Hi my name is Ryan Higgins.

I am an OLR prisoner. My tariff was two years 6 months. I was sentenced to this in February 2009. I was only recently released on the 6th of November 2024. I spent 15 years nine months in prison I had to go through top end and the open estate.

Over the years I’ve had countless knockback to get on courses then when I finally completed 4 of them I had countless knockbacks for boards, RMTs, getting put off for silly reasons.
I’ve had 10 unsuccessful parole hearings then last Wednesday, 6 November 24. I was finally granted my release. Social Work was against letting me out, they wanted another 6 months as they thought I was still a risk – they hadn’t bothered to do the community facing plan but the parole board decided I wasn’t a risk so they gave me a chance. I was tagged and had all sorts of license conditions. The social workers were not happy with this decision so they made it very hard for me out in the community. I complied with everything they asked for. 4 days after my release I was recalled back to prison. Something to do with a phone call either made or received. I was given no warning. The police just turned up at my address and hijacked me back to prison with no explanation. I’ve still not had any paperwork informing me why I’ve been returned. I don’t know how long I’m going to be here after all the hard work I’ve done to get me here. I feel like I’m back to square one.

I don’t know where to turn to – we lost all trust in this process the OLR sentence is a terrible sentence. I never murdered anybody and I’ve not been violent since the day of my crime 16 years ago. thank you for trying to raise awareness of this terrible sentence, any help and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks Ryan.