Someone I vaguely know is going to jail

[Samscity]

An article was circulated in a WhatsApp group chat today of someone we went to university with. He was involved in a hit and run and killed the person and then handed himself in. He's now going to jail

I think it's so scary how someone's fate can change so dramatically in a heartbeat. I feel it's shocking and so devastating that someone died. I don't know the guy that did it well at all, just saw him at a friend's flat party etc never spoke to him.. but just all very unnerving

In my younger years I would have been horrified to have known someone who had been in jail, then I went out with a chap whose Dad had been inside regularly (he would sell a certain brand of car privately, sometimes keep a spare key and then steal it back again and ‘re-birth’ it with a new engine block number).

they would get people to sign an application form when selling the vehicle and it included very personal details of the applicant, so personal the information could have been sold to falsify new ID’s.

anyhow he kept going but what shocked me the most when arrested, the police never picked up the application forms nor the stamps used for altering the engine block plate…

in my older years we employed someone who had been in for armed robbery. He did it (he says) because his mum couldn’t afford her rent. He says he gave her the money and she spent it on weed…. Who knows? However he is one of the most pleasant people you would ever meet, talks to clients of all walks of life extremely well, but just can’t hold onto a routine to come to work.

So in summary, given enough time you are going to meet a few more. It depends whether they are going to be truthful about it or not…

Totally different things.

I once hit my finger on a tap. I remember doing it. It hurt a bit. Then I don't remember a thing more. I had gone into shock. An ambulance was called and I was taken into hospital. Just for knocking my finger on a tap.

Someone I know fell recently. Her partner went into shock. Not even the person who fell! Again, they don't remember ANYTHING.

When you are in shock, you literally can't control what you do.

Not everybody goes into shock if they accidently hit someone. The same as not everybody goes into shock when they hit their hand on a tap. But some people do. And you cannot control that. And you certainly don't know how you would react.

Different lifestyle choices I think.
I do, but in a previous life, not my current one.
In my current work role any misdemeanours would be sackable so people tend to be quite straight or hide it well.

That's not always how it goes. In my case it was my dad and that's not exactly something I had a choice over.

I don't think that is what the OP has done at all. It is actually OK to think about things that happen and try to process them. No need to be so rude and judgemental.

Personally, I think prisons should be abolished. Nothing good comes of anyone being imprisoned. Prisons destroy people and the financial cost to us all is outrageous.

The money needs to be invested in social services, particularly for young families, education and supports for people with illness, injury and neurodiversity. Did you know that the majority of prisons are neurodiverse? Did you know that the vast majority of prisoners on Death Row have previously undiagnosed brain injuries?

And we need to get real about the cost of alcohol to us all when accidents, violence, illness and absences are taken into account.

I'm middle aged and I don't think I do!

My sisters brother-in-law who finished his studies in becoming a doctor, came to a third world country and was treating people for free voluntarily. He made so many people, who otherwise wouldn’t afford hospital bills and medical expenses lives better.
One day he was driving when suddenly a man came out of nowhere and got run over, ( the man was an only child for his elderly parents) and panicked when he found he died immediately. He later gave himself up after the shock subsided and was arrested for one month until the family asked for “blood money “ in exchange for his freedom. He died of a fever he caught in hospital three days after he was released. Hundreds of people who he got to know and treat flooded his funeral. 😭😭

@RadishesForYou where do you expect all the child killers, paedos and scum of the earth to go then?

There would likely be next to none if we had good social supports in place.

Is it really that common to know someone who's been in prison? This thread has made me wonder because I don't think I do but perhaps I am very sheltered, as pp say. Arrested, yes, fined or cautioned, yes but not actually done time (not someone I know directly anyway, not counting ppl I've been told about but have never met).

Not saying you had a choice. It’s still not normal and common. The first commenter suggested it was.

This is so much more common than we all realise.
my friends dad has spent time in jail, 2 girls at my daughters school have dads in prison for pretty crimes. A boy in her year has a father in prison for murdering his own twin brother.
mits more common than we realise.

Well I'll be in prison myself soon if I don't get on top of my council tax arrears!

Agreed . People tell you what they want you to know . I've been researching my family tree and looking at old newspapers online and it's been quite eye opening what I have discovered, not just about my family but about other people I once knew . Let's just say attack is the best defence and often a deflection !