Letters

Founded 1980

Chair:

Secretary:

Treasurer:

Graham Smith

Jan Thompson

Graham Mumby-Croft

Issue 79 Autumn 2018

The following is a contribution from my dear friend Bob Duncan to who I owe a great debt of gratitude not only for this contribution but also for an act of kindness to me when I was at a low ebb in my life. He continues to make my life easier by sharing, with us all, the contacts and experiences he enjoys with the broad spectrum of his acquaintances, friends and former colleagues.

Dear all

I was privileged to be invited to ‘A Service of Thanksgiving for the 175th Anniversary of HMP Pentonville’ in March this year at St Paul’s Cathedral. The wife of one of the staﬀ was a member of the Epping Forest Scottish Pipers Band, so we were entertained to highland music on the forecourt of the Cathedral prior to the service, as the Cathedral was being security checked by the police as Her Royal Highness Princess

Anne was to be in attendance.

This was also thoroughly enjoyed by the usual tourist’s visiting London. Staﬀ from Pentonville were dressed in Number 1 uniform (sadly no longer issued!) and looked very impressive. So many friends to meet up with, it had a kind of carnival atmosphere about it. One guest (I had been advised in advance of the VIP’s attending) was Trevor Brooking who was of particular interest to me (he was with the Butler Trust Group). Enid’s grandson is an ardent West Ham supporter like his father, and was keen to get his autograph for his West Ham Centenary book. Trevor obliged with his usual charm and grace, and I was a

‘hero’ for a few hours to one young man. Also there was Rev Peter Timms looking extremely well, we

had a good chat about former times, and exchanged contact details. Bill Abbot was supposed to be there but had fallen to a virus earlier and was not at all well, so I missed the chance to meet up again. I could have reported catching up with Gary Monaghan, only he did not turn up! He is obviously still around.

An address was given by Dr Andreas Aresti, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Westminster and a former inmate at Pentonville 1997-1998, a time when I was the Governor. He spoke passionately about how supportive all the staﬀ were and of the excellent help he received from the

education department. We had quite a chat about his time there, and it clearly illustrated that investing in our charges can change lives.

The Prisons Minister was in attendance and wrote a message for all the staﬀ. He said, “I’m Rory Stewart, the new prisons minister, and I just wanted to say how moved I’ve been and how privileged to be able to attend the 175th anniversary of Pentonville Prison at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Coming out in the evening, seeing the prison oﬃcers, many of them in their number one dress, with their medals on, hearing the pipe band playing, just reminded me how much shared history we have, how much of a positive sense of pride we should have in the ethos of the Prison Service. And what so many prison oﬃcers up and down the country are doing to protect the public, to turn around lives in that great tradition. So thank you very much indeed, and particularly, Happy Anniversary to Pentonville.”

Encouraging words indeed, let us hope he means it and is committed to ﬁghting for the funds to sustain and support ‘the ethos of the Prison Service’ including restoring number one uniform.

OUTSIDE ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

I also happen to know that the Governor Grade behind all the celebrations received a personal message from the Permanent Secretary, saying, if part of the aim was to keep Pentonville open and operating, he had gone a long

way to achieving that goal. I have often written that Pentonville should remain and be a fully operating prison both for its location and its historical signiﬁcance to the Service, as it pioneered and established the

‘ethos of the service’ that the minister identiﬁed as crucial to the Service.

A rather touching letter from Alan Bramley who has written, ‘I just wanted to record my appreciation for the work which you have done in relation to the RPGA Newsletter. I always particularly enjoyed your

‘reports’ on your meetings and correspondence with esteemed, former colleagues.

I am sure Roger will do a good job but it certainly won’t be in your style; which I shall miss.’

He then asks after Rowland Adams, stating, whilst I never served with him, we do share some history. We both served at Shrewsbury, his period of command being many years before mine. He also contributed a great deal to the development of the library services; another interest we had in common.

He was a speaker and joint organizer of a conference at the Library Association in London in 1976. I attended and met a young librarian from a psychiatric secure unit in Hampshire….. She later became my wife!! What a lucky conference for me.

He asked if I could put him in touch with Rowland, which I did. Rowland was as gracious as ever, he is now in his 90’s and reckons he must be the oldest of the retired Governors; he is also in reasonable health and has very good neighbors who help out. He is still able to drive but only short distances. He remains alert and interested in the Service as ever.

In May the Times published what was a full and frank interview with David Gauke, the Justice Secretary which oﬀered a ray of hope as became clear that he had listened to the experts and for once, as a politi- cian was making a lot of sense. He stated: ‘With prisons you have some level of discipline… but we also have to succeed in rehabilitation. We need to provide a second chance.

