The Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons, the Right Revd Rachel Treweek, in conversation with Marc Conway about serious issues with the Criminal Justice system, and outdated IPP laws.
Marc Conway is the CEO at Fair Justice, an organisation which aims to get the voices of those who live and work within the criminal justice system, out and into the public. He tells us, “I’ve been speaking with someone who got a two year IPP [type of open-ended prison sentence] for stealing a mountain bike, because they pushed the person off, it was classed as a robbery; and they’ve been in prison for 18 years.”
He continues, “When I explain this to people who are naive about it and I say ‘What country do you think that happens in?’, they all say ‘America’ or ‘Russia’, and I say ‘Actually no it’s happening here in the UK’.
“Ninety-one people who are serving that sentence have committed suicide. What that does to someone, when you’re serving that [open-ended] sentence, is it takes away hope.”
In this third podcast in the series of ‘Holding the Key: Unlocking the door to doing prison differently’, Bishop Rachel and Marc Conway talk about Marc’s lived experience of the criminal justice system, his work with offenders and ex-offenders, and specifically around the injustices and issues with historical IPP prison sentences. Bishop Rachel and Marc agree, “Prison is supposed to improve you and better you, not make you worse.”
Subscribe to the series via:
Bishop Rachel is currently recording a series of Podcasts called – ‘Holding the key: A series of conversations to unlock the door to doing prison differently’. Bishop Rachel will be joined by influencers and change-makers as they ask the questions – what is prison really for and more importantly what could the alternatives be?
News Hub
