Just visited a Detention Centre

[ElRazur]

as long as it is humane then I have no desire to see prisons made any better

maybe in terms of education and rehabilitation I don;t mind money being spent but in terms of making it a nicer place to be then the less spent the better

I belive that improving the standards could be acheived but not making it better for them in the sense you are using it though.

 

[4T5]

@ Linoge
Being bold i would say it was all down to me.
Being truthful i can only answer i had hit the end of the road, I truly believe that i had 3 options, Getting Lifed off, getting killed/dying or ringing my mum & running away.
I rang my mum and just said down the phone " I need help ". She said "You best come up then".
It took around 3 years to start feeling normal but even to this day i am riddled with Guilt for my past wrong doings.
The whole story is a very long one & very boring, others seem to find it interesting but it is me who has to deal with the fact i was a complete and utter ******* for the rest of my life.
I've gone from being a Top boy in my own manor & Very well connected to being a middle aged bloke with **** all but memorys of how stupid i was, living in a rented house working for peanuts.
You do not have to punish people like me as we punish ourselves.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

The whole story is a very long one & very boring, others seem to find it interesting

I'd love to hear it.

 

[cleanbluesky]

I'd love to hear it.

+1


Given a lot of the things you've already said on the forum I doubt your story would be boring although I think you want to disclaim it because it's important to you (justifiably, it would be important to anyone)

 

[Brian Stuart]

I too would love to hear your story. As someone who has spent the last 30 years within the Criminal Justice System in one form or another I can only back up what Malc30 has said about the effects of prison.
The only thing it is any good at is preventing offending whilst the individual is locked up. I know that there has been some progress towards helping inmates to "rehabilitate" but in my experience with little success.
Good on yer malc

 

[ironman]

Adult prisons are supposed to be harsh

I've been to a lot including whitemoor and have know of what goes on in quite a detail and as long as you aren't a prat it's fine. Whitemoor is a cat a where all the terrorists/murderers/general most dangerous people in the uk are held.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

What would the voluntary work involve dmpoole?

I had a phone call about 2 hours ago off a bloke who works there and he told me theres plenty I could do voluntary and he's arranging a meeting with him and his boss
Things are slowly looking up.

 

[Wossi]

Basically i moved to the Midlands just over Ten years ago to change my life which i did. I Never break the law these days & i mean Never & have had no convictions for over 12 years.
I should also add that i was Honourable as a career criminal as i am Honourable now. One of the reasons i didn't serve quite as much time as you would expect is because i only targetted businesses & not individuals.
My MOH status here is for my contributions to the forums & not for my activitys irl
My past has some what scuppered any chance of a career & at the moment i am working in my mates Electical retail shop/Digital aerial instalations place.

It's not the one next to the pub near the Police station is it? (I know the name of the shop, just didn't want to say it)

 

[4T5]

It's not the one next to the pub near the Police station is it? (I know the name of the shop, just didn't want to say it)

No mate it's the other side of town. The name can't be mentioned here anyway as because of the American connection it would be deemed a competitor. (I think)
We are up top town with all the estate agents & pretty office girlys right near where the old Select video shop used to be. We are definetly not competitors but my mate has the rights to the name which is a well known yankee outfit. We don't even stock there stuff either now & get from elsewhere although the name seems to bring folk in from all over.
You'll soon here/read about the shop in the local papers though as Scandal (as far as this manor is concerned) will break shortly
The Boss has a new venture underway which is literally at the doors opening stage as i write that will surely raise the eyebrows of the Conservative knitting brigade round here
Keep your Eye on the Locals in around a week +

 

[Business Man]

I got sent down for various firearms charges, ( no i didnt go out shooting, robbing people ) I just had them in my possesion. I ended up doing time in Nottingham which was'nt very nice. I had to spend 22 hours a day in a 12ft x 9ft room which only had a small window. you didnt get access to sky or cable channels, you only got the basics. I had to adjust and bring myself to watch countdown, antiques roadshow and bargain hunt as there wasnt much else you could do or watch. I just learned to be grateful and get on with it.

