The prison service has become adept at cloaking itself with a facade of competence and decency, hiding behind a blizzard of policies and statements that attempt to guard the gated against cynical observers. Odd, sporadic and quickly discarded stories of wickedness leach out into the world but as a broad theme, to the unfocused public eye the prison service seems to have succeeded in appearing 'modern', 'humanitarian'.-even Butlinesque.
How is it then that a man acquitted of the charges against him lies dying under the disinterested gaze of prison guards in hospital? The story of Big Rinty is one that should enrage anyone with a scintilla of decency within their body. Rinty is a Lifer who was released on licence from his original sentence over two decades ago. After spending several years in the community, he was charged with a crime. He was then acquitted of this crime at trial.
Such is the contempt that our masters hold for the legal process, that Rinty was recalled back to prison anyway. Some 12 years later, here at Shepton, he was diagnosed with aggressive and fatal pancreatic cancer. In a very short time Rinty has been reduced by this malignancy, shaven down from his large frame into a man whose skin now merely serves to hold his bones together.
Rinty is now in hospital outside, under guard, too weak to even walk. He will shortly escape his sentence in the only certain way any Lifer can, through death.
Today, we learned that he has been refused Compassionate Release. Should anyone ever dare question the utter contempt for the prison system that is forever etched in my bones, remember Rinty.
We will. And I will never cease to remind you of the inhumanity that is the cold, dull, bureaucracy that comprises imprisonment.
