Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

English prison system refuses to transfer Scottish prisoner

Alan Porter, | 07.12.2007 12:11 | Repression


My name is Alan Porter and I am from Scotland. I am serving a life sentence in a prison in England. I am trying to persuade the Prison Service of England and Wales to transfer me to a Scottish prison. I think that as a Scottish national this should be my right but they are refusing to accept my application. I am therefore writing to ask for your help.

I was born on 10 December 1955 and brought up in Renfrewshire. I lived in Scotland until 1985, when I moved down to England. Four years later on 3 July 1989 Lewes Crown Court sentenced me to life imprisonment for killing a man in Brighton. It was a stupid, senseless act. I have never denied committing this murder or tried to blame anyone else for it, and of course I regret it terribly.

My life at the time was a bit chaotic, to say the least, and even part of the time I’d spent in England prior to getting life had been spent in prison for another offence. My intention was always to return to Scotland, where I had a council house that had previously been my grandfather’s.

I started my sentence at HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs. I petitioned for a transfer then but it was refused.

I have every intention of going back to Scotland when I am eventually released and nobody seems to dispute that this will happen. But they won’t allow me to transfer prior to then to serve my sentence. The short period of time spent in England prior to this sentence (and the fact that part of this time was passed in prison) means I have no friends, family or other connections outside of prison in England. But this is not the point. I am Scottish – ethnically and culturally.

I have repeatedly applied to the authorities in London to authorise my transfer to Scotland as such an application would have to first be agreed in England and then in Scotland. I can’t even clear the first hurdle as the Prison Service of England and Wales says that because I wasn’t living in Scotland directly before my arrest and don’t have family there who are lobbying for my return, I have to stay here. And the Scottish Prison Service won’t even look at my application until it has been cleared in London.

I think that Scottish people are discriminated against by the legislation that allows them to decide my case on this basis (and the Race Relations Act accepts Scottish people as a distinct group who can suffer discrimination.) A barrister here agrees with me; however we have been refused legal aid to take the case to court.

I am in a catch-22 situation. I was refused a transfer to Scotland on the basis that I am not in touch with family and friends there. But I can only realistically establish any links once I’m there. At present I’m refusing to co-operate with the English prison system (ie to participate in offending behaviour courses, sentence planning etc) as a move to Scotland is all I am really concerned about.

Overseas prisoners can apply for repatriation to any country that has an agreement with Britain regarding transfer of prisoners under various conventions and treaties. Indeed the British government is seeking ways to speed up such transfers and increase their use, even to the extent of making them non-voluntary. These transfers can proceed purely on the basis of nationality and a prisoner from a country outside the United Kingdom only has to prove that he or she is from the other country. They don’t need to have been ordinarily resident or have family or friends in the country. But I can’t go to Scotland unless I can prove these things.

On the other hand, Welsh prisoners in prison in England can apply to transfer to prisons in Wales within the ordinary transfer system as the two parts of the UK form part of a single jurisdiction.

So prisoners from Scotland are in a no-man’s-land, between the options open to Welsh prisoners and those open to prisoners of nationalities that are not part of the United Kingdom. This is clearly discriminatory and unfair.

I would therefore urge anyone who gets this letter and is concerned about this situation, both as it affects me personally, and in its wider implications for Scottish people’s rights, to take the matter up by writing to the Scottish Parliament, MSPs, Scottish MPs, the Scottish press and anyone else who can lobby on my behalf.

Applications for transfer from English to Scottish prisons are dealt with in England by the:
Home Office Policy and Rights Unit Cross Border Transfer Section
1st Floor, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
LONDON SW1P 4DF

And in Scotland by:

Scottish Prison Service Headquarters,
Room 305, Calton House
5 Redheughs Rigg
Edinburgh EH12 9HW

Please copy any replies you receive to my legal advisers at Prisoners Advice Service, PO BOX 46199, London EC1M 4XA.


Alan Porter, NF1580
HMP RYE HILL
Willoughby
Nr. Rugby
Warwickshire
CV23 8SZ



Alan Porter,

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech