After climate protesters were held on remand in 2021, their friends and family decided to set up Rebels in Prison Support (RIPS), to help others who find themselves locked up, often with no idea of how to navigate the prison system.
Rebels In Prison Support: defending the defenders
Originally aiming to support climate prisoners and starting off with just a crowdfunder to raise money, the group is now happy to provide vital support to any peaceful protester or non- violent activist who ends up in prison.
Rebels In Prison Support (RIPS) defines peaceful/non-violent as: ‘not causing harm to any human or animal’, and has so far assisted a total of 173 political prisoners, preparing and supporting them both practically and emotionally, and trying to make their experience in prison as comfortable as possible.
RIPS has supported activists from a wide range of organisations, including Palestine Action, Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil, Animal Rising, and Extinction Rebellion. This includes the 31 peaceful protesters and non-violent activists – who are currently in prisons across the country, including someone from Scottish campaign group This Is Rigged, and Daniel Day who climbed Big Ben in solidarity with Palestine and has been remanded in custody until his next hearing on Monday 14 April.
The biggest group is currently in Europe’s largest women’s jail known as HMP Bronzefield, in Surrey, where mental health services are ‘in their worst state for 15 years’, and the number of self-harm incidents average almost 210 each month.
Solidarity: one of the most important things
Louis Marwen has been volunteering with Rebels In Prison Support (RIPS) for the last two years, since he found himself unexpectedly thrown into the role of support person for his friend who was on remand. The experience made him aware of the benefits solidarity can provide for those who find themselves behind bars and led him to take on support roles for several other prisoners and become more and more involved with RIPS. He is now part of the core team, which coordinates a wider network of buddies and helpers.
Marwen explains that:
While there are physical things we can obviously help with, solidarity could be one of the most important things. When you go into prison, you don’t know anyone, you might not have been expecting it. It might have been very sudden, if you’ve just done an action or been arrested unexpectedly and having someone there makes you feel so much better.
Even though you’re on your own in that prison, knowing people are thinking of you and are there to support you, makes you realise you’re not on your own. I think it really makes a difference. Also, having people on the outside, that if something isn’t going right when you are in prison, can really help. You know people are watching and are always willing to help. You’re not on your own.
RIPS makes sure they are there to support a prisoner throughout the process. Pre-prison assistance includes ‘Preparing for Prison’ briefings, which aim to get a person ready both practically and psychologically for their time behind bars.
Sometimes people are also paired up with a buddy before they go to prison, rather than when they are already inside, so they can get to know their supporting person and have everything in place before getting arrested. The buddy helps the prisoner in many ways including forwarding messages of support and helping their family and friends at what is often a very emotional time for them.
Although most people organise their own buddy – usually someone they know who takes part in one of the RIPS trainings – there is also a list of support people who are trained up and understand the system who can be messaged and potentially allocated to a prisoner, if needed.
Far-reaching benefits of Rebels In Prison Support
In-prison support includes a support team which coordinates printing and postage, sending out a relevant weekly newsletter to the prisoner, and a weekly goodies package, if wanted – which includes jokes, poems, artwork, and puzzles. Prisoners also receive a lot of one-to-one support if needed.
When it comes to being on remand, the uncertainty around length of imprisonment can cause added distress and is made worse by limited prison resources. Hannah Schafer, 61, was supported by Rebels In Prison Support (RIPS) last year when she spent a month in prison on remand, after taking part in an action with Just Stop Oil.
She tells the Canary that RIPS support can have far reaching benefits.
RIPS helped me in many ways. One of them was financially; by transferring funds into my prison account so I could buy phone credit and extra food. This meant I was able to help out other prisoners who weren’t so lucky as to have private funds to spend.
The criminal justice system is brutal, and anything but just, to many people who get caught up in it. By providing support to protest related prisoners, RIPS helps flag up some of this injustice and hopefully will benefit all prisoners in the long run. I am expecting to return to prison next month, for an extended stay, and am very grateful to know RIPS are there.
