Prison?

[Gareth1974]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

TVR Moneypit said:

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

And on the same note, did you have any worries that she wouldn't wait for you. Obviously she has, but did you KNOW she would? Saying this not knowing if you'd been together a few years, or if you were childhood sweethearts from 13!

None. Not ever. Not even once.

That's obviously a good woman you have then, who is due some recompense for the last 6 years she's be alone dealing with things. I'm sure you know this mind!

Or (see my question) - she 'enjoyed' the lifestyle benefits of the income of crime, and knew there was a risk that her husband might 'do time' at some point at a consequence, and had accepted this.

Of course, it might well have been a complete shock when her husband was caught, having thought that he'd been simply doing well very as a double glazing salesman, and having no clue what he'd actually been doing.

[Badda]

hairyben said:

johnwilliams77 said:

hairyben said:

Its a thread about prison experiences.

If you want to stay a virgin don't frequent the wehouse, y'know?

This. Another troll

Is it genuine troll though, or just generation fkin l'oreal, who expect the world to adjust itself to their delicate sensibilities rather than man up and move on?

Please stop with the name calling, it's childish.

I don't think I'm delicate by not wishing drug dealers the best of luck in their business. If you want to, that's fine but just expect some resistance.

For the third time, I too am interested in his tales from prison and haven't asked him to stop at all. I just like to voice an opinion every now and then regardless of whether you brown-nosers try to mute it.

[johnwilliams77]

Badda said:

Please stop with the name calling, it's childish.

I don't think I'm delicate by not wishing drug dealers the best of luck in their business. If you want to, that's fine but just expect some resistance.

For the third time, I too am interested in his tales from prison and haven't asked him to stop at all. I just like to voice an opinion every now and then regardless of whether you brown-nosers try to mute it.

Brown nosers and 'stop name calling?'

[TheJimi]

CDG, I agree but equally, someone who feels the need to constantly tubthump their opinion does get more than a bit irksome & tedious.

[ColdoRS]

TVR Moneypit said:

Douglas Quaid said:

What was it like the first time you gave your missus a seeing to after 6 yrs of no sex? Did it feel like losing your virginity again?

Good question Doug. Sorry I didn't answer it sooner, but needed to think how to answer it delicately instead of the usual PH "smash it's back doors off"

I see that you're new around here, but some of the older posters may recall that this wasn't the first time that my wife and I had been separated. After dating for a few years and whilst we were trying to sort out the visa to enable us to get married, regrettably due to the morons at the Home Office my wife, (or fiancée as she was at the time), ended up getting deported and it was almost a year before I managed to get her a spouses re-entry visa. When Mrs Moneypit finally managed to get back into the UK, things just clicked back into place as if she'd never been away, (except for the fact that I'd moved house twice and she didn't know where things were in the new house).

So, the first time we got intamate after 6 years? It was a little strange. Here was a woman I'd been married to for 11 years, dating for 3 years before that, but I did feel slightly apprehensive and a little nervous. You're right, it was kinda like loosing my virginity all over again, and certainty was for her Having just asked her for her thoughts on the matter, she also admits to being a bit nervous and very excited.

In terms of our relationship and how being away has affected things, well, things have just clicked back into place almost like I'd never been away. However, I can tell that my wife is a lot tougher than she used to be, (and she was a mentally strong girl before my arrest). She's more confident than she used to be, both of which are good things IMO.


I'll leave the last word to my dear wife, who summed things up thus;

"We've been married for 11 years and you've been in prison for over half of that. In my opinion, that's been the best half of our marriage."

I can't help but love a girl like that.

Edited by TVR Moneypit on Sunday 29th October 19:23

My missus and I work apart for 2 months at a time - the first goon her after that can be slightly awkward and nervous so can only imagine how foreign you felt to each other after 6years!

You may have covered it already but may I ask if your family knew what you were up to? Did you have a ‘proper’ job whilst you were involved in drugs? Who knew what outside of the group of lads/mates you were working with?

Great thread, thoroughly enjoyed catching up with it tonight.

[Shnozz]

TVR Moneypit said:

And as this is PH, how many new cars look the same these days. For an utter car geek, I'm struggling to tell apart a Seat from a Syangyong.

You don't need to have been inside to struggle on that front.

So, as part of the older PH community, what have you noticed different about PH since you came back? (and I thought all prisoners had copious internet access anyway..).

