Prison seen as ‘safe’ place to confront demons
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A judge has said she believes prison is the safest environment for a drug addict to do counselling and confront the demons of his past.
Judge Jane Farish sent 29-year-old Steven Michael Hamel, a tyre-moulder, to jail for a total of 25 months for his fraud, drug, and receiving offences, with two months added on for unpaid fines totalling $13,000.
Among his long list offences was the one that might have sparked the steps to recovery from a long-standing drugs and alcohol addiction.
He had admitted a charge of using a telephone with the intention of offending the recipient – a woman bank employee.
At Hamel’s Christchurch District Court sentencing, Judge Farish said: “The contents of that call were very concerning and in the light of that I directed that a psychiatric report be prepared while you were in custody.”
She wanted to know whether he should be doing the STOP programme.
But she said the psychiatric report had made “disturbing reading” about personal issues in his past, which she would not discuss in open court. She was pleased to hear that Hamel was now involved in ACC counselling to deal with those issues.
She also believed that prison was the right place for him to undergo that counselling because the issues raised could cause a relapse. “I am pleased to know you are in a safe environment.”
Hamel had admitted 13 charges of dishonestly using credit and bank cards which had been stolen in car break-ins. The offending occurred while he was in the grips of a significant methamphetamine addiction which was part of a drug and alcohol problem he had had for several years.
He admitted receiving 12 stolen bank cards, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cannabis, unlawfully taking a car, possession of tools to break into cars, breach of community work, breach of bail, and driving while suspended.
She jailed him, replacing the fines with some extra jail time, and ordered him to pay $9000 reparations by instalments to his 13 victims, after his release.
She also directed that the psychiatric report and her sentencing notes be sent to the prison so that they could be taken into account as part of his rehabilitation plan.
Category: News
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