I submitted to a judge in Reading earlier this year that conditions in British Prisons were worse than as documented by Michael Ignatieff within Pentonville in the 1840s.
This country is becoming ever more heartless - fuelled by tabloids who demonise those who have been deprived of liberty in our name.
Most of our short term prison population shouldn’t be there in the first place. It’s a deplorably unimaginative approach.
Then we have lifers and residual outcasts subject to IPPs - the latter broken spirits in a kafkaesque limbo, entirely unintended, but no less inhumane for that.
Those who believe the health and efficiency of the CJS is measured by high conviction rates, & harsh punishments, I pity you. You have no insight, nor comprehension of the capricious fragility of human life.
These ‘monsters’ of your imagination were once beautiful, innocent children. The never ending cycle of trauma, abuse, or abandonment in childhood that causes delinquency & criminality is not a cloying excuse, but a documented cause of addiction & aggression.
If we merely allow such children to be excluded, often for good reason to protect others, they must be provided with and urgently need another safety net to arrest their fall into the abyss.
It is the same with the neurodiverse, e.g., those with autism, ADHD, Dyspraxia, or gender dysphoria. We need to connect. Untreated ADHD classically leads to drug addiction and alcoholism, & the plight of those with autism on trial or in prison deserves condemnation.
We need another Elizabeth Fry or John Howard. Their likenesses are depicted in twin reliefs on either side of the main gate to HMP Wormwood Scrubbs. Both were the essence of humanity.
At the time of writing all this my client lies comatose in hospital. He’d been complaining of ill-health inside since 8th Nov. He was yesterday rushed into hospital.
This poor man’s plight and the suffering of his family has opened a portal in me, to a better time, to which I yearn to return. All professionals must remain detached, clearheaded and objective. But above all and despite all that restraint, we need to care. Do I care?

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More from @edwardhenry1

10 Dec
Congratulations to Adrian Darbishire QC & Mark Aldred of my former chambers for an important success today in SFO v Akle.
At the time of his wrongful conviction
the SFO Director, Lisa Osofsky, said that the conviction “sends a clear message that the United Kingdom and the SFO will not tolerate criminal activity that undermines the fairness and integrity of international business.”
Today, her personal conduct of the matter, involving contact with a former DEA agent, was found to have undermined the fairness and integrity of the trial process.
Read 5 tweets
27 Dec 20
The #Nationalist and anti-immigration agenda that drove #LeaveEU will face many (at least to them) unpleasant surprises in decades to come. If we are to trade with nations from all over the globe we must expect to relax immigration controls. I have no problem with that.
It reveals the abject incoherence in the #LeaveEU cohorts. Free traders, who advocate rigid borders on immigration (some motivated by aversion to diversity or race) are living in a dream world.
Moreover, those who despised a supranational Europe, are now facing serious scrutiny: #NorthernIreland is de facto part of #Europe. Ditto #Gibraltar. Those who claim #Scotland’s quest for Independence is misconceived will be accused of rank hypocrisy.
Read 6 tweets
25 Dec 20
I’m not a bad loser, anymore than #Farage was. The vote markedby the 52% was never coherent. #Brexit was never defined. Most Brexiteers in 2015 espoused retained membership of EEA/Customs Union, Single Market. They couldn’t all be lying. But post 2016 strife polarised positions.
You can do anything for a day. Many days accumulated may lead to a reversal, who knows? Now, however, to the immediate future. Despite the rhetoric of Britain’s future, so much of #Brexit dwelt on our imperial past.
In a very real sense, it will represent an important lesson. We will soon learn that obsession with a mythical past will bring no succour for the present. If analysts are correct, our keen advantages in financial services have been slashed by this deal.
Read 8 tweets
25 Dec 20
The Government’s position on #Erasmus post #BrexitDeal is profoundly damaging to future relations. Such a lack of generosity shows Johnson to be mechanically transactional. It’s that base - the Government don’t want to educate Europeans, as more travel to UK than vice versa.
Unfortunately, the EU missed an opportunity to act with true grandeur and magnanimity by allowing gratis participation by British students - NI students not affected owing to different status.
Thus British students are further marginalised. The EU could have exercised soft power by making this unilateral offer, not contingent upon cost.
Read 4 tweets
25 Dec 20
The rejection of #Erasmus is not a sign of a confident, outward looking UK. Hindering the exposure of our exceptional youth to the myriad scientific & cultural benefits of Europe smacks of fear. The pull of #Europe’s gravity is strong. #Johnson by such vandalism knows it. #Shame
The exclusion of the UK from #Europol and #Eurojust affects our present, as much as the refusal to join #Erasmus blights our youths’ future.
These concerns, so far as #Europol and #Eurojust are objective: Britain is less safe, its resilience weakened and ability to fight crime degraded.
Read 6 tweets
6 Dec 20
In the 1790s an authoritarian Government led by Pitt the Younger brought a series of treason trials against radicals who were accused of ‘Jacobinism’. Mild mannered individuals faced a grisly public execution.
Some defended themselves ably and well, but for the majority their deliverance depended on Thomas Erskine and his junior, Vicary Gibbs.
Erskine forfeited his office as personal attorney to the Prince of Wales to defend these so called traitors. He asserted his independence, and thus the independence of the Bar.
Read 10 tweets

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