No annual custody deaths rally this year!
Click Image for information
4WardEver has been notified that there will be no official rally & demonstration taking place in London this year. We urge readers to pass on this information!
2008 saw the tenth anniversary of the United Families & Friends demonstration
Unofficial Gathering
Ken Fero, co-director of INJUSTICE, invites anyone who would like to attend to meet with him at the usual location:
Assemble at 1pm at Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, London
Please note that this will be a simple gathering. There will be no procession along Whitehall and to Downing Street as has been the case in previous years.
Nearest tube: Charing Cross
Contact Ken for more information – E-mail via info@4wardever.org and we will pass on all messages
See the report on the NEW petition to 10 Downing Street >
PM Custody death response rejected
Statement from 4WardEver UK
3rd October 2009
The United Families & Friends Campaign and 4WardEver UK reject the Prime Ministers response to a previous petition against custody deaths on the Number10 e-petition website. We challenge the Prime Minister once again to address the issues raised.
Petition: Access Here >
Available until 31st March 2010 (target 2000 signatures)
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4WardEver UK decided to launch a separate and international appeal demanding a change in the policies and practices that continue to see people dying and abused in the so-called care of the state.
The United Families & Friends Campaign is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who are killed in secure psychiatric hospitals.
Between 1969 and 1999 over one thousand people died in police custody in England. Not one police officer has ever been convicted for any of these deaths. The film INJUSTICE depicts how Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Shiji Lapite and Ibrahima Sey met violent deaths at the hands of the police and documents a five year period when their families came together to fight for the truth.
See original petition on the No10 Website >
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Many thanks for your continued support.
The 4WardEver UK Team
Moves under way to support women, not imprison them
originally published:
30th September 2009
Two-and-a-half years after Baroness Corston’s blueprint for overhauling the women’s prison system proposed that non-violent female offenders be sent to support centres instead of being locked up, the government has begun a series of meetings aimed at improving community-based help for these vulnerable women.
Justice minister Maria Eagle, last week met with magistrates, health workers, Crown Prosecution Office staff and prison officials in Birmingham at the first of 10 planned sessions on how to improve support for offenders who have a history of addiction and abuse and who are often caring for young children. Eagle said the events, dubbed Women in Focus, are the next step in ministers’ efforts to implement Corston’s recommendations.
While some campaigners are impatient about the pace of change, Corston, who is now chairing a new all-party parliamentary group aimed at pushing through her reform agenda, says she is “very encouraged” by the move. “The vision that I had was going to be at least five years if not 10,” she says . “It’s going in the right direction. I wouldn’t want to say, ‘Oh, yes, it’s all implemented.’ It couldn’t have been – it’s only two years.”
