Punitive Psychiatry – Dark Nights

We defend political prisoners, but as long as prisons exist, as long as they torture and kill the most ordinary prisoners, including people who are not the most pleasant, as long as criminal cases are fabricated for the sake of “sticks” and “stars,” no one can consider themselves free.

Information about what happens behind barbed wire is rarely and belatedly received. The Verstka Telegram channel recently published information about the victims of police lawlessness in 2023. This year, at least 50 people have died in pre-trial detention centers, special reception centers, police departments, during arrests, and in police cars. These data were obtained through a thorough analysis of reports from government agencies and the media, and, of course, they are not complete.

The highest number of deaths occurred in pre-trial detention centers (SIZO) – 22 people died there over the year, 14 in police departments, five during detention, four in police cars, two in special detention facilities, and one each in court, a FSIN prisoner transport vehicle, and a hospital after being transported from SIZO.

Among the dead were 48 men and two women. The cause of death for 11 people was allegedly heart problems, another 11, according to official data, committed suicide, and nine died after they “suddenly felt bad.”

At least two people died after being tortured by police officers, one detainee in a pre-trial detention center died from a drug overdose, chronic illness, and deliberate failure to provide medical assistance, and one was killed by cellmates. The causes of death for another 13 people are unknown. Continue reading “Russia: Prisons must be destroyed” →

Imprisoned anarchist Toby Shone is fighting a new battle as he counts down the weeks to his halfway release on December 28th 2022.

As the UK collapses into something resembling a tin-pot dictatorship and a Victorian poorhouse, Toby continues to be targeted by the Probation Service and their colleagues in the Counter-Terror National Security Division and MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) for his ‘thought crimes ‘, ‘anarchism’ and ‘alternative lifestyle’.

In September, Toby was informed that Cardiff-based probation officer Paul Smith had booked a series of interviews for him (without communicating these to his lawyers as instructed) with forensic psychologist Dr Harriet Chapman from the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology, University of Birmingham. Dr Chapman’s intention was to interrogate Toby under the Extremism Risk Guidelines formulation tool, ERG22+. This assessment which is “intended for use with people who have been convicted of any extremist or extremist-related offence” (which he hasn’t been) considers at least 22 factors by which an individual can be regarded as an extremist and thus be subject to de-radicalisation measures. We could find no public paper detailing these 22 factors or the format of the interview.

These largely experimental and deeply authoritarian de-radicalisation measures, which appear to be rolled out on a one-to-one basis, include the Healthy Identity Intervention, Desist and Disengagement Programme, Motivational and Engagement Intervention and Developing Dialogues. All of these are highly invasive, intensive programmes designed to investigate and dismantle a targeted individual’s personal narrative, childhood and influences, to attempt to undermine their critique of the existent, to isolate them from their relationships and affinities and to re-mould them into the perfect citizen under conditions of duress. Think re-education camps and political indoctrination. In effect they are seeking to “pathologise” the holding of anarchist beliefs: anarchism as a psychological illness. This tactic of “punitive psychiatry” has been used by other authoritarian states, most notably Soviet Russia, China and the USA. Continue reading “UK: Imprisoned Anarchist Toby Shone Fights New Battle Against Fascist UK State” →