Climate activists arrested on suspicion of blocking roads or other crimes face up to six months in prison before being tried.
Josh Smith, a 29-year-old stonemason from Manchester, has been detained at HMP Peterborough for more than two months.
His court date is not set until February 1, meaning he will have been in jail for half a year before any sentence can be imposed.
Smith, who is one of at least seven people held in prison for a long time awaiting trial, says the positive of his position is that people seem more receptive to his message about the climate crisis.
Speaking from inside prison, he said: “The only good thing about my situation is that it seems to give me an extra platform for my views. I spend most afternoons writing speeches and they have been read all over world: Italy, Sweden, Canada”.
Rebels in Prison Support, a group that helps jailed activists, says any sentences given to nonviolent direct action protesters are likely to be shorter than the time they spend in pretrial detention.
“It’s an absolute disgrace what’s happening. Many of these protesters are young and have had no contact with the police, never mind the court system, before becoming environmental activists,” said Alice Reid, a spokeswoman for the group
About 50 other protesters were arrested and jailed last Friday, but many have gone through court hearings in recent days and some have been released on bail.
Reid explains that protesters have been “lost in the prison system” when they move from one facility to another, apparently due to overcrowding.
Prisoners can struggle to make contact with the outside world for days on end, and Reid says it can take a long time to try to figure out where they’ve been taken.
Louise Lancaster, a 56-year-old former teacher from Grantchester in Cambridgeshire, was arrested on the M25 and taken to a police station in Grays, Essex. Her husband had to alert a missing person to find her.
He said: “I was held in Essex for two days and then moved to Peterborough Prison. The law must allow me a phone call [to alert friends or family] and the police said they would do that, but they didn’t.” Essex Police said this was due to human error.
Lancaster was quickly released from prison in Peterborough on the condition that she commit no further “actions”, but her hearing is not scheduled until October 2023. “If I had been held in prison, I would have faced more than a year before the trial,” she said.
The delays are due in part to a prison system struggling to cope with large numbers and a court system with severe funding and other constraints, as well as a large backlog of cases stemming from Covid lockdowns. There are 59,000 cases pending in the Crown courts and an ongoing barristers’ strike threatens to make this worse in the short term.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice insisted that environmental activists were being treated equally under the law. “Decisions on bail applications are made by independent judges who ensure the protection of the public. They have been prioritizing preventive cases following the unprecedented impact of the pandemic,” they said.
Those arrested have mainly been held at roadblocks organized by Insulate Britain or Just Stop Oil.
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There is a high probability that more protesters will join their ranks soon. A coalition of groups including JSO, Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project, Fuel Poverty Action and others are planning a large protest in Westminster on October 1.
Record summer temperatures in the UK and severe flooding in Pakistan have increased the urgency in the eyes of climate campaigners.
Smith admits he is not an entirely innocent victim. He has been arrested 24 times in protests in less than a year and has refused to commit to giving up demonstrating.
But he’s also determined he’s doing the right thing. “A decade from now, when droughts are out of control, crops are failing and Britain is experiencing food shortages, I will regret trying to do my best, even if it means spending time in prison and get a criminal record? No,” he said.
“My dad supports me and my mom understands. But she’s like any other mom: I’d rather it was someone else’s kid doing this.”
Lancaster has also been arrested more than 20 times and faces charges she knows could lead to her losing her freedom.
“I have tried every other method to convince my local MP and the government to accept it [the] climate crisis seriously and I’ve failed, so I’m sticking with direct action,” he said.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to do this as I have a supportive partner who can make sure my 17-year-old son does his A levels next year. If all I can do is go to jail because the change society reaches a tipping point, then I have to. This system is designed to scare us and we will not be scared or stopped.”
A JSO spokesman confirmed that a large number of climate protesters were prepared to break the law. “How many doctors, scientists, plumbers and grandparents is the government willing to put in jail before they face the truth that we just have to stop the oil and gas?” she said