Another death in custody

A prisoner who was recalled to prison after breaching his parole was found hanging in his cell in Swansea Jail this month. David King, 41, was discovered by staff at Swansea jail just after 11am on August 11th and he was pronounced dead at 12pm.
It was the 57th suicide in jails in England and Wales so far this year, compared with 41 at the same point last year. Almost one third of suicides occur within the first week of someone arriving in jail and one in seven occur within two days of admission. Many happen while people are on remand, and have not even been convicted of a crime yet.

Prison isn’t working, but more Welsh prisons being built

Plans are afoot to raise the number of prisoners at privately run Parc Prison in Bridgend by more than a third, and the government is calling for a new jail to be built in North Wales. Parc would have the capacity for more than 1,500 inmates if the new block is given the go-ahead, and the North Wales prison would house hundreds more people. These will go some way towards reaching the Home Office’s target of 10,000 new prison places in the next 2 years.
The Probation Service in Wales has expressed concern that the costs of expansion could divert resources from other areas and suggested there should be a debate about prison population.
No debate is needed. Prisons are failing, and have failed for years: They do nothing to address the number 1 cause of crime in this country: the massive inequality that exists between the rich and the poor; prison slavery is on the rise, where inmates are forced to work for peanuts for private companies who make mega-bucks out of bonded labour; there are re-offending rates of up to 70% for some categories; prison does not rehabilitate – despite the rhetoric the system’s just not built for this; overcrowding is huge, with too many prisoners and too few resources prisons can’t meet the medical, educational and welfare needs of their inmates; more than half of all prisoners have mental health problems, but few get proper treatment meaning suicide and self-harm are rife; many prisoners are illiterate or semi-literate; and there are hundreds – possibly up to 2,000 – innocent prisoners in our jails, all victims of miscarriages of justice.

Cardiff activist in court

Two people arrested at the first FITWATCH action will be on trial at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on the 9th October 2007. All supporters welcome!

This trial will be the first test of whether Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) teams have a legal right to intimidate, harass, photograph and compile data on people attending political meetings.

One of the defendants, Cardiff anti-FIT activist Val Swain said "It is not acceptable for the police to be compiling data on people attending a political meeting.We are not supposed to be living in a totalitarian society where police can hold data on people just because of their political views. I believe that in acting the way that they do, the police are acting unlawfully. And this trial will attempt to hold them to account.”

The trial starts at 10am on the 9th Oct.
See the FIT watch webpage at: http://www.fitwatch.blogspot.com/

German antifascist imprisoned (02/08/07)

Christian S., an autonomous antifascist from Berlin is sitting again in prison since the 14th of July. Altogether, he has to serve 40 months. He has been sentenced for breaching the peace in relation to 1 of May 2004, and for the same paragraph for the incidents of the 12 March 2000. For this last offense he obtained a suspended sentenced, but he was called back into prison as soon as he was sentenced again in 2000. Both sentences relate to his active resistance against 2 big marches of neo-nazis through Berlin. He already served several months in jail because of 1 of May 2004, during which his health situation worsened.

Write Christian letters and postcards, send him reading material. Christian can read german, english and get along with spanish.

His current address:
Christian Sommermann, BNR: 727/07/7, JVA Tegel, Seidelstr. 39, 13507 Berlin, Germany

You can support him by sending money to this german account:
ssb e.v.
Kontonummer: 1591 9683 00
BLZ 1001 0111
Stichwort: Knastsolidaritat / Patenschaft Christian

Towards a society without prisons
Freedom for Christian-Freedom for all!

ABC Berlin
- e-mail: mail@abc-berlin.net
- Homepage: http://www.abc-berlin.net

Death in custody: HMP Cardiff

Karl Davies, 28, from Penlan, Swansea, was found hanged at HMP Cardiff on Sunday. He had only been in custody for three days

According to Home Office statistics, there were 76 deaths in custody in England and Wales between 1st July and 31st December last year, 32 of these being suicide.

Solidarity With John Bowden

Take a few minutes to help support a prisoner.

Long-term prisoner resister John Bowden is currently being targeted by the Scottish Prison Service because of his contact with the Anarchist Black Cross.

