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Do you know a former serviceman in Prison?

Discussions and general chat about PTSD. Feel free to introduce yourself or if you need help, please reach out and ask.
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Obi Wan Kenobi
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Do you know a former serviceman in Prison?

Post by Obi Wan Kenobi »

This is taken directly from OAMAAM. The author (some of you know him)asked me to post it here:
A couple of the chaps on the site have been trying to help me on this topic over the past year. I have managed to get Lord Dubs to follow up his questions in the house of Lords on 11 feb 2009 to suggest some short term solutions to the Prison minister . If you know any former servicemen or relatives who are effected by prison and perhaps served in Iraq and Afghanistan I be keen to talk to them for an article im trying to prepare. Im very aware this is a sensitive subject and all contact would be treated in strict confidence..... .... I recently wrote this article....




On a dark winters night in 1998 I went to the scene of a stabbing in a scruffy run down flat, in a notorious estate in South Manchester. At the time I was the night detective responsible for making important decisions at the beginning any serious Police investigation outside of normal working hours.

The grubby stinking flat was something out of a horror movie. Traces of blood mixed with unwashed clothes, spilt booze and syringes strewn everywhere were hard for the normal person to imagine. Even the blown up houses I had seen in Kurdistan in 1991 didn’t compare to this.

The not so innocent male victim had been rushed off to hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds. The alleged offender had been trussed up like a turkey and taken down to the custody suit for booking in.

During the subsequent investigation it transpired the offender was a former soldier and Northern Ireland Vet who was now mixed up in the world of drink, drugs, crime and the homelessness.

This violent altercation, like most cases I dealt with had been over a seemingly trivial matter. When I spoke to the former soldier I found it utterly amazing how he could have ended up in such a mess. He didn’t have any answers and could only cry!

Now a Civvy myself having spent over six years in the Royal Marines myself I felt some kind of attachment to the alleged offender and the situation he found himself in. He was desperate and hopelessly alone. A concoction of drink combined with his military aggression was the only solution he understood to rectify the situation he had found himself in. I felt pity towards him but he was going to court in the morning and there was little I could have done to help. At the time I thought he didn’t need to go to prison. What he really needed was help, but it was too late!

At the time I had enough on my plate to worry about his issues. Ten years later I am beginning to realise what is happening to our former servicemen.

It has recently been suggested that UK jails now hold 8500 service men *a.

Since my own military related and forced retirement from the Police I have spent many years looking into PTSD and its effects. I have talked to hundreds of veterans from various conflicts and one thing that has started to become glaringly obvious to me is the amount of servicemen who ended up in prison. Thankfully Elfyn Llwyd MP with the help of NAPO and Al Renwick of Veterans in Prison have begun to raise this issue .

Former service men are two times more likely to die in a car accident*b

I understand the fact that some servicemen will end up in prison, it’s a balance of probability versus numbers in society, but over recent years the numbers seem to be increasing dramatically. A wall of silence met me when I asked the prison service for the numbers of former servicemen in custody. They simply said no figures were available and like most bodies hid behind the data protection act?

We seem to have government figures for everything else but not for the number of people who have fought for the country and ended up in Prison? Why is this? How many have been charged, convicted and avoided prison?

Could this increase of servicemen in prison be something to do with our recent commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan? I am convinced this is the reason. PTSD takes around 8 years to manifest. I feel we are following in the Americans footsteps and the mistakes they made after Vietnam.

My claim also seems to coincide suspiciously with the questionable after care our service heroes get, once back in Civvy Street. The charities do a great job but sadly this depends on where you live.

Go onto any military forum website and you will see discussion about PTSD and the aftercare of service men. To quote, “ I think with the sustained action in Iraq and Afghanistan this is only going to get worse” *c

More men from the Falklands have committed suicide than those who were actually killed. Is this going to be an acceptable quote in the years to come after we leave Iraq and Afghanistan? How would you feel if your son, friend or relative was killed or injured by a traumatised former soldier? Or worse took his own life.

The MOD will happily tell us that they have a trauma debrief programme. But one Army Commando I spoke to recently (who I can’t name) told me “the debriefs” were a joke. In his experience he explained the MOD were covering their own backs to prevent civil proceedings at a later date. “The debriefs,” were sometimes farcical in that the corporal who was told to take them was totally unapproachable. Combine this with the macho military culture (which I was part of at one time) the chances of opening up honestly are slim or almost impossible? So the symptoms are stored up and then neglected once in Civvy Street. NHS waiting list are a post code lottery and the general population go unaffected by the bombings and killings in the middle east? So it’s a subject you can’t talk about…..

So what happens to the first signs and symptoms?

From my experience of talking to guys - they get thrown away by the sufferer only to come back long after commitments of active service have finished!

Contrary to popular belief (which includes some MPs and lots of MOD civil servants) many servicemen on discharge have no family structure to race home to once their service has finished. Those that have families have to learn how to live with one another again and the stress that this often brings. Rightly or wrongly prison seems to be the only option for some.

“We need to look after these guys after service” *d



*a Napo – National association of Probation officers on BBC News website 3/08/09
*b Elfyn Llwyd Mp-BBC Radio 5 Live 31/08/2008
*c Once a marine always a marine website
*d Authors discussion with Sir General mike Jackson – BBC radio 5 Live Stephen Nolan Show 28/02/09

Thanks Guys for any heads up....

SB
And the link, for anyone who has access to OAMAAM:

http://civviestreet.proboards.com/index ... read=18626
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ofens
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Post by ofens »

“We need to look after these guys after service”
Amen.
[i]Hangover is temporary, drinking lasts forever![/i]
[b]IT WILL COME[/b]
Sock8918
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Re: Do you know a former serviceman in Prison?

Post by Sock8918 »

I have just read this post. Im Ex mob, ex GMP and struggling after diagnosis 2 years ago. You still around?
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