Tuesday 4 March 2014

"Scrutiny" The Steve Pallett way (2)

In continuance of our series concerning the allegations made by disgraced former so-called "Drug Counsellor" at Jersey's La Moye Prison, Ms Teresa Rodrigues, we bring our readers the latest developments (or not) from the Panel who are tasked with "scrutinising" the policies and procedures of the Home Affairs Department which includes the Prison.

We first reported on this subject two weeks ago where we published a series of e-mails between VFC, the Chairman of Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, Constable Steve Pallet and Scrutiny Panel Member (another) Constable Michel Le Troquer which was published HERE.

Regular readers will know (from the link above) that Ms. Rodrigues claimed, in a National Newspaper, that she had two year sexual relationship (whilst employed at the prison) with prison inmate Curtis Warren.

Scrutiny Chairman, Constable Steve Pallett, refused to take the allegations seriously because they appeared in a newspaper that was nasty about a friend of his and went on to say (in the link above) "At present there is nothing to suggest that this is anything other than a ‘sensationalised’ story from a national newspaper with little in the way of evidence to support the allegations.
At present I do not see a role for the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel in this matter."

Yet in the same e-mail exchange Panel Member Le Troquer wrote;

"If true then there are a lot of explanations to be made……..and I don’t know how anyone will be able explain away such allegations." 

But now, yet more allegations (mentioned in video below) have surfaced, in the form of, what appears to be, an e-mail from a current member of the prison staff, sent to Deputy Montfort Tadier, parts of the State Media, seen by Constable Pallett and others, to include the Home Affairs Minister, which outlines allegations of, what only can be described as, a culture of corruption up at the Prison. We reproduce a redacted version of the e-mail here.


"Dear all,
First I will apologise for sending this information in this way, I do not have the strength to identify myself as I will be subjected to persecution by prison management and will lose my job which […] I cannot afford to do but I cant stay silent anymore.

The story instigated by Theresa Rodrigues is on the whole a fairy tale but it opens up other questions that should be asked.

Rodrigues was suspected investigated and challenged for numerous acts including sexual activity with numerous inmates(not warren) supply of drugs phones and pornographic materials. She was allowed to leave with pension reputation and a pay off from management. 

Officer AA was suspected investigated and found guilty of the same and again was allowed to leave with reputation pension intact and move too another states job

Officer BB found guilty after investigation for supply of drugs   no action taken, still states employee.

Counsellor CC guilty of supplying mobile phones to inmates  no action taken

Civilian DD   guilty of supply of drugs phones and pornographic material.. no action taken

Officer EE   Guilty of having improper relationship with Curtis Warren, passing and smuggling items and mail in and out of prison.  no action taken

Officer FF having affair with inmate..no action taken

The questions asked should be why have all these incidents been covered up by X, ultimately the buck stops with the Governor but it is common knowledge X who runs La Moye and makes the decisions.

Several Officers convicted of violent offences and kept job because of personally protected by X 

The moral in the prison is the lowest by far in the 10+ years I have been there, the management especially X run a regime based on corruption, bullying and lies and deceit."(END)

Readers/viewers/listeners will discover from the questioning in the States (Island's Parliament) this morning it now transpires that Scrutiny Panel Chairman Pallet won't believe allegations from somebody who has "blown the whistle" without anonymity in the "accredited" media (Rodrigues in the Mail). He won't pay attention to anything in the "unaccredited" media and won't take on board the allegations made in the above e-mail because the author of it wants to maintain their anonymity presumably for fear of suffering what is known as "The Jersey Way."

There is little doubt that there is an urgent need for a review to be carried out into the "practices"/policies/procedures at the prison which falls under the remit of the Scrutiny Panel. Yet the Chairman won't believe somebody who DOES waive their anonymity and won't believe somebody who DOESN'T waive their anonymity. He won't believe allegations published in the "accredited" media and won't believe allegations made in the "unaccredited" media.

Steve Pallett should resign forthwith or his Panel should call a vote of no confidence against him. 












32 comments:

  1. VFC - the last line of your posting I agree with totally. It was almost with disbelief that I listened to Constable Pallett in the States this morning. Such a serious matter which seems to be escalating daily and it does not warrant a Scrutiny hearing. It would be interesting to know how Constable Le Troquer now feels about this further information and Mr Palletts intransigence.

    Suffice to say, more has now emerged which is of great concern. It would also be most interesting to see exactly what CRB checks were made on Ms Rodrigues, what references were taken up and which 'accredited qualifications' she declared. As you and I are aware VFC she was very proud of boasting of her 'working on the streets' (and not helping the homeless!) in Bristol before she came to Jersey.

