Prisoner is serving 12 years in prison for stealing a cell phone

[MrAnderson]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ipp-sentence-thomas-white-hospital-mobile-phone-b2612499.html

That's extraordinary and incredibly unfair! A prisoner has been sentenced to an indefinite amount of time in prison for stealing a cell phone! He has now served 12 years and recently has tried to commit suicide by setting himself alight.

From the article

Quote

Medics have warned that a prisoner’s “lengthy incarceration” under an indefinite jail term is creating “impermeable barriers” to his recovery as they called for him to be moved to hospital.

Thomas White has developed severe mental health problems in prison after serving more than 12 years for stealing a mobile phone under an abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence.

Quote

The sentences have been branded “psychological torture” by a UN human rights expert after at least 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives.

An assessment by an independent consultant forensic psychiatrist last month found 40-year-old White, who has paranoid schizophrenia, has been suffering panic attacks and pacing in his cell at HMP Manchester as he struggles with psychosis and religious delusions.

Quote

Dr Thomas also noted White’s frustration over the upcoming hearing, which he believed would not lead to his release.

“He emphasised that he had never harmed a person and expressed deep remorse for the theft he had committed,” he added. “He stated he had confessed to God and been forgiven, questioning what more he could do.”

Dr Thomas concluded he should be moved to a medium secure unit where he will have a better staff-to-patient ratio, a more therapeutic environment and specialised resources.

12 years and counting for stealing a cell phone?! Is this piece of news covered in the UK? If you still a cell phone you get only a few months or a suspended sentence or you do some community work.

@Duke Wellington @Grey Area this thread maybe of interest to you.

 

Edited September 16 by MrAnderson

[Grey Area]

Certainly doesn’t seem right.

[pellinore]

If you can't do the time don't do the crime, I always say.

[the13bats]

1 hour ago, Grey Area said:

Certainly doesn’t seem right.

No, it doesnt especially since the cat has mental issues,
 

 a couple years ago i had stuff stolen from my yard and porch oddball misc items nothing worth much money wise, but one of three crosses in the garden was jacked, the crosses represent my passed away grandmother mother and father and you can imagine i wasnt happy, i think it was a hobo who was sleeping in the bushes by the porch but i sure wouldnt have howled for them to be locked up and throw away the key.

On a side note i bet the stuff taken ended up on a grave either in a cemetery or a road kill.

[MrAnderson]

28 minutes ago, pellinore said:

If you can't do the time don't do the crime, I always say.

Don't you have anything else to add? What is very odd about the sentencing? Or even the fact that this person is still serving an indefinite sentence according to the article.

If it still a cell phone do you get an indefinite sentence, do you serve a decade+ behind bars, or you have a short sentence or even nothing other than a fine.

If you go to prison for 12+ years for stealing a cell phone do you see something wrong with it? Can you tell me in which countries in Europe you receive a lengthy sentence for this type of crime. I wonder how on earth this isn't top news in a number of countries including the UK.

[MrAnderson]

2 hours ago, Grey Area said:

Certainly doesn’t seem right.

At least scandalous I would say and resembles parts of the world where you have authoritarian regimes.

12 years and still serving for stealing a cello phone when in reality he should have received a maximum of 6 months or not even go to prison for this.

[Duke Wellington]

7 hours ago, MrAnderson said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ipp-sentence-thomas-white-hospital-mobile-phone-b2612499.html

That's extraordinary and incredibly unfair! A prisoner has been sentenced to an indefinite amount of time in prison for stealing a cell phone! He has now served 12 years and recently has tried to commit suicide by setting himself alight.
From the article

12 years and counting for stealing a cell phone?! Is this piece of news covered in the UK? If you still a cell phone you get only a few months or a suspended sentence or you do some community work.

@Duke Wellington @Grey Area this thread maybe of interest to you.

You don`t get kept for 12 years for stealing a phone and the article says why - IPP and schizophrenia.

When prisons encounter someone who is dangerous then its right, even if they are only on a 6 month sentence, that they are kept for life. 

[pellinore]

1 hour ago, MrAnderson said:

At least scandalous I would say and resembles parts of the world where you have authoritarian regimes.

12 years and still serving for stealing a cello phone when in reality he should have received a maximum of 6 months or not even go to prison for this.

We don't know the clinical details except he has a "severe mental illness" with delusions.

Where can he go? Released into the community and perhaps kill someone (as I say, we don't know the clinical picture)? Would you like him living next door to you?

He can't go to a "normal" psychiatric hospital- they are to treat illnesses, not contain patients with behavioural problems or chronic untreatable illnesses. And they couldn't accept somebody with no place to be discharged to after assessment/treatment.

He can't go to a 'special' mental hospital like Broadmoor or Rampton as they are to contain dangerous lunatics like serial killers and have strict admission criteria.

His case will have been looked at endlessly, but no suitable place has been found. He is reported to have said he had 'confessed to God and been forgiven'- that doesn't sound well at a parole board hearing- it sounds a bit religious delusiony.

Like I said in my previous post, don't commit crimes and you won't have unpleasant consequences to face.

 

 

[MrAnderson]

7 hours ago, Duke Wellington said:

You don`t get kept for 12 years for stealing a phone and the article says why - IPP and schizophrenia.

When prisons encounter someone who is dangerous then its right, even if they are only on a 6 month sentence, that they are kept for life. 

But should he be kept somewhere else and not in prison if he has schizophrenia or anything else? An institution for someone with these kind of health issues? On the other hand how much this prison sentence helps his situation? I bet he is now much worse than he was and he has developed more issues if he is confined to place that he shouldn't probably be.

[MrAnderson]

5 hours ago, pellinore said:

We don't know the clinical details except he has a "severe mental illness" with delusions.

Where can he go? Released into the community and perhaps kill someone (as I say, we don't know the clinical picture)? Would you like him living next door to you?

He can't go to a "normal" psychiatric hospital- they are to treat illnesses, not contain patients with behavioural problems or chronic untreatable illnesses. And they couldn't accept somebody with no place to be discharged to after assessment/treatment.

He can't go to a 'special' mental hospital like Broadmoor or Rampton as they are to contain dangerous lunatics like serial killers and have strict admission criteria.

His case will have been looked at endlessly, but no suitable place has been found. He is reported to have said he had 'confessed to God and been forgiven'- that doesn't sound well at a parole board hearing- it sounds a bit religious delusiony.

Like I said in my previous post, don't commit crimes and you won't have unpleasant consequences to face.

 

 

But the crime he committed cannit justify this lengthy sentence. If you kill people other than first degree murder you wouldn't serve as much in most cases. I am not sure if he is there for the crime or his condition or both.. If he is there for the crime then that can't be right from whatever angle you look at this. If he is there because he has schizophrenia as another poster said then I say he is im the wrong place and prison probably makes him much worse and exacerbates with health problems. Whichever way you look at this it's just wrong.