theRecord
Issue 18 December 2012
The free magazine for law-abiding people facing discrimination and inequality as a result of a criminal record
In this issue... 2. Editor’s Welcome 2. Volunteering with conviction 3. An Open Letter to Chris Grayling 4. A Champion Christmas 6. Fonesavvy 7. Poem 8. Reimagining the Use of Criminal Records in Europe 10. A New Life 12 Unlock Media / Unlock Vocal 13. Life’s Stretches and Turns
Editor’s Welcome
Erica Crompton, Editor
This December sees the close of a busy year. Notably we’ve had amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and this month Keele Universities’ Andrew Henley takes the issue of criminal records a step further, attending a lecture on whether they should be expunged, at the University of Edinburgh. Ex political prisoner and activist Charlie Ryder publishes an open letter to Chris Grayling. And on a more festive note, in Second Chance, Grant Thomas looks back on his year and talks about how this Christmas will be better for him this year thanks to exercise and volunteer work. For those who have followed theRecord, you’ll know that what started out as a newsletter has been transformed into a small magazine over the last 18 months. It is with a little sadness that I will say “goodbye” this month and hand over the reigns to someone else. I’d like to thank readers for being a wonderful, growing audience, for contributions which have come in thick and fast over the last few months, and for everyone’s feedback in the forum – you make theRecord what it is today. And with that I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Erica Crompton
Volunteering with conviction Volunteer Opportunity Editor, theRecord Summary
In this home-based volunteering role you will use your creative skills to deliver an engaging monthly publication for the charity’s members. You will work with the Designer to create each issue and develop a magazine for people with convictions.
We are an independent and well respected charity based in Kent, established in 1999 by people with convictions, for people with convictions. Although we are small in staff numbers, we are a national organisation with over 6,000 members. You don’t have to have convictions to work here…but it helps.
You are able to encourage people to tell their story, either by writing themselves or by telling it verbally. You enjoy working with a small team and are self-motivated enough to excel while working remotely without close supervision. Your verbal and written skills are excellent and you are able to communicate effectively with other team members and external organisations. You are a confident computer user, comfortable using internet and email.
You
theRecord
Us
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create a positive social impact. You enjoy seeking out and engaging with people from a wide range of backgrounds, discovering and sharing their stories.
You are a talented professional or amateur journalist, looking for an opportunity to use your skills to
In June 2011, our e-newsletter developed into a new and exciting monthly publication called
theRecord. Thanks to the efforts of our current Editor (a volunteer freelance journalist) and the contributions of our members, it has enjoyed excellent content. In May 2012, theRecord gained a volunteer Designer, who has given the publication an engaging and professional look to match the content. theRecord combines editorial, relevant news features, opinion pieces and, most importantly, the personal stories of success as told by people with convictions.
Interested?
A Role Description / Person Specification and Application Form are available from our website . The deadline for applications is 14th January 2012. Please contact Chris Bath at chris.bath@unlock.org.uk if you have any questions.
