Categories: Views

Women vs The State

What happens when the State and its agencies let us down and women are harmed, lose their loved ones or gaslighted and persecuted by the State?

The View Magazine with Photo North is hosting a panel Women vs The State on how the actions of the government and its agencies affect women.

2 pm Sunday 8 May 2022
Department Bonded Warehouse | 18 Lower Byrom Street, Manchester | M1

Please email admin@theviewmagazine.org for information about tickets. Subscribers are invited as our guests.

Justice has been crippled by excessive cuts to funding, decreased accessibility and legislation that is harmful to women in the justice system. Our four compelling speakers tell us how injustice has affected their lives, and in a solutions focused panel, we explore ways that Justice can serve women better, leading to a more equitable society, with better outcomes for women.

Samantha Asumadu is a crisis campaigner, radical organiser, writer, publisher, former documentary filmmaker and foreign correspondent. She founded Media Diversified in 2013 as a vehicle to foreground the voices of people of different ethnicity all over the world.

She has written for the Guardian, Telegraph, Open Democracy, Black Ballad, Media Diversified, Ceasefire Magazine and New Statesman and been interviewed on Radio 4 Woman’s hour, LBC, BBC World and other BBC programmes including BBC World Service, BBC London and the Victoria Derbyshire show. Her decades long commitment to grassroots activism led to her campaigning about women’s representation in Theatre, child abuse in war zones, media equity, the Nationality and Borders Bill, Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP) and Sickle cell anaemia.

She directed, scripted and co-produced her first film for Al-jazeera English in 2009. The Super Ladies is about three Ugandan women rally drivers and a race with a dramatic outcome. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2016 Samantha was a judge at the Editorial Intelligence UK Comment Awards and was on the advisory panel for the British Film Institute’s Black Star Season

Gail Hadfield Grainger came from a troubling background, her father died when she was only 11 and she fell into the wrong crowd. A serious brush with the law when she was facing over 10 years in prison due to the actions of a former partner caused her to review her life choices. She met Anthony Grainger in 2009 and thought she’d met her dream partner, life was finally working out the way she wanted it to. Then, he was shot in a case of mistaken identity by Greater Manchester Police.

Gail was met with every obstacle possible, as the state tried desperately to cover up its failings and the botched evidence that led to his murder. Gail was not defeated. Instead she spent over £50 000 to become qualified in law so she could understand.

Today she helps people with inquirers and attending at Coroner’s Court and inquests, unfailing in her commitment to make sure that questions are answered so families can grieve and achieve closure and to see that the people responsible for unlawful killings or abuses of power meet justice. She is a partner at Hadfield Grainger McNally in the northeast.

Morgan (not her real name) is a core member of The View’s team and has lived experience of the justice system following a murder conviction. This was later reduced to manslaughter following representations made to the Court of Appeal about domestic abuse and violence against Morgan by the man she killed, a former partner. She was released and started to rebuild her life. She started working for a national coach company as a mechanic, but Morgan was put into a specialist housing association for women who had been in prison, who failed her because they did not provide the appropriate support. They then tried to evict her and make her homeless. If she’d been made homeless she would have been recalled to prison. Although she fought this in the County Court she was made homeless and had to find alternative accommodation.

She was eventually recalled to prison and spent 6 months at HMP Bronzefield with no medication for her mental health, which she has been taking for 15 years and no support. She didn’t see a psychologist let alone a GP the whole time she was recalled. Eventually the Parole Board released her and she was told she had a claim against the Probation Service for unlawful recall.

She’s been out now a few months but her life has become chaotic, she lost her job and her private accommodation and is sofa surfing. None of this is helping her mental health. Morgan tells us first hand, how the state failed her and how she continues to be failed, every day, putting her own life at risk, although her case is meant to be managed by MAPPA, or several public agencies including the police and local authority.

Mags McNally started her career as a lawyer within prison law in 2005 for a well-established law firm, she was a key player in building one of the biggest prison law departments in the UK. Her job was to represent prisoners on their Parole Board hearings. She defended clients accused of benefit fraud before moving onto criminal Law. After returning to university to study law, Mags became part of the criminal department assisting barristers in preparation for court.

Mags has a fierce reputation for fighting injustices, which has led to her becoming a parliamentary candidate for the area where she lives-giving the residents a voice through her. Mags is also a qualified therapist, and her empathic and non-judgemental nature allows her to handle her cases and clients appropriately. She is now a partner at Hadfield-Grainger McNally, a specialist human rights firm that helps families whose loved ones are killed by the State.

The View Magazine