Just Stop Oil protester prison recall ‘very harsh’, says former probation officer

We spoke to Mike Campbell, a family friend and former probation officer who has supported Gaie’s case.

Matt Frei: So just tell us what’s actually happened?

Mike Campbell: I received a phone call from Gaie at 6.30 this evening. She was in a police car at the time and she said she was being taken to the local, nearest prison for women to Bristol, which is Eastwood Park. And she wanted us to know what had happened and asked me to pass on the news to Mick, who you’ve just interviewed.

Matt Frei: She’s 77 years old. She is, by all accounts, quite frail. What’s it going to be like for her to return to prison? Especially at this time of year.

Mike Campbell: Well, I think she’s got medical conditions that need to be treated in hospital. She was due in fact next week to have a hospital appointment and she thought that she might be able to attend that before her arrest. I think she’s worried, very worried, about how her health will be managed when she’s in Eastwood Park. And she’s very sad that this has happened. And we’re very sad that she’s going to go into a situation where she’s going to find it very difficult to manage. She had a tough time in Peterborough. She accepted her prison sentence, but it seems very harsh to send her back now to Eastwood Park to spend the best part of another three months in prison to complete a sentence.

Matt Frei: It also seems ridiculous that they can’t find a tag that fits her wrist. I mean, is there nothing else one could do to make the tag fit?

Mike Campbell: Well, let’s look at this. The government is promoting tagging for women, particularly mothers, to reduce the numbers of women going to prison. It’s unlikely that a tag has not been designed for a woman. And I think we find it absolutely astonishing that – and Gaie hasn’t got a smaller wrist than anybody else. So we think there is an alternative. The fingerprint tag has been mentioned. We will be raising this to say to Lord Timpson that there is an alternative to the electronic tag.

Matt Frei: Just just finally, briefly, Mike, there are some people there who really didn’t agree at all with what the protesters were doing with the blocking of traffic and so on, who will be actually rather pleased that she’s going back to prison.

Mike Campbell: Yes, look, whether you agree or disagree with what Gaie did, that disruption for an hour resulted in a 20-month prison sentence. She’s returning now back to prison, not because of that original sentence, but because she can’t abide by the conditions of a home detention curfew because there’s no tag available to fit her wrist.