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Thanks. In 2nd year now and going OK. Glad to get the chance to go back as a  "mature" student. It was probably the best thing about getting a longer sentence that I had time to get back into studying.

50% remission now only applies to sentences shorter than 12 months. Since 2008 if the sentence is longer the Judge sets the length of the custodial period and the length of the licence period. Unless the offender is assessed as dangerous (ie poses a significant risk of serious harm) the custodial period can not exceed the licence period and most of the time the split is 50/50 unless there's a good reason for a different split. There's no remission on any part of the sentence and the offender is liable to be recalled at any point during the licence period if their risk becomes unmanageable. I think it's about 30% of non dangerous and 80+% of dangerous prisoners are recalled at least once.

Is that the way it is in the North? A bit different to how it is down here. Normally you do 75% of the sentence but the last 25% is time off for good behaviour.remission and dont think people get recalled like that unless they get arrested for some new offence and then go through the court again for that but dont have to serve the rest of the old sentence,

I remember being in jail in Boston and alot of the inmates there were in for parole violations so that is probably more like the being on license set up.

Ah ok. Mea culpa. As you were

Yes Officer   

Tover your story is very interesting cheers for that.

One thing to pick you up on... You have repeated a few times now about not planning to go back to prison but it wasn't that bad or anything like that. It isn't my business what you did but most peoples definition of "wasn't that bad or anything like that" wouldn't be something which would get you put in prison...

(P.S. Sorry not trying to have a go it's just the lingo gets me a wee bit as someone wanting to /having turned themselves around.)

Np bother. Think you picked me up wrong actually. I was answering the question about would I have been less likely to do what I did to go back to prison if prison meant hard labour and one meal a day. I was trying to say I wasnt thinking about the consequences when I did it like thinking prison wasnt that bad so I dont care if I end up back there. Thats what I meant.

I think I said it before but looking back I realise I deserved to go to prison for what I did,

Again I repeat it's not supposed to be easy. It obviously didn't put you off given you were in jail 3 times. Tell me if jail time meant hard labour and one meal a day would you still have done what you did? I'm glad you have matured and wish you all the best with the birth of your son.....nothing like it for making one wise up.

On the question about hard labour etc. would have to say less likely but it wasnt if I was planning to do what I did and was weighing up what if I got caught. I didnt plan on going back to prison because it wasnt that bad or anything like that.

Thanks about becoming A Dad. Agree with you totally on that anyway

Prison isn't supposed to be easy....it's supposed to be a deterrent. By your own admission it took you 2 prison terms before you decided to change....good that you have changed things around, but the choices you have made now in relation to college were available before. Life is about choices.....and the subsequent consequences.

Not saying it should be easy but its note as easy as peopple who have never been there make out.

If I could go back 10 years and change things I would believe me. I made plrnty of mistakes and hurt people but am older and more mature now and thinking about the future. I am going to be a Dad in 3 months now and thats a huge thing for me. I never want my son to have to deal with having me in prison and hope he never makes the same mistakes as me.

Fair play to you lad. I know how shitty it is in some of those places and the whole slopping out. business that went in was degrading to say the least. I am taking a number of cases against the prison authorities in respect of some of the stuff that has happened and continues to happen in the prisons. The big thing is that there is no real effort to rehabilitate. The Penal reform groups that have been banging on about this for years are not getting any real hearing. There has been incremental change but it is very slow and the IPS do not want to give ground on anything. Prison is needed but there needs to be an overhaul of how it is done.

Again agree with most of that. First time I was in Muntjoy it was an absolute kip - my wing anyway. And the slopping out was disgusting for everybody even the screws.

People give out about jail in America but the time I was there it was clean and had toilets in the cell which was not the way it was in Mountjoy then

Fair play, and the best of luck to you.  I've seen kids from school end up serving sentences,  usually drugs-related.  Only one or two were what I would have considered bad eggs, but mostly they were naive or easily led- basically decent kids that fell in with a bad crowd.
Environment has a huge impact- many times I've seen kids in first year who are bright, intelligent and ambitious or competitive in class gradually fall by the wayside.  You hear stories a couple of years after they leave school, and think what might have been.

It's a very complex concept.  I grew up in a stable, relatively comfortable home environment where there was a heavy emphasis on right and wrong, and I was for a long time along the lines of do the crime, do the time, and that that punishment should be harsh and a deterrent.
Gradually I've come to realize it's not so black and white.  I don't know a whole pile about the law, sentencing and prison. I think for a lot of people, the view of prison life and prisoners ranges from a sympathetic notion of the nobility of Andy Dufrense and Red in the Shawshank Redemption to outrage over sensationalist exposes in the Sunday World.