[Shnozz]

TVR Moneypit said:

Yes, there are mobile phones in prison, usually smuggled in by staff, but I never had anything to do with them. Not worth the risk IMO, so I never went online.

What I've noticed about PH is that a few of the old faces are missing, and the place doesn't seem as small, local, as it used to. It seems a tad more aggressive that I remember it? Unless of course I'm looking back with rose tinted glasses on?

You're probably quite right. And its probably no coincidence that one is linked to the other. Whereas when it was smaller it was commonplace to meet at events like BTaP, or TVR club meets, or Pistonfest etc, its largely online only now. And with anonymity comes easy words. I wouldn't have ever told RAF Dug his vest was a bit distasteful...

[Voldemort]

TVR, if I may, imagine yourself as the newly appointed Minister with responsibility for prisons. What are the changes you'd make? Also, good luck with the rest of your life.

[Plate spinner]

TVR Moneypit said:

Voldemort said:

TVR, if I may, imagine yourself as the newly appointed Minister with responsibility for prisons. What are the changes you'd make? Also, good luck with the rest of your life.

Another good question.

This may come out all gushing and liberal, (and therefore against my Telegraph reading morals), but the entire prison system is in a hell of a mess. Both from an organisational and cultural point of view. Simply warehousing prisoners does not work, does nothing for rehabilitation, does nothing to decrease reoffending, and offers terrible long term value for money for the taxpayer, (it costs around £38k p/a to bang someone up).

Hmmm, genuine build on this... the alternative view point to supporting rehabilitation would be to make prison absolutely horrific, worse than it is today, as is the case in some parts of the world.

The idea being that it's very reputation is bad enough to 'scare people straight' in the first place. This would cost the tax payer less and arguably you'd have a lower prison population as less people would see it as 'easy street' and accept it as an occupational hazard / lifestyle choice.

How do you think this would play out in reality?

btw, for context, I've not thought about the subject enough to have developed a personal view one way or the other and there is no easy answer. But keen to hear the views of someone who has been in the system.

[Dogbash]

Hi TVR, been interesting reading this over the last few days.

One thing that has always fascinated me about major crime is how do you spend the money? Obviously you can't deposit the money into an account as that would get noticed and questions asked etc. Similarly, I assume you cant make any big purchases such as car, holidays etc with cash as presumably that would go noticed too. If they ask where the cash came from, presumably you have to prove where its come from?

I'm just fascinated with what drives you to earn all of this money when presumably its actually quite hard to spend and enjoy it without it being noticed?

Thanks,
Andrew

[Mr Roper]

Money laundering.

To make dirty money clean.

[Blue Oval84]

Plate spinner said:

Hmmm, genuine build on this... the alternative view point to supporting rehabilitation would be to make prison absolutely horrific, worse than it is today, as is the case in some parts of the world.

Not convinced that works, there are plenty of places where the prison system has a horrendous reputation but crime is still rampant. Even take a look at the US, much harsher (by all accounts) than here but crime seems just as bad if not worse.

I think TVR is closer to the mark, you've got to give people the tools and support to actually turn their life around.

For example, a mate of mine got talking to a lad who was bedding down for the night on the street in Brighton next to the pub he was drinking in, turned out he'd been released from prison that day with a few quid in his pocket and literally nowhere to go. He did what a lot of people do, hopped on a train and came here. He seemed a decent enough lad and not particularly stabby so my mate tried to help him. My mate is quite switched on, articulate and knows where to look for help, despite that, he couldn't find any way to get the lad into any sort of hostel or homeless support that night.

As it happens, my mate let him sleep on the sofa, then the next day gave him some numbers to try and get a hostel place, don't know what happened to him from there onwards.

If my mate hadn't been there to help, in that situation I wouldn't really have blamed the guy for going and putting a shop window through or something in order to get locked back up for the night. No one should be kicked out of prison with so little support to get their life off to a legal and positive start. It's no wonder re-offending rates are so high.

Edited by Blue Oval84 on Monday 30th October 09:55

[E24man]

I have another question TVRmp if you don't mind.

The beginning of this thread was full of elements from 10penceshort for a crime of dangerous driving for which, though undoubtedly breaking the law and probably justly convicted, required significantly less forethought and planning than deciding to become a part of a drugs smuggling team.

Without involving the completely pointless comparison of the two crimes, what was it that made you decide to become involved in your venture presumably knowing full well that the penalties should you be caught would be so high to both yourself and your family?

