People that have been in Jail.

[firsttimedad79]

I was just reading another thread about someone who had been in jail and was surprised by the negativity.

It wasn't mentioned what he had been in for or anything, it just assumed he was a bad person.

I've been inside twice in my youth, but I wouldn't consider myself a bad person. I made mistakes when I was younger but it doesn't dictate who I am now.

AIBU in thinking people automatically assume your bad because you've done time?

I had a friend when I was a student ( a fellow student) who went to prison for having a few cannabis plants. He was at his friends house when it was raided and a larg amount of weed found but as his friends were out and he didn't live there he couldn't be held accountable. So they searched his house and threw the book at him for the plants which were for personal use.

Luckily it was during the summer holidays so didn't affect his studies but I think it changed him.

And no, of course not automatic life sentences, there are degrees of seriousness of crimes. Being released is society giving you a chance. It’s not wiping out your crime in that “I did the crime, done the time” glib fashion as if it makes it all right again. It’s not wiped out, someone suffered.

It’s like that broken plate analogy. Throw a plate on the floor, apologise to it, go to prison for it, it’s still broken.

If only other ex offenders would get a chance then maybe there wouldn't be so many homeless & reoffending?

At the expense of someone who has never chosen to break the law you mean?

Out of the first 40 prisoners (James Timpson) employed, 30 stole from him, used the shops to deal drugs, had fights in the shops etc. And he vetted them!

Is that really so? I had no idea, and it seems poor payment for the faith he showed in them

It perhaps gives the lie to "everyone thinks I'm trash - they won't give me a chance, so what choice is there except crime?" The system's far from perfect, but we already have countless rehabilitation initiatives which work on this mindset - though they have to be engaged with for anything positive to result

Much easier for some to carry on blaming everyone else and simply look for excuses ...

All there stories of " my mate went to prison years ago for some youthful folly , he really is the nicest chap "
Are based upon one version of events, the guilty. No mention here of people who have been assaulted, robbed , burgaled etc.

puzzledandpissedoff

“With his initial recruits, he had "just about any scenario you could make up. I'd put them in shops and they'd nick money off us. They'd fight in the shop. Their drug dealer mates would be coming in. If it's going to go wrong it goes really wrong."
Timpson calls this period "polishing my recruitment nose", during which "I didn't tell anyone what I was doing, apart from my dad". It was only after he had "10 good ones" out of about 40 recruits that he told Timpson's senior team. The initial reaction was "yes you're completely mad", he says, until he explained who he had hired and his colleagues agreed "well, these 10 guys are good".”

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10266250/Timpson-has-key-to-giving-ex-convicts-second-chance.html

My brother went to prison for shoplifting. He had a drug problem at the time and I think he'd been caught many times before he actually got imprisoned for it. He also didn't turn for his final court case which I expect exacerbated things. He got 6 weeks. I think it helped him as it was the rock bottom he needed to get his life sorted out.

I don't know much about it as he's never wanted to talk about it. It was 17 years ago now and, as far as I know, he's never been in trouble since. He's now got a regular job he's had for years and two children that he's a very good father to.

WeBuilt that isn't witholding council tax. The person can clearly show their money went on other bills etc and there's no more. That's not the same as having £10k sitting in the bank and just deciding the council aren't entitled to charge you.

The second example of a mum stealing, well yes, she is a thief. I empathise as things are clearly hard but I've been poor and never stolen- because I know right from wrong. As someone said upthread, poverty doesn't rid people of their morality.

I'm quite saddened by all these posts. Explains why re-offending is so high in the UK - apparently if you've been to prison once, there isn't much point in trying to sort yourself out and try again if so many people will want nothing to do with you.

Explains why re-offending is so high in the UK

No it doesn’t. People have a choice. They chose to keep reoffending despite the help they received inside and on release. Look at the Timpson case above. Three quarters of those given a chance decided to fuck it up.

And even if it was the case, they are criminals, what do you expect? They will have to work harder in the future because they did it the illegal way in that past.

Reoffending is high in the U.K. because the sentences/punishments are not enough to stop them.

I was visiting a women's prison recently and horrified to discover that the majority were in for non payment of TV licence

No, they weren't. They were having you on.

I have spent a lot of time with offenders due to my job. In my experience it is very common for people who have served time in prison lie about or minimise what they were in for. For example, they will tell their friends, partners, relatives etc that they went down for Burglary, conveniently neglecting to mention that during said Burglary they threatened/assaulted the occupants of the house with a weapon. They will tell people they "got in a fight in a pub", when actually they got shoved or punched once and retailited by beating the other bloke unconscious to the point he was hospitalised.

