Johnny Cash: The Story of Folsom Prison

On BBC Four last night and available to watch for the next six days only via BBCiplayer

Documentary which explores the most important day in the career of the legendary Johnny Cash. Cash's concert at Folsom State Prison in California in January 1968 touched a raw nerve in the American psyche and made him a national hero at a troubled time in American history.

Strongly recommended

UPDATE: For those of you who missed the film here is a clip from YouTube

Christina Pantazis Talk on Nation States and Social Harm - Wednesday 2nd December 2009 at UWE All Welcome

Department of Sociology & Criminology - Open Research Seminar
Wednesday 2nd December 2009

University of the West of England, Bristol

Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY

1.30pm in Room 3D07

Christina Pantazis
(School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol)

Nation States and Social Harm: Resisting the Hegemony of 'TINA'

Christina is one of the founders of the Social Harm school who seek to move our focus away from state defined concepts of 'crime' onto what Steven Box had described as those behaviours which objectively and avoidably cause us the most harm, injury, and suffering’.

Her paper will provide an introduction to social harm theory and challenge the assertion made by Margaret Thatcher that 'there is no alternative' to global capitalism. By adopting a social harm perspective it compares the nature and levels of social harm across different state formations. The UK and US are compared with corporatist and social democratic nations; by doing this we are able to identify more humane forms of capitalist formations operating within the constraints of contemporary globalisation.

All Welcome

Graduation

The last couple of days I have been attending the graduation ceremony for last year's students at UWE. It was the first time I had attended one, having chosen to get my degrees by post. Felt kind of weird parading around in fancy dress but was great to see last years crew and share their big day with them and their parents. I have been promised that I will be sent photos by a few and will post them up when (and if) they arrive.

I was really surprised that even in these difficult times the majority had gone on to 'graduate' jobs or higher degrees. Even more surprising how many were in fields directly related to criminology. Hopefully some of the critical ways of thinking will have stuck and they will question lots.

Update A couple of pictures have been sent through. Hoping for more







and some more

Loic Wacquant on Radio 4's Thinking aloud

Loic Wacquant was a recent guest of Laurie Taylor on his excellent Thinking Aloud programme on Radio Four. Loic links the expansion of prisons in the US and UK with the decline in the welfare state and warns of the consequences.

You can listen to the programme here

The disgrace of Britain's jails

The Independent on Sunday ran these stories on England's prisons last Sunday. (Click headline for full story)

The disgrace of Britain's jails: Institutions short-change inmates and society
Britain's prison system is being "brought to its knees", according to penal reform experts responding to a damning new report obtained by The Independent on Sunday. The soaring prison population, consistently high re-offending rates and increasing numbers of people on short sentences highlighted in the Prison Reform Trust's dossier have produced a system that is "not fit for purpose", they say.

The alarming findings come at a time when the number of offences recorded by police has fallen, as has the number of people found guilty in the courts. The report's evidence will heap pressure on the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, already under fire for his stewardship of the penal system.

Juliet Lyon: Our prison-building binge is a badge of national shame
The fevered rate of prison building, at a cost of £170,000 per place, is now set to propel the UK past most of our Eastern European neighbours for prison capacity. Overuse of custody has become a badge of political toughness rather than a matter for national shame.

With no crime wave to fuel it, how has this addiction to imprisonment taken hold so fast? According to a Ministry of Justice review, around 70 per cent of the increase in demand for prison places between 1995 and 2005 arose due to changes in custody rates and increased sentence length. A welter of criminal justice Acts, the creation of thousands of new offences and a raft of mandatory minimum penalties have all taken their toll.

Prose and Cons : New Plays by Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners

Friday 4th December – 7pm, Saturday 5th December – 2:30pm

A fantastic series of script-in-hand readings from Koestler Award winning plays. Performed by actors from Synergy Theatre Project and Clean Break, the readings will showcase the best up and coming writing talent in the UK prison system today. Blue Room, Spirit Level, Royal Festival Hall

Tickets are £5, with a 50% discount for concessions (limited number) Please book through Southbank Centre Box Office on 0844 875 0073 or their website

Landmark book shows how to legalise drugs

After the war on drugs: Blueprint for Regulation from Transform on Vimeo.