    Many, many more questions than answers at the moment.

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  2. Steve Pallett quotes the anonymous email where it claims Rodrigues' allegations are a fairy tail as if it's hard evidence. Then he dismisses everything else because it's anonymous and can't be seen as evidence. He has to resign.

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  3. That was a very confusing listen.

    Am I to take it that, having said at the beginning that he proposes to do nothing unless there is additional non-anonymous evidence presented, the Chairman is now prepared to convene the Panel to listen to identified whistleblowers and guarantee their anonymity outside of the Panel hearing?

    Even if this is the case, it doesn't follow that the Panel would take matters any further no matter how credible the whistleblowers prove. They will always have the out that they don't look into individual cases.

    The question would then remain of how many individual cases would have to be produced before an issue could be considered systemic and relating to the governance of the prison.

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  4. What an embarrassment. What the flippin heck is going on in the big house? The right arm doesn't know what the left is doing. The Minister is concerned and investigating yet the Scrutiny Chairman is waiting for the october election. This is the shambles that we have come accustomed to. It is truly shocking.

    rs

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  5. The Constable is very good at telling everyone what scrutiny can't do and nothing about what it can do. How about asking people to come forward as a starting point. My guess is that the Chairman thought he was on to a winner with the elections only 7 months away and no reviews on the horizon. Then, as quick as you can say, "fancy a top-up Curtis" it all blows up in his face. He has been shown to be totally out of his depth. Fortunately for him its not an exclusive club - this is the states of jersey we are talking about. I love the way people have just been moved on. Smuggling, Sex, Drugs and they just get moved on. You see, it's simply not in the public interest to prosecute all these people as it would expose the failures. Just as we have seen in the Child Abuse cover-up.

    rs

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    1. It follows Rico that on the strength of all the information to hand now, the Governor of the prison who made a 'no comment' answer when the Mail on Sunday story first emerged, must have a lot more information on all this than he has so far disclosed. He should be the first in line for questions to be asked.

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    2. Absolutely spot on Rico. Same applies in Health and Social Services.

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  6. An interesting example of "fingers in ears" political leadership. Clearly someone connected with the prison is one of the "in crowd." Had it been otherwise then there would have been the usual expressions of "serious concerns" followed by an expensive external investigation and duly buried.

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  7. The UK has a HM Inspectorate of Prisons it would be a reasonable step for Jersey to ask for an Inspection of the Management and integrity standards at La Moye against the background of these allegations. That would provide a clear and independent view of what action was needed.

    A link to the Inspectorate website is below.

    http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/hmi-prisons

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  8. To the commenter desperate to have their comment published here’s a tip for you. Your second attempt was nearly there but personally insulting the administrator of the Blog (first line in your comment) is not the way to do it.

    Although you go on to attack this Blog, take out the personal insult, and your opinion should get published.

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  9. Waawwwww that letter is just amazing... so Ms Rodrigues comes publicly saying she had a relation with Curtis but the officer says that “is on the whole a fairy tale” however she “was suspected ... of sexual activity with numerous inmates (not warren)”
    Sorry but is this officer on the pay role of Curtis Warren, or was another female officer who was so jealous of Ms Rodrigues, maybe a Senior officer who was downgrade to officer rank, or even an officer who was really pissed off because he wanted to be a senior officer and didn’t get the post, maybe is a prisoner with a serious grievances against prison or even one of the blogers who are in a crusade to put down all the current politicians just because they can..... I am sorry but just the start of that letter gives no credit what so ever to the rest of the allegations. Even if they are true he lost all his credibility by saying Ms Rodrigues was having sexual relationships with numerous inmates, hell who is she, superwoman? I was in prison and can tell you that to be a manager, the time they spend in all meetings, panels, running therapeutic groups, staff etc, and to have sex with several prisoners are you people insane!!!!!!!!!
    The Governor presented all the 14 or 16 misconducts to ILM and he gave it to the States.... Move on, there are serious issues happening in this Island with teenagers taking all sorts of legal high drugs and alcohol, damaging themselves for life, children’s being abused while you are doing nothing. People living in poverty so they can pay your bills. MOVE ON.
    If you go and check that prison, you have one of the most secure prisons at this moment. There were mistakes and misconduct in the past, yes, no doubt. But lessons have been learned and a lot have changed (BELIEVE ME I KNOW, I WAS THERE)

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    1. Third time lucky. However there are a number of former inmates and staff who have the complete opposite opinion to yourself concerning what Ms. Rodrigues was up to in the prison which will feature in future Blog Postings.

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  10. You need one brave prison officer to put their name forward. Why or what is everyone scared of? I Why are scrutiny not looking at the reasons why people are terrified which leads to anon information.

