Scumbag wins 'right' to be 'treated with respect' by prison staff
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...son-staff.html
Gangland boss Colin Gunn wins right to be 'treated with respect' by prison staff
Quote:
A notorious gangster has won the right to force prison officers to call him ‘Mr’.
Colin Gunn, who is serving a 35-year sentence for ordering the killing of two grandparents, made an official complaint that he was not being treated with sufficient respect. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman upheld his claim and officers have now been told to address him as he wishes, it was revealed last night. It is understood that Gunn, who remains the leader of one of the country’s most feared and violent gangs behind bars, felt that ‘Mr Gunn’ was more in keeping with his status. From his cell, he issued a statement saying the decision was a victory over ‘rude, ignorant prison staff’.
The decision was condemned by prison staff. Colin Moses, national chairman of the POA, the union for prison officers, said: ‘It is political correctness gone mad. You have to earn respect, not demand it. ‘The inmates certainly don’t treat the prison officers with respect. Everything is geared to the prisoner. ‘We agree that people have to be treated with decency, but what is decency? Where is the decency to the staff? We have the highest rates of assaults on staff ever, yet we spend time, energy and money on cases such as Gunn’s.’ Gunn, who ran a violent drug-dealing criminal empire in Nottingham with his brother David, was jailed in 2006 for conspiracy to murder John and Joan Stirland. They had been shot by his hitmen two years earlier because they were related to someone who crossed him. The case was revealed in a letter Gunn wrote to the Inside Time prison newspaper from Belmarsh prison in South-East London, where he is held in the special secure unit.
He wrote: ‘Staff address me as “Mr Gunn”, although they were very reluctant to do so at first. None of the prison staff like it, but that’s tough because they do not have a choice.’ Prison service guidelines issued as part of a ‘decency agenda’ instruct officers to call prisoners as they wish. Gunn raised his complaint with the Ombudsman when he was at Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire. A ruling in his favour was handed down last December. He was later moved to Long Lartin in Worcestershire and then on to Belmarsh, where in both establishments it is believed that officers complied with his requests. Gunn is moved frequently to reduce the amount of influence he can exert over other prisoners.
In his letter, Gunn gave detailed instructions to other prisoners to be called by their ‘preferred names’. A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘Previous directors-general have made clear that as part of the process of treating prisoners decently, staff should be encouraged to address prisoners in an appropriate manner. ‘This will generally mean addressing the prisoner by his or her forename or by the use of Mr. It is implicit in this requirement that prisoners also address staff appropriately.’ It had previously been revealed that Gunn was running a Facebook page from his cell. He had 565 ‘friends’ and was using it to email threats against his enemies. On it he wrote: ‘I will be home one day and I can’t wait to look into certain people’s eyes and see the fear of me being there.’
I don't know what makes me more angry, the fact that the likes of him are now incharge of the prisons and prison officers or the fact that he hasn't been hung, because I would gladly do the honours for filth like Gunn and Huntley.
But hey he's out on the streets again in 35 years, British justice for you.
Thoughts?