There is growing recognition globally that the prohibition of drugs is a counterproductive failure. However, a major barrier to drug law reform has been fear of the unknown – what could a post-prohibition regime look like? In answering that question, Blueprint demonstrates that legally regulating drugs is not a step into the unknown, but a tried and tested approach to control drug production, supply and use.

The book is available as a freedown load here (7.7mb)

I strongly recommend it.

November 13th – Eighth Anniversary Of 'Liberation' Of Afghanistan

Join Bristol Stop The War Coalition supporters on the Centre (opposite the Hippodrome) from 5pm to 6pm on Friday 13th December to mark the eighth anniversary of the 'liberation' of Afghanistan by the USA and Britain. Bring banners, placards & friends.

Eight years on from November 2001, British & American troops still occupy Afghanistan and are being met by stronger resistance than ever. British casualties this year will be the highest ever. Many thousands of Afghans have died as the USA furthers its interests in the area. Pakistan has been de-stabilised. After a fraudulent election, the Afghan people have a corrupt and weak government which has no support in large parts of the country.

In Britain, the government is in disarray. Senior political and military figures openly question the purpose of being in Afghanistan. Gordon Brown's justifications for being there become lamer and lamer by the day.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton faces court-martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan. Other soldiers and their families are increasingly prepared to speak out against this war.

Today the Independent called for withdrawal of British troops.

An opinion poll published today shows that well over 60% of people think the war is unwinnable and British troops should be brought home.

Join us on The Centre on November 13th to add your voice to the call for occupying troops to leave Afghanistan and for the Afghan people to have the opportunity to determine their own future free from foreign interference.

For further information email bristolstopwar@hotmail.com

Drugs and the BNP: introducing Information is Beautiful

.

Really interesting new datablog from the Guardian launches with some interesting data on BNP membership and the dangerousness of various legal and illegal drugs

Well worth a visit

Yarl's Wood Blockader Imprisoned

Zelda Jeffers appeared at Bedford Magistrates Court on Monday November 2nd. She was sentenced to 16 days in prison for refusing to pay a fine of £450 for her part in blockading Yarlswood Immigration Detention Centre on the day of a charter flight to Nigeria. The joint charter flight that was meant to carry several families to Lagos via Dublin on July 30th this year was delayed for several hours due to the blockade by the Stop Deportation Network and deportees'refusing to board the plane.

Around 1:30pm, as the Yarl's Wood deportees were being put on the coaches to be taken to the airport, supporters and campaigners from the Stop Deportation Network started a demonstration outside, blocking the only way out of the centre. The protest lasted until about 4:30pm, when it was removed by police and the coaches left immediately afterwards. Zelda was arrested while sitting in the road to try and stop the coaches leaving.

Zelda has been sent to HMP Peterborough.

Letters of solidarity either direct to Zelda Jeffers, HMP Peterborough, Saville Road, Westfield, Peterborough PE3 7PD or via London Catholic Worker whom Zelda is a member of at London Catholic Worker, 16 De Beauvoir Road, London N1 5SU or by e-mail to londoncatholicworker[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk

Why write to a killer on death row?

Saw this article in the Times

Nearly 3,000 Britons, mostly female, are penpals with men awaiting execution in the US. Our writer finds out what drives them and why some marry murderers

When you imagine women writing to murderers on death row it is difficult not to think of Catherine Tate’s tragi-comic figure in her wedding dress preparing to tie the knot with a doomed penpal. What sort of weird, vicarious reason, you wonder, drives them do it? But when you meet someone who has done it, and she describes attending the execution of an inmate who was afraid of dying alone, all such thoughts seem terribly smug and cheap.

