THE EFFECTS OF PRISON LIFE ON A REMANDED PERSON’S PROSPECT OF A FAIR TRIAL

With strict human rights guidelines designed to preserve a remanded person’s dignity and ensure that all necessary facilities are provided to ensure that they can build a proper defence, anyone could be forgiven for assuming they would be treated accordingly. Since this is not the case in reality, this article is intended to highlight what roll prison plays in a remanded person’s chances of a fair trial.

The vast majority of the British public go through life with the impression that prison conditions are akin to that of a holiday camp, often with the opinion that inmates are treated better than they deserve. I myself must hold my hand up and accept that a few long months ago was guilty of making that same assumption, that the people in custody deserved to be there and that for the most part got off lightly. However now armed with firsthand experience to say that my eyes have been opened would be a considerable understatement particularly to those on remand who if anything are treated worse that those who have been convicted despite by legal definition those same people being innocent right up until the moment sentence has been passed. The ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) contains explicit instructions with regard to those awaiting trial and with good reason, sadly the actual conditions do not in any way reflect what is clearly written in black and white.

For the purposes of this text I will stay clear of the issues relating to whether or not bail is indeed granted in the first instance since this is covered within the subject of another related article published previously which is still available to view. Instead I would like to focus on the treatment received from the moment of arrival at whichever prison an accused person is sent to. To do this I will draw attention to various aspects of the treatment I received, noting where appropriate how this changed over time and whenever possible referring to the ECHR or any other required material. While from my own experience this can only ever be attributed to HMP Craiginches Aberdeen, I expect that these will be broadly similar in some respects to other such facilities but in other areas probably widely different and make no attempt to suggest that the following does or doesn’t represent the status quo in any other establishment.

Upon arrival, each prisoner must undergo an admissions procedure which by the time you have arrived while necessary is excruciatingly tedious. Photographs are taken, a file is begun and various details entered (assuming the person has never been imprisoned before in which case much of this will merely be updated) including those which by this time have already been provided who knows how many other times before and what seems like a mountain of forms are completed. During this time there is a constant noise and rabble generated by others in the admission area, many of whom have previous experience of the routine who have become quite practiced at rebelling and objecting to the slightest request or delay in proceeding through to the main prison. For anyone who has never before experience it, I can assure you that the emotional effects and the feelings of fear and alarm of the uncertainty of what will follow are difficult to contend with to say the least. Preservation of dignity (as required by human rights law) is at best questionable during induction, stripping of in front of prison officers etc.  In shock and in further trauma on top of the absolute disbelief at what is going on in general is how you will undoubtedly leave this phase and be medically assessed.

During the medical assessment which again for anyone who has previous experience will be no big ordeal, for me it became obvious that it was not now only the police that weren’t listening to a single word I said but other departments too. By the time I’d arrived the social workers who had come to see me before I had left Shetland to see how I was had sent a fax to the prison suggesting that I may be suicidal, a police report suggested the same thing and a Reliance officer contrary to the views of the two I had actual contact with had also written in transfer reports that there was a risk of self-harm! At no time had I ever suggested any such thing to ANY department I had contact with, some had asked and my answer had always been a determined no, stating that my only intention was to clear my name not do anything stupid like that. I can understand from a police point of view the need to portray me as being mentally unstable, no one could do what they had suggested if they were not seriously coo coo, so at that time I became aware that I was being considered mentally ill too. While I mean no disrespect to those who suffer mental illness of any kind, to be of sound mind, to endure everything to that point and then find yourself in a position where actually having to persuade people of your sanity is extremely humiliating. Yes I was overwhelmingly shocked, I certainly didn’t look too good who would, but suicidal, not on your life, not in a million years. I can understand why the prison service must ensure they take every precaution to ensure the safety of those in their care but not on the basis of faxes and reports which are completely opposite to any information provided before they were composed.

