 I First Went To Prison Aged 14 Michael Shares His Story I first went to prison when I was fourteen years old. For ten weeks, I went to prison for stealing cars. I’ve been in prison sixteen times altogether. My first experience of prison was at a place called Warrington House, which is a Young-Offenders’ institution for fourteen to eighteen year olds. It was very strict! I went into the reception area on arrival and was asked for my name. I simply said ""Michael Rowlinson", but was given the stern reply "Michael Rowlinson, Sir!" and was slapped across the face. That’s when reality hit home. I wasn’t used to the shock of being hit, but eventually learned to deal with it. We were made to do physical education training at very early times in the morning. If you refused to do it, you would probably get a bit of a slapping and would lose days as well, so it was easier to just get on with it. Things started to go wrong for me at school. I had learning difficulties and didn’t like not being as academic as the other kids; therefore I began to be disruptive in school. Id just start to joke about, everyone used to laugh at me, so I got away with it like that. Being disruptive was my way of getting out of doing work. I got expelled when I was thirteen for beating a lad up with my brother because he was a bully. After being expelled I moved to another school. I only attended for two weeks and then didn’t bother going back again because I really didn’t like it. I started to hang about in town instead, with other people who had the same view of school as me. They started stealing cars, so I started doing it too. That’s when I first started doing drugs. We used to sniff gas at the back of this school and it used to be good. It used to give me a feeling of being accepted with other people. For me it was better than doing schoolwork. Better than doing what other ‘normal’ kids were doing. When I started to progress from gas sniffing to cannabis, cannabis to amphetamine, things started to get bad. I then had a reason to steal cars, not just for fun anymore. Sometimes I would just sell parts off them and sometimes use them for robbing shops and houses, all to raise drug money. I wasn’t spending that much money in the beginning but only because I hadn’t yet started on the ‘hard stuff’, the crack, the heroin, that was yet to come. I was eighteen years old and in jail when I first tried heroin. My friend and I used to get visits and managed to get hold of cannabis but one day he got some heroin and we tried it. I didn’t really like it at first, but I had it again the next day and it grew on me. I first realised I was addicted to heroin when I used to do Thai Boxing, the weight started to drop off me. I used to miss sessions here and there and a friend used to ask ‘Why are you missing?" I used to come up with excuses saying I was ill or sick, anything to hide the truth. That’s when I realised there was something wrong. My hard drug life was terrible. I was robbing anyone, going to any length to get heroin. As long as I got a bag, I didn’t care. At my worse, I was spending about £100 a day on heroin, and £300 on crack. I would rob people to get that money. This would happen almost every night. I just didn’t care! It was the same old cycle. Go back to jail, put a bit of weight on, get out again and then back to the drugs but getting worse each time round. My worst moment is when my girlfriend kicked me out. I had nowhere to turn to, nowhere to go. I could have turned to my family, but they didn’t want to know me unless I was off the drugs. I ended up living in the cars that I stole, I didn’t care. I was dirty, emotionally wrecked and my life was really messed up. I heard about T.H.O.M.A.S when I was in prison. I have been at T.H.O.M.A.S for three weeks now. Before I came here, I didn’t think there were people that cared. I’ve been to other rehabs in the past, which I went to for a certain time but gave me no real support, but T.H.O.M.A.S is different. It works on a total abstinence theme. It helps that some of the staff that run the groups are ex-addicts themselves and have been to the places were I have been. I can relate to them, look up to them, and get a lot from them. The sessions with the trained counsellors are excellent and very beneficial. In the future I would like to go to college and do a drama course. T.H.O.M.A.S itself runs a drama workshop, which goes to schools and performs plays. In the future I would definitely like to be a part of that. For the next few months I have got to get my head down and really look at myself. I would really like to thank the person who started T.H.O.M.A.S, Father Jim. Without him, a lot of people would still be out on the streets, mugging, burgling, stealing etc. The work he is doing is helping minimise this. |
