78yr old woman is in prison through no fault of hers

Yes you are correct Allira she was in Peterborough and is now in Eastwood Park (equally grim)

I agree and am surprised at the involvement and apparent support of the Quakers. Perhaps they are not quite what I thought they were.

Barleyfields

Someone who is released early on licence hasn’t ‘concluded their sentence’. They can be recalled to spend the remainder of their sentence in prison.

She was being released unusually early on licence too, four months into a 20 month sentence.
I thought a prisoner had to serve half (or slighty less) before being considered for parole.

Many of us worry about climate change particularly for our grandchildren but I cannot support these protesters who put people's lives in danger.
It may be just an inconvenience for some but for ambulances, fire engines and any medical staff or people who had important hospital appointments it could have been life threatening.

I don't think believing in a cause should put others at risk. They have done untold harm to their cause.

Someone who is released early on licence hasn’t ‘concluded their sentence’. They can be recalled to spend the remainder of their sentence in prison.

I can't quite understand why posters think it OK she should stay on in prison when she has a right to have concluded her sentence as others have.

Yes, I believe she has that right but she refused to have a tag fitted to her ankle and it seems curious that no tag could be found to fit her wrist.
Wrist tags are available.

pascal30

Allira

pascal30

Do none of you think about your grandchildren and climate change.. this woman is being supported by the Quakers because they think what she did was morally correct..

These people are not helping, they are causing anger in other people which will not help their cause.

Are they too dim to realise that?

If the government was taking the issue more seriously there would not be the need to demonstrate.. I've been into Bristol prison with my previous work and believe me it is grim..

This woman obviously felt that she needed to make a point because she did care. She just had a bigger more long term vision.. She also did her sentence and is entitled to be on parole..

HMP Bristol is a men's prison.
Is she in Eastwood Park?

She also did her sentence and is entitled to be on parole
No, she had not completed her sentence, she was sentenced to 20 months in prison last August, but would have been allowed out in November after 4 months with an electronic tag and curfew.

She was one of the people who climbed a gantry over the M25.

I'm sure that there is more behind this than not having a tag to fit her wrist.

Anyway, it's all marvellous publicity, isn't it.

The demographic that attracts people to Gransnet is predominantly in line with the right wing establishment.

Well, certainly.
Presumably you accept that right wing beliefs uphold the law, and that people who knowingly break it have to accept the consequences. I would prefer the other prisoners to serve the full term they were given, and I hope they are not being released early so that they escape the full consequences of a prison sentence.
I assume that your presumably left wing beliefs maintain that people should not be punished for knowingly breaking the law.

I can't quite understand why posters think it OK she should stay on in prison when she has a right to have concluded her sentence as others have.

Possibly because poster believe they have the right, upheld by the law, to travel the public highway without being prevented by people protesting their personal beliefs.

Allira

pascal30

Do none of you think about your grandchildren and climate change.. this woman is being supported by the Quakers because they think what she did was morally correct..

These people are not helping, they are causing anger in other people which will not help their cause.

Are they too dim to realise that?

If the government was taking the issue more seriously there would not be the need to demonstrate.. I've been into Bristol prison with my previous work and believe me it is grim..

This woman obviously felt that she needed to make a point because she did care. She just had a bigger more long term vision.. She also did her sentence and is entitled to be on parole..

Not much a martyr for the cause, is she?

pascal30

Do none of you think about your grandchildren and climate change.. this woman is being supported by the Quakers because they think what she did was morally correct..

These people are not helping, they are causing anger in other people which will not help their cause.

Are they too dim to realise that?

Wyllow3

I've looked up the "refused the tag" controversy (at length) and it is just that. It seems to be that she refused an ankle tag because of the state of her legs/ankles and clearly asked for a wrist one.
I can understand the frustration with the crime here but obviously many prisoners released early also committed crimes we would deplore, I can't quite understand why posters think it OK she should stay on in prison when she has a right to have concluded her sentence as others have.

Prisoners are allowed out on early release as long as the conditions are strictly adhered to.
That means tagging and curfews.

