10th Longford Lecture on "Crime, Punishment and the Media"

The scene in Church House which included a Cardinal, a Police Commissioner, several Lords (not a leaping) Lady Antonia Fraser, serving and former prisoners and Dáithaí C!

An inspiring evening was had by the full house attendance @ the 10th Longford Lecture on "Crime, Punishment and the Media" by the redoubtable Jon Snow and chaired by Shami Chakrabati of Liberty, once described as “the most dangerous women in Britain!” Held annually to honour the memory of Frank Pakenham, Lord Longford, and to further his work on penal reform it has attracted distinguished speakers in its 10 year history; Cherie Booth QC (2002) • Bishop John Sentamu (2003) • Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2004) • Brenda Hale (2005) • Clive Stafford Smith (2006) • President Mary McAleese (2007) • One-off Longford Debate (2008) • Sir Hugh Orde (2009) • Martha Lane Fox (2010). This year on the 17th November 2011 it was once again held in the Assembly Hall of the Church of England and in a wonderful sign of how the world has changed the Catholic Primate, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor strolled in without fuss to take his seat for the lecture.


Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams

As a young don in Oxford Lord Longford, Frank Longford, (1905-2001) was already interested in prisons. He was in the process of converting to Catholicism and very struck by the Christian message: Hate the sin but love the sinner. This remained the foundation for all his subsequent work with prisoners and other people who he felt were ill-served by society. He never condoned criminal actions but always believed in the possibility of change, however hardened the criminal. This approach led to his support for the child murderer, Myra Hindley which drew on him so much criticism. Happily, there was a more sympathetic portrayal of his beliefs in the 2007 award-winning TV film Longford.


The trust was set up in the memory of Lord Longford and pursues the goals which he pursued during his life.

It was fitting that this 10th anniversary lecture was by the journalist and broadcaster Jon Snow as Lord Longford had picked him to be a director of New Horizon, a London charity, because he’d been thrown out of university. So had the last director, the noble peer added gleefully. They became lifelong friends, lunching together every month. ‘No-one was more entertaining’, said Snow about the great reformer.


Jon Snow

Snow had been studying law at Liverpool University and had taken part in a student sit in at the administration building in protest at the University investing in companies trading with Apartheid South Africa. For this, he and 9 others were expelled, a point he referred to in his lecture in asking was this a correct punishment? He painted a vivid pen picture of his first meeting with the peer in the (then) somewhat scruffy and dank surroundings of the under croft of St. Ann’s in Soho where the charity was then based. In a recess there was Frank Pakenham wearing a tweed jacket, an ancient cardie and his tie knot somewhere around his ears, an immaculate Jack Profumo only six years after the scandal which led to his resignation and the then chairman of BOAC. Jon has maintained his connection with New Horizon which is now based near his home in Camden and with the causes close to the heart of Lord Longford who gave him his first break all those years ago.


Shami Chakrabati of Liberty who chaired the evening

In his lecture Snow questioned why no major City figure had been prosecuted over the financial crisis three years ago. Delivering the annual Longford Lecture, sponsored by The Independent, he doubted that every action by every investment banker during that period was above board. He said: "I can't believe that you have an event so searing, so terribly destructive, as the global meltdown of 2008 without what you and I might recognise as a crime or an element of crime. But how many are behind bars?" He suggested that bodies such as the Serious Fraud Office were struggling to grapple with complex financial systems.

Snow protested that it was the innocent paying the price of the banks' mismanagement, such as the one million young unemployed adults being "punished for the fiscal failures of their elders". He took a swipe at companies for registering their headquarters in tax havens, saying: "It's not a crime, it's legal, but it doesn't feel right." Indeed he has long campaigned against tax haven, 23 of which are controlled in one way or the other by the United Kingdom, asking elsewhere “is it right they make it here and park it there?”

Snow also spoke of other innocent victims of crime such as the musician Carla Rees who lost a collection of valuable flutes when her home was burnt out in the summer's riots. He pointed out that Society seems keen to imprison those guilty of crime from the bottom such as last summer’s rioters but not those guilty of crimes from the top such as bankers and others. Indeed he asked if Financial Engineering and hedge funds which engage in socially useless activities devalue our overall morality.



