Agnieszka, left Poland, 15 years ago, she’s built a successful career in education administration for over 10 years in England. Three weeks ago, she was picked up off the street by the Metropolitan Police and told she was wanted on an extradition warrant by Poland for historic defense.

When she was very young, she was exploited by some men that she didn’t know very well. While she was going through a severe depression. They set up companies in her name, took out loans in her name, and left her bankrupt. 15 years later, their criminality has come back to haunt her. She was granted bail on a very large cash sum by the district judge at Westminster Magistrates Court. She couldn’t pay it there and then, so she was remanded to HMP Bronzefield.

She was brought to HMP bronze field, the corrupted bailing prison run by French catering company Sodexo limited. She was rushed through reception, completely traumatized, not told anything about what she could do or what to expect. She only managed one number out of her phone before it was stored. At the reception counter, the officer told her they were watching her and that she should not try and use her phone for anything else. She was so nervous she only managed to retrieve one number. She was terrified and intimidated. She’d never been in custody before. Now she can’t reach her friend who is at the end of this one number, her banking app is on her phone, and she’s been asking the prison Offender Management  Unit in HMP Bronzefield through the pod, the electronic system that prisoners have to use to communicate with prison staff, to help her with this so that she could charge her phone, which is still in reception, and make the payment, get bail and get released.

Three weeks later, the holidays are over, and she’s had to tell her employer that she’s been incarcerated. Three weeks have passed,and she’s been brought to Westminster Magistrate’s court every Friday by Serco, which has the prison transport contract. Three times they’ve transported Agnieszka at a cost of 1100 pounds each way, each time, an irritated district judge tells her off because she’s not paid bail. 

Agneska tried to explain that she has no access to the phone or the internet or her banking app, and that the prison was not assisting her at all, the judge didn’t believe her. This shows such a profoundly alarming disconnect between what judges know and think and what really happens to women in the criminal justice system. It’s not like they can pick up their phones and pay bail. Wouldn’t even have the back details or any means to do so. She has repeatedly asked for a prison offender manager, Isobelle Rodriguez to help her. She has written a complaint to Charlotte Wilson, the dysfunctional governor at HMP Bronzefield, no one has answered a single complaint for over three weeks that she’s been remanded. She can’t get legal aid because she has too much in savings. She can’t find the next judicial lawyer from prison. She has no access to the internet. She has the only number that reception staff allowed her to get, and now they’ve written back to her, telling her she should have taken all the numbers she needed at once, that there’s no facility for her to go back and get more numbers. 

Women in Prison came to see her, ticked some boxes and got a massive outcome payment for engaging with a prisoner. ‘Nobody fucking cares about me’, she said, ‘My whole life is ruined. I have been asking them to help me pay my rent. I just need to make a phone call. They won’t even do that. I’m going to lose everything. I’m going to lose my job, I’m going to lose my home. I’m going to be stuck here until they extradite me’. 

There is meant to be a bail officer at every prison, but that post was deleted due to funding cuts by the Ministry of Justice. Now the responsibility is meant to lie with the prison offender manager, but where Sodexo is a private prison, run for profit, where is the incentive to help women to get bail and get released?

Agniezka POM has never once replied to her. Natasha Munsford, the head of offender Manager Unit, has never once replied to her. So far, Agniezka’s incarceration has cost you 2500 pounds a week. So 7500 pounds plus four round trips to bronzefield. So 4400 pounds. Is it really worth keeping this woman who is not a risk to the public, incarcerated for three weeks for 11,900 pounds. She’s going to lose her job as a highly paid executive assistant in an exclusive College. She’ll stop paying her taxes and National Insurance contributions, and basically, she’ll stop contributing to society. She’ll become homeless. When justice is privatized and punishment becomes an incentive for profit by perverse private companies like Sodexo, Circo, G4S, ask yourself, Who benefits? DM us to join our Bronzefield Action Group or email us at hello@bronzefieldactiongroup.org.uk, and let’s end bronzefield contract.

Have you got information on Bronzefield? Are you a former officer? Do you know people incarcerated there? Please get in touch. This is a blog and a social media post. Please make sure to @(tag) prisoners for Palestine, the Ministry of Justice, HMPPS, Shabana Mahmoud, the Justice Minister, James Tipson, the Minister for Justice, Solidarity Apothecary and all the abolitionist organizations you can find.