I am currently working with a child whose Mother is adamant that her DP is serving a 12 year sentence for "driving offences". People believe what they want to believe. Just look at the number of posters on this thread who are defending, minimising and making excuses for their friends or family members who have done time. I wonder how many of them know the whole story.

Changedun I never said that anyone had said all criminals were malicious so not sure why you're jumping on me saying my opinion of my own criminal family members. I was explaining my personal experience with family members who had been in jail - one I still judge harshly and think should have had a far more severe sentence, one I feel sorry for because it's a sad fucked up situation he's still paying for 20 years later for something that was quickly turned into a town joke and just as quickly forgotten before he was even out, and the rest I think were fools that fit that mantra to a T - some may think they were malicious, but really they were foolish. A couple even got caught in the 'free man on the land' BS and were put away for not paying taxes.

Yes, they're all criminals, some I have compassion for and some I don't. Those that weren't already retired when they were jailed (the free man ones) have had to a work harder, especially as all that happened in the US which means some of them lost pretty much everything down to the right to vote for the rest of their lives or continue their education which I think is too harsh once someone is out of prison. In general, I think it comes down to the individual and view the crime and ongoing behaviour rather than the jail time or house arrest time as the defining factor.

I was visiting a women's prison recently and horrified to discover that the majority were in for non payment of TV licence

I bet you were also surprised to hear that the word "gullible" doesn't appear in the dictionary.

FFS nobody goes to prison for not paying their tv licence. They go for not paying the fine issued for not paying their tv licence. They are given every chance to pay.

Can’t afford it? Then don’t have a tv, it’s a luxury.

Less than 100 people (reports say 70-90) have gone to prison for refusing to pay the fine in recent years. Hundreds of thousands have tried to evade payment t of the licence in that time (approximately 180,000 a year).

I think people make assumptions purely because you aren’t generally sent to prison lightly in this country. A judge would always consider other methods before sending a person to prison for ‘lesser crimes’ I.e shoplifting, drug possession etc. So if you have been to prison it stands to reason you either committed a heinous crime or you were perpetually ‘bad’. To go to prison twice speaks volumes, you didn’t learn the first time...

Also 50 people were sent to prison in 2013 for not paying the fine associated with non payment of TV licence. Fifty people is a drop in the ocean. Barely anyone gets caught.

Reoffending is high in the U.K. because the sentences/punishments are not enough to stop them.

Do you really believe that? Because in countries with much harsher sentencing the reoffending rates are just as high, if not higher.
There are a multitude of reasons people reoffend, sentencing not being harsh enough may be one of them but I doubt it has that much of an impact.

This blog is interesting, written by the wife of a man sent to prison for tax fraud.
prisonbag.com/

FormerlyFrikadela01

I believe if sentences were harsher then to some it would be a greater deterrent in the first place; those who chose to break the law anyway would be off the streets unable to reoffend for longer; and that society may be more sympathetic, and thus give a chance, to someone who spent 5 years in jail for [insert crime here] rather than sentenced to one year and out in six months...

It is natural for law abiding people to be wary of people who have been to prison. It’s an entirely natural response. As a previous poster indicated, for many it is the end of a long line of noncustodial punishments that have handed out by the courts, to no avail. There is only one option left.

My grandparents used to help offenders straight out of prison giving them somewhere to live (he was a vicar) most of them stole stuff from my grandparents!

corona the person spoken about it in the blog was sentenced to 9 years for fraud.

To give you an idea of the scale of the crime he committed here's a news article.

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi00JTS5fzfAhWPkhQKHdvxBDEQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F50938cc0-29a4-11e6-8b18-91555f2f4fde&psig=AOvVaw1R_A5RYD0zBBbifKpxrZqC&ust=1548088617248938

9 years for fraud worth £100 million seems a bit lenient to me....

That PrisonBag blog is such a pile of self-pitying, self-justifying shit.

And why would you keep a (hitherto) non-violent man who is no flight risk under constant guard in any case? Are we made of money in “Great” Britain? Don’t we need the cash to turn the M20 into a car park for Brexit or something?

We're not made of money, in large part, because people like her husband defraud and steal from the rest of us by systematically evading tax. FFS.

I get that people can change . But- I wouldn’t associate with someone who’s been in prison. Don’t know anyone who has been. No one in my family has ever been inside. I would be horrified if DD got together with an ex con. I’ve worked in law enforcement - you have to commit quite a serious crime to be sent to prison.