Bumbling Along

Dickens gave us some memorable characters, one of whom was Mr Bumble the Beadle in Oliver Twist. His role in life was as the senior official at Oliver’s orphanage where his days were spent in flaunting his self importance whilst seeking to fiddle some financial advantages for himself. But on one occasion he spoke some truths. “The law” he pronounced “Is a ass. The law is a idiot.” (sic).   He was so right.

The Law can be an ass, and a spiteful harmful ass at that. The Law can also be an idiot, because when it fouls up and damages lives it fails to correct the error and instead carries on damaging without remorse or care. Three examples of this are in front of us today.

New Horizons

The first is the scandal of the convicted Sub Postmasters, currently subject to a Public Inquiry. Their plight began twenty-two years ago, when the Post Office introduced a new computer system named Horizon, developed by Fujitsu. Anyone who has worked anywhere knows that the phrase “our new computer system starts tomorrow” is a harbinger of doom. Files vanish, basic tasks go wrong, innumerable Consultants have to be brought in to benefit from hours of highly paid work to put it right. Anyway, in came this system and then it all went whatsits up. First of all, those working in the post offices found that there were money shortages on a regular basis, which they assumed were minor cash handling errors and so put money back from their own pockets to balance the books, but the discrepancies grew.

Within a short time 736 sub postmasters and mistresses, those people who take the time and trouble to provide a public service in their small paper-shops or grocery stores, paying pensions or benefits, and selling stamps, suddenly found themselves accused of embezzlement. In some cases, they were accused of stealing sums far larger than the total turnover of the shop they were actually running. Not one person seems to have stepped back and thought it strange that these highly respected and dedicated people, loved in their own communities, had all of a sudden turned to crime. Nobody, and I find this impossible to understand, found it peculiar that the tens of thousands of pounds some of them were accused of taking, had completely vanished and could not be traced in their personal bank accounts or lives. Above all no-one took a look and wondered if perhaps it was not a coincidence it happened at the same time the Horizon programme began, and may have been linked.  Worst of all nobody told any of them that others were facing the same accusations, so each one was left thinking they alone faced this problem and might have in some way caused it in the first place.

They were made to pay back money they had never taken. Some went to prison. Marriages broke up under the strain. There have been four suicides that may be linked to this and thirteen who were punished despite having done nothing wrong have already died without knowing they were fully vindicated. In 2019, once the shocking system had been exposed, a High Court Judge described the Post Office investigation, which refused to even consider their computer system was faulty, as being like “holding to a belief that the earth is flat.” Completely innocent people were punished, fined, imprisoned, and found themselves scorned by neighbours who felt they had been fleeced by those they had trusted as friends.

Eventually financial compensation was agreed, though by no means all have received it yet but amazingly the Head of the Post Office responsible for the Flat Earth approach condemned by the Judge was actually given a CBE and a highly prestigious role in a Health Service Trust even after that strong criticism. This case proved Bumble completely right. Each of those investigating acted like an ass. As did the entire system. Yet none of those whose system caused the problem or those whose hapless investigation damaged 700 plus innocents suffered in any way.

Nothing Changes

The second scandalous miscarriage of justice is Joint Enterprise. Often featured within Inside Time, this is the long-standing principal that all those participating in a crime are collectively responsible. However, in 2016 the Supreme Court ruled that since 1984 the interpretation of this principal has been misused and the definition widened to make people responsible under Joint Enterprise when they never should have been as they not only had no active part in the criminal act concerned but had no foreknowledge of it and no possible means of preventing it. This wrongful change of definition carried on for over 30 years. It was a very important decision, but since that day nothing has happened.

The 2016 verdict was proclaimed a landmark judgement and expected to result in Appeals being granted for all those convicted by what the Court itself ruled was a fundamental error in law. It has not happened. People are still in prison and refused the right to have their case heard. Extreme weather forced Anti Joint Enterprise Campaign group JENGbA to postpone a demonstration outside the Supreme Court to mark the 6^th anniversary of the verdict but will mark the occasion when weather allows and continue to fight until this wrong is put right.