An open letter to Chris Grayling from an ‘old lag’
Charlie Ryder
Dear Mr Grayling, I read with great interest your speech on Tuesday. As someone who has been to prison, and now recruits and trains mentors, I am doing the work you want to encourage. But I find your description of me as an ‘old lag’ offensive and ignorant, adding as it does to the prejudice and discrimination that people who have served a sentence have to endure. As an educated man, I’m sure you’re aware of the importance of language and how negative language impacts on how people are treated. If you genuinely want people who have served sentences to become mentors then you first have to welcome them back into the community to reintegrate. Which means unlocking the doors of prejudice that are preventing people from getting work. However, the Rehabilitation (discrimination) of Offenders Act 1974 has meant that for 10 years I had to disclose that I had a record. As an honest person who always disclosed that meant no employer would take me on as they just saw me as an “old lag” or “ex-offender”. Housing is another area which we also face discrimination. Recently I saw a room advertised and telephoned the landlord. We got talking and he asked me what I did as a job, I told him what I did and then he asked me how I got into it. When I told him that I had been to prison he told me he wouldn’t want me bringing my criminal friends back to his house. I told him my friends included a police officer and people of different faiths. He said he didn’t believe in faith and so wouldn’t want them coming back to his house either. Again this landlord just saw me as an “old lag” or “ex-offender”. What makes a good mentor is the ability to empathise, showing unconditional love, compassion, kindness and a non-judgemental attitude. Not seeing a person as the worst thing they have ever done but actually seeing the gold in every person and shining a light on the good qualities they find difficult to see in themselves. It’s not just me. Members of an online forum provided by the national charity for people with convictions have recently debated this issue. Unlock’s executive director Chris Bath told me, “Some people feel ‘ex-offender’ is a powerful statement of where they’ve been and proudly take ownership of the term. But most just want to be referred to in the same way as everyone else; Charlie the playwright, Karen the criminologist, Steve the fantastic dad.” Like me, Chris feels a change of language is critical if we are to tackle the life sentence of stigma attached to even a minor criminal record. He told me, “One service provider I spoke to recently referred to ‘PG9s’ – a reference to the Work Programme which separates claimants into programme groups. People used to talk about ‘blacks’ and ‘gays’ – it’s a dehumanising technique. If it is absolutely critical that we refer to the characteristic, we need to think in terms of people with convictions.”
Have you got a view about this letter? Leave a comment on the Discovering Desistance blog.
Click Here
If you have the time, the poem Please Hear What I’m not Saying by Charles C. Finn may help you better understand the issue facing the people you need on your side. www.poetrybycharlescfinn.com/pleasehear.html
Charlie Ryder
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Monday January 23rd 2012. After a harrowing Christmas and new year period, which was precipitated by my latest bout of depression, sleeplessness and worthlessness, I rather despondently picked up the phone to call the First Step Trust. At this juncture my life had not fully kicked into gear. I had been volunteering in a charity shop for 12 months by this point but I was still heavily stigmatising myself with my mental problems, which I believe were in some part an explanation, not a justification, for my criminal record. I had been arrested twice before for failing to control my explosive temper fuelled by my mood swings. In truth it could, perhaps should, have been more. I escaped punishment on those occasions, but in this instance it was third time unlucky.
April 1st 2009. The G20 protest. Remember that guy you saw on the BBC news, or pictures in the Guardian and Daily Express smashing the window of the Royal Bank of Scotland? Yes, that was me. My most high profile angry and emotional outburst. Less than a month prior to the incident I had been sleeping rough on London’s streets with little help from the authorities. Without an agenda, motivated by little more than boredom, an abundance of pent up frustration was released. I was fortunate not to be incarcerated for my involvement in the riots at the heart of Britain’s financial sector. After admitting my guilt for criminal damage, charges of violent disorder and burglary were dropped. Some may say that I was lucky in light of the aftermath of the August 2011 riots where some people were sent to prison for merely stealing a bottle of water. My conviction led to a £390 fine and a 12 month conditional discharge. I have now paid my debt, financially and to society, and have been in no trouble with the authorities since.
A Champion Christmas 4
Grant Thomas
Still, by early 2012 I was in a terrible state. After the phone call, I arranged to go for a meeting at the First Step Trust head office the following Thursday. They are a charity that create employment opportunities for disadvantaged people who want to get back into work whilst working in a real working environment that delivers competitive business services. It is real work, not pretend work. They accept volunteers, referred to as workforce members, who have criminal records, mental health and substance abuse problems. Sometimes more than one are inextricably linked. They have projects around the country which provide opportunities for people to gain valuable experience in mechanics, catering, administration, finance and more. I was to work at the main office in Woolwich, South East London. Once I started, I soon found working in the finance department the role which best suited me. Initially, the first few months were tough and it just seemed as though I was randomly entering numbers onto spreadsheets without really knowing what I was doing. But gradually, the purpose began to sink in and I now understand what is required to work within the finance department of a real business. I assist in many important roles. As time has passed I have increased in experience and have been given more responsibility. I am capable of completing various tasks alone while at the same time knowing there is supervision there to help me. I can work as part of a team
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and sometimes help new workforce members. I have had additional support with motivation, job search and interview preparation. I had not studied since failing to complete a Law degree in 2006, but I have recently started an OCR level 1 bookkeeping course, and will soon be starting a health and safety at work course. Now that I have a structured routine, a regular sleeping pattern and the feeling of going to a ‘job’, it has given me a real sense of purpose. A semblance of hope for the future. Rather than just being another angry and depressed young man who felt as if he had no right to exist alongside everybody else. My social life has improved drastically. I now exercise regularly. I play badminton at least once per week. I recently completed 20 days of Bikram yoga. I eat more healthily and
have even lost 21 pounds in weight. I feel more connected with my friends and family. And I have even enrolled on a module at the Open University, in International environmental policy, in my study towards an Open degree Bachelor of Arts. Essentially, this time last year I did not consider myself to be highly employable. I now consider myself to be a fully functioning member of society who just wants to have another chance at life. Hopefully I can put my past behind me and live for the future.