The prison clothing was **** you got issued with rotton jumpers and jogging bottoms, a few pairs of boxers and a few pair of socks. each week you would have kit change and most of the time they would hand out startched up and stiff socks that hadnt properly been washed. I just kept the socks and boxers that was first issued to me as i was lucky they were brand new. I would just wash them myself in the sink as i wasnt prepared to wear any other socks or boxers that people had worn.

I had a couple of good pad mates that i got to know but they soon got discharged or shipped out to a lower cat prison. you did get the odd occasional bag head or drug dealer try to start on you but it didnt effect me. I just learnt to keep my head down and get on with it.

Every 2 days you would get let out of your cell for a couple of hours where you could ring your parents, friends ect. shower, play pool or table tennis. not much you could do but atleast it got you out the cell for a bit.

In the time i was in Nottingham i did see some nasty things happen. i seen a lad get slashed to bits with a razor over not paying back a jar of coffee. prison staff turning blind eyes to assaults. you'll be suprised what people get done over for. The security was very, very poor at the prison. Razors were suppose to be handed back to the staff and disposed off properly but they never bothered coming to collect them.

I dont know about YOI's and what they are allowed to have but Nottingham is nothing like the papers make out. you dont get playstations, sky or mcdonalds there thats for sure.

Since being released i've been trying to get a job but there doesnt seem to be much out there for convicted criminals. it doesn't help that there isn't much support for ex-cons either to help find employment. This is probably why some people decide re-offend again. Probabation isn't much cop either, all i got asked each time i attended was.. how are you, whats your views now on guns, do you think your going to re-offend again... blah blah blah. bloody pointless.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

II had to adjust and bring myself to watch countdown, antiques roadshow and bargain hunt

I bet that taught you a lesson.
Nice story and good luck for the future.

 

[Things change I've changed]

even to this day i am riddled with Guilt for my past wrong doings.

I know how you feel mate, I've done some very bad things also, very bad things , over the years though I've tried to accept myself more and not try to hide from my past self and instead inbrace it and use it drive me forward to becoming a better person, you may think you've gone from being Top dog in your manor to living in a rented house working for peanuts, you haven't mate, you've gone from being a criminal to a good guy and that's not allways an easy journey mate, you deserve credit for that, we all have to live with the bad things which we have done and no prison sentence will compare to what we feel inside and with what we have to live with for the rest of our lives, that is our true life sentence, you can either let that life sentence take you down or let it be a constant reminder of why you've decided to change your life and become a better person, everytime you feel guilty for what you did don't feel down, fell proud of how far you've come in your life.

 

[kefkef]

Having frequented quite a few of Her Majestys establishments (in a work capacity) i can also say they are not the 'easy-rides' that the press make them out to be. The YOI places are a lot better than the adult prisons as they need to ensure that the kids continue to receive an education and are also actively involved in exercise/sport, although unless they have been modernised in the past few years some of the conditions are terrible. It's quite interesting to see how these inmates get around stuff, like making hooch in a toilet/bucket with wires direct from a mains socket into old fruit juice and sugar/bread.

 

[Wossi]

No mate it's the other side of town. The name can't be mentioned here anyway as because of the American connection it would be deemed a competitor. (I think)
We are up top town with all the estate agents & pretty office girlys right near where the old Select video shop used to be. We are definetly not competitors but my mate has the rights to the name which is a well known yankee outfit. We don't even stock there stuff either now & get from elsewhere although the name seems to bring folk in from all over.
You'll soon here/read about the shop in the local papers though as Scandal (as far as this manor is concerned) will break shortly
The Boss has a new venture underway which is literally at the doors opening stage as i write that will surely raise the eyebrows of the Conservative knitting brigade round here
Keep your Eye on the Locals in around a week +

I know the one you mean and yes, I'm pretty sure it would be classed as a competitor.