Here’s to the Whistleblowers

Written by a Just Stop Oil supporter currently held in a British prison.

Last month a Winchester magistrate made the brave decision to resign, declaring Winchester Prison is ‘dangerous’ and ‘corrupt’. She said that she ‘could not sleep at night’ knowing that she was incarcerating people in a place that would endanger them.

Questioned on the decision, a Channel 4 interviewer put to the former magistrate that prison is supposed to be punishment, so harsh conditions are part of the package? Georgia Swift pointed out that this logic does not stand up to scrutiny, the only plausible aim of a justice system is to make a safer society for us all. Time and time again studies show that sending people into unsafe prisons makes them more dangerous, and therefore more likely to reoffend.

As someone in prison for actions of nonviolent civil resistance, I support the former magistrate in her brave decision to speak out, for recognising the power she held in choosing not to cooperate with a harmful system.

At the time of writing there are 19 Just Stop Oil political prisoners across the UK. Between us, we have a picture of what day-to-day life is like in prisons across the country. In Wandsworth, cells that were designed by the Victorians for one man, are now housing two. In Wormwood Scrubs, men who are not getting enough to eat have resorted to eating pigeons boiled in kettles. Across the prison estate people are frequently left without the right medication, and that’s not mentioning the 23 hour lockdowns, total lack of access to outdoor space for days and days, the rats, the broken windows, I could go on.

Georgia Swift resigned over the dangerous conditions that people are held in, and interestingly, she also resigned over the corruption that she witnessed in her local prison. Across the country reports of prison guards bringing in drugs and phones in return for money are rife. Over 50% positive drugs tests are reported among prisoners, and staff can make thousands of pounds smuggling parcels for inmates. With just 6 weeks of training, and a very high staff turnover it’s no wonder that there are so many inside jobs taking place. 

In addition, corporations are charging immense amounts to run private prisons. For example if you are held in HMP Styal, a state prison, it costs the public purse an average £46K per prisoner per year, but private Sodexo run Bronzefield charges the government £96K per prisoner per year. Why? Considering that Bronzefield provides less food, less time outside, less access to clean bedding or cleaning products and people are still ‘sharing’ cells. Where is the extra £50K per person per year going?

As some of the most highly educated, upstanding citizens whose life’s work is committed to justice, magistrates and judges across the country must recognise that they themselves are aiding and abetting a cartel, part criminal and part profiteering. Are they restless at night, kept up by the questions of how to fight back against this epidemic of corruption in the prisons they send people to? Their options are bleak. The ‘correct’ and ‘democratic’ oversight such as prison inspections, independent complaints, and government targets are unable to stem the tide. Currently 11 prisons out of 39 have been judged to be unsafe, but people are still held in them. It’s not about rules – rules, indeed laws exist preventing much of this behavior.  What is taking place is a complete inability to run the system in accordance with the regulation and guidance, accompanied with a culture of impunity where guards, and even governors, feel able to profit from breaking rules time and time again.

Magistrates and judges find themselves in a dilemma: to continue with the status quo despite knowing that they are imprisoning people in dangerous and corrupt institutions, or defy the system and resign.

As humans, we feel most at peace when our actions coincide with our beliefs, with our conscience. When our actions do not match our beliefs we are said to be in a state of cognitive dissonance. This is not a modern idea, it goes to the heart of religious teachings across multiple civilisations and millennia, it is at the core of what it means to live a good life.

To live in a state of prolonged cognitive dissonance is miserable, an open crater in our mind making us unstable and volatile. Not dissimilar to the alarming sinkhole which appeared overnight in Merthyr Tydfil. Developers knew that there were mines in the area – but they chose to build anyway – with the stress and force brought about by the heavy rains it was only a matter of time before the ground opened up. Acting on our conscience, closes the crater in our mind, it is like building on stable ground.

We need to accept the reality of now and to act in line with our conscience, to step away from the status quo. This is no small task. To call out corruption, and to refuse to cooperate means speaking out against powerful vested interests, and perhaps even harder it means speaking out against the institutions or companies which provide us with careers, identity, social networks and financial security. It is an extremely brave thing to do, to defy these dynamics, in order to speak truth to power. Whether you are calling out sexual misconduct within the church, vested fossil fuel interests within the COP climate conferences, corruption within our prisons or violent misogyny within the media – the instinct to ‘stay with the crowd’ rather than to defect, remains the same.

But when you are working within a corrupt institution, and you know that the internal processes have failed, that the system is harmful, then you are left with the moral obligation to speak out at all costs.

So here’s to the whistleblowers….
Cheers to former Magistrate Swift who refuses to send people to a dangerous prison; Thanks to Caroline Dennett who refused to continue work as safety inspector for Shell Oil; Regards to the former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon and climate chief Christiana Figueres who have declared that the COP conference is ‘no longer fit for purpose’; Hats off to Richard Roll who helped to expose the Horizon Post office scandal; Respect to Tim Crosland who blew the whistle on the decision to expand Heathrow Airport; Solidarity with Assange and Manning, safely home after decades of struggle for revealing the truth.

 If you are a magistrate, a judge or part of the CPS reading this, please consider contacting the Defend Our Juries campaign to seek support in speaking out. If you are part of a fossil fuel company reading this piece, please contact Just Stop Oil for any support you need to blow the whistle. Screw your courage to the sticking plate, this is the struggle for justice.