HOW CAN YOU HELP DEFENDANTS & IMPRISONED PROTESTERS?

1. NEW – SIGN UP TO THE TWIN WITH A PRISONER SCHEME- Download the flyer here:

http://defendtherighttoprotest.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Twin-with-a-prisoner-A5-BW-2.pdf

2. Write to imprisoned protesters – LIST OF PRISONERS is below

A message from Joe Sellers – Free Frank Fernie Campaign

With sentencing on young protesters becoming less and less reasoned, increasingly disproportionate and twice as frequent, it is massively important that over the following months, we as the public can begin to come together and support the real victims of protest. The defendants.

July this year saw Francis Fernie sentenced to a 12 month custodial sentence, 220 miles away from his family, for throwing two placard sticks in the direction of heavily protected police officers at the M26 London protests. These were the police officers that only minutes prior to this incident had shown Frank the full definition of police brutality.

Instead of settling into his University life in Sheffield as should have been the case, Frank is now instead preparing for his release back into society this coming Monday with many of his future prospects suddenly appearing cloudy.
Alfie Meadows was beaten so severely that he was required to undergo brain surgery in order to save his life. As if that were not unnecessary punishment enough, he now stands charged with violent disorder and could be looking at a similar situation as Frank.

These are only two examples from a list that has grown rapidly over the last 5 months. It is important that all of those involved in this horrible situation are not forgotten and that as individuals, they are constantly reminded that they are not alone in fighting for their rights.

In the case of Frank Fernie, the support group and campaign that was erected around him have been priceless in making his time in prison easier and now, in the long run, shorter. Through the small actions of many, Frank’s time has been made all the more bearable.

Swarms of letters and emails sent to Frank by those who feel for his cause have not only reminded him throughout his sentence of the outside support he has, but have also managed to occupy a huge part of the tedious time he has spent locked away.

Postal orders sent through the post meant the Frank has had more money than he has had time to spend. Stamps, envelopes and photos meant that Frank has had plenty of activities to keep him busy, responding to letters and being reminded of the external efforts to fight his cause.

The facebook page set up in support of Frank grew over 1000 members in less than a week and helped us provide witnesses, photographic evidence and an un countable amount of contacts with inside knowledge of both protest and the system. Without this, the entire process of defence and appeal would have been impossible.

We feel that this sort of effort and support should be readily available to each individual defendant.

With Defend the Right to Protest, we at the Free Frank Fernie campaign will be helping to make this both possible and easy.

Over the next month we will be creating a scheme hosted through this website where forums and facebook groups will be created for defendants, their friends, families and supporters, enabling them to talk amongst each other. We will also be providing brief profiles of all the defendants receiving custodial sentences as and when the information comes available. This will include information on each person and the best ways to contact and help them.

For friends and family that are looking to begin a campaign in support of a prisoner or defendant I will be running a series of blogs (and possibly workshops if numbers are high enough) to teach people how to get a basic campaign up and running with zero previous knowledge of how to do so and also without particularly a large deal of effort (once you get the numbers a lot of work does itself).

Together we can help restore a vague sense of justice and happiness to those who have has this taken away from them.

Below are a few useful links to help people get informed and start to show support even at this early stage. The current list of sentencing below is not 100% up to date and so some addresses are not actual prison addresses meaning that email a prisoner is redundant at the moment. We will be compiling recent addresses over the next fortnight:
List of current sentencing of defendants with current addresses:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150297627542294

Best website for learning info about individual prisons. Particularly useful for friends and families so that they know what prisoners will be doing certain days etc. Came to great use when working out when free time for potential phone calls may fall:

http://www.insidetime.org/info-regimes.asp

Government website providing information on sentencing processes etc. Again incredibly useful:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Sentencingprisonandprobation/index.htm

