unlock e-newsletter april 2010
DESCRIPTION
April 2010's e-newsletter for reformed offenders published by UNLOCKTRANSCRIPT
UNLOCK e-newsletter – April 2010
Welcome to April 2010’s e-newsletter. UNLOCK have over 4,900 members, and this email is sent to every UNLOCK member who has provided us with an email address. If you have any suggestions for content, would like to make any submissions, or would like to make a comment on the UNLOCK e-newsletter, contact [email protected]. Any submissions must be received by the 25th of the month. You are more than welcome to pass this email on to others who you think may find it useful. We’ve added a pdf version of the e-newsletter, so that you can print it and share it if needed.
If you have received the e-newsletter indirectly and find it useful, please sign up to receive directly by joining UNLOCK as a member, free of charge. This will guarantee that you receive it and will allow us to know who the e-newsletter is reaching.
In this month’s e-newsletter What we’ve been up to in April
London Marathon 2010 – Thank you for your support London Marathon 2010 – You can still sponsor Christopher.......
Prisoner Voting – House of Lords – 7th April 2010
General Election 2010 – Review of Party Manifesto’s
Clean Break vacancy filled as a result of the UNLOCK e-newsletter Useful information & advice
Jury service with a criminal record
The Financial Mail on Sunday’s Financial Freedom newsletter for women leaving prison Other News (selected from UNLOCK’s delicious page)
What we’ve been up to in April Back to top
DON’T FORGET – You can keep up to date with developments at UNLOCK by following our Twitter page, become a fan of UNLOCK’s new Facebook page or sign up to our delicious updates (via RSS feed)
London Marathon 2010 – Thank you for your support Last Sunday, Christopher Stacey successfully completed the London Marathon, raising money for UNLOCK. He crossed the finish line in an unofficial time of 3 hrs 45 minutes and 26s. Unfortunately, the run didn’t quite go to plan. He was on course to finish in under 3 hrs 35min, 10 minutes ahead of schedule, but he collapsed at 24.5 miles (which he was told was due to over-hydration). After blacking out, being sick numerous times, and having an ambulance ordered, he was told his race was over. However, he managed to pick himself up, get steady on his feet, and gently jog the final 1.7 miles. His official time was slightly over 5 hours. However, as he managed to stop his watch when he collapsed, and re-started it when he re-joined the course, he is claiming 3 hrs 45 min as his unofficial time. Although he is disappointed he didn’t complete it the way he had planned, we are all proud of the determination he showed to pick himself up and complete the race. He has raised a substantial amount of money for UNLOCK, and we want to thank everybody who has kindly sponsored Christopher.
London Marathon 2010 – You can still sponsor Christopher.......
Although the Marathon is over, you can still sponsor Christopher. If you would like to sponsor him, you can do so by downloading the donation form and return by email or post. If you have any questions, you can contact Christopher directly by email at [email protected], or by telephone at T: 01634 247350 ext. 202
Prisoner Voting – House of Lords – 7th April 2010
UNLOCK’s President, Lord Ramsbotham, inserted a Clause into the Constitutional Reform and Government Bill which would allow prisoners the right to vote. Unfortunately, there was little time to debate this Clause, and he had to withdraw the amendment. You can read the transcript of the debate here.
General Election 2010 – Review of Party Manifesto’s As the 2010 General Election is looming, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a quick summary of the three main political parties’ manifesto’s on crime, criminal justice, and issues that may affect people with convictions. We have put together a dedicated page on our website (there is also a direct link from the UNLOCK homepage) where we have provided a review of each of the Manifesto’s. We have tried to pick out what each political party would do which may have an impact on UNLOCK members. We have also provided direct links to each of the parties’ full Manifesto. The Prison Reform Trust have also put together a very useful document which categorises the commitments of the three main parties and placed them into various themes. The document can be downloaded directly or you can visit the page on their website about the 2010 General Election. We have also started a discussion thread on the UNLOCK Forum for members to discuss the various aspects of the different policy positions of the various parties. There is also a poll for you to vote which policies you agree with the post. If you can’t remember your login details for the Forum, just reply to this email. If you are not yet registered for the Forum, you can register here. You may also want to visit a very useful website, voteforpolicies.org.uk, where you can select the sets of policies which you most agree with in up to 9 different areas (a minimum of 4) - Crime, Democracy, Economy, Education, Environment, Europe, Health / NHS, Immigration and Welfare. The site will then give you a percentage match to a particular parties policies.
