How a young woman kicked her heroin habit to start a degree and get her son out of foster care – only to be jailed again for a crime she’d already served time for
- Angela Williams was first jailed when she was 19 and again 10 years later
- Ms Williams was jailed for breaking into a home in the hopes of finding drugs
- She was shocked when she was arrested, she thought she was served her time
- Ms Williams had turned her life around, kicked her drug habit, was studying
Williams has penned a book, called Snakes and Ladders, about her time behind bars in the hopes of shedding some light on the system
A young mother was sent to jail twice for the same crime, despite believing she had served her time and turned her life around.
Angela Williams, from Wollongong, south of Sydney, was 19 when she was caught breaking into a home with three men in the hopes of finding drugs. She was sentenced to 15 months’ periodic detention in October 1996.
Williams was shocked when she was arrested again, 10 years later, for the same crime.
‘I did rehabilitate, and they put me back in there anyway,’ she told the ABC.
As a teenager, Williams spent five months doing short stints at the Emu Plains Correctional Centre, west of Sydney but stopped when she signed up for a 12-month rehab program.
Three months later she returned to complete her jail stint but claims she was told by a police officer that if she stuck with her rehab program, she can consider it time served.
Ten years rolled by and in that time Williams had turned her life around.
She had kicked her heroin addiction, she had started a creative arts degree and her son was out of foster care and living with her.
Then one day, in February 2010, she was hit by a postie on a bike and her began to unravel once more.
While giving her statement to police about what had happened she was told there was an outstanding warrant for her ‘incomplete periodic detention’.
Angela Williams, from Wollongong, was 19 when she was caught breaking into a home with three men in the hopes of finding drugs
She was arrested as the court said she still needed to serve the 10 months and one day remaining on her original sentence. Her time completing her rehab program did not count.
Williams spent 45 days at the maximum and minimum security prison in Silverwater, and the Berrima Correctional Centre, New South Wales, before being moved to home detention.
Williams was in disbelief.
‘It didn’t matter that I spent 13 years not committing a crime, it didn’t matter that I’d given up drugs, gone to university, none of that mattered.’
Her second stint in prison created a divide between her and her son. Home detention helped mend their relationship but it still took time
She was then forced to spend another year trying to piece her life back on together again.
‘As much as home detention prevented cracks getting wider, from the second those cops said they had to arrest me the damage had started.’
Williams said home detention was much harder than she had thought.
Williams (pictured) was shocked when she was arrested again, 10 years later for the same crime
She felt isolated and ashamed. Unlike in prison, she was the only person in her situation.
Williams has written a book, called Snakes and Ladders, about her time behind bars in the hopes of shedding some light on the system.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Corrective Services NSW for comment.