I have just conducted my first interview with a convicted killer.

Not just any convicted killer, John Hirst, a killer who has successfully campaigned for the right for prisoners to vote. He was responsible for the ruling in early June this year by the European Court of Human Rights that the British government was in breach of the European convention of Human Rights in depriving prisoners of the right to vote. In 2005 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Hirst’s favour but there were several delays in the British government implementing the ruling.

Now the government is facing pressure to comply with the European Union in making hasty arrangements that need to be made to ensure prisoners get the vote in time for the next elections.

Prisoners denied a voice

Prisoners have many liberties taken away from them

 

John believes that prisoners are the most vulnerable people in society which makes them particularly vulnerable to abuse of power. He said:

"If they have no voice in parliament then it’s very easy for politicians in parliament to have the will to put in place reforms that are not going to benefit the prisoner.”

After serving 25 years in jail for a manslaughter charge John is now a legal media political advisor for the association of prisoners and a prison law consultant who regularly finds grounds for appeal for the guilty convictions of several prisoners.

In total the self proclaimed prison revolutionist has spent 35 years in prison, prior to the manslaughter charge he was jailed for burglary, checkbook fraud and arson. He was jailed for manslaughter in 1979 for brutally killing his landlady, what he insists was diminished responsibility due to his unfit mental state at the time, according to psychiatric tests during his trial.

 

 

Aspergers Syndrome

John Hirst was born with asperger syndrome, a form of autism and the issue of whether this condition contributed to his actions in killing his landlady remains unresolved. Aspergers sufferers are usually extremely intelligent but they lack empathy in the sense they are unlikely to realise the impact of their actions on other people.

Aspergers was not fully recognised until 1981 in the UK. Early diagnoses discovered early enough and managed properly today may mean a person with aspergers can lead a full and interactive life. A spokesman of The National Autistic Society said:

“The vast majority of individuals with autism are unusually concerned to keep the law, due to the nature of their disability.

“On occasions when a person with autism gets into trouble with the law it is normally a result of their social and communication difficulties being misunderstood and because they are not given appropriate support.”

 

The Rehabilitation process

John began reading law books in prison

 

During his sentence of 25 years in prison for manslaughter, John claims he began to rehabilitate after he began studying law. He said:

“I suddenly came to realisation I couldn’t carry on the way I was going because that would be the end of it - I would either kill again or someone would kill me.”
So one of the first things he began to do after this decision was to study law, which he has been doing ever since.

John doesn’t have good memories of prison, and he has strong views on the prison system. However, he admitted that prison wasn’t all negative through the help he received through a special unit where he was given one to one counselling, something he was not offered previously. It was here that he began understanding and reading law, sociology, psychology and criminology.

John said, “There can be a positive side to prison but you’ve got to be able to see it and then develop it.”

He began an Open University degree in criminology and social sciences but he was unable to complete it as he was moved to another prison in the middle of the course. He never obtained a formal legal qualification but he read all the relevant books and put it into practice.

 

In demand with prisoners

Despite no qualification, he is in urgent demand amongst prisoners who want him to represent them in court. John explained:

“The people who come to me for advice are aware I don’t have a qualification but come to me for my track record. I’ve never lost a case. I’ve won well over 100, many of which have begun from press complaints forms.”

Against the system

John constantly fights against the criminal justice system. His own experience has made him believe that the individual reforms despite the system and not through the system. He said:

“Although I have had assistance from people within prison it’s not really that something the system has done. It’s down to the individual to make the decision to rehabilitate and take the necessary steps towards it.”

He continued to criticize the prison system in supporting the ongoing accusations that prisons are too overcrowded.

“You’ve got too many people in prisons. I support the Swedish system they have 250 people in prison maximum opposed to over here where there are prisons with 1000-3000 prisoners in.

“You don’t have enough staff with that amount of prisoners to work with one to one or in very small groups for addressing and following through with issues like offending behaviour and how to come out of the system.”

 

Overcrowding is likely to be one reason for the high suicide rates in Britain

 

The Prison Reform Trust states that 75% of prison suicides between 2000-2004 took place in overcrowded prisons and the suicide rate for men in prison is five times that of men in the community.

John is testament to the bleak employment aspects after prison when he tried getting jobs before his permanent prison law consultant role.

“I did do taxi driving and pizza delivery for a while but no office jobs. You never really get accepted after prison. No one wants to employ you, it’s as simple as that.”

John said he has accepted his reality as far as jobs were concerned and he carried on doing what he was doing in prison in continuing to push for prisoner’s rights, something he says he will never give up doing until he dies.

 

 

Listen to what John refers to as the 'prison business'.

 

 

The manager of Dorset Gateway probation service, David Lofts, defends the prison system below.