Quaker JSO activist faces prison recall
Gaie Delap faces being recalled to prison after health complications prevented her from having a surveillance tag
Quakers have raised alarm about the plight of Bristol Friend Gaie Delap, who faces being recalled to prison after health complications prevented her from having a surveillance tag.
As the Friend went to press, the Quaker in her late seventies was still in limbo, and ‘terrified of the next knock on her door’, said her family.
The Redland Friend was sent to prison in August along with four co-defendants, who climbed gantries over the M25 in November 2022. The Just Stop Oil (JSO) action forced police to stop traffic and left an estimated 709,000 drivers stuck in gridlock.
Gaie Delap was released from prison several months later and told she would serve the rest of her sentence under a Home Detention Curfew (HDC). But the tag could not be attached to her ankle due to a health condition, and no devices were small enough to fit her wrists. The company who fitted the device later contacted the prison authorities to tell them she ‘could not be monitored’.
A statement from Gaie Delap’s family and friends said: ‘The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that in effect the failure of its tagging contractor, Serco’s EMS [Electronic Monitoring Services], to find and fit a tag suitable for a normal-sized woman like Gaie does mean she is now being recalled to jail – even though in every other respect she has continued to comply with all the conditions under which she was released.’
It went on: ‘Gaie’s case evidences discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, and disability that exists within the tagging system.’
A later statement said that, with ‘expert advice, we have now esablished without a shadow of a doubt that there are straps/ tags that would fit Gaie’.
The group suggested last week to HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), via the Bristol Probation Service, that she could have ‘a tag with a strap that fit her wrist’ or be fitted with an ankle tag. ‘While there is a health risk issue, she is at least able to be monitored and can remain on licence.’ This would be ‘in order to avoid legal action and accusation of discrimination on the grounds of gender age and disability’, they said.
Gaie Delap’s brother, Mick, told The Guardian earlier this month that ‘Gaie is sitting at home terrified with her suitcase packed waiting for a knock on the door from police’.
A MoJ statement said that, under the conditions of HDC: ‘Where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to be monitored in the community. Neither Ministers nor officials can intervene in sentences passed down by the independent Courts. Furthermore, HMPPS is bound by law to administer the sentences that the courts have decided.’
The MoJ and Serco, which manages EMS, have said they are looking into the issue. Bristol MP Carla Denyer and Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes have made urgent representations to the justice minister.