For more information visit First Step Trust
Share Your Story Stories of crime and overflowing prisons are constantly in our papers but, behind each statistic and headline, there is a personal story.
Multistory is an art organisation in the West Midlands currently working with reformed offenders who are willing to share their stories with others. Have you been involved in a crime and are you willing to share your experience as well as have your photograph taken by David Goldblatt ? We plan to share these stories in an exhibition. You would need to be available for 3 hours in January or February 2013, we can refund your expenses. David Goldblatt makes no money from this project; instead his fee will be donated towards rehabilitative services. For more information contact Claire Wearn: 07811 116 131 clairewearn@multistory.org.uk
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Fonesavvy Ben Sturge
If I’m an ex why am I having a difficult time moving on? Relationship problems you might be thinking? Well for the most part you would be correct. You see after my release from prison, like most do, I had realised my polyamorous relationship with crime and the police had run its course. After repaying my debt to society I was keen to start a new career and left prison proudly forced into wearing my badge as an ex-offender. The problem was and still is to some extent is that despite wanting to start a new career or better myself, this label of ex-offender seems to confuse the most educated of society, they are failing to understand what EX actually means? I’m sure employers see it as a terrible disease meaning unreliable and incapable, whilst insurance brokers see it as pound signs.
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Is this rehabilitation? How realistic is rehabilitation when up against this level of adversity? With logic and morals at war I chose the challenge of the latter and applied my criminal learnings to set up a legitimate business providing a service to inmates friends and families nationwide. Fonesavvy was born to reduce the cost of calls to mobiles from prison. With the help and support of understanding organisations such as Inside Time, the high barriers of being an ex-offender soon become hurdles, good news travels fast, especially in prison and Fonesavvy is now nationwide. It’s not been easy and we are still experiencing some resistance due to a lack of understanding from HMPS. However I’m sure on this occasion it has nothing to do with being an ex-offender and I’m faithful this
will be resolved quickly and Fonesavvys benefits will be recognised. It is my hope that anyone reading this will be inspired and confident enough to believe in themselves and realise the success and satisfaction that can be achieved in the legitimate world. With the hurdles and stigma attached to being an ex-offender in a climate with already limited job prospects, employment is very difficult, what better time to become self employed and start your own business?
For more information visit www.fonesavvy.co.uk ; follow fonesavvy on twitter @fonesavvyuk or find us on Facebook and Blackberry messenger pin 2826F945.
Somebody pressed pause Release2Succeed I wasn’t there when it happened so didn’t notice the years slide by as they moved forward and I sat still silent in my cell pleasant, dry and numb to the caterwauling wheels of everything drifting by. It only stings when you noticed, I found. When jerked to attention by some smell, some sound, or simply slipping from ritual, protective and dull, into remembrance of another man in shadows beneath your step reflecting no light, little joy. Not red or green, but constant amber to colour-free eyes. That’s when the laughter and banter retreats and recoils into juggled regrets getting caught. Being dumb. All those treasures you lost, before being aware and, oh yeah, now you’re aware and, oh yeah, now how you wish. Then you wonder, as you do, if anyone anywhere mentions your name even fondly in passing across lacquer wood tables in smokeless dark bars. You wonder, you do, under circumstances such, if a hole still exists and if so would you fit? Perhaps best not to know,
perhaps better forget, there’s a comfortable warmth in deceit to yourself. Still it’s times such as these, inside, indoors, when your head takes a trip, a flight, a charabanc coach ride, down narrowing routes in search of your self your then self that ‘what’ ‘if’ ‘maybe’ self that one you’re forgetting professionally, but nevertheless sometimes,
all it would take would be something so tiny so small so meaningless so everyday life; a kindness word smile thought or remembrance as brisk as a twitch to suggest that the old forest still knows and will hear should you fall. Then someone pressed play, or again, was it pause?
