IT'S TIME
by Mal
(31st March 2007)

The legal procedures of our country continue to spit far more violent and dangerous people than Charlie onto the public streets, while singling him out for extra-special attention.

He has expressed genuine remorse for his actions both inside and outside prison but is continually frustrated by the system's attitude to his efforts to rehabilitate himself. I know that he is held up as a "bogey man" example to new prison officers, which perpetuates his reputation; a reputation which I firmly believe is no longer deserved. He has a good relationship with the officers in the CSC unit at Wakefield, many of whom hold the confidential view that he should not be where he is. If it is possible for a "system" to be vidictive then I believe that is the case here. It certainly shows a disregard and lack of compassion, care and understanding for the plight of a human being.

The argument that continued segregation is (at least) not helping Charlie is a valid one, and I do not believe that the current situation is justifiable. Charlie has a much more sensitive side than most people give him credit for and is certainly NOT the "most violent prisoner in the country" as the press would have the public believe. I truly believe that he could hold his own in the general prison population. In fact, Lord Justice Rose has commended him for behaving in court "calmly and with dignity" and that he was "a rather different person".

Charlie was no trouble at all to the prison authorities for six years after his conviction for taking a hostage in 1999 ... and yet he continued to be held in isolation. I believe that any human being held under those conditions would feel frustrated, desolate, powerless and hopeless, to say the least. Can you imagine what that must feel like? Many people would have committed suicide a long time ago rather than continue to live in isolation for an undetermermined future period.

An incident last year occurred after Charlie heard that Robert Maudsley ("Hannibal the Cannibal", two cells away from him) had made a threat to kill him and had made a concerted effort to "wind up" Charlie over a period of time. (In 1977, Maudsley and another inmate took a third prisoner hostage and locked themselves in a cell with their captive, whom they tortured and killed. When guards eventually broke into the cell, the unfortunate inmate's skull was found cracked open and a spoon wedged in his brain. Maudsley claimed he had eaten some of the victim's brain. He has murdered two other prisoners since!) I would estimate that there are many tens of thousands of men and women in this country who would "offer out" anyone who made such threats. Certainly a very high proportion of inmates in the general prison population would act in a similar manner, although only a very few of them are kept permanently caged. He was not "very violent" during the episode. As far as I can ascertain no prison officers received injury during the incident and it was resolved by use of pepper spray on him after a considerable stand-off period.

Subsequently, Charlie was sent to the dungeon at HMP Full Sutton for a month's "cooling off". Full Sutton know exactly which buttons to press to get Charlie to kick off. Charlie gets only one hour a day in the yard; the other 23 hours he is locked up alone in his claustrophobic cell. Prison rules say he is allowed one hour, so if they cut the hour short he understandably refuses to go in until his hour is up. Three times during his month in Full Sutton they tried to take him in after only forty minutes and each time he refused until his hour was up. Each incident resulted in the prison governor calling in the Mufti squad (prison riot squad in full riot gear) and Charlie was beaten to a pulp by up to 15 (!!!) mufti. He ended up black and blue all over and pissing blood! Is that fair treatment? Or is that what you'd expect to read about happening in some dictatorship many thousands of miles from the United Kingdom?

The time has come for the Government to step in and stop the torture of this man; for torture is the only word that can be used to describe what Charles Bronson has endured for 34 years.