From Criminal Mindset to Human Connection: My Transformation #shorts

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]I was a different person when I got out to what I was when I went in because I I was fully criminalized. I was fully criminalized when I got out. I was fully committed to the criminal ethic to the point that I hated cops.

[00:00:15]Mhm. I hated cops. I hated uniforms. I hated bus conductors. I hated anyone wearing a uniform. It was It was sort of drilled into us in jail by the inmate social code that the worst filthiest thing you could ever be called is to be called a policeman. That they were They were the scum of the earth.

[00:00:33]Mhm.

[00:00:34]You know, and um and I I had a real chip on my shoulder when I got out uh in that sense. Mhm. But when I started writing my PhD working on my PhD and I started interviewing prison officers uh because I it was on the history of the maximum security prison. So, I was interviewing prison officers who'd been prison officers in the '50s and '40s. It It was from in the post-war period with focused on.

[00:01:01]Um I got to talk to a lot of guys. I realized that you know you build up this image of this evil person.

[00:01:09]It's like you You'd be the same if you were a terrorist, really. I suppose the IRA had that mentality as well. You develop it. And and coppers have the same mentality about criminals. You see, it's them and us.

[00:01:23]Um and then I realized, well, you know, they're just actually human beings like us and Doing a job. And doing their jobs and And and and And then I got to know quite a few cops through running marathons cuz there's quite a few cops running marathons.

[00:01:37]Oh, they're not bad blokes after all, you know. And and and Now, of course, I I get on really well with police and >> [snorts] >> And um and you know, Greg O'Connor became a friend of mine. We became friends and So, I changed as well when I got out.