Jenny is a young-looking, 50-year-old secretary from Staffordshire, a mother of three with two grandchildren. Jenny is not her real name: like many correspondents, she keeps her pastime a secret believing her friends wouldn’t understand. In 1999, she began writing to condemned convicts in the US after reading an article on prison pen friends in a magazine. One of the men to whom she wrote had been found guilty of murdering an elderly person in Texas, a crime that he always denied. To protect Jenny’s identity, we will call him John.

The rest of the article can be read here

See also World coalition against the death penalty

Five for a penny (plus £2.75p postage)

Five highly recommended books which should be in the library of all critical criminologists. All are great reads.

Each one is available second hand on Amazon marketplace for 1p. You have to pay a further £2.75 p&p but given the size of a couple of these that is not bad.

1. Steven Box
Power, Crime and Mystification

One of the classics of radical criminology - a compelling account of how power and powerlessness operate within the criminal justice system.

•Paperback: 272 pages
•Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (24 Nov 1983)

2. Prue Stevenson & Una Padel
Insiders: Women's Experience of Prison

Gives voice to women incarcerated in Britain

•Paperback: 224 pages
•Publisher: Virago Press Ltd (14 April 1988)

3. Ronnie Thompson
Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer

'My name is Ronnie Thompson. Being a prison officer was something I used to be proud of. I soon realised the truth of what its like working as a screw, though.It's afucking headache. Corruption, danger, violence. Welcome to my world.'

•Paperback: 384 pages
•Publisher: Headline Review (24 Jul 2008)

4. Nelson Mandela
A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

The story of a convicted Terrorist

•Paperback: 784 pages
•Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (12 Oct 1995)

5. Roger Graef
Living Dangerously: Young Offenders in Their Own Words

The author looks at the experiences of a group of young offenders on a probation programme in Britain, looking at individuals, the crimes they have committed, their circumstances and the problems they face.

•Hardcover: 272 pages
•Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (4 Jan 1993)

For all of these there are a number of 1p copies but these can sell out.

Happy reading

The danger of a loose Nutt

Back in July I blogged about my trip to London to hear David Nutt deliver the Eve Saville Lecture at the excellent Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Last week an edited version of his paper Estimating drug harms: a risky business was published.

David is a scientist not a politician and much of his work has been about identifying the harms associated with various drugs and other activities. His research shows that most illegal drugs are less harmful than legal drugs and other activities. The fact that horse riding is more dangerous than taking ecstasy and smoking cannabis is far less likely to kill you than wine or beer is an inconvenient truth for a government that whilst supporting the alcohol industry promotes the criminalisation of less harmful drugs on the basis of risk. The chart below produced by Nutt compares the harmfulness of legal and illegal drugs:


This shows clearly that the claim that drug classification is anything to with harm is nonsense.




Despite having demonstrated the nonsense of drug policy Nutt was appointed as Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) effectively making the Government's chief advisor on drug policy. Not surprisingly Nutt tried to advise the Government to move towards an evidence based policy and to sort out the mess of the classification system. This was too much for Home Secretary Alan Johnson who following the publication of the Eve Saville Lecture last week sacked Nutt.



Much though I respect David Nutt I thought he was wrong as the classification system needs abolishing not reforming. This case has been made powerfully by Steve Rolles in an article The ABC of UK drug classification - not fit for purpose (pages 7-9). Essentially classification links criminal sanctions to 'harmfulness'. This presumes that criminal justice is the most appropriate method for managing drugs potential harm. This approach has clearly failed with drug use increasing, availability widening, and price falling since it was introduced. It has also seen incentives on producers to produce stronger products and dealers to mix all sort of (often dangerous) rubbish with the product.

I suspect that although Nutt was an irritant to Government whilst he was an advisor, insisting on telling them truths they really didn't want to hear he will be a more substantial critic now he has been sacked. Freed from the ACMD and its role in the classification system he will now be able to look at wider drug policy and use his expertise to critique drug policy in far more detail. His sacking is likely to prove a massive mistake for government.

