Justice Organisation

The Justice Organisation is a UK based not-for-profit organisation, set up to create and manage campaigns, which sets out to improve civil society, nationally and internationally, that promote fairness and fair play for all, especially in relation to: disability, age, [...] gender, race and religious beliefs .

A secondary goal is to establish or support any charitable trusts, associations or institutions formed for all or any of the organisations ‘objects’.

The Justice Organisations first campaign; Justice-and-Sight, is a campaign to put reading spectacles in police stations, and Immigration Detention Centers to assist those people detained without having glasses with them. The Justice Organisation aims to bring to attention the problem to the public, then to find a solution with the assistance of donors and the authorities involved.

The organisation recently met with the Home Office [the Parliamentary under-Secretary Rt. Hon Vernon Coaker MP. The campaign is supported by the Hon Bob Russell MP (born 1946), British Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. The government are looking into this issue with the police and Ministry of Justice

Other areas the Justice Organisation is exploring for the provision of free reading spectacles such as hospitals, mental heath wards, government offices and libraries. Primarily, anywhere people might have have to sign legal documents and who could be at a disadvantage in not having reading spectacles.

Justice-and-Sight

Justice-and-Sight is a campaign to assist people held in detention in police stations in the UK to fully enjoy their civil rights. Later the organisation wants to move into other initiatives under the ‘Justice-and’ brand name. These may be international issues.

The Justice Organisations stated goal is to encourage the police to deploy reading spectacles in police stations.They are also looking at other locations; Immigration Removal Centers, hospitals airports and ports, Job Centre Plus offices and Libraries. Once achieved they aim to create awareness of their availability, in the police station environment, Citizens Advice Bureau offices, Libraries and Community Information Center’s by posters and other marketing material, provided by the Justice Organisation.

Having established the principal, that reading glasses should be available for detainees; the second part of their mission is to source, fund and manage the stock of reading spectacles, and to promote their availability.

Following being arrested, people can feel angry, frustrated, confused frightened and overwhelmed – the chief aim is to enhance and protect the rights of those people who might find themselves in difficult circumstances; people who need to be able to read and understand their rights and obligations. They aim to compliment, not confront the police, but the focus is to help those unfortunate enough to need t organisations help.

On being arrested a detained person will be required to read and sign a range of forms.

A Breathalyser test can now proceed without a legal advisor being present, and this requires a lengthy form being completed.

If you’re detained, you are given a booklet CofP which outlines your legal rights and defines your relationship with the police. If you do not have reading glasses, and need them, this sizable booklet is of no use at all.

After a period of detention a detainee will be provided with magazines and other reading material. Without reading spectacles, people can find this long period of boredom very unpleasant.

A detainee can also request a Bible, and again if someone cannot read this inspiring literature, in a time of crisis, they may not find the spiritual guidance and comfort to cope with their difficult circumstances.

• They are also researching the need for free reading spectacles in Immigration Detention Centre’s - indications have already identified a need for their use by detainees, particularly in Immigration Removal Centers.

• These unfortunate people arrive in these centre’s, often without any of their belongings and can be in a very distressed and disorientated condition.

People who are arrested may not have their glasses with them; it seems an important principal, (particularly with in an aging European population), that reading spectacles are always available if required. Their role is not to pass judgment on those who might need this initiative, just to see that individuals are not disadvantaged, by what in essence seems a small oversight.

Justice-and-Unemployment

Justice-and-Unemployment, launched in January 2009, is campaigning to see unemployed people recognised as a distinct group in society and to change European law so that the unemployed cannot be discriminated against, particularly by landlords.

Civil liberties campaigning group The Justice Organisation, which runs the campaign, has petitioned the EU on the issue, hoping to get fairer treatment of the unemployed enshrined in law. It believes the unemployed are routinely discriminated against, particularly by the use of the phrase “no DSS” in advertisements for rented property.

During the 1950s, refusing to let a property to 'coloured' people and advertising the fact was perfectly legal in the UK. Thankfully, such discrimination is now illegal, yet it still seems acceptable to discriminate against another minority group, the unemployed, even though many unemployed people are good tenants. This practice should be outlawed.

