So, what can you do to support families and loved ones impacted by prison?
As well as @OurEmptyChair, here are some fantastic groups supporting (and in most cases, led by) prisoners' families at the grassroots: THREAD 👇
@JENGbA are a group of families campaigning against wrongful convictions under the joint enterprise law. Follow them! (OEC)
@UNGRIPP are a group campaigning on behalf of prisoners and ex-prisoners serving the (abolished) IPP sentence in England and Wales. Follow and support their current action: ungripp.com/post/a-window-…
@psn_ldn work tirelessly to extend solidarity to and support prisoners and their families across the country. Follow them (and do get in touch if the below applies!)
If you are able to… donate to and/or volunteer your time to organisations like @ChildrenHandS that provide frontline support to children and families experiencing the pains of the imprisonment of a loved one right now.
Jodie from @OurEmptyChair signing out! Thank you to Jolyon and the brilliant team at @GoodLawProject for letting us takeover your Twitter feed today. If any of the issues raised resonate with you, do email us at OurEmptyChair@protonmail.com!
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If you don't follow @GoodLawProject it's worth taking a look at its tweets over the rest of the morning: there are some pretty explosive revelations about the VIP lane coming.
Here's a little sample of what the Court is being shown. Civil servants complaining that they are "drowning in VIP requests" and that they don't hold the correct certification or pass due diligence.
(Government has been pretending - and very unfortunately much of the media and NAO has been playing along - that there was no such thing as a "VIP" lane. There was.)
Some stinging comments from the Head of the National Audit Office around PPE procurement today... telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/2…
He criticises, in particular, transparency failures by the Government.
Those transparency failures continue to this day, months after Boris Johnson misled Parliament by claiming everything was in the open. This £307m contract has still not been published. contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/561e39a…
Prisoners’ families continue to speak out and take action about their experiences of prison lockdown and the impact this continues to have on them (as most prisons still have not opened up for visits).
Here’s a thread…
@JakeBenRichards and @JonathanMetzer have been working with @OurEmptyChair and others on a legal action against the Ministry of Justice on the lack of meaningful contact between children and their imprisoned parent throughout the pandemic:
“Many children have not seen their parents since the beginning of lockdown — in person, or even via video technology. They are often some of the most vulnerable children, and such a lengthy period without any parental contact is causing significant harm.” thetimes.co.uk/article/corona…
Children with a parent in prison have been severely impacted by a lack of prison visits.
This thread will share the work of @ChildrenHandS - an amazing charity providing support to children with a parent in prison across the country.👇
Most recent estimates show that around 312,000 children experience parental imprisonment each year. The true figure is unknown due to the lack of statutory framework in place to support, or even identify children who have a parent in prison.
Children with a parent in prison are at a much greater risk of experiencing ill-mental health, often caused by the shame and stigma associated with having a parent in prison.
Good morning! Jodie from @OurEmptyChair here. We're taking over Jo's Twitter until 1pm. We'll be sharing the work we've been doing bringing together the experiences of families separated by prison throughout the pandemic - as well as opportunities for you to support this work!
So who are Our Empty Chair?
@OurEmptyChair is a grassroots group, set up in April 2020 shortly after prison visits were suspended across the UK as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Set up by a group of friends with experience of either having a family member in prison or directly supporting prisoners’ families.
We felt the specific impact of lockdown on prisoners’ families wasn’t (and still isn’t) recognised in conversations being had about the pandemic.
The first lockdown ended in June. How can we still have needed PPE so urgently as to award a vast £100m+ PPE contract without any competition in July? Could it have something to do with close links to Number 10? bbc.com/news/uk-566679…
We at @GoodLawProject first told you about Pharmaceuticals Direct (for whom Samir Jassal signed the £100m contract) last month. Since then Zac Goldsmith has repeatedly sent highly hostile tweets about me...