The Vegan Prisoners Support Group Interview

By Claudette Vaughan

Claudette: For people who haven't heard about the Vegan Prisoner Support Group (VPSG) please tell us why you set it up and when.

Jo-Ann: In April 1994, Vegan Prisoners Supporters Group (VPSG) was formed when Keith Mann and Angie Hamp were suddenly arrested on animal rights charges. Even though the ALF SG was already in existence, it was realised that a specialist group was needed to fight for the daily rights of vegan animal rights prisoners whilst being detained in prison establishments.

It wasn't long before both of them were keeping VPSG busy and with no previous experience, weaving its way through Home Office Regulations was no easy task. Angie was initially held at Holloway, but with Angie's guidance from the inside and VPSG working on the outside, changes slowly started to happen. Vegan items started to appear in the prison shop and Angie commented it was good to be able to purchase familiar items of her choice to keep them in her locker for times when the prison food was inedible.

Keith's problems were tougher, firstly, his food needed sorting out - this certainly took some work as Holloway prison had given VPSG a false impression and it took lots of persuasion by Keith, plus the persistence on the part of VPSG until finally Keith was sorted out.

The work of VPSG started to expand when Dave Callender and Greg Avery approached us for help as they were having problems at HMP Birmingham and had heard of the changes that we were trying to make. HMP Birmingham prison turned out to be a very difficult prison, they were actually given a cold corn on the cob on Christmas day and when VPSG telephoned Mr. Green, the s/o in the kitchens there at the time, he declared - " I don't care a damn and I'm going home to eat my turkey now."

The work used to take so long working with different establishments so we campaigned to get proper guidelines accepted. In 1996 our guidelines on the care of vegans within the prison system were accepted and were shortly after then put in place in all prison establishments.

Over the past few years VPSG have gained quite a knowledge of how the Prison Service works and prisoners have access to help 7 days a week via the VPSG helpline, which most take advantage of at one time or another. Some prisons obviously still remain harder than others to sort out their problems, and although we now have proper guidelines in place, making them work still takes up a lot of our time.

Although VPSG mainly helps prisoners to obtain vegan food, vegan toiletries, vegan footwear and helps wherever they can when requested, obviously we are always prepared to take up human rights issues for the prisoners when the need arises.

VPSG also offers help to vegan animal rights activists if detained overnight in police stations - all they need to do is to phone the details of the problem to the emergency arrest helpline and help will be offered.

VPSG is run voluntarily and exists solely on donations. It can be hard work sometimes, but when the work start to pile up it is always remembered that the prisoners on our records have made a huge commitment and lost their freedom in trying to help animals and so deserve nothing less than their total support while serving their sentences!

Keith Mann and Angie Hamp are both now free, but our work has trebled in the past eight years and now we liaise more closely with The Vegan Society. We are at the moment preparing a report on our concerns that vegans within the prison system, although a minority group, are not receiving equal opportunities and have submitted recommendations for their consideration.

Claudette: How did you get started?

Jo-Ann: I used my personal savings to purchase the equipment required to set up an office, i.e. computer, fax machine, answering machine and the first three years was extremely tough because hardly anyone had heard of the work. We now have 600 supporters on our mailing list. However, the majority of supporters are on low income so receive our newsletter free of charge and so have to rely solely on donations and if funds get low we do stalls to make up the difference because we believe that the distribution of information regarding the prisoners is important.

Running costs are not great because no salaries are paid and all work done by volunteers, but the telephone/stationery/prisoner toiletry packs needs funds and equipment needs to be maintained/replaced when necessary

Claudette: Did you contact prison authorities directly or go higher?

Jo-Ann: Several different departments within each prison were and still are contacted in an attempt to sort out the different problems, i.e. food, hygiene/toiletries, footwear, inmate's shops on the day they arrive.

Therefore, when a vegan animal rights prisoner is remanded or sentenced we immediately make contact with the Governor of the relevant prison offering our free reception pack of ethical vegan toiletries which, once accepted are sent from our supplier Honesty Products. We then contact the kitchens and offer our free information pack and this is faxed on day one. A copy of this is then posted to the prisoner, together with a copy of the Governor's fax so they are aware of the effort being made on their behalf.

Every prisoner is sent a copy of the research we have done within the Prison Service.

As we have been in existence for over ten years now so we are quite experienced in how the Prison System runs and normally, eventually, prisons co-operate. The main problems are with the diet as you can imagine, but if a Catering Manager is unco-operative initially each prison has an Area Catering Manager and once we have contacted him with our concerns the Catering Manager's co-operation is ensured because Area Catering Managers do not wish us to go higher which would be at Prison HQ.

We still, even after ten years, are not happy about the amount of work each prisoner involves and you can appreciate if a prisoner is detained at several different prisons during their sentence the work starts all over again at each establishment. There are approximately 140 prisons and although we have dealt with almost 200 individual prisoners we haven't covered all the prisons. The frustrating thing is that even when you believe you have sorted out a prison, if you haven't had a prisoner there for even a few months, the staff and Governors are constantly changing and the work starts at the beginning again and we have to cover old ground again. It is very time consuming.

