Recently we received the news that Ross Smith, imprisoned in the long-term high security prison HMP Garth for possession of a Skorpion submachine gun and a hand grenade, was called to the ‘Prevent’ team (so-called “anti-extremism senior officers”), who wanted to know about his friendship with released anarchist ex-prisoner Toby Shone. Ross appears to be being hit with the same kind of undeclared censorship and surveillance that was applied to Toby and therefore it is needed to denounce it openly.
Apparently, the hapless and greasy pigs of ‘Prevent’ wanted to know all about Toby and “his plans outside prison”, which fits into a pattern of state repression against the comrade since his release. The names of the Prevent scheme duo are Ian Turner and “Mick” McCormack, acting on orders from a state directive.
Turner and McCormack do not typically identify themselves to the prisoners, they hide their IDs to inmates and wing staff alike, and frequently try to trick prisoners into meeting them, or they go to their cells and ignorantly try to question them about books they are reading or talking about on the telephone, whilst trying to turn prisoners to snitches. Almost any innocuous book could be banned by them, particularly anti-racist, social critique and anti-fascist books, in the case of what our prisoners face. Continue reading “UK: Call for solidarity post for Ross Smith in HMP Garth”