However he pointed out the overwhelming evidence that prison doesn’t work with 81% of young offenders serving sentences of less than a year reoffending within a year of release. The need for Penal Reform which Frank Longford campaigned for is even more pressing as the prison population edges up over 88,000, seemingly egged on by media pressure by the discredited British Tabloids. They don’t consider the proportion of the prison population who have alcohol or drug dependencies which will not be effectively addressed in prison, the numbers who are foreign nationals who will cost us £48k + to house or indeed the high proportion (15%) who are ex-military and have not found their way in civilian life. Whilst the Tabloids support “Our Boys” going into war they are somewhat more muted when they end up in prison due to the effect of the trauma they have endured.



Jon Snow has been the face of Channel 4 News since 1989. He joined ITN in 1976 and became Washington Correspondent in 1984. Since then, he has travelled the world to cover the news – from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela, to Barack Obama's inauguration and the earthquake in Haiti. His many awards include the Richard Dimbleby Bafta award for Best Factual Contribution to Television (2005), and Royal Television Society awards for Journalist of the Year (2006) and Presenter of the Year (2009). As well as presenting the programme, Jon writes Snowblog - a unique take on the day's events - and Snowmail - a preview of the evening programme's main stories. To the public he is instantly recognisable for his trademark colourful ties and socks.

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog

Another fine feature of Lord Longford’s legacy are the Longford Awards for Penal Reform and the Longford Scholarships helping offenders gain educational qualifications.

For its innovative and effective work with offenders, The Clink received the Longford Prize, sponsored by the Independent Newspaper. The award recognises "outstanding qualities of humanity, courage, persistence and originality" in penal or social reform. The Clink is located in Her Majesty’s Prison High Down in Sutton, Surrey. It is the first and only commercial restaurant to be built inside a working British prison to date.




The Clink - reservations are essential!

The Clink is the brainchild of Alberto Crisci, the jail's catering manager, who was already training inmates to cook and prepare food before he hit on the idea of serving gourmet fare to paying customers. The aim was that offenders would receive work experience and gain qualifications to prepare them for well-paid jobs in catering. It has been supported to a great extent by Kevin McGrath and his McGrath Family Foundation and its ambitious menu includes crispy Stilton quenelles, slow-cooked spice pork cheeks and home-made crab ravioli. But you have to be patient to get a table at The Clink, which has become so popular that it is fully booked until January despite patrons needing to go through special security procedures on arrival and departure. This is one restaurant where you will not be disturbed by the dreaded mobile phones!

www.theclinkcharity.com

The Longford Trust, founded in Frank Pakenhams memory and run by writer Peter Stanford, has three aims. Firstly, the annual lecture; secondly, a programme of scholarships for ex-prisoners who are taking on further education and thirdly, awards for an individual or organisation that has done outstanding work in penal or social areas. Generous tribute was rightly paid by Jon Snow to the writer and former editor of the Catholic Herald Peter Stanford who has headed up the Trust since its inception and been responsible for Trojan work in expanding its scope and its fundraising. His biography of Lord Longford was the basis for Channel 4's 2006 multi-award winning drama, Longford.


Peter Stanford

http://www.peterstanford.co.uk/biography.php

Afterwards there was a fine reception, as is the tradition, attended by no less than 19 “Longfords” including his daughter Lady Antonia Fraser, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Sir Ian Blair and many other luminaries old lags and myself! It was an opportunity to mingle, to meet Longford Scholars and to see the wonderful work of the various prison charities. It was catered in some style by The Clink and serving prisoners and was an opportunity to take stock of the continuing need for Penal Reform. For once the needs of Justice have been served by Trial and sentencing then the needs of Society are only served afterwards by stopping reoffending and that is the area where the UK’s Prison System is an expensive failure. Is a prison sentence the only way to tackle criminality or do we need to change the emphasis to rehabilitation? As Peter Stanford points out on the Longford Trust’s site;

“The benefit of such a dual approach (punishment and rehabilitation) is that it delivers what society really wants – released in-mates who do not offend against the rest of us again. Instead what the present overcrowded, punishment-obsessed prison system turns out is 80 per cent of under-21 years who reoffend within two years of release and nigh on 70 per cent of over 21s. It is a pitiful result that costs us all a fortune. We spend around £40,000 a year on each prison place.”



Generous tribute was also paid in conversation at the reception to Jon Snow; A man passionate about using his profile to improve society and who many years after first meeting Frank Longford is still fighting the good fight he inspired.

To learn more about the work of the Longford Trust and how to support it see the website;

http://www.longfordtrust.org/