Firstly he announced a plan to increase the number of prisoners released ‘on temporary license to allow them to work.’ He also states that he wishes to see the prison population fall, and wants a concerted

eﬀort to reduce the number of people being locked up each year. He accepts that it depends on how suc-

cessfully we can build conﬁdence in non custodial sentences, and how much we can reduce re-oﬀending. He points out that crime has fallen but the prison population has almost doubled from 44,000 in the early nineties to 84,000 today. At the end of March there were 5,343 prisoners serving a sentence of less than

12 months. He states that only in exceptional circumstances should people be “sent to prison for less than

a year”: In terms of rehabilitation it does not work’. (So there Mr. Home Secretary Howard!. The evidence shows that when a person has been inside for less than 12 months the reoﬀending rate is about 66 per cent, but the reoﬀending rate for those that get a non-custodial sentence is lower. Short sentences

should be a last resort. (As the PGA has been advocating this for a very long time it should feel both vindi-

cated and pleased that at last there is a Minister that recognizes reality.)

There should also in his view be alternatives to incarceration for many women and mentally ill prisoners. Often women oﬀenders have particularly complex needs - a very high proportion are themselves victims of domestic abuse. I think there’s also a public acceptance that custody is not always the right answer in terms of family issues. As for those with mental health problems, in some cases prison can be absolutely the worst place for them.

The Ministry of Justice may also set up secure old people’s homes for elderly oﬀenders. We’ve got 1,600 prisoners over the age of 70. We have not developed what the right answer is but clearly there are diﬀer- ent needs, and they are not a danger to society in a large part.

This is an issue raised by the Elmley IMB for the last 2 years and rejected by the Prison Minister, so it is gratifying to see that the Secretary of State has accepted there is a need.

‘I believe there’s public acceptance that we need to ensure prisons are places where we can turn people’s lives around. That is much harder when jails are overcrowded, when inmates are doubled up in cells and unable to access education.

If the prison population starts increasing again and we want to have a culture of rehabilitation then we are going to need to make sure we have got the right facilities and the right staﬀ to make that happen. That comes at a cost for the taxpayer when I suspect the taxpayer would rather spend the money on the NHS.

He admits that in some prisons things have gone badly wrong. ’The degree to which drugs have got in is pretty striking. When you hear of letters supposedly from solicitors soaked in drugs, or what appear to be childrens paintings with drugs to scrape oﬀ, that is shocking.

He wants a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to law and order. ‘We need to focus on the corruption, make sure violence is dealt with and disrupt gangs but prisoners must see there is a purpose for them. If they feel their life is worthless then drugs are a way to while away time .Employment opportunities and family vis- its will be oﬀered as rewards.

Anyone who thinks prisons are holiday camp goes to a pretty strange holiday camp. However he wants to encourage drama, writing and painting. There is a role for the arts. The creative sector is a big employer, you hear of someone involved in a prison production who ends up in the West End as a lighting technician.

Mr. Gauke may be on a mission to modernize prisons but he is uncomfortable with preachiness. He says, ‘Society rightly expects us to punish wrongdoing and that’s necessary but it is not suﬃcient. The vast majority will be released and if they are unemployable then we are just storing up more problems. If they are released and we’ve turned a good proportion around then that’s prison really working.

That is probably the most encouraging statement by a Secretary of State for a very long time. Of course the acid test is how much he can turn into reality and ﬁnd the cash to support it, but at least is thinking that is a breath of fresh air

Encouraging that Phil Wheatley is also enthused by his article, he writes, ‘ This is an excellent analysis of the realities of sentencing policy and worth a read for anyone who really wants to understand the problem of how to reduce the prison population to a level the Government can aﬀord. A prison

Minister who seems to have understood more about the work that Prison Oﬃcers do than his many recent predecessors. I ﬁnd it really encouraging that he recognizes the skills that Oﬃcers have and is prepared to celebrate and publicize them.’

As Nick Pascoe is now the ‘Area Manager’ for the South East I met up with him on his visit recently to Elmley Prison. He will be well known to many colleagues. He is not retired, but thinking about it, as under the new pension arrangements, everyone is assessed as to the notional value of their ‘pension pot’, and should it exceed the now lower ‘tax free allowance’, then tax is payable on the excess. For one senior member of the Service, it means potentially that the whole of the ‘lump sum gratuity’ will have to be used to pay the tax bill! How things have changed, so be grateful we served in a time when beneﬁts where greater.

It is saddening to hear of so many colleagues who are not in good health, age aﬀects us all, but some are currently suﬀering greater degrees of health problems.

Sheila Blakey informs me Jim as not been at all well. The good news is that they sold the big house, and are now settled in the bungalow, but it has been a bit of a nightmare for several months whilst builders extended and improved the property to their particular design.