Therefore, we are working on a Prisoner Pack and a Comprehensive Prison Pack and hope to have these completed b y the end of the year.

The reason we can't have them ready sooner is I am working on having some comprehensive recommendations installed in all prisons regarding the care/handling and storage of vegan food. We are informed that these recommendations will eventually be installed in a HQ Prison Manual, unfortunately the timescale is not until sometime next year because it has recently been re-printed. However this is the second largest input we have had since we were established since the acceptance of the Prison Service Guidelines in 1996

Sarah Gisborne is at HMP Cookham Wood and we have been busy working for changes to her diet. Amongst them are she is now being provided with vegan ice cream, chocolate cake, tofu and brown rice in her diet. In fact this prison will be receiving our first award for their efforts in providing a well balanced varied vegan diet.

Dave Blenskinsop - Although we continue to try to look after his needs he has asked not be listed on any site as he is concentrating on his parole.

Andrew Patrick Kirk is currently at HMP Birmingham, Winson Green Rd, Birmingham

Claudette: What advice would you give on how to set up their own VPSG?

Jo-Ann: It's really simple just an independent telephone line/fax/answering machine, free space in a house/office and someone to man the telephone seven days a week, whether it be one person or several. They need to be able to speak to Ministers/Prison Officials professionally and be very good at research and be determined to weave themselves through complicated prison procedure regulations.

We would always be happy to give any advice needed.

Then if you can find someone to commit to this you have to decide whether you can commit to assisting people detained in police stations either taken from their own homes or at demonstrations. This takes a lot of time because people are constantly being arrested and their food/hygiene in police stations is a job on its own especially when there are large demonstrations and several police stations involved.

Several hours or work can be needed tracking them down and persuading police to feed them properly. Mostly after between 5-15 hours they are released on police bail without actually being charges and they may never be charged in the future, but records have to be kept and someone available seven days a week to deal with these situations when they arise because it could anytime/any day.

I personally have deal with very large numbers alone this year in police stations.

At the moment we are working on the companies that transport prisoners from one prison to another because they are responsible for their care/feeding and at the moment do not cater for vegans.

This work has just commenced and we are in contact with Group 4, Securicor and Premier regarding our concerns. Often a prisoner attending court and being transported from prison to court isn't fed all day and will return to prison and because they haven't been correctly informed of their return no food available on their arrival. Often breakfast the next day isn't available because they have been taken off the computer and it can take us until lunchtime to ensure they are fed again.

Claudette: What kind of supplies does VPSG supply to vegan prisoners of conscience?

Jo-Ann: Initially we supply a reception pack of toiletries and each time we write we supply stamps, stationery for their reply. If they need to telephone us regarding an urgent problem we reimburse them by sending money to replace the telephone card. Prison regulations restrict items as prisoners need to purchase what they require through their inmate's shops with their own money which is only approximately £10/week plus their wages which may be £7/week.

We have had permission to provide vegan shoes and supplements in the past but this needs the permission of the Governor and is not often granted.

Claudette: Are you given any leeway from the authorities and does this leeway change from prison to prison?

Jo-Ann: We have to always fully comply with regulations - no leeway is given. However, the Governor of each prison can grant special concessions if he so wishes. They do not often decide to use this facility, but they did when Barry Horne was so ill on several of his hunger strikes, but this is not normal practice.

Claudette: What has been the hardest thing to achieve for prisoners?

Jo-Ann: The acceptance of the last recommendations regarding the care/handling/storage of vegan food. This has taken us almost 6 years to be accepted because vegans are in the minority in prisons. The provision of a vegan bar soap is the other and we are still working on it. Work started on this in 1994! The Prison System is a complicated one and the problem keeps being moved from one department to another and the response time is appalling. Constant pressure needs to be exerted, but we have been promised by the Director of the Prison Service to have our concerns addressed the end of this year finally!


Claudette: Is it possible to cater for vegan prisoners individual likes and dislikes? Herbal teas, organics, etc.

Jo-Ann: Sometimes, if pressure is constant eventually the inmate's shop may co-operate, but the prisoner always has to purchase such 'luxury items' out of their own private spend.

Claudette: How are you financed?

Jo-Ann: As explained earlier purely by donations and doing stalls when necessary. However, when we are out doing stalls the work just sits in the trays and the telephone unanswered, but when needs must!


Claudette: How can we help?

Jo-Ann: By trying to find someone prepared to set up a similar group to deal with Vegan Animal Rights Prisoners in your country as anyone that is prepared to sacrifice their freedom for the rights of animals needs care within any Prison System once those gates clank behind them and the work needs to expand. Unfortunately, we are only a small hard working group and have made such a difference to such people in this country and feel the work is extremely important and our experience needs to be utilised in other countries.

Our support is always there!


Check out: www.vpsg.org