Homeless Sheffield man sent back to prison for refusing to stay in hostel

Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court was told on Tuesday, March 17, that homeless Jordan Anderson had been told to stay at the hostel in the St Anne’s area of the city on his release from prison for another matter.

But when he arrived at the address, the former drug user saw another resident smoking crack cocaine outside and refused to go in, said Steve Brint, mitigating.

He said that Anderson, aged 25, had spent much of his adult life in jail, and when he was not doing time he was homeless.

“He was released from Ranby Prison and given a ticket to get to St Anne’s in Nottingham,” he said.

“He doesn’t know anyone there and he’s never been there, and when he got there the first thing he saw was a man outside taking crack cocaine. He’s gone about it the wrong way, but he said that he did not stay at that address because of the people in that area.”

He added that Anderson had a history of drug use, particularly in prison, and was trying to get clean. Anderson had also been making his appointments with the Probation Service, he told the court.

“The only thing he’s not been doing is living at that address in St Anne’s,” he said. “He doesn’t want to be in St Anne’s, he wants to be in Sheffield.”

Anderson, who admitted breaching his post-custody supervision, was jailed for 14 days.