Melanie Plimmer filmed for BBC2 Parole Board documentary
30/10/2006
> > > BBC2 - Monday 6th November 2006 at 9.00pm
Garden Court North barrister
Melanie Plimmer
will appear in part one of this three-part observational documentary, “Lock them up or let them out”, following parole board members, prisoners and victims of crime who describe the impact of the parole process from their different perspectives.
Melanie Plimmer was filmed as she represented Mr Hussein in his parole board hearing. Extracts from this hearing, including her submissions to the parole board outlining reasons for her client’s release, will be shown in the programme to be broadcast next week.
About “Lock them up or let them out”
For the first time in the Parole Board's 38-year history, TV cameras have been allowed to film prisoners going up for parole. As a national debate rages about the early release of prisoners, BBC Two goes behind closed doors to let viewers see the system at work from the inside and, ultimately, decide for themselves what they think about the parole system of England and Wales.
Two years in the making, this series gives a startling insight into a process which is high on the political agenda. Any prisoner wanting to be released on licence must convince the Parole Board of England and Wales that they are no longer a danger and are safe to serve the rest of their sentence in the community.
With unprecedented multi-agency access, Lock Them Up Or Let Them Out is an intimate portrait of the Parole Board at work and the way in which prisoners, victims and the Probation and Prison Services feed into that process.
In tonight's first programme, viewers meet three violent offenders: Mukhtar, an illegal immigrant serving his 19th year in a high-security prison for a brutal murder, is hoping for early release from his life sentence and a return to his native Pakistan; Maik, a psychopath who bombed his local police station with Molotov cocktails following a dispute with the police, is going up for parole two years into his four-year sentence; and Barry, an armed robber addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, is hoping to be released six years into his 12-year sentence.
Of those who are given parole, the cameras follow their progress to see how they cope with being back in the community.
.......................................................................................................................................
Quick links
> see http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/wk45/unplaced.shtml
