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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

A long-ish thread on racial disproportionalities in the use of force in prison - and why this makes yesterday’s decision to authorise the use of PAVA spray in children’s prisons all the more appalling - please do read and share 🙏

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵 Yesterday Govt published an evaluation of the use of force - including PAVA spray - in adult prisons from 2018 to 2023 It shows - starkly - the fact that you are significantly more likely to have force used against you in prison if you are Black than white

Figure 4 from this document showing disproportionate use of force of all kinds against Black people in prison https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Lottie @sellottie.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Important campaign against a barbaric decision which will - per the government’s own evaluations of PAVA in adult prisons - fail to deter violence in YOIs and instead further damage fragile trust between children in custody and staff

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

In adult prisons, Black men are significantly more likely to be sprayed with PAVA than white men - in fact, this is more than 5 times more likely for Black men under 25 We are deeply concerned that this disproportionality will be mirrored in children’s prisons

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

The Howard League @thehowardleague.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

The Ministry of Justice has announced the introduction of PAVA spray for use against children in prison. The Howard League will take whatever steps necessary, including legal action, to challenge this decision. Please support our crowdfunder 🙏 www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-th...

crowdjustice.com

Stop the use of PAVA spray on children in prison

The Howard League is a national charity campaigning for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

We can’t stand by and let this happen Please support @thehowardleague.bsky.social’s fundraiser to challenge this decision 🙏 www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-th...

crowdjustice.com

Stop the use of PAVA spray on children in prison

The Howard League is a national charity campaigning for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Govt has just has announced that PAVA spray will be authorised for use in children’s prisons Hard to imagine a more profound failure than arming prison officers in the name of keeping children safe Follow @thehowardleague.bsky.social for updates across the day howardleague.org/do-not-let-p...

howardleague.org

The Howard League | Don’t let PAVA spray be used on children

PAVA spray: Join the Howard League campaign against its use on children in prison

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Catching up on my reading list - it’s been a while since I posted anything but I’ve enjoyed quite a few new books of late This was my favourite by far👇💙📚 Wondering what to start on next - anyone got any recommendations?

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Another glorious book from the #WomensPrize long list. I adored this👇 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Anyone in charge of the Scottish history curriculum?!👇🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

So glad to have the Women’s Prize long list to work through - I’ve already read a few but plenty new names to add to my wish list! This was an excellent start👇 #WomensPrize2025 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

If you usually find audiobooks a struggle, I couldn’t recommend this more👇 The accents (oh the accents!) - I could never have brought this to life so vividly in my own head. Loved it 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

After a lovely half-term, I’m catching up on this little (pleasurable) job I have set myself, of documenting everything I read this year A small flurry is incoming This inserted itself at the top of my list due to glowing reviews - I enjoyed it👇

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Social Market Foundation @smfthinktank.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

👩‍⚖️No other country with assisted dying requires judicial review. While several questions remain on the assisted dying bill, the coming amendment improves safety standards, having judges in a more suitable position, @gideonsalutin.bsky.social explains👇 www.smf.co.uk/commentary_p...

smf.co.uk

Judges' smaller role in assisted dying will strengthen safety

SMF's Gideon Salutin explains why Kim Leadbeater MP's proposed changes to assisted dying bill will improve safety standards.

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Dignity in Dying @dignityindying.org.uk · 11/02/2025

It's only right that @kimleadbeatermp.bsky.social responds to the evidence heard in Committee and works to improve the Bill. This proposed change strikes a balance between choice for dying people and building in safety measures.

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The Guardian (@theguardian.com)

I’m changing my bill to ensure people have the right to a dignified death – here’s how | Kim Leadbeater…

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

My favourite book this year - highly recommended👇

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I posted my list out of order and it’s really annoying but the main thing is that you should read this - immediately - if you haven’t already. So good

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Set across one soaked day in a suffocating neighbourhood, I’m not sure Arlington Park could have felt more apt. I hadn’t read Rachel Cusk before. I was left both impressed and wincing by how precisely and mercilessly she skewers middle class suburbia and its unhappy mothers. Brutal #BookSky

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

It’s been a while since I read something that made me laugh out loud Ideally it wouldn’t have been a noisy snort in a busy restaurant but these things happen I guess

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

The sky and the rain and the sea have blurred into one another like a watercolour today

A photo of the skeletal West Pier in Brighton, which is surrounded by grey-blue water and sky

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Dignity in Dying @dignityindying.org.uk · 05/02/2025

"It is extremely important to get the details of the legislation right, and enhance it where necessary...but we must also not lose sight of the fact that the current legal situation is unacceptable and deeply problematic" www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

theguardian.com

Assisted dying amendment requires doctors to raise all other options first

Proposed change follows concerns by experts about protection from coercion and measuring mental capacity

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Matthew England @matthewengland.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Rolling news: Kim Leadbeater tables 56 amendments to assisted dying bill • strengthening training requirements, inc on capacity • requiring doctors to draft a detailed report assessing a patient • leaving forms to regulations Summary below ⬇️ www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications...

hansardsociety.org.uk

Assisted dying - The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Rolling news

Stay informed with updates and analysis on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as it moves through Parliament. Learn about the debates, procedures, decisions, and key milestones shaping the a...