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Re-Imagining the Use of Criminal Records in Europe Andrew Henley
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In the context of the recent, but limited, reforms to the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders Act in England and Wales it is worthwhile considering different approaches to criminal record data which have been taken across continental Europe. To this end, I recently attended the 6th Annual Lecture of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Edinburgh, delivered this year by Professor Elena Larrauri from the Universitat Pompeu de Barcelona. Professor Larrauri notes that the use of pre-employment criminal record screening has increased due largely to a culture of risk aversion and a desire by the public for increased security and protection from what formerly convicted people ‘might do’ in the future. Yet
despite this expansion in screening, criminal records have received relatively little attention from academics, with the notable exception of the United States where the availability of conviction data is comparatively widespread. The expansion of pre-employment screening produces an impact in three areas related to the regulation of criminal record data. Firstly, how much disclosure is acceptable? Do we, for instance, believe that all employers have the right to ask about criminal records or do we take the view that such information should be subject to some sort of privacy controls? Clearly the more risk averse a society becomes, the more likely it is to tend towards the former rather than the latter point of view. Secondly, is the issue of expungement time, or how long it takes for criminal records to become ‘spent’ or ‘sealed’. Again, it is easy to imagine how the length of this period will tend to be dependent upon the level of risk aversion in a society. The third issue relates to which jobs should be subject to pre-employment criminal record screening and formed the main basis of the lecture. In continental Europe (as opposed to the UK), conviction-based employment screening has often been limited to the public sector and, in particular, roles in the administration of justice such as judges, police and prison officers. Until now little attention has been paid to blanket bans on the employment of people with previous convictions in public administration. But Professor Larrauri posed the question as to whether we should simply accept it as a given that people with a criminal record are automatically excluded from public sector roles. She notes, for instance, that an ‘automatic exclusion’ approach can expand to other roles in public administration including office clerks and ultimately even the gardener who works in the grounds of a public building. Additionally, she highlights
the fact that a range of employment has increasingly become subject to forms of occupational licencing meaning that taxi drivers, nightclub door staff and even bingo hall callers have required ‘clean’ records in some jurisdictions. In relation to private-sector employers, comparatively little information about the extent of criminal records checks is available in continental Europe. However, Professor Larrauri notes that EU directive 2011/92/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children may mark a shift in this position given that it will enable some private employers to ask about previous convictions. She noted, however, that the legislation does not give criminal records a ‘conclusive force’ (telling employers who they may not employ) but rather empowers them to ask about criminal records in some situations. Caution was also expressed that forms of screening brought in to combat sexual abuse can often open the door to screening for violent offences or for any employment which relates to the somewhat ill-defined and broad category of ‘vulnerable adults’. In order to combat unnecessary discrimination against people with convictions who have served their sentences, two models currently exist. In the ‘spent model’ employers are legally prohibited from considering criminal records after a period of time has elapsed. The problems associated with this however, are in determining what are appropriate ‘expungement times’ and the fate of the ex-offender during this interim period whilst they wait for their conviction to become ‘spent’. In the ‘anti-discrimination model’ employers are advised that they can only exclude people where there is a ‘close nexus’ between the nature of the conviction and the type of employment being applied for – for instance, between fraud and work
in the financial sector or between speeding convictions and driving jobs. The issue with this model is that it can often represent a delegation of the power to punish from the state to employers, since the exclusion from employment which results can be seen as a form of punishment in its own right. Professor Larrauri suggests that, as an alternative to these models, the judicial and legal system should take ownership of criminal records and incorporate them into the process of delivering punishment at the point of sentencing. Given that the purpose in using criminal record data is supposed to be an attempt to reduce risk to the broader public (although it is not firmly established to what extent this data remains predictive of future offending in the long-term), this could mean the imposition of certain occupational disqualifications for an extended period following the end of a sentence. This would mean that certain people would be disqualified from specific occupations rather than all forms of employment. Additionally, such disqualifications would be based on individual assessment rather than blanket bans and would necessarily be time limited rather than indefinite. This is because bringing criminal records into the field of punishment, rather than seeing them as a ‘collateral consequence’ of a conviction, would mean that the usual legal and human rights safeguards associated with punishment (for example, Article 7 of the European Convention – ‘no punishment without law’) would then begin to apply, which currently they do not.
