Two appeals / Deux appels / Twee oproepen : Stop Prison building ! Construction de nouvelles prisons : Stop ! Stop de bouw van nieuwe gevangenissen (UK January 2017/ France septembre 2016)
UK : Pressure
mounts for immediate halt to prison building
POSTED BY RECLAIM JUSTICE NETWORK ⋅ JANUARY 26, 2017 ⋅
The
Guardian has today published a letter from the Reclaim Justice
Network calling for an immediate halt to the government’s prison building
programme. The statement, organised by the Network, has amassed more than
fifty signatories from service delivery organisations, professionals, activists
and academics.
A public
meeting is being organised to discuss to the future of the building
programme and the opportunities for building safe and healthy communities
instead of prisons. Details of this will be announced shortly. To receive
updates, join the Reclaim Justice Network mailing list.
The letter
printed in The Guardian can be read below.
Wednesday’s
opposition day debate on prisons served to highlight the ongoing crisis in the
system. At the same time, the government’s “prison-building revolution” is
gathering pace, with plans to expand prison capacity by at least 10,000 places.
This appears to be a revival of the “Titan prisons” policy opposed by penal
reformers and mothballed in 2009. It should be halted immediately. For example,
the new prison recently proposed for the site of HMP Wellingborough will more
than treble its capacity to 1,600 and grand claims have been made about the
opportunities that this will bring in terms of local jobs and financial investment.
These plans are being rushed through without full public scrutiny and
democratic debate.
The
numbers of people criminalised and sent to prison have already spiralled out of
control to a record high. Yet prisons do very little to address the needs of
people experiencing harm or violence. Building more prisons is not the answer
to the current acknowledged failings of the existing system. Rather than
investing £1.3bn in building new prisons, the government should be prioritising
policies that radically reduce the number of people in prison. This could
include meaningful jobs, social housing, healthcare, education, transport – for
all.
We are
calling for an immediate moratorium on prison construction and a national
debate about how to build a safer society and secure communities instead of
continuing with a failed policy of criminal justice expansion. We need to
build safe and healthy communities – not prisons.
Tom Kemp Reclaim Justice Network Professor
Peter Squires British Society of Criminology Will McMahon Centre
for Crime and Justice Studies Deborah Coles Inquest Andy
Gregg Race on the Agenda Dr David Scott Open
University Kate Paradine Women in Prison Jan
Cunliffe Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association Jodie
Blackstock Justice Dionne Nelson Women’s
Resource Centre Chryssy HunterBent Bars Project Kevin
Blowe Network for Police Monitoring Professor Phil
Scraton Dr Sarah Lamble Birkbeck University Professor
Pat Carlen Gina Stokes Anawim WWT Professor
Joe Sim Pazuzu Gaylord Action for Trans Health Ian
Marder Community of Restorative Researchers Margaret
Gardener False Allegations Support Organisation Dennis
Eady South Wales against Wrongful Conviction Kushal
Sood Trent Centre for Human Rights Annys Darkwa Vision
Housing Services Gerry McFlynn Irish Council for
Prisoners Overseas
The
following list of individuals also signed the letter, but were not listed in
the published version by The Guardian:
Zack Ahmed, Priscilla Alderson, Helen Baker,
Alana Barton, Jessica Bolton, Mary Bosworth, Louise Broadbent, Helen Brown
Coverdale, Laura Carrington, Bevali Carver, Kathryn Chadwick, Mary Corcoran,
Julie Costley, Jan Cunliffe, Julie Davies, Claire Davis, Anita De Klerk,
Deborah Drake, Karen Evans, Finola Farrant, Andrew Henley, Kate Herrity, Anita
Hobson, Hope Humphreys, Lisa Ja’afar, David Jones, Terese Jonsson, Stephanie
Kewley, Sophie Lewis, Martine Lignon, Jayne Linney, Maureen Mansfield,
Agnieszka Martynowicz, Tammy McGloughlin, Gillian McNaull, J M Moore, Alexandra
Phillips, Nat Raha, Rebecca Roberts, Abigail Rowe, Rachel Seoighe, Andrew
Sperling, Philippa Thomas, Steve Tombs, Rona Topaz, Luk Vervaet, Martin Wright
France : Construction de
nouvelles prisons : une politique qui mène droit dans le mur
Le gouvernement annonce la construction de 10 000 nouvelles
places de prison pour l’horizon 2024. Une réponse ambitieuse et audacieuse ?
Non, une vieille recette qui a déjà fait la preuve de son inefficacité.
69 375 : c’est le nombre de personnes qui
étaient détenues dans les prisons en juillet dernier, la France atteignant
ainsi des taux de détention inégalés depuis le 19e siècle. Contraignant 3 à 4
personnes à partager des cellules de 9m2 en maison d’arrêt et autour de 1 500
personnes à dormir chaque nuit sur des matelas posés au sol. Au mépris du
principe de l’encellulement individuel et de la dignité des personnes, près de
15 000 personnes sont en « surnombre » et une quarantaine de maisons
d’arrêt connaissent un taux d’occupation de plus de 150%.
Pour y remédier, le gouvernement annonce la construction de
10 000 nouvelles places de prison pour l’horizon 2024. Une réponse ambitieuse
et audacieuse ? Non, une vieille recette qui a déjà fait la preuve de son
inefficacité et que les gouvernements successifs continuent pourtant de nous
servir comme la seule solution pragmatique… restant sourds aux résultats de
nombreuses études et statistiques qui la pointent au contraire comme
inopérante, que ce soit pour endiguer la surpopulation carcérale ou pour
réduire la récidive.
Des
agents de renseignement marocains, dirigés par le chef de la police
régionale, ont encerclé la maison dans le quartier de Douïrat. Ils ont
confisqué les passeports des deux militants norvégiens, Sofie Brunvoll
et Peder Østring, après avoir attaqué la voiture dans laquelle ils
voyageaient.
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Lire aussi : http://fr.africanews.com/2017/01/26/commission-de-l-union-africaine-la-candidate-du-kenya-se-met-a-dos-le-maroc/