Some time ago, I wrote about the impact of working with someone who had committed murder and who later, whilst in the professional care of colleagues and myself, took his own life. His death, resonated powerfully with me. The man, Stefano. had certainly required me to think about him whilst he was alive and, in his death, he required me to think again. In the years that have followed I’ve needed to continue thinking. Stefano does not stand alone., There are many I meet who have tragically murdered others and then go on in equal tragedy to murder themselves. But six years ago, at the time of Stefano’s tragic death, I wrote this …. They remain my thoughts …
A week has passed in my life where outwardly no one would have noticed anything different, internally it has been a profound and disturbing time. Events have first made me think of the one person who has inspired me more than any other and who informs my daily work and thinking, Sister Sarah Clarke, known and referred to since her death in 2000 as the ‘Joan of Arc’ for Irish Prisoners.
For several years I worked with Sr. Sarah by taking care of the relatives of Irish prisoners on remand or serving sentences in the UK. It was dangerous and stigmatising work. At that time to have connection with Irish prisoners, made you suspect, marked you out. Yes, during those years I was suspect, Special Branch visited me often, they bugged my flat and banned me from every prison in the UK. It is more than ironic that in later years I now have professional access to every prison in the UK and contribute daily to the welfare and justice of many who find themselves in prison, being released from prison or just avoiding prison.
How life can change!
Within myself nothing has changed, my belief in the dignity and sacredness of the human condition remains absolutely unchanged. After almost 30 years of working with murderers, rapists, so called terrorists and the like, I am even more convinced of our sameness and humanity. In our outward manifestations of lightness, we experience a myriad of difference, in our capacity for darkness and destruction we are frighteningly similar.
So why mention all this now? Well …this week I had to face the sudden death, in custody, of someone who suffered an incredible injustice, not necessarily in relation to the crime he had been convicted of, but of societies response to what he was and to who he was, long before any crime was committed. I have been around for a long time, long enough for deaths in custody to not shock me. It is not that fact that disturbs me, what does disturb me is the related issue of justice and how the very meaning of that word has become distorted beyond recognition.
The true meaning of justice is available for all of us to see. If we raise our sight above the Old Baily, we can see the scales of justice symbolised in the very architecture of the building, we are reminded that punishment and liberty are to be held in balance. When my client died in custody this last week, this balance had been abused and therefore a true justice has been denied. Who was guilty of this injustice? Who was guilty of this crime? It does not need a trial for me to pass sentence. The guilty in this case was, and is in my thinking, the corrupt, self-serving and inhumane media. I would also pass a guilty verdict to all those that invest belief in the media without question and pass judgement without resource to the true and full facts.
When taking relatives to various prisons with Sister Sarah back in the early 80’s we were often spat upon, we got to expect it. At that time, we were often doing our work in the service of innocent men and women, the relatives and those since cleared of their convictions (the Maguire seven, the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, Judith ward, etc) But innocent or guilty, there is a dignity about the human condition that is violated when compassion and care is denied no matter what the circumstances. If the process of compassion and care is denie, then process of change, rehabilitation and reparation is also denied, in my understanding this is nothing more than a repetition of the very crime committed and is best understood by the term ‘murder of the soul’.
What made this week so very painful was the willingness of the media and those that chose to believe it’s every word, to unthinkingly enter into a joint ‘murder of the soul’ of an individual that has only featured in their daily lives as a piece of print. The murder of this soul manifested in comments, judgments and shaming, all done without any recognition of the causes and influences factors or indeed the actual facts of the case. What damning and undignified state of humanity is indicated in this unthinking and unintelligent response. It was made even worse that much of this took place when the person had died and could not offer any defence.
There is a further injustice; the vile, distorted and self-serving media has full liberty to speak out unhindered. Where those of us who know the full facts, who know the causal and influencing factors and who have shared the realities of day-to-day life are denied a voice. We are silenced and not allowed to speak out because we are required to be ‘professional’.
Yes, I remained ‘professional’ but I also wept tears of sorrow, along with other dear colleagues, for the soul who died in custody.
You won’t be surprised to know that I am left angry. I remain deeply disturbed by individuals who continue to spit in the face of a true justice by believing and acting on every word of the sensationalist press. There is always a full story and it’s seldom the one in the headlines. Until this is recognised, I guess justice and all it is supposed to be will be spat upon. The problem is when we resort to spitting, in whatever way that may manifest, then we are not thinking and to have a mind is crucial for the full and humane execution of justice.
Four years on, I could add many other stories. The injustices continue. Souls continue to be murdered. Souls continue to murder. I still occasionally get spat at …. always a sign for me to carry on and more importantly not to stop thinking. There’s. truth in the paradox of Nothing changes, nothing lasts.
Br. Stephen Morris fcc
