As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago

t 16, John Wright was the way a lot of teenagers can be: one person at school, another person at home. At school, he was quiet, kept to himself. Behind closed doors, he was playful and chatty. He’d do backflips or cartwheels on the sofa while watching TV, or make silly noises at awkward moments to make his three siblings laugh. He was creative: he loved rapping, making his own beats, he played the guitar, liked drawing.

When he was 16, John was arrested for a street robbery or burglary . What Daniel does remember is John telling him that he had made a deal with the police. They told him: the more crimes you admit to, the less time we’ll give you. They had a list of crimes that had happened in the area, and John went through them. He told Daniel later that out of the ones he had admitted to, four were genuine. The rest – there were dozens – were all crimes he hadn’t done. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

On the evening of 21 April 2007, Lynn got a phone call from the police. John had stolen a 15-year-old boy’s bike in a park. He had asked the boy if he wanted to sell his bike, and when the boy refused, had head-butted him in the face before punching him several times. He tried to ride off on the boy’s bike, but was caught by a policeman who was on patrol in the park. John was charged with robbery and given a court date for the following month.

This new type of sentence, which began to be used in April 2005, gave offenders a minimum term – known as a tariff – that they had to spend in prison. On completing their tariff, they could then apply to the Parole Board for release. If unsuccessful, they would remain in prison until the Parole Board was satisfied. In practice, this meant that they could be detained indefinitely. It was “better safe than sorry” in legislative form.

All the crimes John had previously told police he had committed spoke against him. The judge described his criminal record as “atrocious” – it suggested he had carried out 44 offences between July 2003 and August 2006. The judge also referred to the fact that John was on parole from his previous prison sentence when he committed this latest crime. For him, this was evidence that a determinate sentence would not adequately protect the public from further harm.

John was initially “on basic” – the level assigned to prisoners who haven’t abided by the behaviour principles of the prison. It meant he wasn’t allowed any extras such as a TV or a radio. His cousin tried to motivate him, and eventually he was upgraded to the standard level. He reckoned John had struck upon the right path because he still had hope.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

John Akomfrah’s British pavilion at Venice Biennale review – a magnificent and awful journeyThe artist’s nightmare of colonial exile, ecology and globalisation – recurring endlessly over six interconnected video installations – leaves you unsettled, unhinged and gasping for air
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

‘Not even a pipe dream’: John Akomfrah represents Britain at Venice BiennaleFounder of Black Audio Film Collective says he would have laughed if someone had said he’d someday be in the UK pavilion
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s sons team up for new singleJames McCartney’s acoustic ballad Primrose Hill, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, was drawn from childhood vision in Scotland
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

Daniel Andrews and John Pesutto among 235 Australians sanctioned by RussiaRussia's foreign ministry is indefinitely denying entry to Australians over local councils 'actively promoting the anti-Russia agenda'.
Source: SBSNews - 🏆 3. / 89 Read more »

How Ray Hadley told mate John Singleton his daughter had died in stabbing rampageRay Hadley has revealed he was forced to tell his close friend, businessman John Singleton, that his daughter had lost her life in Bondi Junction's horror mass stabbing, describing the moment as “incomprehensible”.
Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »

John Wiley bumps into Lendlease’s Andrew GauciA shareholder activist and a Lendlease executive walk into a bar. The results are, thankfully, benign.
Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »