The ‘bash a prisoner’ crusade
By: Daniel Smy
Former Conservative councillor Daniel Smy was sent to prison for fiddling his expenses and wonders why there have been no MPs put on trial for fiddling their expenses.
At 35, and a Conservative councillor for 8 years, I made a big mistake. I fiddled my expenses. It was the wrong thing to do and I pleaded guilty. I make no excuses for my crime and was advised that if I paid the money back I still faced a custodial sentence because of the breach of trust.
Remarkably many politicians, including Elliot Morley who claimed for a mortgage he did not have, wrongly abused their expenses. My local MP Oliver Letwin paid back over £2,000 for wrongly claiming for the repair of burst pipes under his tennis court. The likelihood of any conviction for them is not high, yet the criminal justice system deems it acceptable to send people who breach the trust of their employers to prison. Do you not think these, and many other MP’s, have breached the trust of their employers, the voters? Of course they have!
Why are MP’s (of all colours) so quick to judge criminals and consistently willing to play political football with them in a desperate pitch for votes and participation in the ‘bash a prisoner’ crusade?
I am one of the very few politicians who can say I have been there and done my time; and I can categorically assure any politician that prison policy is not working; it is making the situation worse.
I was inside at the time the MP expenses scandal broke and read the papers from the prison library. I thought to myself: ‘Am I the only politician in Britain in prison for fiddling my expenses’? Many of the inmates, some of whom were also serving time for theft and fraud, were understandably incensed that for MP’s caught up in such a mess, they paid back what they had wrongly claimed and thought that was the end of the matter. Any other person would face the judicial process and the prospect of a prison term. This might actually happen, but don’t hold your breath!
If paying back the money clears you of all wrongdoing, then thousands of prisoners could go free. The message that MP’s give to prisoners is that there is one rule for the voting public and another for the law makers, something that in other nations could cause rise for a revolution!
My time in prison allowed me to come to terms with my wrongdoing, sort out my life, and give me ‘closure’ on my past mistakes. This is not the case for many. They remain in closed conditions like I did (albeit briefly) at Dorchester; the old Victorian system, cells, bars on the window, concrete and brick, and all day lock up where you eat and use the toilet in the same cell in which you sleep. The public should be reassured that prison life is not easy, and for those in open prisons they have worked hard to get there, or are deemed so low risk, in my view, they should never have been sent to prison in the first place.
What I learnt in prison is that inmates are very aware of ‘prisoner bashing’ by MP’s and the popular press. The stereotype of prisoners is totally fabricated, bordering on pure fiction at times. Inmates I met with serious crimes had good in them; you could chat to them and, with some, form friendships. Most prisoners know deep down they have done wrong, and the whole prison policy should be about turning them around, making them believe in themselves and living a better life. They believe the view of them outside is that they are scum. If this is how politicians and the tabloid press think, then how on earth are they going to rehabilitate and come to terms with their wrongdoing and prepare for a new life?
The penal system needs to work harder on the positives of people in prison. I met numerous prisoners who could be working in the community, paying back for their wrongdoing, and even being kept on strict curfews. A first time policy for non-violent offenders of a work and curfew sentence would be a harsher punishment than being in prison. If you breach the curfew you will go inside.
In Britain we lock up the most people in Europe. Crime continues to be one of the biggest fears for many people, despite over 84,000 people being locked up in England and Wales.
Prisoners struggle to feel valued and retain hope. I’ve seen the other side, and it’s certainly not like the Daily Mail and Express would have you believe. It’s sad seeing people going to waste, feeling under valued and above all losing hope.
1 comment:
Ours is an envionment where evil is perceived to be rewarded while good is punished. As with everything the Gods have a reason for creating this perception::::
People who fall on the good side of the good/evil scale have more favor, and when they do something wrong the Gods punish them BECAUSE THEY WANT THEM TO LEARN. The Gods want them to receive this feedback in hope they make corrections and begin to behave appropriately. The Gods DON'T like evil and refuse to grant this feedback.
EVERYBODY pays for what they do wrong, only evil people must wait until their next life before they will experience the wrath of the Gods, manifested in their reincarnation as a lower form of life into environments with increased/enhanced temptations.
Sadly, this allows the Gods to position this perception of evil rewarded as temptation, one which they use as an EXTREMELY effective corruptor.
Both Africa and the Medittereanean are regions which have sexual issues. This is a sign of morbid disfavor once you understand that females are the God's favored gender. Muhammad's (Mohammed's) polygamy halfway through his life as a prophet was preditory. Now a huge percentage of Muslims believes in male superiority and that the abuse of women is God's will. Female genital mutilation is still practiced in Africa. Black misogyny is the most eggregious example in the recent past.
Black member size is temptation to a predisposed population.
The patriarchal cancer spread throughout Europe because of Christianity, of which the majority of policy makers were Italian men. Expect the largest landowner in Europe and the continent's original superpower also played a major role in African slavery.
Militancy in Africa is consistant with the Iraqi example, as was slavery and the KKK here in America:::Fear enforces proper behavior. Without it we see what happens as a result of gross/morbid disfavor:::::AIDS, crack babies, dead young men in gangland retaliation killings. This is the purpose behind many black's historical tendancy towards resistance.
The same principle was true in Europe and throughout the world for centuries:::People whom lived under iron fists were conditioned to think the right way. As a result they experienced higher numbers of children accend into heaven because they were taught to think and behave appropriately, which they passed on to their children. Our preditory envionment of "freedom" was the primary purpose the Gods had when implimenting this strategy that is the United States, one which they used to spred the cancer of democracy and westernization throughout the world. And the Gods use this tool that is America to prey on the disfavored both at home and abroad:::Much like the ghetto, America in general experiences a heightened level of temptation due to the people's disfavor.
Even the Old Testiment is not to be taken literally, but the Gods do offer clues throughout to help the disfavored:::The apple is a tool of temptation used to corrupt Adam and Eve and cast them out of the Garden of Eden.
There is another lesson to be learned from this passage, and it is quite similar to the vailing issue and the discourse over women's attire which ultimately died in the 70s:::Women are responsible for and control the fate of mankind.
Think about what I say. Consider what I teach. Society is going to become disturbingly ugly as we approach the Apocalypse due to spiralling, runaway disfavor.
I do not know when this will occurr, but it is the God's way to grant some time before they end on Planet Earth.
Make the decision to always be good and never look back. Until you do this technology will employ tactics to test your resolve:::Ridicule, beligerance, doubt and refusal to abandon what people perceive to be their "investment".
Pray daily. Think appropriately. Too many are confident, unaware of the God's awesome powers or their status as antients. Others may fall prey to their positioning.
Be humbled, God-fearing and beware of the God's temptations, for everyone is tested to evaluate their worthiness.
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