removal of priveledges

The supervisor wanted to talk to us all as soon as we got out of the mini bus today. We were going to carry on with last week's job, clearing grounds around a school, but before we began he wanted 'a word'. I had been hoping to claim the strimmer and ear defenders and get as far away as possible from everyone else again. Working on these big out door sites gives plenty of opportunity to muck about. I don't mind being on look out for someone who wants to use his mobile (not allowed) but I draw the line at covering for a couple of blokes who want to smoke a spliff round the back of the tool shed (definately not allowed). It's none of my business what the others get up to but I don't want anthing to do with any of it. As for cannabis it got me into trouble in the first place and I have no intention that it should get me into trouble again.

So there we were, squashed into the tool shed and the supervisor had his 'you have all let me down AGAIN' face on as he explained that a large power tool had gone missing after last week. Actually we all had overheard a couple of boys boasting that they had managed to avoid putting it back in the store last week and had stashed it somewhere on the site for collection later. So missing, but not stolen... yet.

To give the supervisor his due he did not ask us to 'come clean' he just said - in his weary voice - 'because of this no one may come into the hut for a tea break and you will have to eat your lunch (we all take sandwiches) outside'. So we learn the only sanction, no matter what anyone does, all they can do is make us stand outside to eat our lunch.

We could be doing something useful

Of course we are not supposed to enjoy ourselves and we have no right to complain if community service is boring, but it might at least be useful or worthwhile. We put up fences all the wrong way because we are not shown the right way, we do work that just looks a mess because we don't have the right tools. I was thinking the other day, some of us have jobs but many don't. Why not teach us a skill that could lead to getting a job. Or, some of us might have our own homes eventually if we knew how to put up fences properly that skill could be very handy. What about the actual order being to acquire a skill, an NVQ or something? Then the time we serve could be related to gaining the skill, you complete your sentence when you pass. That at least would have a purpose, what we are doing now is just like digging holes and filling them in again - VERY slowly and VERY VERY badly

what I did

When anyone on the community service project asks what I did to end up there I just say I was caught with some green. I never say any more. I don't say; I was drunk, stupid, should have run away when I saw the bouncers were searching bags and should not have bought enough for the whole party, but it was all of these.

Near my university campus there was an area of pretty scruffy terraced houses where a lot of us lived. Walking down those streets any evening the smell of cannabis was everywhere. I didn't smoke when I was at school even though I was offered it enough times but once at uni it became a way of life. My first year I shared with a stoner and began to enjoy a smoke myself, soon I met others who smoked and in the second year we all spent a lot of our evenings stoned. One of us would collect contributions from the others and go shopping for the whole group. It did not seem like supplying because we all took turns.

That's not how the police saw it when I was arrested just before last christmas, it was a bit of a wake up call for us all but I was the one who got caught.

keeping my head down

I don't talk to anyone in the group if I can help it, it's better that way. Mostly I try to keep my head down unless someone asks me a direct question. People are coming and going all the time, as some finish their hours and some begin, the new ones ask questions. Not surprisingly the most common is 'why are you here?' Last Sunday, as we were clearing rubbish from an old churchyard, another new 'recruit' wandered over with the inevitable question. 'What did you do?' I say as little as possible 'I was caught with a bag of green going into a bar'. Later on in the morning he came up to me again, he had been thinking... 'You probably won't want to go back to the same dealer, I can fix you up with what you need'. You have to be a bit careful but a polite refusal doesn't usually offend. 'It's OK mate I'm already sorted'. Keep it ambiguous.

we're all criminals here

We were working at a school, painting classrooms; one supervisor, two groups. I was sanding down a door in one room, two boys rushed in, asked if it had been searched. I didn't know what they meant at first then watched as they opened every cupboard and drawer, stuffing their pockets with whatever they could find. Only pencils and post-its available but they took them anyway. I was scared we would all get blamed. The two boys did not give a F*** they used the post-its to decorate the windows in the bus on the way back to base. The supervisor, over her shoulder as she drove the mini bus asked where they got the stuff from, no one answered... My first stupid thought was 'they are just criminals' my second was 'we are all criminals'. My third, that some people were going to learn a lot about crime...

I'm not whining

I only got to thinking about remission for good behaviour when I saw the end of my sentence receding into the distance. 240 hours seemed long enough; at 6 hours a day, one day a week, I knew it was going to take 40 weeks to complete but I did not allow for the cancellations. I am halfway through and already it will take me an extra month to complete my sentence.



The first week I arrived at 8.30, as instructed, and promptly six of us were sent home with only 1 hour to our credit, not enough supervisors. The same thing happened the following week. On week 3 we finally got going, 6 hours and I went home clutching the all important piece of pink paper. We were told at the orientation session to keep hold of the pink slips as though they were £20 notes... How right they were. As I clock up my hours I often find that someone at the 'ofender management service' (Probation service to most of us) forgets to log my hours for the previous week. So I have to check and dispute the total producing my slips.



Then there was the training day, just like school, there has to be supervisor training days, and they have to be on on Sundays, my days. So another week passes and I have not added to my total of hours served. Once someone managed to stick a fork through his foot, despite wearing steelies (steel capped boots) while we were doing some gardening. There was no one to supervise us while they took the injured bloke to hospital so we were taken back to base first, only 3 hourse clocked that day. Supervising that's a joke, I will blog about that one day soon.



Yesterday took the biscuit and is really the reason for this rant and why I have begun this blog. It was raining!!! The job was outside it was decided we could not get wet. I work outside - Monday to Friday, my boss would take a very dim view if I did not turn up if it rained. Not so we criminals.



Honestly I just want to get this over with. I have no intention of getting into this mess again and I'll blog about that later too. I'm not whining - honest

no remission

It doesn't matter how well you behave, how much you just keep your head down and get on with the job, ignoring the other criminals (I have had to get used to that, we are all criminals on this job) there is no remission when you do community service. I have to 'serve' 240 hours, practically the maximum number of hours they can give you, its non negotiable. Of course I'm relieved I did not get sent to prison but prisoners get parole. I get 240 hours no more no less