JANUARY NEWS!!

 

At What Cost?

Hello Readers

                     For some reason the first month of the New Year always feels to me like an un-usually long and slow month. I am almost 6 years in prison now and YES! I still count or countdown everyday, wishing away my Life as quickly as possible until my day of release.

January and February of each and every New Year are always a hard slog for me.

With my appeal looming in March, these early months this Year will seem slower than ever.

March 19^th can’t come quick enough.

I don’t really want to go into what to expect at this appeal. Lets just wait and see okay!

I try not to build up too much hope, yet in the same breath I tell myself surely something has to give.

 

Just this week I was sent an article of yet another UK citizen convicted of drug offences in Thailand. My mind is forever scared from especially those first months of my incarceration in Thailand. My heart goes out to him and his family, but he can consider himself very lucky as he received a very lenient sentence by Thai standards.

3 years imprisonment for possession and intent to supply 16 grams of class one drug.

I had just 9 grams more than he, yet I was sentenced to over 30 years more than him, count yourself very lucky indeed.

To get into prospective the weights and measures involved here as I am sure some of you still imagine there are huge amounts of drugs in both my case and his. Imagine a chocolate bar, (a mars bar is a good example) well the amount of drugs I was convicted for weighed less than half the weight of a mars bar, and the difference in comparison of my 33 year 6 month sentence and his 3 year sentence is less than one sixth of a mars bar. Does not even a full bite of a mars bar (the equivalent weight in chocolate as of drugs) I want you all under no illusion here! Does that warrant over 30 years of imprisonment difference?

Not from where I am sitting it don’t!

As I’ve said time and time again:-not only the severity of my Thai sentence seems madness, but more so the UK Governments insistence of enforcing that sentence is surely Inhumane.

 

January 13^th was my 45^th Birthday, Yeh, Yeh, Old sod!! My Birthdays don’t count anymore, but our son “Oak” well his Birthdays sure do count and already 5 of “Oaks” have passed. Oak was born 6 months after my imprisonment. Constantly on my mind is:- How many more of his Birthdays wont I be there. Just this month Oak asked his mother:- “Why my Daddy not there at my Birthday”, Oaks Birthday is in October 8^th so for him to ask this now months later it must have been really on his mind.

It breaks my heart hearing realities like this, stuck here in prison helpless to do anything about it.

At the moment Oak don’t realize I am in prison, but very soon on his weekly visits to me he will figure it out.

Who’s really bearing the brunt of my imprisonment here?

Who’s really being punished here?

Certainly Oak, my Wife, my Mother all stand in the front line before me.

Lek and Oak have adapted incredibly well to life in England, both continue to sacrifice so much for my absence, for their and my mother’s sake, I sincerely hope for light at the end of the Tunnel.

Walking around the exercise yard here this morning with John a friend serving a sentence of 10 years he remarked:- “Steve at least I have light at the end of the Tunnel”’ “Something has to give in your case Steve, as your Tunnel is yet to be built”.

It is infuriating my whole situation, I probably have the longest sentence of any prisoner here at HMP Rye Hill yet mine is also the most insignificant or least serious of crime.

I blame nobody but myself for all the suffering I continue to cause my loved ones, but surely there must come a time when someone in authority must realize if there is justice in this Country, even if it’s for my family. Justice must prevail and give them back their son, their husband and their father.

 

Will there be a Paddle Store on my road? I sincerely hope so!

 

Touching on an ever increasing Problem:-

Overcrowding in England’s prisons is at its worse ever, with England’s Prison Population at its highest ever of 83,000

With a massive cost to the UK Tax Payer.

Each new prison place costs £119,000 and the annual average cost for each prisoner exceeds £40,000.

Prisons should be reserved to house those who are a genuine danger to the public. Having prisons full of Petty Criminals is counter productive, rather than a prison sentence these prisoners could serve in the community at a much cheaper cost to the Tax Payer and Beneficial to the community as a whole.   

Prison sentences are not only expensive but also often result in broken families, many then leading to Tax Payer support

in the way of Social Services having to  support what used to be a functional family unit.

 

The prison population has soared by 25,000 in just over 10 years. Previously it took nearly 40 years for it to rise to that degree.

Also the misuse of prisons to contain the mentally ill, addicts in need of treatment and vulnerable women and children compounds the problem. People are questioning whether we can afford all this. It is difficult to estimate the social costs of needlessly high rates of imprisonment.

Today well over 150,000 children have a parent in prison. More children are affected by the imprisonment of a parent than they are by divorce. Yet almost no attention is paid to the needs of prisoner’s families and carers.

Surely it’s time to consider (No Implement Now!) a more sparing use of custody (sending someone to prison).

Reserve prison only for the most serious and violent of offenders.

Start to repair some of the damage caused by imprisoning people all too easily that in the end costs many innocent people dearly.

 

How things have changed or have they?

 

Where would my crime and conviction of 33 years 6 months better fit 300 years ago or now?

 

Courtesy of  Insidetime January 2009

www.insidetime.org

 

Well readers I will finish up here see you all in February.

 

PS. If you haven’t already signed my petition please do so!

If you have already signed thank you!

Please ask your friends and family to also sign.

 

Thanking you all for your support.

                                 Best wishes

                                             Steve Willcox