Failing justice system keeps Gaie Delap in jail on her 78th birthday

Gaie Delap turns 78 today. But she’s not celebrating with family and friends. She’s stuck in jail.

“Sometimes she’s dispirited, outraged, feeling powerless,” says family friend Mike Campbell. “And sometimes she’s full of hope, sustained by the fact that people out here are supporting her.”

This evening her family has arranged a candlelight vigil outside the prison, a quiet protest at the injustice that saw this grandmother recalled to jail because the company couldn’t find an electronic tag to fit a woman’s wrist.

Gaie was serving a 20-month home detention curfew after protesting against the climate crisis. But on 20 December her worst fears came true. She was arrested at her home and taken back to prison to spend Christmas in jail.

Gaie hadn’t breached the terms of her sentence. She was recalled because the government’s private contractor, Serco, couldn’t find an ankle tag that was safe for someone with deep vein thrombosis or a wrist tag that would fit a woman.

Back in prison, Gaie found that the officer who tried to fit a tag on her back in November had reported the incident as a breach under “refusal for installation”. Her family believe the report has been fabricated to blame Gaie for the company’s failings.

Serco has previously paid back more than £68m after overcharging the government for electronic tagging, including billing for individuals who were deceased, incarcerated, or had left the country. 

The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has pledged to reduce the number of women in prison, saying that “prison isn’t working for women”. And the prisons minister and champion of prison reform James Timpson has said two-thirds of the present prison population shouldn’t be in jail. But when Gaie – a retired teacher who committed a minor offence in the name of the climate crisis – is threatened with recall because of a failing private contractor, ministers claim they “can’t intervene”. 

Good Law Project is joining Gaie’s family, Global Witness and prison reform charities to call on the Ministry of Justice to release Gaie immediately and launch an inquiry into the systemic failures that have put Gaie – and many others like her – behind bars. Ministers must take another look at the private contractors who are supposed to provide electronic monitoring services. It’s time to restore trust in the criminal justice system.