The Abolitionist No. 15 (1983)
Introduction / Commentary by John Moore
The theme of number 15 was Lifers and Long-Term Prisoners. It opens with an editorial responding to the then Home Secretary, Leon Brittan’s, speech to the 1983 Conservative party conference. Reading this nearly 40 years later is sobering. Much of his proposals have come to pass and many of his themes are echoed in today’s parliamentary debates. The punitive tone was not purely rhetoric, but as the editorial highlights ‘a genuine statement of political strategy’.
On the theme of Lifers there are a number of interviews and articles. Jill Box-Grainer interviewed X, who had served a life sentence for rape and Mrs Y, wife of a man serving life for manslaughter; and Sandy Mathers interviewed Matt Lygate, a committed Scottish Republican Socialist, who served 12 years of a sentence of 24. All bring valuable perspectives. The articles included Ian Cameron on the continued struggles of Frank Marritt, a lifer, and his struggles to get released on licence; Jenny Hicks and Sarah Boyle, on H wing in Durham Prison, which incarcerated over 30 long term women prisoners in highly repressive conditions; and an update from Tony Ward on the case of Ben Wilson, recalled to prison whilst on licence.
This edition included inserts from Women in Prison (WIP), PROP and Inquest.
The section from the newly formed WIP included news from a number of women’s prisons and details concerning a number of women who had died inside. WIP reported the non-answers to parliamentary questions submitted by Jo Richardson on their behalf. It includes details on its founding committee and statement/demands and adverts for a poster and Calendar.
PROP’s (Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners) Prison Briefing consisted on three long articles. The first, ‘Politics in Control’, argued that responsibility for prison policy rests with politicians rather than prison guards or civil servants. The second, ‘Prisoners and the Law’, explored a number of cases challenging the unaccountable powers of the state. Whilst lawyers and PROP have played their part, the article makes clear that it is the ‘single mindedness’ of a relatively small number of prisoners not ‘prepared to let the system trample all over them’ that has led to the legal victories that have ‘benefitted every prisoner in every type of prison.’ The final article concerns the police investigations into the disturbances at Albany Prison in May 1983. The advice to prisoners about speaking to the police is clear ‘DON’T!’ Instead PROP argues for an independent public inquiry.’
The Inquest Bulletin opens with some shocking cases of deaths in police custody, where the Coroner has retained bodies, without appropriate facilities, for many months that the bodies ‘had decomposed so badly that no pathologist was willing to conduct another autopsy.’
Other articles are on Coroners’ juries and deaths in HMP Walton. The edition also includes Mike Tomlinson and Patricia Heatley’s ‘British Prisons in Ireland: Some historical notes’; Mick Ryan on ‘The Hanging Debate - past and present’ and Tim Owen on ‘Drugs in Prison’ updating articles in earlier editions.