Thanks for your kind words.

You are right that self imposed punishment does not lead to purity of mind or body and it does take a while to learn how to be kind to yourself again. These days I'm very much focused on my career path and my hobbies to keep me 'focused', having support is also crucial, someone you can phone up and say 'hey i'm feeling a bit out of sorts today'

The whole 'likes and unlikes' thing is something i'm glad to be rid of, not been on social media now for 5 years and really don't miss it... what ever happened to just ringing someone up for a chat? i found the likes of face book to add to my mental health problems, i think many people could benefit from staying away from those platforms, especially the younger folk.

I count myself lucky to have grown up in the late 1980's and early 90's when going out in the woods and playing knock down ginger and brittish bulldog were how we used to get our kicks. these days so many of the younger generation spend way too much time on the internet and my point is where mental health is negatively affected this opens the door for poor coping behaviours  which can often lead to being on the wrong side of the law. So being able to almost revert back to a more traditional way of thinking has helped me a lot because i feel when we've been through the wringer we start to appreciate some of the more simpler things in life.

Hi
I applaud the work you have done in rehabilitating yourself and the selfless manner of allowing yourself to be "seen" in order to assist others. My thoughts concerning the differentiation between contact - non contact (images) based offences have been voiced here before and that I do not attempt to attribute severity to either as both have victims.

I prefer to try and understand the individual and their acceptance of an offence and so focus on their strategy and targets to become a human being whose aim is to be offence free. This is so I may gain knowledge from the experience of others in my strategy to remain offence free.

We are "Human Beings" first and therefore have faults. Managing, and so controlling (as you cannot fully eliminate) our emotions and psychological controls can be achieved but there is not a project end date. Even non-offenders have to monitor these elements of our design.  As a Human being who has experienced the "loss of control" to commit an offence, I now emphasise a higher level of thought processing in recognising new and old "inappropriate" scenarios in the same manner as any other "choice" process. Achieving this does not mean I have formulated a solution to end them but it does allow me say " I will not commit another offence"; though many who do not really know me will disbelieve me; and wait for my obituary for proof.  

We all have or are being punished by elements of society that is  possibly lead / manipulated by "likes or un-likes", and beliefs that are formed but not informed by them  One belief I think all of us who come here have to learn is that:

Self imposed punishment does not lead to purity of mind or body

take care and offer "rewards" to yourself when a target is achieved not further punishment.

I think for people in my boat being a RSO for a non contact related offense ie: internet based images, it's not necessarily the sentence itself that is harsh, its the repercussions and the reality of living life after the fact.

The social impact is immense, the impact on family is immense and the impact on career and mental health moving forward is severe. Then in order to rehabilitate, you must somehow manage some kind of stability through all of that often with pre-existing mental health matters to contend with.  and come out of it with a family, a job, social activities etc as these are some of the things they look at to manage and assess your risk. Personally it's a tall order however i'm lucky enough to be in work, i have some good friends and a social outlet all be it a 12 step meeting but it's still social and mixing with people, my relationship with my father has improved a lot but the prospects for romance are grim if i am honest so i don't dwell on it. I'm a lone soldier and that's the cards i've been dealt.

I received a 3 year community order and i found probation to be helpful, i know some other people aren't as lucky. I had people that although didn't condone the offense and were quick to keep me accountable, they also promoted the positive steps i made.
I believe receiving an indefinite SHPO however, was too harsh, it means i will have an unspent conviction for 15 years as whilst you have a SHPO you also have to be on the SOR. The sentencing guidelines for a community order of 3 years is 5 years on the register so i am hoping when 5 years is up i can get the judge to terminate the SHPO and bring the time on the register inline with the sentencing guidelines.

I know i am not a risk to people, especially children. I have nothing to do with them (Children) i could never commit a contact offense and i certainly never want to go back to my old behaviour that lead me to committing an internet offense, ive also been free of cocaine and porn for 5 years now and done a lot of research on porn addiction, therapy etc dealing with past traumas and i'm part of the drug recovery community through my 12 step program. If i can get that across i am hoping they see those as positives .