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A New Life Tracey R
My name is Tracey and I was convicted of fraud in November 2011. My sentence, which was a custody possibility sentence was scaled down to 60 hours community service and a one year suspended sentence. After a marriage breakdown, in 2003, and a subsequent residency battle for my two young children, I descended the slippery slope into alcoholism. That journey took me seven years of a slow decline into hell. The times between the drink were the hardest times to manage and the only balm for that terror in my mind was another drink. The times between drink became shorter and shorter and there was no road back. I never paid a bill, I lost my home, my children and every ounce of dignity and respect for myself. My love affair with drink
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and then ultimately, crime had begun. I drank the country and then some dry. I was 39 years old, in a foreign country, working in an international boarding school, a beautiful home, a car, all the trappings of a well earned existence, displayed so very well to the outside world. But, the drink got a hold of me, the torture over the loss of my children, the knowing I had run away from the UK to escape the pain, the hurt, the destruction of a man I was once married to. He stated he was determined to ruin me and he took away my home, and finally, standing on the doorstep of the home we shared with our two children, he told me “I am going to make sure I destroy you� and that he did. Family Law courts allowed that to happen, CAFCASS allowed what
was once, a happy, loving relationship between a mother and her two children, to be eroded by a man who was determined to see me lying in the gutter. I returned to the UK in 2010, joined AA for a while, off the drink life seemed to be going well. In January 2011, letters began to appear from debt recovery companies, regarding my solicitor’s fees from the court case over my children. I was living with my father and my stepmother and to my horror, scared, and all those feelings of what had happened in 2004 - 2006, reared up again and I took out two credit cards in the name of my stepmother. Instead of dealing with the debt recovery agency in a sensible manner, panic took over me and I committed the fraud. This was brought to light in May 2011 and I pleaded guilty to the
crimes which were brought to court in November 2011. I was asked to attend the police station on a voluntary basis, which I did and I have served my sentence. I do have to state that I was treated fairly and with kindness by the police. The judge, (who I wrote to, regarding the name of my mother, who is a well known character in my home town and I didn’t want her name read out in court, as she has mental health issues, with the press being in the court room) was hard on me, but I had only put myself there, nobody else. I was convinced that I was going to prison as I was informed by my solicitor on that day that the judge was considering all options in sentencing. I knew, with some research of similar cases, that I was at least looking at a term of 18 weeks. I took a bag with me to the court, prepared, but had instructed my solicitor that I would want an appeal were I to be given a custodial. My presentence report provided by probation was excellent, because I worked with probation rather than against them and I certainly listened at every opportunity to what was being said and asked questions. My mitigating circumstances were presented in an articulate way in that I had admitted guilt, whereby the credit card companies had not produced all of the evidence, but rather than waiting for the evidence to be fully submitted, I asked that the judge deal with me on the basis that I was guilty on the two counts. Since sentencing, my life has changed immensely. In January 2012, I went to the doctors with an ache under my arm, my doctor sent me referred me to breast clinic and after diagnostic mammogram and ultra sound, a mass was found in my left breast. Biopsy followed and subsequently a diagnosis of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, was confirmed. This is the earliest form of breast cancer, still in the ducts and does not metasise to any other parts
