Back in 2001,
I ran a campaign called Rethinking Crime and Punishment which aimed to raise
the level of public debate about prison and alternatives. I'm not sure what
impact it made, as by the time the main work finished in 2005, the prison population in England
and Wales had increased by 17% (from 65,000 to 76,000). But of course without it , prison numbers could have been higher still.......
During the project,
I started to compile a dossier of press reports of what seemed to me the worst
examples of prison being used inappropriately. I was reminded of it by last
week’s jailing of Gemma Wale for indulging in noisy sex and today’s failed appeal by naked rambler Stephen Gough. I found the file easily enough, saved
as “Stupid Cases”.
Both Ms Wale and
Mr Gough have breached court orders and failing to comply with rulings was a
common feature of the stupid cases from the early 2000's. There were Norfolk grandparents given 28 days imprisonment after pleading guilty to cutting down a
hedge in breach of a civil court injunction. (54 year old Marilyn Girling was held
at Highpoint prison alongside Moors murderer Myra Hindley). Another woman
Samantha Richards served 3 months for refusing to take down a fence placing
herself in contempt of court.
There were several
mothers sent to jail for failing to ensure their children attended school. One,a pregnant mother of an 11 year old truant, sentenced to 28 days, had her appeal
turned down on Christmas Eve 2002. (Her husband was fined but not threatened
with prison). .
There were plenty of cases where people had acted foolishly and faced paying a price heavier than that imposed by the courts. Would a community punishment not have been possible for the (soon to be ex-) head teacher who received 3 months after pleading guilty to forging SATS papers at two primary schools; or a staff member who admitted stealing exam papers from the school where she worked and showing them in advance to candidates? Or even the football fan who faced a six year stadium ban and received 4 months inside for running on the pitch and taunting the Aston Villa goalkeeper?
There were plenty of cases where people had acted foolishly and faced paying a price heavier than that imposed by the courts. Would a community punishment not have been possible for the (soon to be ex-) head teacher who received 3 months after pleading guilty to forging SATS papers at two primary schools; or a staff member who admitted stealing exam papers from the school where she worked and showing them in advance to candidates? Or even the football fan who faced a six year stadium ban and received 4 months inside for running on the pitch and taunting the Aston Villa goalkeeper?
The dossier
included hoaxers – the German trucker who admitted wasting police time after joking to a channel tunnel official that he was carrying TNT (28 days); entrepreneurs - John Collison who collected lost golf balls and sold them on (6 months) and geeks –
an obsessive who made £50,000 worth of telephone calls for free to play computer games (2 months).
Some of the
cases had a comical edge- the cannabis grower jailed after declaring illicit earnings to the tax man. Others were tragic; the mother jailed for drunken driving after an accident which saw her daughter
killed.”
Several of the cases were successfully appealed but all served some
time in prison. For Collison the experience was terrifying. He told a paper that he had to strip off and stand naked while an officer took his personal belongings -just the sort of behaviour that has landed Mr Gough in so much trouble.
Finding an appropriate
response to these kind of cases is not always easy, particularly where the court considers the offender has wilfully refused to fall into line or where a wider example is
seen to be needed. I discontinued my dossier, but I am sure there are still plenty of these stupid cases. As with Wale and Gough , courts surely need to take a step back to
gain some perspective and sense of proportion about what they are doing.
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