Death in custody families take demands to parliament

SCREENING & PRESS CONFERENCE

11.00am Friday 26th October 2012, Room W1, Off Westminster Hall, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA

The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who died in psychiatric and immigration detention. We would like to invite you to a film screening & press conference in advance of our national demonstration that will take place the following day, details are below.

The screening of excerpts from the hard-hitting film 'Who Polices ThePolice?' (52minutes/2012), which critically assesses the performance of the Independent Police Complaints Commission into investigating custodial deaths, will be followed by statements and a Q&A session by the families of a number of death in custody cases including Sean Rigg, Mark Duggan, Mikey Powell, Olaseni Lewis, David Emmanuel (aka Smiley Culture) and Roger Sylvester.

The event will be an opportunity to find out the current position of families in relation to the existing investigative and judicial framework around custodial deaths. It is of crucial importance that those who have been directly impacted by custodial deaths have the opportunity to express their views in the political arena and we hope that you will join us in this event.

Notes to editors:

UFFC is run directly by families of those that have died in state custody. Since 1999 we have organised the Annual Remembrance Procession, this will be the 14th year. We march from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street where we present our demands to the Prime Minster.
This will take place on Saturday 27th October at 12.30.

Our Demands:

Replacement of the IPCC to ensure open robust transparent and thorough investigations from the very outset of police deaths in custody - with a removal of all ex-police officers for it to be a truly independent body.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman should be placed on a statutory footing.

Deaths in psychiatric detention and / or of those detained under the Mental Health Act, must be subject to a system of properly funded investigation that is completely independent of the Health Service.

Officers and officials directly involved in custody deaths are suspended until investigations are completed.

Immediate interviewing of officers and all officials concerned with the death.

Officers and officials should never be allowed to collude over their evidence and statements of fact.

Full and prompt disclosure of information to the families affected.

Prosecutions should automatically follow ‘unlawful killing’ verdicts at Inquests and officers responsible for those deaths should face criminal charges, even if retired.

National implementation of police body cameras and cameras in all police vehicles in the interests of both the officers and the public.

There should be an automatic right to non means tested legal aid for families. There is a lack of funds for family legal representation at Inquests whilst officers and NHS staff get full legal representation from the public purse – this is unbalanced.

Email: contactuffc@gmail.com
Telephone: 07770 432 439

UFFC Press Conference FRI 26th Oct 2012 - 11 am - House of Commons
UFFC Annual March SAT 27th Oct 2012 - 12 noon - Trafalgar Square

Wrongly accused: who is responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice?

This collection of essays was commissioned last year shortly after the 20th anniversary of the release of the Birmingham Six. On 14 March 1991, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker with Chris Mullin MP stood outside the Old Bailey free after 16 years, having had their convictions overturned for the murder of 21 people in two pubs in Birmingham. That most notorious miscarriage of justice came hard on the heels of other judicial scandals and set in motion a series of events. Such was the level of public and political concern that a Royal Commission was established and, ultimately, the collapse of public confidence led to the creation of the Criminal Cases Review Commission 13 years ago as the independent body to investigate miscarriages. This idea behind this publication was to explore the various issues to do with the investigation of miscarriages of justice. We invited contributions from leading thinkers in the criminal appeals field, not just lawyers but campaigners, journalists and academics. 

Download the full publication here. 

Jimmy McGovern's drama to highlight the campaign

Article about Jimmy McGovern's drama featured in the Wigan Observer. Download it here.

Sat 27 October - join the protest against deaths in custody

March with us in solidarity for an end to deaths in custody 
Silent procession along Whitehall followed by noisy protest at Downing Street. All welcome! Please wear black 
Saturday 27 October, 12:30pm
Meet: Trafalgar Square 
March to: Downing street

The Black Power Mixtape

The Black Power Mixtape - 1967 - 1975

Thursday 25 October 6.30PM
Paddington Arts
32 Woodfield Rd W9 2BE
tickets £4 / £8
Download the flyer here.

Special Edition Newsletter September 2012

We're pleased and excited to announce that Jimmy McGovern's next film will highlight Joint Enterprise and how it's being used in our courts today to imprison young people. The award-winning writer, who has written films about the  Hillsborough disaster and the events of Bloody Sunday, will examine the common purpose rule in the feature-length Common. 

Read more about it in our special edition newsletter here.