UPDATE
Two other members of the AMCD have resigned in protest at Nutt's sacking

FURTHER UPDATE
there is a petition which can be signed up to on the Prime Minister's web
site - you can sign it here

It says:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Re-instate Professor David Nutt On 30 October 2009 the Home Secretary sacked the Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Professor Nutt has expressed politically unpopular opinions such as -

Alcohol ranks as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine,
barbiturates and methadone. Tobacco is ranked ninth"

and

Cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14
and 18 respectively."

Drug policy should be based on science not hysteria. Scientists
expressing their honestly held expert opinions should not find
themselves in fear of losing their jobs.

Professor Nutt should be re-instated immediate

Environmental Justice Public Seminar - Wednesday, 11th November, 1.30 - 4.30 pm

‘Environmental Justice’ refers to the human right to a healthy and safe environment, a fair share of natural resources and access to environmental information and participation in environmental decision-making. Social movement campaigns for environmental justice usually focus on the inequitable environmental burdens borne by poor, black and other disadvantaged groups.

This seminar looks at this issue at a local and global level, from NGO, activist and academic perspectives and will be of interest to all those working towards social justice.

This event is open to the public. FFl or to reserve a place, email: karen.bell@bristol.ac.uk.

Speakers:

Cristian Domínguez, National Secretary of Environment and Resources, United Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers Union


Professor Malcolm Eames, Low Carbon Research Institute, Cardiff University



Judy Ling Wong, Director, Black Environment Network, UK




Hosted by University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies, Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice

Location: Room LT1, 3 - 5, Woodland Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1TB

Backgounds of Speakers:
Cristian Domínguez, has been at the forefront of environmental justice campaigns in Bolivia, opposing water privatisation and working for the nationalisation of natural resources. The organisation he represents, the CSUTCB, is one of the main social movement organisations which brought president Evo Morales to power.

Professor Eames has participated in and led research and consultancy projects for a wide range of agencies including: DTI, DETR, UK Cabinet Office, Environment Agency, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the European Commission. In 2004, he produced a report on environmental inequalities in the UK which has underpinned the current UK Framework and Strategy for Sustainable Development.

Judy Ling Wong has an international reputation as a pioneer in the field of black and minority ethnic participation in the built and natural environment. She works on urban design, identity, health, employment, and access to the countryside and urban green spaces. The groundbreaking methodology developed by BEN to engage urban-based ethnic minorities has been very influential in many areas of mainstream policy.

Michael Moore on Norway

Winston Churchill when Home Secretary in 1910 told the House of Commons

The treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of civilization of any country.

This short Michael Moore film on Norway suggests it is a very civilised country

Drugs Kill (unnecessarily?)

Two press stories caught my eye this week. Both involved the tragic deaths of two young women.

The first one concerned the mother of 20 year old Haniska Pett, a regular recreational user of cocaine who died following use of the drug earlier this year, who is to star in a police video advertising the dangers of drugs. The inquest into Haniska's death was clear that it was not cocaine that killed her but the combination of the various substances (including MDMA, MDA, and BZP) it was cut with. Although tragic deaths like this are used to justify the prohibition of drugs like cocaine and the associated war on drugs by law enforcement agencies they also highlight how that very prohibition, by placing the control of the production, distribution and retailing of these products in the hands of criminals inevitably results in the coke sold on the street being far more dangerous due to it being cut with all sorts of much more harmful products. If Haniska had been able to purchase her cocaine from a local chemist she may well still be alive.

The second story also involved a drug death. Sixteen year old Rhona Tavener sadly died after a heavy drinking session. Alcohol is a legal substance manufactured, distributed and retailed by some of Britain's most successful and profitable companies. It is aggressively marketed, particularly at younger people and the industry has successfully persuaded the government to adopt policies designed to maximise sales rather than to promote public health. It is likely that the alcohol industry and the government are directly responsible for some alcohol deaths.

