News / climate action
77-year-old activist sent back to prison due to issues fitting tag
A 77-year-old grandma was returned to prison on Friday to serve out the rest of her 20 month sentence for causing a public nuisance.
Gaie Delap, a Quaker and a retired teacher, was first sent to prison in August for her role in a Just Stop Oil protest in 2022.
During the 2022 protest, Gaie and others scaled a M25 gantry which caused traffic disruption.
is needed now More than ever
After serving a few months at HMP Peterborough, Gaie was released in November to serve out the rest of her sentence on a home detention curfew.
The main requirement of the home detention curfew was for Gaie to stay at her home address between 7am-7pm each day. To monitor her movements, it was arranged for the government’s Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) to fit her with an electronic tag.
In 2022 Gaie scaled an M25 gantry as part of a Just Stop Oil protest
However, the EMS, managed by Serco, were unable to fit her with a tag.
They could not fit a tag to her ankle due to a health condition and said they could not attach a tag to her wrist because it was too small.
Gaie’s family and friends say her wrists have a 14.5cm diameter.
As there was no way to monitor her movements, a warrant was released for her arrest.
On Friday at 6.30pm, Gaie, who will celebrate her 78th birthday next month, was finally arrested and taken into custody at Eastwood Park Prison in Gloucestershire.
Eastwood Park is a women’s prison which houses around 400 people.
In 2023 the prison attracted national headlines when HM Inspectorate of Prisons revealed the prison had the highest rate of self-harm across all women’s prisons in England and Wales.
Gaie Delap was sent back to prison on Friday
When Gaie’s MP, Carla Denyer, was informed about the electronic monitoring tag issue she reached out to the government’s prisons minister Lord Timpson.
In response, Lord Timpson wrote a letter in which he confirmed: “Where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, even through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to (sic) monitored in the community.”
https://twitter.com/carla_denyer/status/1870234433078603954
In a statement about her arrest, Gaie’s family and friends said: “The Home Detention Curfew remained unfulfilled through no fault of Gaie’s, but because the Ministry of Justice and EMS claimed they were unable to find an electronic tag small enough for her perfectly normal wrists.
“We are outraged by her recall to prison. We know this is cruel and totally unnecessary.
“We know there are alternatives to the tag. We know that if she had been a man, a tag would have been available to EMS.
“Because of medical conditions, Gaie requires a wrist tag, or some equivalent. And we know from our investigations and enquiries there are many out there.
“Moreover, Gaie is absolutely no threat to the community.
“This recall to prison is a ridiculous waste of resources and money. It will cost the taxpayer £12000 to keep Gaie in prison. We cannot believe that there is not an electronic monitoring device that can be fitted at a fraction of the cost.
“We want common sense to prevail.”
All photos: Just Stop Oil
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