[SpeckledJim]

I'm going on a limb to guess:

The late starts in the mornings.

No, not really, I'm going to say:

To fulfill a promise he made to his great granddad on his deathbed.



No, not really, really. My actual guess is:

Money

[FiF]

Just got to this end of the thread, taken a few days. Phew.

Thanks to the various contributors, including the ones that others found annoying, I just tune out such white noise.

Best wishes to 10PS, even though we may have crossed swords on a Brexit thread before you got banned, but for your forthright and honest input on the original topic.

TVRMP, likewise, thanks for your input and measured responses, I have no questions, well I have one, on a bit of detail only for my own nosey interest, but fully understand if you don't answer it. Folks raised questions concerning where you got nicked on the fateful day, Warren Vale by any chance? Can understand why that was picked as a meeting place. If so, then why Chesterfield nick? It was a SYP op iirc.

[SpeckledJim]

I'm not sure I completely buy that.

"I became a drug dealer in order to deliver excellent customer service, and to derive a sense of achievement"?

That could be a snippet from your new CV?

If flogging stuff and doing a good job of it is at the heart of what you enjoy (and why not) then there were other product lines available that might not have been quite as profitable, but didn't involve odd conversations on the internet about 8' hedges and 450cc scrambler bikes.

[FiF]

TVR Moneypit said:

FiF said:

Folks raised questions concerning where you got nicked on the fateful day, Warren Vale by any chance? Can understand why that was picked as a meeting place. If so, then why Chesterfield nick? It was a SYP op iirc.

It was the Renishaw side of M1 jct 30 in the big layby facing the M1. That was picked as it was easy for the guy coming up from London to find, meant only a small detour before he went up to Barnsley, and was 10-15 minutes from my house, (I wanted to hurry up and get the job done so I could watch the live coverage of Bathurst).

Thanks, that answers a lot. Though why the press report went on about following someone to a layby near Rawmarsh is anyone's guess, unless another job.

Cheers, good luck with job hunting.

[Ari]

TVR Moneypit said:

I used to tell people that I sold / imported pallet wrapping machines. Nobody ever knows anything about pallet wrapping machines, so it's easy to bluff. One evening at a dinner party I end up sitting next to this fella and we get chatting.
"So", he asks, " what do you do for a living?"
"I sell pallet wrapping machines" was my reply.
"Oh, me too" he says, "What do you think to the new upgraded ABC1234 compared to the old ABC123, and how do you think it measures up against the XYZ789?"

Two obvious questions spring from this.

Did your wife also believe you were in the pallet wrapping machine business?

How does the ABC1234 compare to the old ABC123, and does it measure up to the XYZ789?

[DRFC1879]

Another vote of thanks to TVRMP for sharing the experiences on here. I'll pass no moral judgement but I do find the candid approach to answering questions which are very personal at times quite enlightening & enthralling.

Having known a few screws and healthcare staff who've worked at Lindholme, Donny (Does it still get referred to as "Doncatraz"), Ranby etc. some of their stories go hand in hand with what TVRMP has written.

From their side, I reckon they'd also genuinely like to offer more support for those who actually want to rehabilitate and the like but given the level of cuts the service has had over the last decade they're struggling to keep on top of the daily basics. That's possibly why the OU course was turned down; despite your willingness to self-fund, maybe it would have required an already stretched & knackered prison officer having to find time in the schedule to escort you to some studies, fill in paperwork etc. etc.

I think the reform needs to include both carrot and stick; some prisoners with whom my acquaintances in that profession have come into contact have no interest whatsoever in changing. Some marginal savings could perhaps be made by putting them into a tougher system with that money reinvested in helping the others. When governments are elected on the basis of what they'll do for the next four years, spending more tax pounds on prisons is never going to be a vote winner despite the potential reduction in reoffending in the longer term.

One slightly odd query: There's a party riverboat (Wyre Lady) in Donny that plays "Jailhouse Rock" and "I want to Break Free" as it passes the prison walls on Saturday nights. Is this audible from inside?

[DRFC1879]

Thought that might be the reaction if heard form inside but it's a bloody good night getting smashed onboard. Perhaps one for you to try now you're on the other side.

You mentioned Spice earlier on. My friends in the service reckon it's just about the worst thing to ever hit the streets and causes no end of serious problems. As someone with experience in the drugs industry what's your take on it?