Positive Thinking is starting to work wonders in my life.

I said the other day that the car would start and when I finally managed to get my keys through the post today, IT DID! I’ve sorted out a lot of things and feel a lot less up in the air now. I’m still waiting for my other things but my important valuables are now back with me. I did raise the issue of property being returned as an official complaint because releasing people without their stuff and not telling them the system of requesting the property to go to court with you (for first timers) is not good practice.

I raised it more as a concern, because if I hadn’t got a spare key at a relatives for my flat, then I would have been homeless or sleeping on relatives sofas. They shouldn’t be letting vulnerable adults out without access to their money and other essentials. I was able to borrow money from my relative, but not every vulnerable adult will have someone on the outside. And, some may resort to stealing which is also breaking the law, then end up back inside. They’re potentially creating a revolving door of regular inmates that are vulnerable coming back through their gates because they have to potentially break the law to survive. I met them inside. They’ve been in prison several times. They have various disabilities and went in and out of prison on sentences because they had nothing on the outside. They got out on tag and then get recalled for breaking the law in regards to stealing. It’s not helping those that have been sent down for stealing anyway. A lot of them have drug issues on top. Many of the inmates were on methadone to try to get them off of drugs. They leave prison and they end up on the hard gear again and then do something stupid and either end up dead or back in prison. Our system isn’t working in general, but I raised the concerns that the prison itself can address when releasing vulnerable adults.

I’m hoping that I’m going to get the rest of my things back because some of the other things were important too. Those £95 tinted glasses can’t get lost otherwise I will be taking action against them for losing such an expensive item. That, along with important paperwork is the main things I’m concerned about getting lost in the property stores within prison and not getting forwarded to me. I’m hoping my letter got to the inmate who helped me in there quite a lot. It may take longer than normal because I didn’t get her prison number as we thought that it would be video conference without me having to actually go to the court. She was going to come with me, but obviously when I got taken to the court for the appeal, plans changed.

I didn’t get away with not being punished. I still have a fine to pay starting in January that is going to be taken out of my benefits. I have to do 120 hours of unpaid work (community service) and 22 probation (rar) days which means I’ll have to go on courses etc again. Already broke due to benefit cuts. All this is going to cost me a fortune, so I feel that is just as much punishment as prison would have been. I didn’t get a lenient sentence for anyone who thinks otherwise.