Friday 20 January 2012

Oh, The Well Of Sympathy Has Run Dry. Again.

A prisoner who tried to smuggle crack cocaine worth £2million into Britain has complained about the “disgraceful” wages he receives at a prison in Sussex.
I think it’s disgraceful, too. I think it’s disgraceful he gets given any money at all!
Vincent Holyoake, previously of De Cham Road, St Leonards, is currently eight years into a 17-year sentence.

He is serving his sentence at Ford Prison near Arundel – where he said the wages he gets for working are lower than at most other prisons.

He said this makes it is (sic) impossible for him to visit his family on the train during days outside of prison or for “overnight release”.
Oh, boo hoo!
In a letter published in this month’s Inside Time magazine – for people serving sentences – Holyoake said: …here at Ford, a category D prison, the average weekly wage is £9.50.

“From that wage £1 per week is taken for the television which I have been paying for the past seven years, which leaves £8.50 per week out of which I have to maintain contact with family and friends on an overpriced phone system and make minimal purchases from an increasingly overpriced canteen.”
Welcome to the club, chum. Times are hard, inflation’s up, and we’re all paying through the nose for services.
The Ministry of Justice yesterday declined to comment.

Nobody from Ford Prison was available for comment.
Too busy laughing, probably.

17 comments:

subrosa said...

You couldn't make it up could you?

Twenty_Rothmans said...

>here at Ford, a category D prison, the average weekly wage is £9.50.

That's more than wages in Pakistan, Jamaica or West Africa, whence so many of HM's guests hail.

Barman said...

Christus - you'd need a really tiny violin for this one!

A salt and battered said...

Paid work should be compulsory for prisoners and they must have a legal entitlement to pay which reflects commercial reality/National norms. In this way, inmates will be better adjusted to the real World upon release.

It provides a golden opportunity to tax and make fair deductions to prisoner income. It also allows victims of crime, a practical avenue along which they can pursue civil claims against a prisoner with income.

Notwithstanding the above, many inmates may still receive less than £9.50 net each week. Every week a punitive statement of deductions will hurt worse than any birching and they will long for the day when costly prison life is behind them.

James Higham said...

I was just going to write what Subrosa did but ... er ... she wrote it. ;-)

Bobo said...

"Paid work should be compulsory for prisoners and they must have a legal entitlement to pay which reflects commercial reality/National norms. In this way, inmates will be better adjusted to the real World upon release. "

Work should be compulsory: dunno so much about 'paid'. Maybe anything left after deductions for board and lodgings,subscriptions to XboxLive and Sky, use of gymn and other recreational facilities,etc PLUS compo to the victims could be donated to a charity of the crim's choice?

Bobo said...

............and also any "Anger managment by aromatherapy" sessions or similar BS peddled by right-thinking sandal-wearing Guardianistas can be paid for by the crims themselves. Watch the take-up rate of that sort of criminal-coddling nonsense drop through the floor.Two birds with one stone.

Woman on a Raft said...

Why is he paying £1? Insidetime
gives a description of Ford and gives the price as 50p. Perhaps it has gone up.

http://www.insidetime.org/info-regimes2.asp?nameofprison=HMP_FORD

By comparing the inspection reports there with the OFSTED report, one problem emerges which nobody is allowed to address directly. To it's credit, OFSTED refuses to be cowed and highlights the skill itself as an area for improvement.

ESOL

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/52279

PDF from that page.

RantinRab said...

Hold on.

Prisoners have their own 'in house', (pardon the pun), magazine?

I am totally speechless.

Captain Haddock said...

"He said this makes it is (sic) impossible for him to visit his family on the train during days outside of prison or for “overnight release” " ...


Aww, Bless .. I'll happily give the drug-smuggling scumbag a lift .. on the end of my size 10 LPC (Leather Personnel Carrier) .. to about the 3rd lace hole should do it ..

Anonymous said...

Bobo's well considered alternatives are hanging versus a long sentence with zero prospect of reform or redemption.

Simple enough....and a powerful magnet for lazy, dishonest police votes.

Woman on a Raft said...

Insidetime - yes, why not? It's better than having them scribbing on the walls and is a very good source of basic information.

Obviously it has a certain viewpoint but at least the spin is clearly indicated. Plus, it is tightly edited and readable.

Here's a sample


I don't have to agree with any of it, but it's better to form an opinion based on a verifiable account.

Captain Haddock said...

"Insidetime - yes, why not? It's better than having them scribbing on the walls ... "

Let 'em scribble on the walls .. let 'em smear the walls with their own excrement if they so desire .. they've got to live with it ..

It didn't do the scum held in the "H" Blocks any good and it won't do this lot any good either ..

Prison Officers can be issued with protective clothing to prevent them from being contaminated ..

JuliaM said...

"You couldn't make it up could you?"

Indeed! Who'd be the editor of 'The Daily Mash' these days? ;)

"That's more than wages in Pakistan, Jamaica or West Africa, whence so many of HM's guests hail."

Quite!

"Christus - you'd need a really tiny violin for this one!"

And a scanning electron microscope to see it...

"It provides a golden opportunity to tax and make fair deductions to prisoner income. It also allows victims of crime, a practical avenue along which they can pursue civil claims against a prisoner with income. "

Why the need for a civil claim, which serves only to keep lawyers in work? Just deduct it at source!

JuliaM said...

"Watch the take-up rate of that sort of criminal-coddling nonsense drop through the floor.Two birds with one stone."

Excellent idea!

"To it's credit, OFSTED refuses to be cowed and highlights the skill itself as an area for improvement."

Interesting...

"...and is a very good source of basic information."

For everyone. :)

andy said...

maybe its time to start charging for food and accomodation and making them pay tax?
then he can really bitch about something,just like the rest of the country who`s taxes pay this worthless fuck for his "work" in the first place.

Anonymous said...

What about the £100,000 he already made from previous smuggling trips, no one is a first time offender caught with that much stuff, and then if you factor in how much it costs to keep someone locked up for 8 years, far out ways any income tax he would of paid doing a proper job, hard luck mate that's what I say