of the body. I had a lumpectomy and a course of radiation and nine months later, I have been given the all clear. I have worked hard, am due to begin a degree course in February with the Open University and I am working for a friend translating her export documents. I have got married to a man who I met in AA and have a home that I love and cherish and my life is very different from the hell I was living. Was committing a crime the best thing that ever happened to me? Absolutely not. I could never be a person who will advocate that a person sorts themselves out when faced with a prison sentence. That said, the experiences around my research, the women I came across serving my community service, being on the Unlock forums, as one of a very few women, has had such an impact on me. I was the only female on the health and safety course that is a requirement of all “clients” on probation have to take before community service commences. My probation officer was very aware that I would be a sole female on the community service so she moved me to a different office, where I could serve my community payback hours with other women offenders. This eased my worry on that score. Not because I wanted to be treated differently, but that I would have felt more productive with women and men than I would have, being a lone female in a van full of men. My probation officer, a woman herself, was very pro-women and their rehabilitation and I was lucky in that respect, having her assigned to my case. I do know that not all women are as blessed as I was. Recovery from an addiction, is never easy. That tears you up inside, as my problems really didn’t begin until I put the alcohol down. Being without my children, is like being stabbed every single day. Never watching them grow up, wondering if they will ever want to see me again. Only time and me being sober and showing them
that I am the mother they can rely on. The Family Law system let my children and I, down. I played my part in the breakdown of the marriage, but to be emotionally abused by my husband and to have my children taken and turned against me, by a man who once loved me, was my over the cliff point. Recovery from committing an offence and accepting that one did wrong is also never easy, it takes a lot of soul searching, a lot of self honesty to come to terms with the guilt, the hurt I have felt at causing my father the worry and concern. My crimes are part of a life, that I no longer lead. But I am still the person that committed those crimes, always will be, I have come to terms with that. I simply had to. My husband, who when I met him, I hid the crimes I committed from him, but eventually he knew that something was eating away at me. I never told him until he could take it no longer and just before my case, we did split up. He came and found me, three weeks after my sentencing, having read the newspaper article. It has taken a lot for me to open up to him, full of fear, but with guidance from him, it all came pouring out. My alcohol addiction?, I have not taken a drink now for over two years. My alcohol addiction was never to blame for my crimes. The only person to blame for those was me. I am a child of a schizophrenic mother, so from an early age, I was the parent, my mother was a dangerous parent in that I was neglected, never fed, my mother never paid a bill, to run deeper into this would have achieved little by way of explaining the crimes I committed. I committed them, I am almost at the end of my sentence and my life is moving forward. With my children, it can only be time where I am stronger and they can see that I am no longer a drunk. The sadness I feel swamps me, but I have a life and the sadness runs concurrently continued...
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...continued alongside I have done work on my self, it has been a tough journey, but one that I am now beginning to enjoy. I face obstacles as they come along and am much less anxious than I have ever been, for years I had plenty to hide, now no longer and that feeling of peace is priceless. I lead a very simple life with my husband and our dog, enjoy my home, my garden and taking care of my mother, along with the work that is home based. I aim to write, nothing earth shattering, but short stories to put together for my children to perhaps read one day to their own children. I write to my children every week, with no response, but I somehow gain some peace from those letters. Crime never pays. It hurts people, it destroys and erodes families, trust, love, all the basics that bring enjoyment and pleasure to life. I have hurt people immensely, making amends is not easy to face and the only way I can make amends is if I am allowed to. I, in making amends have to be strong enough to face my victim, my father’s wife, my stepmother. At the time of writing both of them want nothing to do with me, I can understand that, it was personal, it hurt them. Despite family feuds that have happened, my behaviour is what I have to live with. I am slowly coming to terms with this. I in committing the crimes, thought I was hurting a person who had done my family a lot of damage, but in throwing the hot coal, I was burned first. Almost a year since my court appearance, life has calmed to a pleasant time for me. I have lost a lot, but gained something very different and with that, I shall move forward slowly and confidently and try not to look back too much and learn that guilt will only do me damage inwards and cause me pain. I have paid my price, far, far higher than the sentence and my belief is, sentencing is about change, about being able to live a life with a conviction and moving on from the punishment period to reformed.
