Question: Why are veteran soldiers represented by excessive high numbers in the prison system?
Answer: no-one knows because no-one has bothered to keep such records!
Tragically, ignorantly and conveniently Home Office officials do not know how many troops/veterans there are in the prison population, nor that these high numbers have been steadily rising since the early 1970’s (soon after the British Government began committing troops into Northern Ireland), in fact the country would be shocked by the amount of soldiers coming out of wars/conflicts and ending up inside the prison system!
Accordingly in the absence of Home Office ‘official statistics’, Veterans In Prison will reveal condemning statistics of the very high numbers of ex-soldiers serving ‘life’ sentences in the prison system for very serious crimes such as murder!
An ex-army Captain in the prison population (also serving a life sentence), carried out a survey into the numbers of ex-soldiers in the prison in which he was serving his sentence – the results of his survey were startling! There were 40 ex-servicemen (mainly ex-soldiers serving life sentences) out of 374 inmates – a staggering 10.6% of that prison’s population. However, on the wing he was living and serving his sentence on, there were 12 ex-soldiers out of 80 inmates – some 15% of that wing’s population, and put of those 12 ex-soldiers, 6 of them had attained the rank of Sergeant or above, and all had served in wars/conflicts!
Those figures are a damning legacy for those troops/veterans Service to their Country, and compelling evidence of how thousands of soldiers, their families and the innocent victims of their crimes (many of which could have been prevented) have been ruthlessly ‘let down’ by the Ministry of Defence’s useless policy in recognising, treating and dealing with the psychologically wounded/damaged troops/veterans coming out of wars/conflicts.
Therefore what the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Criminal Justice System must understand and get sorted out, is that there are 2 major factors causing this fiasco of high numbers of ex-soldiers in the prison population: First Combat related PTSD; Second: ‘the brainwashing of troops/veterans minds in violence’!
Combat related PTSD
In 2002, a group of 2,000 veterans took legal action against the Ministry of Defence for failing to treat them for combat related PTSD, and it was only after this court action that the Mod were made responsible to treat troops/veterans for this psychological disorder. The MoD now ‘go through the motions’ of having in place a treatment programme for dealing with the problems of combat related PTSD for troops/veterans coming out of wars/conflicts – sadly their programme fails to even ‘scratch the surface’ of combat related PTSD, and is really in place only to protect themselves against any further legal action from troops/veterans!
Example: the Guardian newspaper 14th November 2005 (3 years after the MoD were made responsible), reported how a Sergeant Major who had served in the T.A. for more than 20 years stated: “We had only had a 10-20 minute presentation on PTSD at Basra airport. It was given at 11.30 at night when we were absolutely fragged and we had been through a real nightmare. I was sent home with no counselling or decompression talk” (he later had a breakdown and was eventually diagnosed as suffering combat related PTSD)!
This 10-20 minute presentation on combat related PTSD and the issuing of leaflets (pieces of paper stating how troops may have changed during their service in Iraq – and to take things easy), is certainly ‘not’ the correct procedure to help troops/veterans come to terms with combat related PTSD!
Firstly: troops/veterans suffering combat related PTSD will most certainly ‘change’! in fact their whole moral psychological universe will ‘change’ (their complete character)! So taking things easy will definitely ‘not’ solve or treat this problem!
Secondly: A special factor with combat related PTSD, is that the greatest majority of troops/veterans suffering combat related PTSD ‘will not know or realise’ that they are suffering from this disorder (combat related PTSD easily ‘masks’ itself within troops/veterans minds). Therefore nearly all troops will simply ‘sail through’ the presentation programme without realising they ‘are’ suffering combat related PTSD!
Thirdly: the MoD programme does not fully address or clearly define and explain the circumstances and dangers of ‘how and why’ combat related PTSD will easily (and unknowingly) take control of troops/veterans minds and actions – or that left untreated ‘how and why’ it will ultimately destroy theirs (and their families) lives!
Fourthly: psychiatrists are now using with great success the booklet ‘Veterans (and their families) Survival Guide to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ for treating troops/veterans. It is the only sure and proven way of helping troops/veterans (and their families) understand and come to terms with the workings of combat related PTSD. Major General (Rtd) Dr Robin Short (Director General British Army Medical Services 1996-1999), proposed the MoD to commission the printing of the Survival Guide for issue to all troops/veterans (and their families). The MoD did not want to know – ignorance is bliss!
Nevertheless, there are many thousands of veterans still unknowingly suffering from combat related PTSD, (putting it into perspective), when you take into consideration that Britain’s Armed Forces have only had around 18 months of peace (no involvement in any wars/conflicts) since the ending of the Second World War, and with no proper treatment programmes for combat related PTSD in virtually 61 years of continuous wars/conflicts the numbers will be frightening!
