Our Empty Chair

A grassroots collective sharing stories of full hearts kept apart by prisons and detention centres. [email protected]

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

THREAD: It has been 132 days since prison visits were suspended.

Last week, lawyers acting on behalf of children with a parent in prison sent a formal letter before claim to government concerning their failure to ensure meaningful contact between children + their parent inside.

[Free Our Friends @AntiCarceral]

SPREAD THE WORD

We encourage everyone, especially journalists, to call the MoJ so they know we are watching.

MOJ newsdesk: 0203 334 3536

MOJ public enquiries: 0203 334 3555

Whitemoor safer custody: 01354 602400

[Free Our Friends @AntiCarceral]

📣🚨ALERT - Whitemoor Taking a Stand 🚨📣

There’s an ongoing protest in HMP Whitemoor on B wing in response to profiling friends and family and denial of routine.

[Nejma Collective @NejmaCollective]

Salaam everyone! This is a reminder that the Nejma Collective will be delivering gift packs to 45 Muslim women at HMP Downview on Fri 5 May 2023. We urgently need more tasbihs and hijabs by Wed 3 May 2023 latest. Please see details for drop off / online orders below!

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

Power and solidarity to @UNGRIPP and all of the families and loved ones of people inside on IPPs who have worked tirelessly to secure this intervention from the Justice Select Committee. 💥💥💥💥

[UNGRIPP @UNGRIPP]

The Justice Select Committee’s report on the IPP inquiry has been published today. It recommends resentencing everyone serving IPP. This is the best result we could have hoped for, but we NEED everyone to take action now. A thread below & report here: https://t.co/mk9PF9X3ru

[Katherine Jones @katherineJENGBA]

@HMPSwinfenHall @hmpps Sunday 25/09/22 visit 2.00. I came to visit my Son in a dress that I have been in numerous times before. I wore it knowing I would be ok, I was shocked when I was denied entry and told I had to have a closed visit 1/2

[Nejma Collective @NejmaCollective]

We’ve been quiet for a while because we were setting up the pilot project that we fundraised for during Ramadan! Today we’re thrilled to announce the first batch of grant requests have landed with us! 🎉Thanks to your generosity we can begin to support our siblings inshaAllah! 🤲🏽

[Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants @lgsmigrants]

SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 🗣️ At our next LGSM Learns @jodietbeck from @OurEmptyChair will be speaking to us about why we need to abolish prisons! A brilliant activist, Jodie has worked with incarcerated women, & on massive human rights campaigns https://t.co/YNIsJo8wiE

[Antonia @Antonia73550765]

@PFHelpline This is such a late and useless tweet! HMPPS did nothing to support prisoners during the heatwave this year, last year and it would be the same next year. Do you read inspection reports? Locked up 22h, roasting in cramped cells. No one cares!

[Layla @LPSF97]

@PFHelpline Long lock up including complete lockdown at weekend. Told to wet towels to put on mattress, turn electrics off, no strenuous activity & given two 500ml bottles of water in total. Tweets like this only highlight how little understanding you have!

[Laura Janes @LauraJanes_UK]

"There are no video link slots left for June or July" says an email from "official visits" in a prison almost 100 miles away

My young client was moved there in the middle of the Parole process without any reason.

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

Below article suggests the proposal will not be implemented at @HMP_TheMount. We're continuing to plan follow-up actions after hearing that similar measures limiting handwritten post directly from loved ones have been in place since as early as Jan 2021.

https://t.co/WDNjkZH8QH

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

Handwritten cards, letters and drawings are genuinely life lines to people inside. This is disgustingly cruel - particularly in light of prolonged periods of no visits and limited, costly phone contact as a result of the pandemic. We urge @HMP_TheMount to reconsider.

[Free Our Friends @AntiCarceral]

Letters and connections across the walls serve to build and maintain connection. Any restriction on letters is a direct attack on our communities.

Photocopies are bad quality, and often black and whit, adding an additional barrier to any form of intimacy.

[Free Our Friends @AntiCarceral]

This is vile, and part of a disturbing trend. They are instituting the same practice at @HMPEastwoodPark at the moment, and we know of other prisons where this is already the case.

#WeWillWrite #UntillAllAreFree

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

@accccxxx @laylaplace I'm so sorry - that is deeply, deeply cruel. We're currently developing a response to the announcement today and wider moves to clamp down on post (including photocopying) - our DMs are open if you want to be involved. Sending you and your family love and solidarity 💛

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

We'll be writing to The Mount and HMPPS as well as Funky Pigeon, MoonPig and FreePrints. Any family, friends or loved ones supporting folks inside that wants to be involved, our DMs are open 🙏💛

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

Handwritten cards, letters and drawings are genuinely life lines to people inside. This is disgustingly cruel - particularly in light of prolonged periods of no visits and limited, costly phone contact as a result of the pandemic. We urge @HMP_TheMount to reconsider.

[A @accccxxx]

@laylaplace @OurEmptyChair My husband has been in 3 prisons, they were all the same- order cards online. Our kids have drawn so many drawings but I can’t send them because they get photocopied in b&w. The only thing some kids can do for their parent- drawings- can’t even do that now! 😥

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

While we plot our response to this horrific announcement, please do check out groups doing incredible and vital solidarity work with people inside: @NejmaCollective @CAPExpansion @psn_ldn @AntiCarceral @beyondbarsuk

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

Handwritten cards, letters and drawings are genuinely life lines to people inside. This is disgustingly cruel - particularly in light of prolonged periods of no visits and limited, costly phone contact as a result of the pandemic. We urge @HMP_TheMount to reconsider.

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

@ArandoraPress Would recommend getting in touch with legends @beyondbarsuk

[Our Empty Chair @OurEmptyChair]

@AyoCaesar @CAPExpansion @AntiCarceral @psn_ldn !!!!