I was in prison in my early twenties, AMA

[Lexibletheflexible]

I was in prison about 18 years ago, between the ages of 19-22. I now volunteer with charities supporting female prisoners. AMA

Did you think some or many of the female guards were evil? Or do you think the prison environment brings out the worse in humans?

1. said my mum kicked me out when I was 16 and got a hostel, then I got a flat at 18.

2. No

3. Learned a lot about other people and myself.

4. I was how women are unable to exercise their autonomy or make informed choices due to oppression in various forms.

5. Yes.

6. No. We were never in contact. It would have contradicted his defence if he wrote me letters in jail.

7. We wouldn't need deterrents because they wouldn't work on the people who choose to commit crime in those circumstances. We could be more sure about locking them away for everyone's good.

8. Don't sublet to a middle classed girl living in urban London for the first time with all the pressures and temptations of a lifestyle yhat would shock her parents.

Not if you didn’t know it was there, as you say.

there’s an article of a woman in a similar situation, which seems to line up with your dates and ages. Is this you?

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/police-target-teen-girlfriends-who-hide-guns-for-gangsters-6718823.html

Some joined because they knew they could be evil. Other started with the right intentions but became indoctrined into evilness by the heinous ones

No thats not the law. And no

So it’s a different young woman from London who was in prison from the ages of 19-22, eighteen years ago? For possession of someone else’s firearm? Ok.

The flat was hers and the gun was found there and judge directed that made her cuplable. Other posters have said there was campaign at time to pressure and convict people on edges of gun crime.

Op was naive - and no-one cared about why things has happened past a point - heard that from others who gone through court system.

She may well have looked more the part to be mate/gf of man who's gun it was than middle class sub letter girl - who was also very naive but luckier - and it was more striaght forward to go for her than anyone else.

I've seen prejudice and preconception in edcuation system - had m/c posters insist it's not a thing because they've never experienced it so we must be confused . She looked part of someone who know guy suspect - so everyone goes along as it fits what they expect.

I don't think at 19 I'd have understood all the dangers of subletting - though I tend to worry more so wouldn't have tried to do that.

I'm glad you've manage to move past experince OP - well done you I don't think that a small thing to have managed.

I didn’t ask what it wasn’t. I don’t think 5 years imprisonment is suitable either. But my question is what do you think is appropriate? Very easy make laughing faces and say what’s not helpful but a bit more difficult to suggest a coherent and helpful response.

OP's account doesn't match that of the young woman in that article. For a start, OP wasn't hiding a gun for a friend.

So unable to access council housing for life and repayment of money of what was defrauded with interest and penalties? Makes sense - I would agree! Much more helpful to society and less traumatising to individual. I wonder what happens if someone is homeless and has no money - presumably you just write off the loss.

All the external details match. The reason I bring it up is that I suspect OP’s story has drifted over the years

The article is from 2012, not 18 years ago.

I think a suitable punishment for subletting is eviction. There is criminal law in place but very very rarely used.

They’ll all be homeless once evicted. Repaying might sound just but it’s rarely going to work

You find it difficult to believe that more than one person might have been prosecuted for this type of of thing? It isn't even the same situation as the as OP describes.

Do you still do drugs?
Now that you have kids what do you think of drugs and of the drug trade?

How did you get allocated a council flat in London as an 18 year old single woman with no dependent children ? You were obviously not homeless or a care leaver as you say you have a close family.

You wouldn’t have had enough points for a flat in London in the 1990s ( when I worked in housing in several London boroughs), let alone in the early 2000s.

A friend who works in the prison system (males inmates) once said that the vast majority of inmates he has come across think they shouldn’t be there, something like upwards of 90% of prisoners believe they are wrongly convicted. From your experience is this true?

No.

No. They dont think they were wrongly convicted so much as that mitigating circumstances werent properly considered and they need to be elsewhere. Like hospital.

I think it is really out of order to try to doxx someone like this actually @fartotheleftside . It doesn’t matter if it’s the OP or not. I really don’t think you should have linked to it and when she says it’s not her, just accept it, don’t keep replying in a cynical ‘oh sure’ way.

I left home at 16 and so the council had a duty of care to me as a minor. I was in semi independent accommodation with similar aged care leavers until at 18, I got a permanent flat.

I have only ever smoked weed. I've never even tried anything else. Not even a mushroom.

I don't have any profound thoughts on it. It's a trade like any other, really.