On Saturday 13 November, 70 people held a noisy and determined demonstration, lasting all afternoon, outside Frankland prison in County Durham, demanding justice for Jaslyn Smith. The protest was organised by Justice for Jaslyn Smith and West Midlands Against Injustice. Jaslyn was arrested in 1998 for alleged rape and sentenced to a three and half year sentence in 1999, but has always maintained his innocence, and is now entering his thirteenth year of imprisonment. On top of this injustice, he is being subjected to racist abuse and victimisation orchestrated by the prison establishment.
From his cell in Frankland Jaslyn said ‘I have suffered racial abuse from staff and my wing governor, in Full Sutton officers orchestrated an attack on me by another prisoner and my parole report is a tissue of lies and misrepresentations. I am willing to do the courses available; Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS) and Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage it (CALM) to prove I pose NO risk to the public, but need to do them in a local prison closer to my family and friends as was instructed by the Lifer unit over 6 years ago but that instruction was never carried out. They are trying to just bury me in the prison system but I will never admit to something of which I am not guilty.’
Jaslyn is currently being held in segregation and refuses to move back onto the wing because the prisoner who attacked him at Full Sutton has been transferred onto the same wing. The demonstration called for Jaslyn to be transferred closer to home, de-categorised and allowed to do the necessary courses to progress towards being released. On the demonstration Jaslyn’s sister, Lorna Gregory, spoke to FRFI about the injustice being faced by Jaslyn and the next steps for the campaign:
Lorna: I just think this British justice is not justice at all, it’s so unfair, if you maintain your innocence you’ve got nowhere to go, and they stop you from progressing through the system, because you maintain your innocence. It’s wrong, there’s a lot of innocent people inside, which we have found out through West Midlands Against Injustice, which is a new organisation which has just been established, and it runs alongside United Against Injustice and Innocence. So we’re looking to build up support and that group, the awareness of the group, and take on more campaigns. So this is just the first one of many, there’ll be many more. We have got a petition going out to Kenneth Clarke from this, so we’re just hoping that it will move mountains now, you know, they’ll stop wasting taxpayers’ money, because Kenneth Clarke had said there’s over two and half thousand IPP prisoners inside, that have gone way past their tariff and they should be released. My brother is in that category, he should be released, to be quite honest he shouldn’t even have to be going to be re-categorised, he should be released from where he is now. So that’s where we stand at the moment.
FRFI: So what can people do to support the campaign?
Lorna: They can write, they can support West Midlands Against Injustice, they can write to their MPs, lobby their MPs, Ministry of Justice, so they can do all that, and send Jaslyn letters of support, solidarity, at HMP Frankland, and that will uplift his spirit, to know that, he won’t give up. And always, as a family, we’ll never give up until his name is cleared, even when he gets out of here, we will still be fighting to clear his name, we just want to see justice done, so that’s where we stand.
FRFI: Is there anything else you want to add?
Lorna: I just want to say, it’s been a wonderful day, and we’ve had good support, and this has come together, over two and half weeks we’ve arranged this, and there will be many more, if he’s not released, we will not give up. Because he’s innocent, and it’s an injustice, and we want to see the great British justice in action, we want to see him released now, it’s time, it’s time. We’re prisoners as well, his family, and it’s not fair on his children, they’ve grown up without a father, my mum’s 71, she’s not well, she cannot make the journey here, she’s seen him once in two years, and it’s not on, it’s not right, to take away somebody’s life just like that. So that’s what we expect from today, we expect a result.
Letters of solidarity should be sent to:
Jaslyn Ricardo Smith A4250AE
HMP Frankland
Brasside
Durham
DH1 5YD
West Midlands Against Injustice
can be contacted at:
www.westmidlandsagainstinjustice.webs.com
or: est Midlands Against Injustice
52-57 Allison Street
Digbeth
Birmingham
B5 5T