Best website to use to get in touch with a prisoner. Takes 5 minutes to set up an account. You can email a prisoner for 30p a time and they will receive it the very next day. Prisoners have no access to personal internet and so responses will be sent as a written letter, not as an email:

http://www.emailaprisoner.com/

Information on the recent appeals of rioters, will prove useful for anyone with an appeal coming up shortly as courts have started unfairly using this as a basis for the appeals and sentencing of protest defendants:

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2011/2312.html

WRITE TO IMPRISONED PROTESTERS:

“Mail becomes a whole new experience in prsion, on the outside we dont usually look forward to mail, probably because more often than not it’ll be bills!! In prison however a letter from someone is a really uplifting moment and the support and mail I recieved when i was in prsion was absolutely great and really kept me positive. I would encourage anyone who has something helpful or supportive to say to political prisoners to write to them.” FRANK FERNIE

Richard Bacon
Serving a 10 month sentence for Affray (s3) from the TUC March for the Alternative demonstration

A5156CH
HMP HEWELL
Hewell Lane
Redditch
Worcestershire
B97 6QS


Joseph Binney Found guilty of violent disorder during the TUC March for the Alternative demonstration on Monday 31st October at Kingston Crown Court and is now on remand (on request) until his sentencing on 25th November

A5569CH

HMP Wandsworth

PO Box 757

Heathfield Road

London,  SW18 3HS

James Heslip Sentenced to 12 months on October 5th 2011 for alleged violent disorder (pushing a sofa towards a window) at the student protests at Millbank last year.  Write to him:

London ABC c/o Freedom Bookshop

Angel Alley
84b Whitechapel High Street
London
E1 7QX

Omar Ibrahim 

Omar sentenced to 18 months for alleged violent disorder (throwing a toy smoke bomb that hit and hurt no one) at the March 26th TUC March for the Alternative.

Write to him:

London ABC
c/o Freedom Bookshop
Angel Alley
84b Whitechapel High Street
London
E1 7QX

Zenon Mitchell-Kotsakis Sentenced to 15 months for alleged violent disorder (throwing a couple of light weight placard sticks) during the Millbank protests on the 10th November national education demonstration.

Write to him:

A6970CH

HMYOI Portland

104 Grove Road, Portland

Dorset

DT5 1DL

Keep up to date with his campaign fb group: free zenon – justice for students

Michael Newton – J30 action and other minor charges. Serving a 12 month custodial
Michael welcomes letters, posters and pictures.

A6611CE
HMP Preston
Wing C4 17
2 Ribbleton Lane
Preston
Lancs
PR1 5AB

Matthew Robinson – pleaded guilty to violent disorder from March 26th and sentenced on Nov 16th to 12 months.
A5988AZ
HMP Wandsworth
Heathfield Road
Wandsworth
London
SW18 3HS


Benjamin Sunderland
Sentenced to 12 months for alleged violent disorder during the Millbank protests at the 10th November 2010 national education demonstration.

A6968CH
HMYOI Portland
104 The Grove
Easton, Portland
Dorset DTS IDL

Harry Webb Serving a 12 month sentence for alleged violent disorder during the March 26th demonstration despite having been violently attacked by the police in Trafalgar Square. Please write to him:

A4895CG
HMP Wandsworth
Heathfield Road
Wandsworth
SW18 3HS

Demi Wilson-Smith serving 10 months for alleged violent disorder during the Millbank protests on the 10th November education demonstration. Write to her:

A6979CH

Address:  HMP Holloway Prison,

1 Parkhurst Road

London, N7 0NU.

Ed Woollard: http://support4edwoollard.wordpress.com/

Sentenced to 2 years and 8 months for dropping a fire extinguisher off the roof of Millbank.
Write to Edward
Email – writetoedwoollard@gmail.com
Or c/o
Chris Rawlinson,
Student Union
Brockenhurst College
Lyndhurst Road
Brockenhurst
Hampshire
SO42 7ZE

Campaign website: http://support4edwoollard.wordpress.com/

TWIN WITH AN IMPRISONED PROTESTER: Download leaflet here