words of John Suffied's father who says: "[The] evidence should be looked at in detail...Nobody, least of all my family, wants an innocent man imprisoned."

Population in Custody: monthly tables. Ministry of Justice July 2007. http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/pop-in-custody-july2007.pdf

Face the Facts: prison does not work, Mark Oaten. Independent 8.8.07, p.31. Liberal Democrat MP, and their former home affairs spokesman, Oaten, begins with the obvious premise that the government's Victorian prison system isn't working and proposes a package of alternative measures. These include "a new national network of educational and vocational training centres, specialist treatment centres for the mentally ill and drug-addicted, and greater use of tough community sentences for those who don't pose a threat to society."

Prisons Statistics Scotland, 2006/07. Scottish Executive,
Http//www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/196743/0052707.pdf