Again I wish you the very best.  I'm not making assumptions about what you are studying or your plans in life, but I do think that someone with your experience would have a huge role to play in helping young offenders, potential young offenders or people already in prison. 
As Red said: 'Rehabilitated? Well now, let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means...'

Thanks. I am from a tough enough area in Dublin. Growing up I would have known people who had Dads in prison and then people starting to go inside themselves. It wasnt that unusual.

My family though were good and hardworking. My 2 older brothers were never really in any trouble. They left school and one joined the Army and the other did an apprenticeship.

I actually did the best of us at school and was one of about 6 or 7 in my year to go to college and my family were real proud of me. I didnt know anybody else where I went and struiggled a bit. I scraped through first year and stopped going about halfway during second year. I had been in trouble for minor things but after dropping out I was drinking alot and gambling and things got worse.

When I was in school I was pretty good - had the odd scrap and got caught smoking a few times but that was it. When I was looking at prison the first time I went back to school to get references I could tell that the principal was surprised. We had got that speech one day about by the time you are 30 half of you will either be dead or in prison but didnt think it would happen tome.

I didnt really think about prison when I was doing what I did but once I thought I was going I admit I was shitting it. I was 21 so still pretty young and had heard plenty of stories about The Joy and what it was like but there were lads around who knew lads in there at the time and I got told they would keep an eye out for me and that was what happened.

Thats the thing with prison. You are all going through the same and if you have something in common like being from the same area you stick together unless there is some fighting going on between different groups but I stayed away from all that.

It was good getting out after that first sentence but looking back that changed me. I still had a part suspended sentence hanging over me ad obviously had no job. I tried to join the Army like my brother as they thought that would be good for me but got rejected because of my ciminal record andit was impossible to get any type of decent job but managed to stay out of trouble while I still had the suspended sentence.

In some ways I found I got more respect around because I had been in prison. I hanged around with some of the lads I had been in there with when they got out and that got me into bother later on and part of the reason I ended up back in there with a longer sentence.

Last time was different though. It was my 3rd time going inside (twice here and once for 10 days in America when on the J1) and I wanted to change. Seeing my Mam crt when she visited me, getting told my Dad had had a heart attack and not being allowed visit him, missing my first nephew being born all got to me and seeing things like a lad try to hang himself in his cell all made me decide things wer going to change and since getting out 2 years ago lucky they have and have kept out of trouble.

I hope I never do anything to end up back inside but never can be sure and with my record I know if I do anything anyway serious thats what will happen.

I know I went on but thought Id give my view on this for what its worth

I don't see any deterrent.....bar conjugal rights what does a prisoner not have? They have access to medical/dental treatment, education, gyms, tv, mobile phones, 3 meals a day, no worries about heat....many pensioners/people don't have that. Some deterrent 😡

I know people think that alright but it isnt really as easy as you make out.

I've been in prison and alot of shit goes on. You would have to have a very bad life on the outside (which alot of prisoners do) to think prison was a good place to be.

Looking back I have t say that I deserved the punishment I got. My last sentence was for 2 years. In some ways it was the best thing to happen to me as if I had continued on the way I was I could have ended up in a much worse situation.

I remember thinking after a few weeks what the F*** am I doing with my life to end up back in here. I think it was a mix of growing up, knowing all the crap I had put my family through and dealing with the shit that you see in prison. I wanted to change things but you do need support to do that.

I had done a short sentence before but that diidnt really do me any good. It was only a few months and I was there with  a few lads I knew from home. I dont think short sentences really work. It was when I got 2 years that it hit me.

Pretty much everybody will get out of prison eventually  so you want to "improve" people for when they get out. You can keep people locked up 23 hours a day in filthy overcrowded cells with nothing to do if you want but is that going to do anything  for them?

I was in Mountjoy and that has changed over the years. Slopping out is gone and I had a single cell which is so much better as when you are locked up in the evening you can get away from all the other shit that is going on and dont have to keep up your "prison face". The previous time I was there I was sharing a cell and had to slop out so was very different. There is also more work and education than there used to be.

The main thing though I think is what happens after you get released, You have no idea how good it feels walking out those prison gates and back into the free world. I was lucky in that I had my family to go back to, no drugs problem etc but for some lads they end up going straight back to drugs or on the street and end up back in trouble again. I dont know what the answer is to that as they do get offered help in prison but addiction or temptation is too much when they get out.

Things are much better for me now. Ive gone back to college about 10 years after dropping out and am working part time.