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Unlock Media The Guardian Bob Ashford: people with criminal records should be given a fair chance Click here The Telegraph European court ruling could see minor criminal records withheld from employers Click here Staffs Live Prisoners and Reoffenders Click here
Unlock Forum
Unlock Forums > Forum 1 > Disclosure & employment > Up your income... Moostrasse discusses an innovative way to up your income in time for Christmas Click here Unlock Forums > Forum 1 > Latest news & current affairs > Any news on proposals for filtering of minor old convictions UniKorn asks Unlock about filtering minor old convictions and Christopher Stacey responds Click here
The Guardian Threat to crisis loans puts critical work to house ex-offenders at risk Click here The Guardian MPs should not flout law on prisoners’ votes Click here Unlock Criminal records ‘forcing people onto benefits’ Click here
Unlock Forums > Forum 2 > Housing > Renting with criminal record Smiler and members discuss renting with a criminal record Click here Unlock Forums > Forum 2 > Latest news & current affairs > Interesting and intelligent article Forever Changes flags up an article in the Guardian Click here Unlock Forums > Forum 2 > Your success stories > Some Good News for me at last Release2Succeed has found a job and shares his success with members Click here
Life’s Stretches and Turns Carlotta Allum I was born in Milan, but lived for my formative years in Manchester. My mum is Italian and a doctor although she couldn’t practice in the UK and my dad was a university lecturer. It was quite a liberal upbringing - I’m the youngest of three and struggled to find my own ‘thing’ in the family. I felt like I ran wild a bit as a teenager, the Madchester music scene exploded as I hit 16 years old, I lived in the Hacienda and embraced the druggie lifestyle - I found my ‘thing’! I was swept away with a certain lifestyle, easy money and dirty cash became the norm. I was used to being a bit of gangsters moll, well looked after by criminal boyfriends, I wanted to do it, other people had done it before me, what could go wrong? I had built up lots of debts as a student, it seemed like the perfect answer and a fun holiday thrown in. Although it didn’t seem it at the time, it was a blessing I was arrested in LA. The laws are different over there and the same crime would have got me a mandatory 3 years in the UK. I was able to plea bargain, if I got some one else arrested over my crime they would release me on bail. My routine medical showed me to be pregnant! I was released on bail after 8 months as they didn’t want the baby born in the US. My parents remortgaged the house to put up the bail and were incredible with their support - when it went to court
I got time served as I had given a comprehensive statement against the perpetrator. On the whole I think they were fair, but there were times I thought I was looking at 10 years and my mum was thinking of staying in a mobile home near the prison to look after the baby, so things could have been very different. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes and being released it came as real shock. My prison sentence has affected me deeply and inspired a lifelong interest in the welfare of prisoners. I can not believe I was that stupid looking back, I was so naive. I learned how important support is from your family and loved ones and having a life to come out to, I was so lucky, but there were girls in their with no one and nothing. Having a serious offence on my record has caused a lot of problems in my chosen career, I do not think drug offences should be classed the same as violent or sexual offences, I trained to be a teacher then found it very hard to get work, no one knew what to do with me. Today. I run a charity called STRETCH that facilitates arts projects for marginalised groups and the offending community. It is my passion and I am driven in my work, I love working with prisoners the most. Just as ex addicts are the best people to work with addicts I think there should be more peer mentors for prisoners.
If I could change one thing about the world, something that would have to be a global decision, would be changing the drugs laws, decriminalising as much as possible, the prisons would be empty, stop the violence and gun crime from drug cartels, stop it being ‘cool’ and underground, make money from taxing it, deal with addicts in a completely different way. The repercussions would be huge - but I know it’s too big a job to contemplate, as the world would have to be thinking as one. I’d like to think that I can inspire some women not to see a prison sentence as the end of the line, you can recover and lead a positive life afterwards. I have seen many women, including myself, who do time for their partners, I know it’s all very well to say in hindsight but we need to be strong enough to move away from the criminal activity before it gets to a custodial sentence! My three lovely girls, my work and my life now is good today. Ooh lots of things make me smile, my three lovely girls, good food, blue sky, anything with Rob Brydon in. For more information visit stretch-charity.org
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