Haniska's death was recorded as 'death by misadventure' by the coroner whilst Rhona's death was classified as an 'accident'. David Nutt did some research on the relative harm of Alcohol and Ecstasy. His findings are interesting.

Deaths every year Alcohol = 22,000 Ecstasy = 10;

It is clear that although illegal drugs do kill people alcohol is a massively bigger killer.

Climate Camp Exhibition NOW ON at the Arnolfini

Tues 13 OCT - Sun 25 OCT, 10 - 6pm: the Climate Camp mobile exhibition is displayed big time in the main Gallery 3 as part of C Words: Climate, Carbon, Capital, Culture.

Climate Camp's fantastic exhibition is displayed for one week before and one week after the Great Climate Swoop on Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station (Sat 17 OCT). Come and see it in an unusual context, along with the rest of the C Words exhibition and season of events on climate change...

More details from http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/416

On the piss or taking the piss

In response to a news story of Morrison's refusing to sell wine to a woman in her fifties in case her 17 daughter drinks it a frustrated supermarket customer posted this on the Guardian's Comment is Free website:

I get asked for ID a lot - I'm 27 - and it makes me really mad. I do look younger than my age but more often than not the checkout assistant is about 16, which I find really annoying. It happened in Sainsbury's last week - a 16 year old kid asking me for ID. I told him I was 27 and had been legally allowed to drink for almost a decade. I told him I had a degree and I was on my way back to my own home after a hard day at work (hoping) to have a relaxing glass of wine with my girlfriend in front of the TV. He just sat there shaking his head. I called my girlfriend (also 27) over because she had her driving license on her and he still refused to serve us in case she gave the alcohol to me when we left the shop. The people who were in the queue behind me were saying tutting and saying things like, 'You should be flattered,' and I was thinking 'FUCK OFF!' I'm 27 years old and all I want is a glass of wine and this fucking school kid won't let me have one!

Alcohol is a serious matter. Over recent years we have seen a public health epidemic as this graph showing the doubling of alcohol deaths since the early 1990s.

Alcohol-related death rates by sex, United Kingdom, 1991-2007 (Source: National Statistics 2009)

So is being hassled for ID even into old age a price worth paying to reduce alcohol deaths? Not at all!! It is a diversion intended to distract our attention from the real problem. We know how to reduce alcohol harm. There is a significant body of scientific evidence which clearly shows that the harm caused by alcohol is directed related to its availability which itself is related to primarily price but also licencing hours.

The Government knows this and has had it spelt out to them by the Chief Medical Officer in his 2009 Annual Report.

Quite simply, England is drinking far too much. England has an alcohol problem. Alcohol is not simply a problem for the minority who are dependent on it - it is a problem for everybody … There is a clear relationship between price and consumption of alcohol … Price increases generally reduce heavy drinkers' consumption by a greater proportion than they reduce moderate drinkers' consumption.

Simple really, but not according to the alcohol industry. They have the ear of government and have, without any evidence, argued that their is no relationship between price and consumption. (Interestingly they tend to ignore this conclusion when promoting their drugs!!) For producers and retailers of alcohol know their profits come from heavy drinkers. The old lady having the occasional sherry is insignificant when compared to the binge drinking teenager.

The Government however realise that if they want to help their drink pushing friends by reducing taxation (and hence the price) of alcohol and removing restrictions on the hours of sales then some busybodies (like doctors) may raise concerns at the dramatic damage done to tens of thousands of peoples health. So they have to do something. So supermarkets push cheap alcohol, (including products clearly aimed at any age drinkers), government deregulate and grandad gets challenged for his ID. Those who say its silly get accused of promoting excessive and underage drinking whilst the alcohol industry enjoys bumper profits and an avoidable public health epidemic continues.

PS Much though it sticks in my throat credit must be given to the Conservative Party for addressing this issue at their latest conference and promising action.

However call me a cynic but I suspect that any Conservative government will turn out just as much a friend of alcohol pushers as New Labour has been.