Blog: Cookie was wrongfully convicted and spent fourteen Christmases in prison. Here she writes about how fellow prisoners scrimped and saved to send presents to loved ones at this time of year.
Cookie’s Christmas Challange.
When she was in prison Cookie made Christmas decorations out of bits and pieces she could find. For APPEAL’s Big Give Cookie showed us how to do this and challanged us to do the same, making a donation as an entrance fee.
By Cookie, APPEAL client
So, you’re busy preparing for the Christmas season. Your festivities may be limited, due to Covid 19. You’re worrying about how you can afford the extra expense of sending gifts to those you can visit.
Think for a couple of minutes…
You are incarcerated, away from your children at Christmas. Away from your parents, siblings and friends. Although there is a government funded assistance scheme to help them cover the travel cost to visit you, the reality is that they will need to claim the money back. Many simply cannot afford to pay the travel costs upfront. And do you really want to put that pressure on your family who are already worried about you, and are taking care of your children, particularly at the festive time of year? Do you want your family to have to travel to you, and back, in one day? The assistance scheme does not cover overnight accommodation in most cases, so you need to factor in how distressing and exhausting it will be for your children as well as the financial impact to your family. Only then can you decide if it is fair of you to ask them to visit you to cheer you up at Christmas.
If, all things considered, you feel it is too much of a burden for them all then what other options do you have to maintain contact and, more importantly, let you children know that you are thinking of them at Christmas?
According to PSO (Prison Service Order) the minimum that an individual convicted person can earn, for a full week of work, is £4. That can, of often does, consist of working five days a week, from 9am to 4pm, with a one hour lunch break. Each prison has the option of increasing the rate of pay but it is not compulsory for the governor to do this.
Now, imagine you are only earning £4 a week. Do your options for maintaining your family ties increase or decrease?
How can you save so that you are able to send you child/parent/partner a present, or even a card, for Christmas?
Despite what many people believe prisoners don’t receive a reduced rate on any of the goods they purchase. Stamps, writing paper, envelopes, cards etc are all at the prices paid by the general public. And those in prison do not benefit from reduced price deals the general public can find in the supermarket.
In addition to this, if you are ‘working’ you are deemed, in some prison establishments, to not qualify for the free, issued, toiletries. Again, these can be purchased, usually at £1 an item, or more.
If you have a television in your cell there is an automatic charge of 50p-£1, depending on whether you share a room.
Daily you are issued with 4 teabags, 4 small sugar sachets, and 4 small milk powder sachets, in addition to an individual cereal portion and 200ml of UHT milk. In this cold weather, can you imagine only having four hot drinks in a 24hour period? As a prisoner, if you want more than four your only option is to purchase items from the prison shop, again at full price.
So, buying toiletries and additional hot drink materials is another deduction from your measly £4.
A Christmas card for your loved one will cost at least £1 to purchase and a further 65p (second class) to post. What would you sacrifice to send a card to your child? Your television? In a shared room this is not an option. And it’s important to remember that over the winter months, especially towards Christmas, you would be spending more time locked in your room.
Toiletries? So how would you keep yourself clean? How would you avoid the bullying that comes from being unwashed?
Hot drinks? With heating that is often faulty; with your room so cold that your UHT freezes; with only one blanket on your bed?
In 2016 the HM Inspectorate of Prisons acknowledged that most convicted prisoners could not afford to purchase essential items from the prison canteen without the option of their family members sending additional money into them. But even this money is limited. Your family could send in £50 to help you over the winter period but you would be restricted as to how much of this money you could use each week. The money sent in can also take time to be processed and added to the prisoner’s account. And, it is important to remember, not all prisoners have family in the position to be able to send in money. If your loved one were incarcerated today would you be able to find ‘spare’ money to send them?
Whilst I was in prison I met a number of women who were desperate to be able to afford to send their child/children something for Christmas. I’ve met women who have scrimped and saved in order to buy a card. And then the card they have received, which a stranger has selected for them, is not suitable for their child. I’ve met women who have made cards…using nail clippers to cut shapes from old magazines, felt tip pens they have borrowed.
And I’ve met women who have wanted to send presents. I’ve met one woman who saved 50p each week so that at Christmas she could order something, from Argos, for her child. She used to send the money out to her parents, with the name of the item she wanted them to buy. In order to save 50p each week she stopped writing to her friends, so she could use that stamp money for her daughter’s Christmas. And I’ve met many women who have bought a small packet of sweets each week to put into an envelope. The envelope to be handed out on a visit, for the child to have something from their mum.
I fully appreciate that finances are hard for everyone at present. With the current Covid situation, reduced work, reduced income, increased bills and Christmas festivities fast approaching, money is something many of us are worrying about. But, having seen the letters some of the convicted women have received from their children, even a small thing, like a home-made Christmas card, can make a world of difference.