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.