I've been through the media, public humiliation and a suicide attempt but i've also shared a stage with a survivor of CSA and spoken to 100 people about my past and what lead me to offend, i've sat in rooms full of addicts and seen amazing transformations but also sad news when a person relapses and overdoses. For people who think getting a community order for this kind of offense is a walk in the park or a 'slap on the wrist' then ask yourself would you survive and manage to find a reason to keep on going ? because there are those for whom it's too much and rather than  try to deal with it they take their own life and some people might say 'good' they don't deserve their life, but what if they come out the other end, get through it and manage to put something good back into society.

How do you feel about sentencing as a whole (not just custodial sentences)?. Are they always fair and just? Every case is judged on its own individual merits but can sentences at times be unduly lenient or way too harsh, and what impact does a sentence have on a persons drive to rehabilitate? Share your own experiences.

There's no evidence that the judge says "rehabilitation is not my concern" for absolutely everybody that applies to have an order lifted. But I would imagine it is a very common ploy used by people who want their order lifted, to say it's harming their rehabilitation. The judge has to decide who is telling the truth and who is working the system, because they will encounter both scenarios.

One example I came across recently was where a judge said he was tired of hearing defendants say they accessed illegal images accidentally, because he hears that all the time. It's a 'boy cries wolf' situation. The ones telling the truth get missed, because so many others (or their lawyers) are game playiing.

I agree, it's easy to see why we have such a high rate of reoffending here:

1. Being convicted for something which you didn't believe was fair leaves a sour taste in your mouth, in my case it turned me from an eager engineering graduate to someone who feels absolutely no guilt at all in claiming benefits for life.
2. The knock-on effect of the record leaves many people unemployable which encourages reoffending, there is little chance that I would ever succeed in the already competitive engineering field with my record.
3. People become accustomed to the way of life, for me community service was enjoyable. I'm sure that some people feel the same way about prison to a degree.

I don't plan to reoffend but I have a completely different attitude towards the country now. It seems like in the UK its all about public service workers trying to meet targets to maintain taxpayer funding. I believe that like you said, some countries have a more constructive approach such as not having the record element which affects working etc.

Compared to other European countries are sentences are harsh, and over time they have been increasing - they are  certainly a lot longer than they were in the past. Although I can see the need for prison in some cases, we use it too often in this country. We know that people who are sent to prison as opposed to in the community are more likely to offend. As such judges who choose prison when they have other options could be said to be creating new victims and increasing levels of crime. As much as offenders need to take responsibility for their actions, so do judges and politicians who advocate punishments which are proven to be ineffective. I also agree about the media shaming, this simply does not happen in some other European countries, people are only named and photographed in the most serious of cases. The Criminal Justice System has been used as a political tool for short term gain, but we need long term solutions that are proportional and fair.

This is very complex to answer because looking at different crimes from a moral perspective, everyone has different views which usually vary from the law.

For example my views are strongly different to the legislation on some of the newer internet based laws. I believe it is unduly harsh that people convicted of something like a "hate crime" or that have "trolled" someone on social media (who usually has antagonised them first) can end up in jail for it whilst the other person who may have had questionable behaviour, walks away scot-free. I also believe that "accessing images" offences are given sentences which are too harsh and that these should be dealt with in a more constructive way i.e. nipped in the bud with some social worker interaction before crushing someones entire life for a lifetime.

I know that many people will disagree with that last view because they see anyone who harms kids as the worst of the worst. It is my view that someone accessing images is vastly different to the type of person who actually physically harms kids but these two are tarred with the same brush.

It is also hard to judge the pain that someone will feel from their specific punishment experiences. For example, I had 136 hours of unpaid work which many would argue is too harsh knowing the details of my case, but I absolutely loved community service so to me this was not a punishment. I also had supervision which although was a doddle, become very annoying for me after I moved area as the new area offender management was a shambles with messing me about and antagonising me. Now perhaps the worst punishment of all is the record and/or public shaming of you as a criminal. This is the part which I think is the harshest as it affects your ability to work, apply for housing, travel to other countries and skyrockets your insurance for many years to come no matter how minor or misunderstood your offence was

As others have mentioned its not necessarily the sentence but what happens afterwards. But it can be worse than that.

