John Bowden was imprisoned for murder in 1980 with a life sentence. He was now served 34 years, in prison across England and Scootland. In that time he escaped for 18 months in 1992 and again in 2008 for a few months before recapture; he has held an assistant governor hostage for two days; and received countless beatings, solitary confinements and many other tactics of HMPs to quell dissent and resistance. Throughout, he has maintained fierce resistance, never backing down and for this- despite parole boards admission that he should now be in open jail, if not released – the Prison Service still keep him inside.
In recent months it has now become fully that he is being held due to his opposition to the prison system. They admit that he poses no threat to the public, yet his continuing work highlighting the denial of prisoners rights and the inhability of the prison system to live up to even its own rules, means they will not release him. Still he does not back down and capitulate to their wishes.
