a wise person once said: there are three kinds of truth. Yours, mine and what actually happened
The scales of injustice may weigh on many minds but if ever you feel slighted just spare a few thoughts, for people like Glynn Simmons. In July of last year and at the age of 70, he found himself released from prison after a 48-year wrongful conviction, in 1975. Of course, Sartre’s assertion that, ‘man is condemned to be free’ runs into the peculiarities of an earthly judiciary that often proves overwhelming. In fact, in philosophical terms, it’s extraordinary on so many levels and not least because he [Mr Simmons] is now fighting cancer, too. As BBC News online, reported:
‘There’s been anger there for almost 50-years – anger, bitterness,’ he said. ‘But you have to regulate it or it’ll eat you up. What’s been done can’t be undone, so I don’t wallow in it.’
Well, perhaps it takes nearly half-a-century to finesse such stoical thoughts while the mental-health impact of the longest, wrongful incarceration in U.S history is more than difficult to grasp. So, beyond a travesty of justice placing people into these cells, what happens to the mind of someone whose life has been stolen in such terms? Surprisingly, little in the way of research has been conducted into the psychological effects of wrongful convictions. Yet, the PTSD researcher and former exoneree, Ginny Lefever, falsely imprisoned for 22-years, had this to say in response to a question posed on the Innocence Project website:
‘I cannot speak for other exonerees, but from a personal perspective moving forward is a daily decision. As it is for everyone, some days are better than others, but PTSD certainly brings its own challenges.’
Undoubtedly so, and in the UK, recent weeks have seen renewed interest and rapid action by the UK government to exonerate the hundreds of Post Office submasters wrongfully convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting. The issue? The government procured auditing software programme known as Horizon began registering financial balancing issues soon after installation, in 1999.
Within two years, hundreds of bugs from faulty coding surfaced causing shortfalls to appear where none existed. Meanwhile, unsuspecting workers were trying to run a business as efficiently as possible with the worst of storms gathering. For instance, as seen in The Guardian newspaper: the ‘Dalmellington Bug’ froze the computer screen and as the postmaster repeatedly pressed the enter button to finish a transaction, the system recalculated further discrepancies with unseen results.
The Post Office soon launched its own criminal investigation under the auspices of a Royally commissioned body with internal, prosecutorial powers dating back to the 17th Century. This basically allowed them to police their own enquiry with postmasters apparently subjected to intimidating styles of interrogation. Further, as the accused refused to sign off on the accounts and compensate for deficits, the Post Office bankrupted them in court and or imprisoned people with medical and social repercussions.
As an independent public statutory inquiry continues, ‘Human Impact Hearings’ have exposed the ruinous effect of the scandal on many people. Julie Beisner, for example, recalled: ‘feeling utter despair at being unable to prove my innocence’ while Mohammed Khalil, stated: ‘My health seriously deteriorated as a result of stress including a worsening of my diabetes, sleeplessness and depression.’ Others, suffered broken marriages, social isolation and for some, suicide, as well. It was the darkly-lit crossroads of health and economics where the goliath nature of an organisation, changed the lives of ordinary people.
Well, at times, it takes the unexpected to push change and by the time The Guardian reported on the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, public momentum was shifting through the gears.
The University of Chicago, puts it well:
Wrongful imprisonment is traumatising and disorientating because imprisonment itself is traumatising and disorientating. While exonerees face mental-health outcomes that are unique to their wrongful convictions, the damage wrought by imprisonment is shared among most prisoners.’
Indeed. How could it not be, on all counts?
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Images:
Behind Bars, by McAndon, Pixabay – Main Image
Royal Courts of Justice, by Public Domain Pictures, Pixabay
References:
Madeleine Halpert, ‘Glynn Simmons: Freedom ‘exhilarating’ for man exonerated after 48-years’, BBC News, New York, 6th January 2024, accessed 12th January 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67878504
Rauno Huttenen, ‘Jean-Paul Sartre, Viktor Frankl and the Philosophy of Adult Education’, European Educational Research Association, Conference ECER 2016, accessed 12th January 2024, https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/21/contribution/38564/
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Independent Public Statutory Inquiry, UK Government, Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
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