UK NEWS

PRISON ESCAPERS CAN'T BE NAMED

PRISON: On the run criminals have right to privacy

Saturday July 4,2009

By Cyril Dixon

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BUNGLING justice officials yesterday refused to name prisoners who escape from jail – in case it breached their right to privacy.

The scandal emerged after Ministry of Justice staff refused to identify any of the 39 inmates who fled a notoriously soft open prison.

Among those to abscond from the jail nicknamed “Holiday Bay” are robbers and thugs convicted of grievous bodily harm.

Gary Aubin took advantage of the easy-going regime at Hollesley Bay in Suffolk to vanish in May 2007.

Aubin, 38, who was serving an eight-year sentence for robbery, was re-arrested in Thanet, Kent, a month later.

Armed robbers James Slack and James “Rocky” Purcell escaped in June 2007. It is not known if the pair have been recaptured.

MPs last night vowed to challenge the “intolerable and unacceptable” veil of secrecy protecting the runaways.

Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “The Government is not obliged by the law on privacy to withhold the identity of fugitive prisoners, where it helps prevent crime or protect the public.

“Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, must stop blaming his own legislation for his own lack of transparency. It only fuels public suspicion that he is really trying to avoid political embarrassment.”

Former Environment Secretary John Gummer, in whose constituency Hollesley Bay lies, said: “There is no sense in which a prisoner’s identity is a private matter. He sacrifices that when he becomes a prisoner.”

The Ministry was asked under the Freedom of Information Act for details of escapees from the jail.

Although officials provided the total of fleeing villains between January 1, 2007, and March 31 this year, with a summary of their convictions, they refused to give details, claiming they were not at liberty to reveal names and sentence details under the Act.

A spokesman said: “We have obligations under the Data Protection Act and in law generally to protect this information.”

The Ministry insisted yesterday that the number of prison escapes was at its lowest in 10 years despite an increasing jail population.

PRISON ESCAPERS CAN'T BE NAMED

04.07.09, 4:11pm

This is the legacy left to us by Tony BLiar and his Human (CRIMINALS) Rights Act.

• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment

GOVERNMENT LOOKING AFTER THEMSELVES AS USUAL

04.07.09, 2:31pm

This is not about prisoner's rights, it's about the Government looking after themselves. They know if we knew how many prisoners have escaped from our open prisons, there would be a huge public outcry.

Some of us have tried constantly to bring to this matter to the fore over the years and gotten nowhere! Prisons are meant to be a deterrent, not a holiday camp.

What we need now is a Telegraph-style expose on our prison system.

Any takers, Daily Mail?

• Posted by: Liz727 • Report Comment

MORE INCOMPETENCE

04.07.09, 7:43am

Once more incompetence prevails in British officials, and I can't understand the secrecy of the escapees names, It's about the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard, I wonder how much of a salary those idiots get.

• Posted by: AGNESROBERT • Report Comment