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  11. The absolute reluctance of the Minister and the Scrutiny panel to investigate these matters leads me to ask the obvious question. How many of the players involved are in the same clubs and societies, for example, the Freemasons, golf club, or private members' club?

    Anyone considering submitting evidence to a scrutiny panel is entitled to know if any such social links exist and whether they might lead to a non-independent investigation. Hopefully, everything is above board and no such conflicts of interest do exist. Any such links should of course be publicly declared to encourage non-anonymous whistleblowers to come forward.

    Jersey has very, very serious problems with on-the-record whistleblowing. If it goes against you, you will lose your job, and you can't apply to a similar organisation just up the road. This is how they maintain their grip on power. This is called the Jersey Way.

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  12. Annon asks:
    "Why or what is everyone scared of?"

    More than once today in The States questions were asked about what happens to Whistle blowers. Even Le Marquand was saying he wasn't sure....

    Or maybe he was just pleading ignorant?!

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  13. Scrutiny Chair Steve Pallett must trust X to maintain his doctrine of prison hushy-hushy.

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  14. Hi VFC.

    The Audio of yesterdays sitting. You an your readers can listen HERE

    TJW.

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  15. For those interested, there are some data from Ms Rodrigues work

    Letters of recommendations
    http://www.cv-teresarodrigues.blogspot.pt/p/palavras-de-recomendacao.html

    Cuts from newspapers of Ms Rodrigues Work
    http://www.cv-teresarodrigues.blogspot.pt/p/artigos-nos-jornais.html

    Certificates from Ms Rodrigues
    http://www.cv-teresarodrigues.blogspot.pt/p/certificados.html

    CV
    http://www.cv-teresarodrigues.blogspot.pt/

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  16. I am absolutely delighted by the outstanding reference letters that Ms Rodrigues (my son´s counsellor) has (see Bob Hill Blog). I never had no doubt about her professionalism as an addictions counsellor. She committed a major unprofessional error, that I have no doubt she is paying a high price for it. But who of us did not, at some point in our lives, committed an error either professionally or personally. This does not excuse her and myself condone her for that. But has a professional and after reading letters from the director of Silkworth, the Director of Drug and Alcohol services Mike Gaffoor, the director of Health Care at La Moye the Senior Manager of la Moye The HR manager of La Moye and so many others. All speaking highly of her work I can say that all the gossip around her other misconducts (a part of the one she confessed) are just gossip, revenge, jealousy, she is with no doubt a great scapegoat for everything that went wrong at La Moye. I am sorry you can crucify her for having the affair but do not judge her as a counsellor and great professional because the letters from 2003 till her leaving date are highly regarded from highly qualified professionals who are not laying. If you condone her as a counsellor you condone all the other professional in this field.
    From a very grateful mother, thank you so much for your commitment and all your work during all these years in Jersey.

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    Replies
    1. I am very pleased that you are grateful to Ms Rodrigues for whatever good work she did for your child. No mother would feel otherwise.

      However, from another mother whose child also experienced the 'professionalism' that she displayed I could relate a completely opposite view. I will say no more at the moment.

      How on earth can she be a 'scapegoat' when she was the one that went public and put the whole sorry story into the MSM? How professional is that?

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  17. "With reference to the specific questions related to the ex Manager of Drug &Alcohol Counselling service at La Moye, on 14 September 2010 the Prison Governor would have suspended this individual pending an investigation into whether she had been trafficking items into Prison but she immediately resigned and is believed to have left Jersey within a matter of days thereafter." From the Home Affairs Minister...........................Rodrigues is more like a professional drug smuggler than counsellor.

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  18. Or..... she knew that if they were going to suspend her they would find not the smuggling stuff but her relation with Curtis. Me too would have resign right there and then

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  19. Are we likely to see something similar here?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2572410/Prison-officer-intense-sexual-relationship-heroin-dealer-inmate-smuggled-drugs-hidden-inside-chocolate-Kinder-eggs-prisoners-jailed.html

    Answers on a postage stamp please ...

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  20. According to the governor of La Moye in today's JEP there is no alarm.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think the JEP asked him any pertinent questions though!! It was just a damage limitation exercise of the highest order in my book.

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  21. Mandy Rice-Davies8 March 2014 at 22:08

    Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?

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  22. some of you are so full of anger and bitterness, that cannot see the real reason Miller is lying. Stop pointing the finger to Teresa Rodrigues and THINK. One day you might thank her..........

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    Replies
    1. I'd worked this sketch out a long time ago. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has :-)

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    2. More people than you realise .. :-)

      The Beano is not the Rag

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