Jim has had a number of illness complications over the last year and is not his old self. Shelia ensures he gets good care, and she is also now the gardener as well, as Jim is not up to it. Their son’s business continues to prosper, and he lives nearby so is able to give support. I am sure we all wish Jim well and hope that his medical problems will be overcome. One bonus is that they have a very good GP.

Dave Simons, our eminent past chair, has had a rough time recently with various illnesses, you can tell it is serious; he has hardly played a round of golf for the last year! Ann has had a lot of treatment to her shoulder injury, but there is little more they can do, so remains to some degree limited in what she can

undertake and Dave has now undertaken a lot more of the household chores etc.

Paul Wailen writes that his health life has been pretty exciting; whilst at the gym in April he collapsed

with a heart attack and actually died! Fortunately, all the instructors were deﬁbrillator trained and four of them got to work on him and brought him round. On the way down to the ﬂoor, he had a very severe trauma to the head when hiting the ﬂoor. There was apparently much blood. He was taken to Bart’s Hospital and had a stent put into his right arm, and remained in hospital for a week and recovery was rapid. He was then transferred to the Royal London due to the trauma to his head and given a whole series of brain scans. The Surgeons, (as well as discovering a brain!), saw that there was a bleed to the brain. They were not sure if that had caused the cardiac arrest, but after several days of deliberation they decided

the fall was the cause, and Paul was discharged and stayed at his brothers for a week until suﬃciently re-

covered to go home. He remains under supervision of a prominent cardiologist, and he is pleased with progress. He is currently on a cardio rehab programme for eight weeks and is on his third week at the time of writing Paul says he has

made some life style changes, especially diet. Correct diet and appropriate diet are considered the key to recovery.

Paul has just been to visit us, is looking well and is very careful what he eats, though he still likes ‘a good meal’. We had a splendid time mulling over the ‘good old days’, and exploring part of the Kent countryside.

Veronica Bird has been involved in a house sale and purchase which has been fraught with diﬃculty, but is now taking place. I have her new address, so if anyone needs to be in touch I can arrange to link you up. The sale of her book is going well and up to April this year 3,000 copies had been bought.

By co-incidence the wife of someone I have not been in touch with for over 19 years was at a Yorkshire Country Woman’s Association meeting at which Veronica was speaking and promoting her book. She approached Veronica after and said I note the Foreword is by Bob, do you have any contact details as my husband worked with him and would like to be in touch. So out of the blue in June I received a lovely letter from Colin Tanswell. He will be known to many for his time at Love Lane, his involvement in opening up Newbold Revel, and his organization of trips to Strasbourg to the European Commission, for the Senior Command Course. He ﬁnished his service at Manchester in 1998.

He mentions he is a Barnsley FC supporter and has visited the “Dove” public house, which was frequented by Veronica’s father. Colin has been retired 20 years in August, when he will also be 80; and lives in

‘the leafy village of Ackworth’. He was always a keen runner and I can remember him training to undertake the London marathon. He says he is beginning to feel his age but has remained active; he gave up running in 1991 due to arthritic knees and took up cycling, but feels that the roads are now becoming more unsafe, and might have to give that up.

He has kept up a busy lifestyle in retirement with plenty of activities in the local community, gardening and until 2016 making regular trips to their static caravan in Norfolk, where coastal walking was a bonus.

He relates that his eldest son still lives with them, but the youngest married a Canadian lass and now lives in Winnipeg. They miss him and are planning to visit him for the second time later this summer. A far cry from Strasbourg the furthest away I had been before!

He has been married to Sue for 55 years, but their lives were turned ‘upside down’ in 2016 when Sue was diagnosed with cancer; she has now received an ‘all clear’ but has to continue with chemo therapy medication with its attendant side eﬀects. ‘It is times like that when you have to review what is important in life.’

He mentions it is all too easy to lose contact with work colleagues but he is still in touch with Tim Turner, and Pam Davidson who was in charge of the Newbold College Support Oﬃce, but was earlier Head of Management Services at Elmley Prison; where I am currently involved. In many ways it is a small world.

I was thrilled to hear from Colin after all this time, as I am with everyone who

makes contact. It always brings back happy

memories from the past. I will now keep in touch with Colin.

It was good to see John Dring at the AGM of the Retired Governors Association; he has been a loyal supporter for many years. The sad news is that he is in the early stages of Motor Neurone Disease, but one has to admire the fortitude and courage with which he is facing up to this. He intends to tackle life as normal as long as possible. The good and tremendous news is that he married Midori in May this year, and has been kind enough to send me a photo which we print with great joy. It is just a little sad that we must print it in black and white, but their smiles of true love will warm the hearts of even the most cynical of you.

John also sent me a second photo which includes Bryan Paling, good to see him looking so well and almost smiling.

BOB DUNCAN AUGUST 2018