They Certainly Know Now

The third, and continuing, stigma on our society is Imprisonment for Public Protection. This was a punishment introduced in 2005 aimed at preventing serious violent or sex offenders from being released until a Parole Board had been satisfied they were no longer a danger to the public, but was added by Judges to short sentences for which it was not intended. IPP was abolished for new sentences in 2012 but the abolition was not retrospective. There are people who were given tariffs of 4 years or even less over 15 years ago who are still in prison. Senior judges have called it the worst example of injustice ever seen in their lifetimes, the man who introduced it, Lord Blunkett, describes it as his greatest mistake because it was misused.

When you are in prison, knowing your leaving date is very important. You measure your days against it, no matter how long or short the length of time may be, but for those on IPP that certainty does not exist. Parole Board hearings have come and gone and no progress has been made. Prison is stressful for everyone, but for those on IPP the stress is unbearable and there is considerable mental anguish causing psychological damage.  A lot has happened over IPP in 2021, indeed since Inside Time published an IPP Special last February, the main one being the Commons Justice Committee Inquiry into the matter.

At one of those hearings Prisons Minister Kit Malthouse claimed one of the concerns about releasing those on IPP is their mental health as they may be “dangerous”, but admitted it is the sentence itself that is causing the damage. He said the priority is protecting the public, even though he is actually protecting the public from the result of the system he oversees. The Committee Chair scornfully described it as “rough justice”. Rough justice is no justice. Whilst people are being released on Licence, just as many are being recalled to prison each year as are let out.

The recently formed IPP In Action Group will stage a march from Downing Street to Parliament on April 27^thwhere there will be a mass Lobby of MPs. TV, radio, and the press are now widely discussing the topic. The Justice Committee Report will be out this Spring and given the superb response from those inside prison on the sentence I am confident it will be strong and give practical steps for stopping this heinous crime perpetrated by the British State. 500 letters from those suffering, inspired by UNGRIPP, were submitted in evidence to guide them. Politicians can no longer claim to be uninformed and must act.

The Fight Will Continue

Perhaps the thinking behind the reluctance to put right matters which are clearly wrong was best, or worst, expressed by the present Home Secretary Priti Patel MP back in 2011 before she was a Minister. Appearing on “Have I Got News For You” she was grilled by Ian Hislop, Editor of Private Eye, on Capital Punishment which she strongly supported. He highlighted the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four would have been executed under her system even though they were subsequently proven innocent.  Ms Patel said that would be acceptable because they had been through “due process” and it would be a “deterrent”. Mr Hislop mused it is not a deterrent if you punish completely the wrong people. But it sums up for me the approach saying injustice and wrongful imprisonment are a “price worth paying” to be tough on crime. That is fine if it is not you paying the price. To be tough on crime you have to properly identify the criminals. Not punish the innocent. Ministers should consider that those in prison spend time considering the crime they have committed and errors they have made. If their punishment is unjust as they have spent far too long in prison for anything they did, they instead feel resentful and angry which is not a positive frame of mind. Injustice will always cause such negativity. It would in anyone.

The strain on those campaigning against these and other scandals is heavy. They do not do this because they are paid but because they believe in their cause. They get frustrated when they do not see results and families of those suffering can look to blame them for not solving everything, even though it is beyond their control. But in the end they will win. The Post Office victims are now seeing their case properly examined. The wrongful use of Joint Enterprise and IPP will end. Those fighting for true justice have far more strength than that possessed by publicity seeking populist politicians who will eventually shrivel up and vanish.

There will always be times when the Law is an ass, an idiot, as Mr Bumble identified. But decent people will challenge each ludicrous and foul manifestation as it arises. And in the end, will win.

Raymond Smith is a writer and former prisoner, “whose eyes were opened as the gates of Pentonville were closed behind him.”