Marwen says that RIPS are there to make sure everything is OK and are ready to help with any issues that may arise:
A lot of our prisoners are vegan, or sometimes halal. Prisons are generally pretty bad at meeting nutritional needs anyway, but if you’re vegan it’s even worse. Prisoners might also need us to get their medication, or to contact prison lawyers, or their solicitors.
Sometimes, if the prison doesn’t cooperate, we need to get a lot of people to phone in or email, to tell the prison that they are concerned about the prisoner because, generally, if you’re annoying, they often tend to listen more.
This has been confirmed by an ex-prisoner, who wishes to remain anonymous, but told the Canary that it is possible their life was saved because of one of RIPS phone campaigns:
There is every chance RIPS saved my life. My leg swelled up, a friend who is a retired GP visited me when I was in prison and said she thought it was a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), which can be fatal if left untreated.
The prison wasn’t taking this seriously, despite my friend ringing up the prison and explaining she is a qualified medical professional. RIPS put a call-out for people to ring the prison, and 100 phone calls later, and within 30 minutes, I had a nurse in my cell.
They took blood tests and then, a few days later, I was escorted to hospital, where they suspected DVT (confirmed by a hospital appointment the next day), so they prescribed me blood thinners. People die in prison due to precisely this lack of healthcare, and I was fortunate enough to have enough people outside of prison who cared enough to make a nuisance of themselves. The healthcare you can access in prison though shouldn’t be dependent on who you know.
Support on release
RIPS also provides support to those coming out of prison and, according to Marwen, this is the time when people can not only feel as though they have much less support, but are also much lonelier, especially if they are on licence and have certain conditions attached to their release, such as not being allowed to speak with other people from activist groups:
There’s a lot of things that can be complicated to work out after someone gets out of prison, so we ask that their buddy carry on supporting them if possible, and if that’s not possible we try and find someone who lives nearby, who can physically go see them and support them in that way.
We also help them to find a therapist if they need psychological support, while our PO box address allows people to still send letters to us, which we pass on to people once they are out of prison. RIPS also hold group chats for people who have been released, where they can talk with, and ask questions to, people with similar experiences as themselves.
Around the world, people are calling for change, but the injustices continue unabated. Here in the UK, dissent is being criminalised, and powers are being misused by an increasingly authoritarian government. This means that people who act on their conscience are increasingly finding themselves behind bars for non-violent activism and peaceful protest, something which should be considered unacceptable in a democracy.
Rebels In Prison Support: solidarity, not charity
Marwen said:
The numbers have been steadily increasing over the years. Back at the end of 2021 into 2022, there was an Insulate Britain campaign and although people were getting arrested all the time, there weren’t many court cases.
Things weren’t that bad with the first Just Stop Oil campaign either, or even Palestine Action a few years ago. Whereas now it’s not even convictions, but about people being remanded for a really long time, even though they’re only meant to be held for eight months, or less. We had someone from Just Stop Oil, who was part of the Manchester 5, who was remanded in prison for six months before being found not guilty.
The rest of them are still being held in prison until their sentencing in May- so by then they would have been in prison for nine months (because they have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance). This just did not used to happen.
RIPS now also advises everyone taking action with Just Stop Oil or Palestine Action to come along to their Preparing For Prison briefings, as there is a high chance of arrest.
Anyone wanting to get involved in any way with the important work of Rebels in Prison Support, or wanting more information, can make contact at [email protected]
- Consider donating to the RIPS fundraiser. RIPS has a lot of outgoings and appreciates any contributions, no matter how small.
- Create content to send to those in prison, such as articles, puzzles, poems, exercises.
- Forward emails to prisoners via emailaprisoner.com and be in close communication with each prisoner’s support team.
- Write messages of support to prisoners- the emails are found by clicking onto the prisoner boxes here.
- Write to post- prisoners, using RIPS PO Box address, available from their email address
- Organise a writing group, and regularly write to activists who are in prison.
- Take part in a RIPS training, to learn how to become a prison buddy.
- Help to maintain the RIPS website
- Go to https://rebelsinprison.uk/ for more information.
Featured image via the Canary
