FOr for the first time in his adult life, Tony Betteries is independent.
it was 18 When he went to jail To set fire to a blanket in the store wardrobe of an empty building. This was the first time in jail, growing up in spinach care and with his grandparents -grandfather due to misuse of drugs of his parents.
He believed that he would serve them One year minimum period and 203 days In 2008, Redkar, for the explosion in Yorkshire, caused £ 6,500 loss and did not hurt anyone.
However, the small sentence seems to be changed under an indefinite prison period in a 17 -year struggle, which The United Nations now condemns as “psychological torture”.
On Tuesday, now after serving his sentence at the age of 35 after more than 6,000 days, he learned that his sentence for a teenage crime finally ended as his license was abolished under reforms brought in the previous year.
“This took the best part of my life,” he told Independent“Now I just want to live a little and be happy. Life is a beautiful gift, and I am ready to enjoy it. Let me be free.”
Mr. Betteries was one of the 8,711 people who were assigned an open jail word, called Imprisonment for public safety (IPP) sentence He was in use by British courts for seven years.
They were eventually declared due to human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, thousands of people left in jail without any release date.
“This was the first time in custody, and at that time I did not know what the IPP sentence was,” he said.
“I felt that I was sentenced to only one year and 203 days, so I did not appeal. I was completely new to everything.
“I think a friend of the wing asked me ‘What sentence you have been sentenced’. I said that one year and 203 days IPP – is not bad?
“I broke in the middle of the bus wing. Nobody explained to me what it was – even the duty soliciter who was representing me.”
After repeatedly refusing to free him by the parole board, he would spend nearly seven years in jail, claiming that he was not mature enough to go out.
Finally in 2014, he was released at the age of 24, only to spend in jail and outside in the next decade, despite being called back three times under strict license conditions of his IPP sentence, despite not being guilty of further crimes.
Every time he served around another year, sometimes, sometimes, until the parole board agrees to let him go once again. He was returned to jail on another occasion for theft, which he says that he had deep regrets.
Overall, he detained for more than 11 years for Blaze. When he became sluggish, his mother died, his sister’s brutally murdered his abusive partner, and his brother died of an overdose.
“it [the IPP sentence] Just ruined me, “he said.” Before I went in, I had a whole family – I am left with a sister now, everyone has gone. It has just damaged me.
“You just take it – it ruins your head, your heart, your everything. It seems that you are constantly walking on the eggs.”
Despite calls from Cross-Party Justice Committee, United Nations and Amnesty International, the government has denied displeasure over more than 2,500 prisoners, who are still disorganized under the period of the jail, including about 700 which are at least ten years of their minimum tariffs.
Highlight injustice Independent Join Leroy DouglasWho has served about 20 years to steal mobile phones; Thomas White42, who kept themselves in their cell and served 13 years to steal the phone; James laurence38, who is still in jail after 18 years, when he was sentenced to eight months in jail; And Abdullahi sulemon41, who is also 19 years after going to jail for a laptop robbery.
at least 94 people have taken their lives in custody As they lose hope of being free.
Many are still serving sentence in the community and find themselves in the destructive cycle of remembrance, where they can be taken back to jail indefinitely for minor violations of license terms.
However, changes in the license period, it was passed under the outgoing Orthodox government last year, making it less than three years.
These were finally allowed by Mr. Betteries to successfully apply to end his license. He called the day when he was given a “dream come true” and is now expected to travel abroad for the first time in his life for a new beginning with his partner in Portugal.
“I am lucky to meet those who have met through it,” he said, “I just want my life back.”
Railings against the injustice of the period of prison, which they compared to the post office scam, said: “We are just dirty mysteries of Britain. People on the road do not know what an IPP is.
“This is just torture. At some point, I was not even getting a parole panel, just a letter through the cell door saying that you will get one and two years.
“They forgot the IPP. At one point, I started to deliver self -conscience … I just gave up, and they used to knock me back to parole and said that you are showing mental volatility.
“I think it’s shocking. There are many people inside me who know that I have killed myself on this sentence and I can understand why, who I think I am unhappy in myself.”
On one occasion, she was remembered after her sister, by then a abuse of her last remaining brother -in -law attacked with a kitchen knife. They intervened, and both men suffered wounds in change.
He spent three days in recovering from the hospital injuries and was not accused of any crime, yet he served one and nine months and nine months in jail.
He explained: “He tried to say that I have put myself in a risky position and this situation may increase, but I am not going to see my sister stabbing.”
He called the government to immediately intervene to eliminate the damage caused by the IPP sentence, which was especially Dr. of the United Nations. Alice Gill Edwards has called “simply inhuman” and warned the government that there is a “great possibility” by international standards to violate their human rights.
“This has taken half of my life away from me – I will never get back again,” he said. “Family, I will never see again. I am just full of mental health issues, I cannot sleep, I keep getting flashbacks from all the cruel things seen in jail.
“This is a terrible life – it can be overcome at any moment and you are closed again.
“You can’t lock a man in a room for years and hope that he will get out like a completely balanced, sensible person. He is going to get injured. But they are not releasing them because he is hurt. It just moves further.”
He implicated the Labor government to take action to take action to help fulfill the conditions of the prison before it is too late, saying: “All regret in the world is not going to give back your life, but it can make a difference now and give people a chance.”
The government is considering new proposals for punishment for the Howard League to give the remaining IPP prisoners a release date within two years of their next parole hearing and limit those who return to jail for minor violations of license conditions.