Brainwashing
Since the ending of the Second World War the MoD have been in pursuit of creating professional super soldiers (super soldiers who kill other human beings with no hesitation or conscience). This quest has been fulfilled by psychiatrists/psychologists who with the use of science and the redesigning of soldiers training programmes, along with rigorously targeted and focussed discipline on soldiers minds (exactly like the training of attack dogs), they have created a ‘brainwashing/switching on’ violence technique which compels obedience in soldiers minds to the use of violence!
The British Army began these intensive violence (brainwashing/switching on) training programmes around the early 1970’s when it changed its training techniques to combat the new terrorist tactics of urban guerrilla warfare being used against them by the IRA in Northern Ireland. The MoD built entire new training complexes (killing areas for snipers/gunmen and riot control zones), where they could train soldiers day and night in the use of extreme violence (deliberately ‘brainwashing/switching on’ troops minds to the madness and mayhem of wars/conflicts – where they are expected to kill or be killed)! Troops/veterans are still routinely and purposely put through these intensive violence (brainwashing/switching on) training programmes whenever they are committed into any wars/conflicts – from Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Bosnia, the Gulf and right up to the present day Gulf wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!
However and astonishingly, there are no ‘desensitization/switching off violence programmes for troops/veterans o their return home to peacetime conditions. Ironically with troops/veterans being left ‘brainwashed/switched on’ to violence (it does not suddenly or miraculously disappear with age) they are left with a legacy of violence (a sort of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde syndrome – Dr Jekyll comes home from the wars/conflicts and brings Mr Hyde with him!) accordingly in the days, weeks, months or years following troops/veterans return from the wars/conflicts they will ‘still’ encounter many problems, and will respond/react with violence – inevitably ending up inside the prison system!
This unhinged behaviour of violence has already become a part of everyday life for large numbers of troops/veterans – and it is a result of a systematic failure by the MoD, by using failed combat related PTSD agendas (proof of which are the very high rates of ‘Alcoholism/Divorce/Homelessness/Prison and Suicide’ amongst troops/veterans) and also the non existent ‘desensitization/switching off’ programmes – which the following newspaper headlines will verify!
Example: The Sun (10.03.06); “Shears Murder”! The Sun (14.03.06); “Soldier Strangles Prostitute Lover” (2 soldiers charged with murder within 4 days of each other)! Daily Mail (10.07.06); “Driven to Kill by his Gulf War Past” (veteran soldier kills 4 members of his family)! The Sun (02.09.06); “Iraq Hero Charged With Murder” (soldier home from Iraq and same day charged with murder)!
Tragically those newspaper articles of deranged troops/veterans behaviour on their return home from wars/conflicts, resulted in the deaths of 7 innocent victims whose deaths (and many more) could largely have been prevented! They are also a mixture of troops/veterans mental problems – some suffering combat related PTSD and others not being ‘desensitized/switched off’ to violence!
The MoD state they have in place a decompression programme for troops/veterans returning from wars/conflicts, which includes spending a week in barracks (which was normal practice anyway – to clean and sort out equipment) this week in barracks is now also presumably to deal and treat combat related PTSD and also to desensitize them? However if it takes the MoD between 6-8 weeks to psychologically ‘brainwash/switch on’ troops to extreme violence before committing them into wars/conflicts – then doubtlessly it must take a minimum of 6-8 weeks to psychologically ‘desensitize them!
As for instance: if a person travels from Glasgow to London – then for that person to return back to Glasgow they must travel the exact same distance back again! Not as the MoD are doing, abandoning them in London and telling them they are back in Glasgow – leaving them (psychologically) still the attack dogs of war they have programmed and changed into!
Example: take a dog for instance, a dog is a domesticated animal and has a good relationship with humans and fits well with human society. However, some dogs are trained to be ‘attack dogs’ and are too dangerous and unable to fit back into society once their usefulness is over (dogs cannot be ‘desensitized/switched off’) so these attack dogs have to be ‘put down or locked away’ from human society otherwise they will create havoc and attack innocent victims! Sadly and disgustingly, a similar scenario is happening with troops/veterans on their return home from wars/conflicts – if they are not killed in action doing their duty – thousands are being locked away inside the prison system!
Surely when the Government/MoD first commissioned psychiatrists/psychologists to revamp soldiers training techniques and brainwash them with extreme violence (to get better killing rates out of them) then without doubt they must have looked at he long term effects of this brain tampering? Subsequently the same psychiatrists/psychologists ‘must’ have been able to guarantee a psychological ‘return ticket’ for these troops/veterans to be able to fit back into a society at peace (no-one has the right to purposely turn human beings into attack dogs – and not be able to reverse this process afterwards)!
Footnote: without doubt the vast majority of troops/veterans in the prison population are not the authors of their own misfortune – they became (unknowingly) psychologically ‘injured or conditioned’ to violence doing their duty in wars/conflicts! When considering the fact that prior to these troops/veterans ‘stepping forward and volunteering’ to defend the country and its people – not one of them had served a prison sentence! However, on their return home from wars/conflicts they have become a higher percentage rate than any other profession in the entire prison population – these are the casualties that should never have been, or still be!