When arrested for possession of indecent images of children (IIOC) everything was what you might expect. I was bailed (albeit 50 miles away) to an address away from my family.

However once Social Services had branded me a child abuser (to my face/ first meeting) and investigated, despite finding nothing wrong and my kids happy and successful, they closed their case (2 months). The Metropolitan police then continously abused the extended bail process to extend the investigation to over 12 months. This destroyed my family life, my ability to work, and my children lost their father as social services put the boot in with my wife to the point she gave up supporting me. Whenever I asked the police about getting back with my family, even for a short holiday, they would say stuff like 'social services wouldn't like it' and take no action. There was none of the supposed liaison because social services refused to re-open their case until I was sentenced (I'd pleaded guilty). So completely stuffed. The police also used my personal information and passwords on the darkweb which I told them I didn't have an account on, and honeytrap gangs took this information and used it to blackmail me on all the email accounts I had given the police.

Presentencing was a joke because Social Services do not consider the risk factors that probation use because their viewpoint on risk is different. So I didn't have the knowledge of these risks to present my good character well. My 10 months in paid therapy didn't count for much if anything neither did my medical history (another fail, the NHS refuse to treat you if pending trial, and do not have the specialised services for people with your 'condition' anyway, so again you can't mitigate with mental health issues, which had seriously aggravated my offending). Mental health, as we know, is not taken seriously by the government.

When I entered the probabtion system I was clinically depressed and suicidal. Probation took my unhappiness and talk of suicide as resistance, and continously dialled up the risk with the police even after 10 months when I attempted suicide at a probation appointment and was hospitalised. Even now, they use cameras to track my car and interrogate me as to where I have have been. I fight a constant battle with depression and suicidal thoughts but the NHS continously bounce me around their frontline as they don't do suicidal thoughts or probationers (they cannot change my circumstances so don't want to counsel me). Probation of course say this is my fault as I want to 'hurt them' by commiting suicide. Thats a new one to me....

The police have bullied me in keeping quiet and I am now drug dependent. I used to be an IT professional with a very successful life, even if a very poor relationship. They effectively ended my long term relationship with notification procedures. Even now they are tightening the SHPO so I cannot do ad-hoc work with client computers just 'in case' I download IIOC even though the realistic risk is vanishingly small. I also have to tell them, in advance, if I spend a single night away from home just 'in case it might be suspicious'. I would remind you this was an internet based based offence. I have only ever had relationships with women around my own age.

I have been banned from contacting my grandchildren by social services until they are 18 even though no real evidence of risk has ever been presented. I have an unfiltered criminal record until I am 100 years old which basically screws most employment. Probation don't 'do' recruitment advice and the government had no backup plan for nearly a year whilst an agency was being put in place. The agency now in place are still being chronically slow and have been no help. So we lost a year or more.

So its the preamble, and the aftermath, not the sentencing. The actual sentence, although I think its very serious (2 years suspended) for the actual offending, is a drop in the ocean compared with the rest. Sentencing on volume of images, however serious, is pointless, as you can download enough images in one download to send you to prison. It would be far more relevant to look at the bigger picture, ie. how long the behaviour had been going on, what actual impact there was (any actual victims or just presumed), any contact offences, sexual behavior that might suggest a prediliction towards a contact offence, and so on. It doesn't help that police and probation don't see you, they see the offence and risk, and the sentence (which of course is a SOFT option as its suspended!!!)

Whats needed is some ownership and positive tasking. The free legal advice at the station is not enough. There needs to be offender management, perhaps by probation, who dont do much at the moment in my view other than mentally torture to extract presumed risk, from day one at least for those who plan to plead guilty. Social services don't have the time or the inclination to to keep families together, and every agency has its own agenda, which is nothing like you would expect.