Please take a few moments out of your daily scheduale to drop John a card, and send one reading 'Hands Off John Bowden' to the SPS.

John Bowden, 6729, HMP Glenochil, King O' Muir Road, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, FK10 3AD. Scotland.

Scottish Prison Service Headquarters, Communications Branch, Room 338, Calton House, 5 Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HW. Scotland E-mail: gaolinfo@sps.gov.uk

Related stories:

https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/scotland/2007/04/368509.html

https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368208.html

Prisoners revolt around Greece

Article from Indymedia:

http://athens.indymedia.org/features.php3?id=463

In the morning of Monday 23/4, prisoners at the prison of Malandrino (in Fokida, mainland Greece) revolted. The spark igniting the revolt was the beating of anarchist prisoner Yiannis Dimitrakis as well as the vicious, violent response of the guards to the protests staged by his co-prisoners.

Disgraceful holding conditions, lack of water, regular beatings, electronic surveillance and the extremely short time they are allowed at the yard comprise a grim reality for the Malandrino prisoners. The prison has seen plenty of revolts in the past... According to our latest info the prison is now under the complete control of the prisoners.

Meantime, information coming in right now (2:30pm, April 24) indicates that prisoners at the Ayios Stefanos prison of Patras have also revolted; two hundred of them abstained from their meal. 340 prisoners at the prison of Tripoli have gone on hunger strike.

Solidarity actions

- Solidarity action outside the residency of the greek president: On the night of the revolt, 150 anarchists gathered outside the house of the greek president, chanting solidarity slogans for the prisoners.

- On the same night, anarchists gathered spontaneously in Thessaloniki, distributing texts, spray-painting and chanting slogans.

The committee for prisoner rights has called for a solidarity demo tonight, April 24, 7pm at the Omonia Square in Athens.


"The dictatorship of Detention is a reflection of democracy" - short text distributed in Thessaloniki
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=693687#693893

Ministry of justice: Prisoner demands "unreasonable"
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=693837#693908

Tear Down the Walls!

We've got copies of the new booklet from Leeds Anarchist Black Cross "Tear Down the Walls!" by long term prison resister John Bowden. Please contact: mail@cardiffprisonersupport.tk if you are interested in obtaining a copy (£1)!

John has been at the forefront of British prison struggle for the last two decades. He has served over 25 years in prison. In the booklet John talks about his own experiences of prison and of organising resistance to the prison system form the inside. He also explains clearly why prisons can never be reformed but must be destroyed completely.

You can write to John at: 6729, HM Prison Castle Huntly, Longforgan, Dundee, DD2 5HL.

Leeds ABC web site: www.myspace.com/leedsabc

Cardiff Prisoner Support can now be contacted via the following e-mail address: mail@cardiffprisonersupport.tk
ta!

NO MORE PRISONS!

Anarchist Black Cross Network

The Anarchist Black Cross is an international movement that aims to support the struggles of prisoners, and of anarchist and class war prisoners in particular. The movement offers solidarity to prisoners to prevent them becoming isolated and to assure activists that if they are persecuted for their activities, they will not be abandoned.

The Anarchist Black Cross network also campaigns against the prison system and believes that prisons have no useful function, but only serve to preserve the status of the people who rule over us. The movement believes that both the prison system and the society that creates a need for prisons should be abolished.

We believe that there are alternative and more effective ways of dealing with so-called anti-social crime. More importantly, anti-social crime is a product of an unfair society which makes a few people extremely wealthy at the expense of poorer people. People who can’t pay fines, who steal so they can eat or who resist the control and abuse of Government in our lives, face the police, courts and prison. The threat of prison is used to try and make us behave ourselves so we put up with poverty, injustice and being treated badly by those in power. ABC exists to resist this system and defend those who are persecuted by it.

In South Wales, we have started regularly sending cards to prisoners to show them that while they are in there for us, we are out here for them! Offering solidarity to prisoners can take different forms depending on the prisoner’s situation, but useful stuff can include financial help, writing letters, making visits and sending reading material. It may also include organising demonstrations or public solidarity campaigns for prisoners that you support.

If you know any prisoners who would like to receive support or would like to get involved in supporting prisoners, e-mail Cardiff Anarchist Network; cardiffanarchists@riseup.net