O/T: Petition to Protect Our Prison Officers

[Fungus]

Sorry it's another petition, but this one feels a bit closer to home.

You may have heard about the murder of a prison officer at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, on Christmas Day.

Well, it was the brother-in-law of a guy I play walking football with each week. The family is devastated, and a petition has been started to make it a specific criminal offence to assault an HM Prison Officer. Please would you sign - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/177899

Thanks. Please just ignore if you disagree. If it makes a difference, he was also a referee, though there are no petitions to protect referees.

 

[Lush]

Signed. No-one should be in danger for just doing their job. Hopefully better protection is in place too.

 

[Foul Play Rocks]

I hadn't heard about the incident at the time but sorry to hear about their loss. All signed.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Must be an awful job, always seems the threat of danger inside & even when you go home from possible threats from contacts of inmates. Need all the help they can get.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Was he the same guy that played in a punk band back in the day?

 

[Fungus]

Was he the same guy that played in a punk band back in the day?

Yes, I didn't know that, but he was in Manufactured Romance.

 

[glasfryn]

as an ex prison officer it been a long time coming
and signed

 

[TheJasperCo]

Tragic and brutal set of circumstances, but I should caution OP against misleading the reader into thinking that the victim was murdered in the line of his duty as a prison officer.

According to the newspaper reports (below), he was killed whilst off-duty, by a member of public who was not an inmate.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cked-night-early-hours-Christmas-morning.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-38447504

I don't know if others on here jumped to the same conclusions that I did when reading the OP, but it's worth posting some of the reports on here for posterity.

 

[Fungus]

Tragic and brutal set of circumstances, but I should caution OP against misleading the reader into thinking that the victim was murdered in the line of his duty as a prison officer.

According to the newspaper reports (below), he was killed whilst off-duty, by a member of public who was not an inmate.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cked-night-early-hours-Christmas-morning.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-38447504

I don't know if others on here jumped to the same conclusions that I did when reading the OP, but it's worth posting some of the reports on here for posterity.

Having discussed it with my friend, I'm well aware of the circumstances. Neither my post nor the petition suggest that he was "at work" at the time. I'm simply passing on a request from the family.

However, I suspect it's a job where you're never actually "off duty".

 

[luppers]

Having discussed it with my friend, I'm well aware of the circumstances. Neither my post nor the petition suggest that he was "at work" at the time. I'm simply passing on a request from the family.

However, I suspect it's a job where you're never actually "off duty".

In some towns the prison officers are not allowed to wear their uniform on the way home from doing a shift for fear of being attacked. The prison I worked in was classed as being in a uniform friendly town.

 

[Fungus]

In some towns the prison officers are not allowed to wear their uniform on the way home from doing a shift for fear of being attacked. The prison I worked in was classed as being in a uniform friendly town.

In a small town on a small island, I imagine doing that job would easily become common knowledge?

 

[happypig]

I don't get it. The current assault offences (common assault, ABH, GBH) mean the sentencers must consider the circumstances and relationship; a prison officer (whilst on duty) would be a "vulnerable victim" so that would automatically aggravate the offence.
If we start making it a specific offence to assault a Prison Officer then there will be (or have been) calls for specific offences for NHS, Teachers, Traffic Wardens, Social Workers, Postmen and every other profession that interacts with other sections of society.

 

[drew]

First and foremost thoughts go to the family of Nick Medlin, not only a very tragic incident but it will be at the forefront of their minds every Christmas from now on.

With regard to the petition, at the risk of being slated, I wonder how necessary this is. In other words, should prison officers be afforded special attention over other services, for example, the ambulance service, fire service etc (I believe the Police already have special attention). The other point is whether there has been a massive increase in the number of deaths of Prison officers. If you take out the special situation of the Northern Ireland prison service during the 'troubles', how many prison officers in the rest of the UK have lost their lives during the course of their duty?

Finally, I would respectfully suggest to the OP that most people reading his post who were not already aware of the circumstances (and I accept that included me), would link Mr Medlin's death with his position as a prison officer. It could turn out to be the case that he was punched because the assailant knew of his job or it could just have been a stupid altercation that, from one punch, resulted in such a tragic outcome.