Recalled for being 10 minutes late
“Did you hear Joe Bloggs is back in Wandsworth? He’s been recalled!”
At times one could be forgiven for thinking that there is no hope in making a life outside prison. Given the profligacy of illicit mobile phones, the prison grapevine is now national. We hear almost instantly when a man has been recalled to prison for breaching their licence conditions after their release. At times, parole can seem as daunting as leaving a World War I trench and charging over the top – unless you look at the big picture.
I did years on the Prisoner Information Desk in a local Cat. B prison. This was the entry point for men coming into custody – whether that was from court or via a recall. I could meet anywhere between 20 and 200 new faces each and every week and I heard all of the stories. The most common reason given for being recalled was being ‘10 minutes late’.
I had been through the Christian Bros school system in the 70s and even that seems tame compared to probation! For years I wonder just who were these Draconian probation officers who measured life by a stopwatch? The scales finally fell from my eyes when one lad asked for my help.
“Bitch called me for being 10 minutes late – but at least it’s only a 28 day lie down.” He told me this before he introduced himself. I tried to go through the usual interview with him, but he was obsessed about his recall. He had only been out for 5 days and it was patently unfair – an excessive reaction. But he clung to the fact that he would be released again automatically in 28 days – or so he thought.
“What are your risk levels mate?”, I asked. He wasn’t going to talk about anything else so I thought, sod it. Every prisoners risk of harm is measured across a number of categories and ranges from low to medium to high and very high.
“Hi risk to the public and very high risk to ‘known adult’.” He replied.
“Then I’m sorry to tell you lad, but you won’t be on a fixed 28 day recall – you’re on a standard recall – you’ll be waiting until the parole board recommend your rerelease.”
I could see him bristling so I reached behind me and got one of the many resources I have gathered over the years. On a much photocopied A4 page it was written clearly and undeniably – if an offender who was considered to be high or very high risk of harm is recalled, their rerelease must be directed by the parole board.
“That’s just bang out of order – it’s a stitch up. Only 5 days out and they recall me for being 10 minutes late back to the hostel. What the hell can I do?”, He looked shell-shocked.
I answered, “put an application into the offender management team and ask for your recall dossier ASAP. Then you can write representations and ask for an expedited hearing if you feed your recall was unfair.”
“10 minutes late! How unfair is that?” His voice rose a few octaves. Then he took a breath, looked at me and said, “I’m not that good at writing. Will you help me?”
“I picked out an application form and filled it out with him. Then I assured him that I would help him write his representations when he received his recall dossier. A week later he sent word for me to meet him. I had developed a good reputation for being trustworthy and discreet. I went and picked up his dossier, assured him I would read it overnight and meet with him the following day to write his representations.
I was stunned! The following day I went back to the lad with a couple of points that I needed to clarify with him. I began by saying, “the report says that you refused to engage with a group therapy session, despite this being mandated as part of your licence conditions – is that true?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna sit around with a load of nonses talking about crap!”
“And”, I continued, “it states that you threw a chair across the same group therapy room as you left, that it narrowly missed a facilitator and a window.
“Nah, the chair landed a good 3 feet away from the facilitator.”
“Okay. It says that the following night you came back to the hostel drunk and refused breathalyser test – that remaining alcohol free was one of your licence conditions.”
“I hadn’t been drinking, so I didn’t have to do a test.”
“Then the report says that the following night, you missed your 7 PM curfew by more than 4 hours when you came back to the hostel drunk. That you vomited in the hallway and that you refused to clean it up. That you returned to the hallway at one in the morning and became abusive because staff tried to stop you from going for a takeaway meal.”
“When I was paying rent in that place and I didn’t want to be there. It’s like the hotel – there’s staff for cleaning shit up – not me.”
“Fair enough”, I said. “Then the following night you returned to the hostel at 7:10 PM where you were arrested by police and taken into custody subject to a recall order issued by the probation service.”
” Yeah – now you see! I was only 10 minutes late and they arrested me and recalled me!”
I was actually in shock, not only that there had been so many transgressions before he had been recalled, but because he really believed that he had done little wrong. All I could do was write a brief representation for him stating that being recalled for being 10 minutes late was excessive and reactionary. I didn’t mention any of the other incidents, I returned his dossier and went on my way – with one invaluable lesson in perspective.
Whenever I heard a story about how easy it was to be recalled – either from open conditions or from the community – I was hearing it from the perspective of the man that had been recalled. The majority of these accounts were wholly biased with the recalled men accepting no responsibility for their actions in triggering a recall. Perhaps the most common theme is complacency – that men think they have made it and are no longer answerable to the justice system.
From that day to this I have always tried to focus on the thousands of men that got to open prison, or get released that I never hear from again – they are in the majority. People just don’t get recalled for being 10 minutes late.
