A 42-YEAR-OLD woman has refused a reduction in her prison sentence for attacking two civil servants, saying she wants to stay behind bars.
María José G.G., originally from Quart de Poblet (Valencia), says she does not get along with her family and has financial troubles, would not get a job or be able to afford a home, and that she wants to be in jail to avoid having to sleep on the streets.
A woman who has lived near María José's childhood home for decades said the inmate's father died of cancer when she and her two sisters were very small and she became involved with a bad crowd, got involved with drugs and became a heroin addict, eventually ending up in jail at the age of 20, in 1992.
Since then, a series of offences meant she has spent the best part of 22 years in Picassent prison near Valencia, where she says she has many friends.
María José is still being treated with methadone.
After being released on parole last year, she deliberately failed to report to the court in Sagunto (Valencia) so that she would be considered guilty of a crime punishable by prison.
She then went to the court and demanded they put her back in jail, but they refused, so she insulted them with very graphic language, smashed a beer-bottle against the glass screen of the information desk and then tried to enter the office to attack the two female staff members with a shard of broken glass.
Guardia Civil officers on duty had to pin her down as she put up a fight – all calculated to worsen the offence so she would get to spend longer in prison if sentenced.
The prosecution service called for a custodial sentence of five years and nine months, but an agreement between them and her solicitor led to a reduction to three years and nine months.
However, María José turned this down and insisted on serving the longer period.
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