When the news broke, like many people, I was concerned that Category B
prisoner John Massey aged 64 had
escaped from Her Majesty’s Prison
Pentonville. After all this is a person
who was quite rightly convicted of a crime and sentenced to life imprisonment
for using a shotgun to shoot another person in 1975. I am not judging the case, its merits, or the
sentencing. What should have been done
was done under our penal system. I feel
for the friends and family of the victim and I sincerely hope that their wounds
and distress have healed since 1975.
But a long 37 years have passed since 1975 and there is no getting away
from it; there are people who have done far worse, who are walking the streets again
having paid their debt to society, while John
Massey for some very strange reasons indeed remains incarcerated.
Having been released in 2007 and confined to a Bail Hostel as part of
the conditions of release, it seems a tad harsh that John Massey was recalled
to prison for jumping his bail conditions to spend a few days with his dying
father. I spent time with my dying
father and that time was and still is precious to me. John
Massey is no different, even those who shoot others back in 1975 love their
father and grieve the loss. After being
re-incarcerated for what can only be described as extremely dubious reasons and
reasons that do not on face value stand up to scrutiny by the average person,
it is no small wonder that John Massey walked out of Ford Open Prison upon
hearing that his sister was gravely ill.
I mean, you just lost your father, you think that you are about to lose
your sister and you have spent almost 40 years locked up for something that
someone else would have probably served 25 years for. You get one go in this world, and if I was John
Massey then I would have also jumped a Bail Hostel to be with my dying father and
having been robbed of a few years that I could have spent with him due to my
unnaturally long incarcerating, I would also have walked out of Ford Open
Prison to visit my gravely ill sister before I lost her too.
Come on folks let’s show a bit of compassion here. It’s about time John Massey was re-integrated into society and not detained any
long; simply because he desired to be with those that he loved at a time when
they were terminally or gravely ill and with whom he would have been with if he
hadn’t been put back inside. It’s wrong, and others know that it’s wrong
too.