From there the humiliation goes from bad to worse as a result, and the first night spent in a ‘sui-cell’ a term given to the suicide cells which contain nothing other than the same thin mat and a stainless steel toilet. The prison clothes issued on admission are removed in place what could loosely be described as shorts and a top, not even a piece of paper is allowed in case it is used to block the spy hole in the door (My wife had managed to get a letter to me before I left Shetland expressing how she and everyone else was “100% and more” behind me, I had clutched it tightly since receiving it and now deprived of even that.) The following day would see me assessed by a psychiatrist extensively, surprise, surprise, verdict = not-suicidal. Her qualified opinion after an assessment lasting quite some time, sane both at that time and when the incident occurred that resulted in the charges being brought. Not that this report nor the one provided by a second psychiatrist who agreed with its findings would have any effect on the issue of bail which would later be refused on grounds of self-harm/suicide. Still, at least then the prison clothing was permitted and I was allowed to be in a cell with a ‘proper bed’. Nevertheless from this it becomes apparent that it is not only my consistent statements which are ignored but also that of trained professionals and though still determined to prove innocence and clear my name it becomes obvious rapidly despite how obviously ridiculous the charges are that it will be made as hard as possible to do.

A priority and necessary entitlement under regulations is for legal representation to enable a proper defence but this too is hampered by several factors not least the availability of information as to which is appropriate and the restricted access of telephones. The only logical means of obtaining any is through family, which not only puts additional stress on top of the enormous amount they are understandably under, but for both those inside and out ultimately ends in anxiously waiting for access to the phone which cost between 20 and 30 pence per minute so calls were short.

I would assess the prison staff for the most part initially as matter of fact and unsympathetic though in fairness most over time became less so and more humane for want of a better word, I have always attributed this change to the same reasons I have for the compassion of the majority of reliance staff, their ability through experience to recognise the difference between those they normally come in contact with and those they do not.

Having said that conditions were not what they should be, far from it. Medical care was to put it diplomatically not great, food was served by prisoners with their hands inside their pants, we were often in our cells for over 23 hours a day, the heating regularly broke but repaired itself at 4pm. The list goes on and on, each time I now read some regulation which I know is routinely breached or come across another story of someone now fragile oppressed and broken when they should never have been in that kind of place in the first place I feel nearer to a law suit for no other reason than to protect those who don’t belong there. To be honest there are simply too many things to do justice to in one article, too many reasons why in the absence of the volume of support I had, others would become so down trodden that they could simply crack not through guilt but through oppression and neglect.

For months you are fighting a constant battle within your own head as much as anything else, frantically searching your memory for something else, some small detail that you’ve missed that will show the case for what it is. You try and get peace from it, to concentrate on something else but there is nothing, a concrete wall and a small poxy TV in the corner normally tuned into CSI or some other crime related program which for the life of me I could never understand. You are conscious that it is changing you as a person and not for the better so simply must find ways to preserve who you are, to make sure you don’t become any more damaged than you are already by it.

You live in fear of talking to a doctor about your problems in case it is twisted and used against you in court following your experiences of the system to begin with. When you finally accept that you are becoming so drained, so exhausted that you simply must and only after asking the solicitor if it’s ok the doctor offers you a Bible, presumably to hit yourself over the head repeatedly until you sleep but then that would be self harm too.

Is it little wonder that many arrive in court so down trodden, so emotionally battered that they don’t then present themselves well? Particularly when you again put in a medical request form in the run up to court so that exhaustion doesn’t affect your chances at trial and he refuses even to see you on the grounds that you were treated 4 months ago!

All the while you are in full knowledge of what is happening to those you love on the outside but powerless to do anything to help them, protect them or in any other way shield them from the hurt and torment. You heed your solicitor’s advice, don’t discuss the evidence with any witnesses so you can’t be accused of manipulating them in but have to sit back knowing it is happening from the other side. And as it tears the lives of the people you hold dearest apart, it tears you apart inside too. Yes, being remanded, denied bail for no justifiable reason, neglected and oppressed certainly affects a wrongly accused persons chances at trial, but then most don’t have the support I did from family and far beyond. It would be ridiculous to suggest you could emerge in any way other than damaged by prison under any circumstances but if you are lucky, have support and the right legal representation you will at least be given the opportunity to try and recover. One could argue that I have emerged with an overwhelming desire to make sure that the rest of my life matters, that in some way I make a difference and that is a positive thing, sadly for the most humiliating and negative of reasons.