If the prisoner will not comply with that for any reason then they go back to prison to complete their sentence.

The person will receive an electronic tag, a small device fitted to the ankle or wrist.

It is reported that she refused to have an electronic tag fitted on her ankle. I do not believe one could not be found which was small enough for her wrist.

Caleo

Wyllow, it's surely easy to understand why "why posters think it OK she should stay on in prison when she has a right to have concluded her sentence as others have."

The demographic that attracts people to Gransnet is predominantly in line with the right wing establishment.

Oh goodness, you must be looking at different threads than me.
It always seems fairly well-balanced right across the political spectrum.

The farmers protests also disrupted people's lives, did those on here who want this woman punished grumble about the farmers? Did you want them thrown in prison? Or is it different depending on the reason for the protest?

As a 77 year old teacher

Really? Still teaching at 77 and with a criminal conviction?
🦄

🤭

Entitled twit.

Yes, Pascal of course most of us have concern over climate change and the difficulties ahead for us and for future generations, but people going out causing huge disruption to the daily lives of many is not the way to go about trying to improve matters, and “just stopping oil” is far too simplistic in itself. We are a world wide society built on the use of oil, coal, gas, heavy metals, etc, now, (not just for our heating and travel needs) and to stop it without any truly viable options that will replace them efficiently and effectively for the long term will result in societal breakdown. We rely on so many by products from these industries for medicines, equipment, computers, manufacturing and so on and so on and at the moment I don’t see any truly effective alternatives. I don’t know what the answer is. I wish I did.

I wonder if a tag that fits may appear by magic, once it's realised that the term hasn't been served, yet, and it is going to be upheld.

Gaie Delap took part in a Just Stop Oil protest which saw the M25 closed to traffic back in November 2022. She was given a 20-month jail sentence in August 2024, but released in October to serve the rest of her sentence under home curfew, enforced with an electronic monitoring tag. Her health condition means she can’t have a tag attached to her ankle, and the Probation Service’s contractors Serco/EMS did not have a tag small enough to attach to her wrist.

I'm glad her supporters weren't blocking the motorway this morning when we, and others, were trying to get to appointments or see loved ones in a Bristol Hospital.
But how many other people were?

Of course people need to be made aware of climate change but stopping people from reaching vital hospital appointments, medical staff getting to work to treat people, others trying to get to work, reach dying loved ones etc is the wrong way to go about this.

You do the crime, you serve the time.
Good publicity too.

Witzend

How is it ‘no fault of hers’ when she’s committed some offence that led to this situation?

I guess if it’s morally correct for her to disrupt lives and distress sick people for the greater good of the cause then the disruption to her life and her families is also for the greater good.

So why would anyone who supports her cause protest about that?

Totally agree on that, MissAdventure. Fair enough, release her with a tag - I have no problem with that, but I refuse to believe that they cannot find a tag to fit her. I've seen some of the people who have had tags and if they can find ones to fit some of them, then they can find one to fit her.

Caleo

Damask, generally I'd agree with you on both your points.
However, prisons are too harsh to cope with elderly disabilities.No elderly person with the disabilities of age should go to prisons such as prisons actually are. Prison reform is urgently needed.

Also, the woman was imprisoned solely because the stop oil campaign is anti-establishment. This case was terrorism on the part of the establishment.

Is she disabled, then?
I wonder what her disabilities prevent her from doing then, if she is.

pascal30

Do none of you think about your grandchildren and climate change.. this woman is being supported by the Quakers because they think what she did was morally correct..

I tend to think of those whose families suffered as a direct result of the protesters, first and foremost.

The protesters have gone entirely the wrong way, if they are trying to garner public support.

I do feel sorry for this woman and her family. At no point has this woman declared she shouldn’t serve her sentence, the difficulty is with finding a wrist tag to fit so they sent her back to prison at a time when those convicted of far worse crimes are being released early to make room in overcrowded prisons. Surely it is not beyond the gift of this first world country to find a tag that fits or to adjust one so that it can fit her wrist.
You may not agree with what she did but protesting is not imho something that should result in prison sentences. Fines and tagging should be all that is used in these circumstances.