Even local government policy negatively affects the unemployed. Housing Benefit is paid in arrears, which can automatically put a tenant in breach of contract with their tenancy agreement if they rely on benefits to pay their rent. Job Centres arbitrarily stop claimants' benefits, without any advance written warning, while investigating benefit eligibility. This leads to claimants, including those later cleared of any wrong-doing, being unable to meet planned standing orders and direct debits and thus incurring often large bank charges.

All these factors, and more, mean that unemployed people risk being labelled as benefit scroungers and marginalised by being forced to move to run-down estates with other unemployed people, worsening still further their chances of getting a job.

Politicians are eager to put the blame for unemployment, on the unemployed. In fact, there are many kinds of unemployed people and many reasons for unemployment, as recent mass job losses show. Treating all unemployed people as lazy, feckless scroungers is just not fair, and we need a change in the law to make sure the unemployed are protected.

Further details

• The Justice Organisation hopes to set up a nationwide loan scheme to provide travel and accommodation loans to people starting a new job. The premiums will be deducted from the new employee’s wages by the employer. No-one who finds work should have to turn it down because of lack of funds, and companies should not have to provide ‘subs’ to new employees. The organisation is now meeting with credit unions and banks to discuss how the idea would work.

• Housing Benefit is paid in arrears, which can put a tenant in breach of contract with their tenancy agreement if they rely on benefits to pay their rent. Claimants are forced to top up their rent with their Job Seeker's Allowance. The Travel-to-Interview scheme is only available when funds allow, and there is no support money for travel to meet recruitment agencies. Because benefits are now so low in real terms, the use of Crisis Loans has rocketed, and having to make loan repayments leaves little money to fund job-seeking.

• We want to see a landlords' licensing system and to make it a criminal offence for landlords to operate without a licence. If you have convictions for [...], [...], firearms offences or violence, you can act as a landlord. Many do not understand their obligations in law and many tenants get unlawfully ‘harassed’ - verbally or sexually – yet are reluctant to speak out or go to court, which means unscrupulous landlords can carry on in business.

• We want to see the end to misleading and in some cases practically fraudulent - OTE [On Target Earnings] quoted in job advertisements for commission-only sales people.

The Rent Service, which sets the Local Housing Allowance [LHA] rates (Housing Benefit), is not sufficiently independent from the Department of Work and Pensions (or government influence in general), which sets benefit rates, such as Job Seeker's Allowance [JSA]. The Government can influence, indirectly via the Rent Service, what councils pay out in Housing Benefits [LHA]. The Rent Service is being absorbed into the Government Valuation Service in March 2009. There needs to be clear external auditing and monitoring of this new organisation to ensure that is fully independent of government, when setting ‘fair rents’ as there is a conflict of interest between the government departments that pay out benefits, and the Rent Service, that sets Local Housing Allowance [LHA] levels. Currently LHA benefits are set very low in relation to actual rents. The government has said that if Local Housing Allowance is more than the rent, claimants can pocket the difference of up to ?15, which implies the rates set by the government are fair in relation to market rents. But the Rent Service will not disclose how many people are taking up this option. This is a grey area, and we would like to see a clearer distinction of what taxpayers pay for, and what they should expect to get back, if they are unemployed.

• The Justice Organisation's first campaign; Justice-and-Sight, to put free reading spectacles in police stations, is being piloted in 2009 by the Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO].

• The Justice Organisation's mission statement is to promote fairness and fair-play in society.

For more information: Simon Collyer (Justice Organisation Founder)

               07511 658454 
               simon@justiceorganisation.org
               http://www.justiceorganisation.org

Issued by: Sue Fenton, F Words PR

               01737 766446, 07931 541369

References

Bob Russell MP, Rt Hon.Vernon Coaker MP, Parlimentary under-Secretary Home Office.

Categories; Civil Liberties,Prisoners Rights,The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) (1984 c. 60)