Clean Break vacancy filled as a result of the UNLOCK e-newsletter In January, we sent around an advert for two job opportunities at the charity Clean Break, who are a theatre, education and new writing company based in North London. They work with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. We are pleased to announce that an UNLOCK member who receives this e-newsletter passed it on, and one person who received it applied for the job and was successful. Verity, who is now herself signed up as an UNLOCK member, said recently: “I’ve recently started working at Clean Break as an Administrative Assistant, part-time, which has really helped me, as I’ve been looking for a good job for 2 years, and only done temping. I was doing an NVQ through St Giles Trust and my assessor forwarded me an email from UNLOCK telling me about the job. I applied and got an interview, and was successful, to my surprise! I was so thrilled to get the job, and I’m really loving working there. It’s a lovely atmosphere and it’s done wonders for my self-esteem. Everyone there is so friendly and it feels great to be back in work and doing a job that I enjoy so much.” If you know of any job vacancies that are looking for applications specifically from people with past criminal convictions, email [email protected].
Useful information & advice Back to top
Jury service with a criminal record This month, we have put together a page on our website with some information about serving on a jury with a criminal record. This isn’t fully completed yet, but whilst it is being developed we wanted to circulate this round our members to see whether any of you have anything to add to the information on here. You will see on here that the Juries Act of 1974 sets out those ‘disqualified’ from serving on a jury. However, there is also some guidance from the CPS on the checks made of those serving on juries. We would like to know whether anybody has been refused the chance to serve on a jury because of a criminal record? Have you served on a jury, despite your criminal conviction? Email [email protected] or discuss this on the UNLOCK Forum.
The Financial Mail on Sunday’s Financial Freedom newsletter for women leaving prison The Financial Freedom newsletter is for women leaving prison. It was put together by the Financial Mail on Sunday's Financial Mail Women's Forum (FMWF) and the Prison Reform Trust. Together with the newsletter they have launched a free 0800 helpline number to help those prison leavers with nowhere to turn. UNLOCK feature in numerous places in the newsletter, providing information & advice on overcoming some of the practical problems people face when leaving prison. The FMWF has launched a new section on their website aimed at prison leavers. Go to FMWF.com and take a look at the Fresh Start page.
Other News (selected from UNLOCK’s delicious page) Back to top
21/04/2010 – Serving prisoner in HMP Norwich plans to sue the government for blocking him voting
21/04/2010 – Life-long registration on the Sexual Offenders Register without the opportunity for review is ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court
21/04/2010 – Gordon Brown to ban ex-criminals in loan shark crackdown – The Government want to introduce CRB checks for those working in the loans
14/04/2010 – How a police caution will affect Sir Richard Leese – An interesting review of the problems a police caution can have quite a big impact
DON’T FORGET – You can follow all the relevant news by visiting UNLOCK’s delicious page. Sign-up to receive updates as and when they happen. Sent to you by Christopher Stacey LLB LLM | Information & Advice Manager Back to top
Notes
UNLOCK’s e-newsletter is distributed to all UNLOCK Members who subscribe with an email address and are happy to be contacted by UNLOCK via email.
The e-newsletter content may be reproduced providing UNLOCK is referenced as the source
We would welcome submissions to the e-newsletter. To submit content, email [email protected]
To subscribe to receive UNLOCK’s e-newsletter, you can register, free of charge, as an UNLOCK Member at http://www.unlock.org.uk/onlineform.aspx.
Any queries can be directed to [email protected]
To unsubscribe, email [email protected] with the subject line “Unsubscribe”.
© UNLOCK, the National Association of Reformed Offenders, 2010 35a High Street | Snodland | Kent | ME6 5AG T: 01634 2473500 E: [email protected] W: www.unlock.org.uk