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Tessa Hadley is both insightful and brutal - this novella is *wonderful* I turned the final page and wanted to go back to the beginning again Highly recommended👇👏

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Great to see prisons charities still joining Bluesky! Welcome to @prisonadvice.bsky.social 👋 You can find lots more in this #CriminalJustice starter pack, inc: @thehowardleague.bsky.social @prisonersadvice.bsky.social @prisonersed.bsky.social But lmk if I’ve missed anyone! go.bsky.app/2sQ9xmz

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Janey Starling @janeystarling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

📢 LAWYERS!📢 Since 2 high-profile baby deaths in women’s prisons, there’s been a sea change in the sentencing of pregnant women. But there’s much more to be done - and we need criminal & public lawyers to do it! Come & find out how you can help on 5 March 🌟✨ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-righ...

eventbrite.co.uk

Human rights of pregnant women, mothers and children in the justice system

Join the Human Rights Lawyers' Association for an empowering and important discussion in the run up to International Women's Day 2025.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

And with this, I’ve finished my stack of books from Christmas! Here is my next “to read” pile - any suggestions of what to put at the top of my list? #BookSky #ReadingList #BookRecommendations

A pile of books stacked on a walnut table. From bottom to top:

- Murakami, The City and its Uncertain Walls
- Gabriel’s Moon, William Boyd
- There Are Rivers In The Sky, Elif Shafak
- Glorious Exploits, Ferria Lennon
- The Party, Tessa Hadley
- Arlington Park, Rachel Cusk
- The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor
- Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag
- Levitation for Beginners, Suzannah Dunn

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I used to find audiobooks too hard to focus on but I think I’ve cracked it - choose a good yarn - nothing too challenging in terms of the *style* of writing - humour or high drama to hold your attention - only listen when you can’t do anything else (eg walking/driving) This fitted the bill! 👇

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Sophie Blake @sophierblake.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

This is such an important distinction. So many people I know with terminal cancer have a huge passion for life and put themselves through the most gruelling treatments to prolong their lives. AD is about giving dying people the choice to take control at the end when those treatments stop working

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Kim Leadbeater MBE MP @kimleadbeatermp.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

So many important conversations coming out of the Bill Committee today. On my mind is that behind this debate are real people, real suffering, and real families devastated by the current system. We owe them a law that prioritises compassion, not cruelty. A 🧵

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Dignity in Dying @dignityindying.org.uk · 29/01/2025

Thank you for making this distinction @kimleadbeatermp.bsky.social Assisted dying is about exercising control over the manner and timing of a death that is inevitable and imminent. This is about shortening death, not shortening life.

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Kim Leadbeater MBE MP @kimleadbeatermp.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Yesterday, the Bill Committee heard powerful testimony on my Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Thoughtful, moving, and clear: this is about choice, compassion & dignity. A quick thread on key moments. 🧵 #AssistedDying

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

“My view is the best safeguards are simple safeguards” - Sir Chris Whitty providing evidence to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Today marked a hugely significant milestone in the movement for greater choice at the end of life We’ve moved beyond discussions in principle to the technical details - and the evidence stages of the bill committee have already proved fascinating Follow @dignityindying.org.uk for details👇

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

After Sappho should come with a warning that it will not only inspire, but provoke Recommended! #BookSky #AfterSappho

Photo of an excerpt from the book entitled “Sappho, Fragment 154” which states

“Those were the stories we were given. When we were children, we learned what happened to girls in fables: eaten, married, lost. Then came our bouts of classical education, imparting to us the fates of women in ancient literature: betrayed, raped, cast out, driven mad in tongueless grief. It was not unusual, we discovered, for women to be dragged across the seas as slaves and then murdered on the threshold. Cassandra was merely one of many.”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

“Most prisoners want to rebuild their lives; they just need support to do so... We need… a system focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. This can be provided in our communities, rather than our prisons” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

I was jailed for four years for a non-violent climate protest – this is my prison diary

I was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest after blocking a motorway. Six months into my incarceration, this is what I have learned

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

I thought this would be a balm after the stress of reading Prophet Song and massively underestimated how fraught I’d find the family drama Loved it though - acerbic, smart, very funny #BookSky #LongIslandCompromise

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Of all the things I can’t stop thinking about in this book, how does Paul Lynch so exquisitely articulate the agony of motherhood? I’m still reeling… #BookSky #Reading #ProphetSong

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

The Howard League @thehowardleague.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Winchester: A truly squalid, overcrowded Victorian jail. The prison received an awful inspection report in 2022, but things have gone from bad to worse. Read our response to @hmiprisonsnews.bsky.social's inspection report: howardleague.org/news/winches...

Poor cell conditions at Winchester prison.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Wondering if it is unreasonable to read a memoir and be annoyed by its introspection… #BookSky #ReadingList #Books

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Has anyone else read this - incredible - book and found a way to stop the mice haunting their dreams? 😱🐁

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Absolutely terrible reports from both Manchester and Long Lartin prisons today Notable that these are not overcrowded prisons - their populations are below capacity. But conditions are absolutely desperate nonetheless

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Reposted by Gemma Abbott

Matt Dathan @mattdathan.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Too many ex-prisoners are being recalled to jail because of "excessive" licensing conditions, the probation watchdog tells @thetimes Crime & Justice Commission: www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art... @rachelsylvester.bsky.social

thetimes.com

‘Too many ex-prisoners are being recalled to prison’

Recalls have risen by 12,000 in 30 years, largely due to non-compliance with licence conditions rather than reoffending, says the chief inspector of probation

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

If you are wondering what to read next, I can heartily recommend this 👇 (I need to read Kairos because I can’t imagine what could be better to have won the International Booker Prize!) #BookSky #ReadingList #Books

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

I loved this book so much - beautiful and uplifting, but also funny. I laughed out loud several times Almost enough to make you move to the north east, live in a shed and wash in the sea. Almost. #BookSky #TheOffing #ReadingList (Reposted without the typos!)

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HJA Civil Liberties @hjacivillibs.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

‘Judges frequently refer to justice only being done if it is seen to be done… But the inconvenient truth is more than 60 per cent of criminal court cases in England and Wales are now conducted either partly or fully behind-closed-doors, and that figure could rise dramatically in 2025’

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