Rehabilitation

scotkaz · Rehabilitation

I have been thinking a lot about rehabilitation of offenders. It seems us in Scotland really are lacking in this.

It also appears to me that many people who have been offenders have been the ones who have ended up as Miscarriage of Justice victims.

In what ways do you think that people who offend, especially youngsters, could be helped to be productive members of society?

It is no good simply locking up teenagers then opening the door and letting them loose when their time is up if they have not learned something from it in my opinion.

I was reading this story and it really highlighted WHY some people re offend.

There but for the grace of God eh?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news...ion-of-prisoners-work-462694.html

Rebellion to rehab: Bob Turney's story

"I come from a dysfunctional family: my father was a manic depressive and there were always suicide attempts going on – my mum was more bothered about keeping my father alive then me failing at school. I fell through the education system. I'm profoundly dyslexic and have a reading age of a child of eight.

"I'm 63 now, but when I left school at 15 I couldn't read or write, and my brother was involved in illegal gambling and was on the fringes of organised crime. I just drifted into crime. My brother introduced me to the people he knew. I was so impressed by them – they had money and good cars and I wanted to be like them.

"I became a burglar, breaking into houses and stealing whatever I could, mainly anything electrical. Colour televisions had just come in, and we were stealing them to order. We even had an after-sales service. If you crossed the television engineer's palm with a few quid he would go round and repair them. We were earning about £1,000 a week, which was a lot of money then. It still is. It either went down my throat or up my nose. I was smoking heroin, and took amphetamines, cocaine, anything.

"One time, armed with pick-axe handles, we robbed someone who was coming into a bank to deposit some money. Violence was part of our lives: we were involved in brawls, fights in pubs, revenge beatings and gang feuds. If another gang stepped into our territory we would go and sort them out. We would go in a pub and start fighting them with whatever came to hand, including hammers, bars or baseball bats.

"I was first caught for auto theft, and placed on probation. Within a year I had broken it, fighting in a pub when I was drunk, and was sent to my first young offenders' institution at the age of 16. I was there for about three months. It was horrendous, but I got used it to. Then I went into the adult system.

"I spent about 18 years going in and out of jail and became very institutionalised. My longest stretch was about three-and-a-half years. Most of my convictions were for burglary; a couple of times I was done for assaulting a police officer when I was drunk.

"Prison became my life. What was going on in the outside world wasn't happening to me as far as I was concerned. Once I was released from Pentonville at 7.30 one morning, and was back by four in the afternoon the next day, having been re-arrested as I tried to break into a car while drunk.

"Prison offered me a lot of security. It gave me boundaries that I had never had. In Wandsworth we were locked up on our own, 24/7, most of the time. It was like being looked after. I couldn't cope on the outside. I was happier inside by far. It didn't matter if I committed and got done: I was quite relieved, actually. I felt safe because I knew I was killing myself on the outside with drugs.

"As my alcohol- and drug-dependency increased I went more and more downhill. I ended up sleeping on the streets and tried to commit suicide. In 1980 I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for three months and then on to a rehabilitation centre.

"Things started to improve from then. There were a lot of issues in my life that the rehabilitation centre helped me to address. Then I was placed in a halfway hostel, and afterwards got my own place. I was sick and tired of the life I had been leading and started to get jobs on building sites to pay the rent. I attended a lot of self-help groups and got support with my drinking and drugging.

"The support motivated me to change my life. I knew I wanted to change, but I hadn't had the incentives before. I didn't want to sleep on park benches any more, or in derelict houses. I didn't want to return to my previous habits.

"I started doing voluntary work with people with drink issues and drug problems, and met my now wife, Sue. She was entirely different to me – middle class, really educated, very attractive and very witty. She was a great inspiration to me, and continues to be one. We've got five kids now.

"I worked as a volunteer for my local probation service. One day a probation officer suggested that I should think about becoming one. I thought he was on crack, to be quite honest. I had a criminal record that makes the Artful Dodger look like a choirboy and I can't read or write. I started working in the service in 1989, and got a degree in forensic social work from Reading University. I wrote an autobiography, I'm Still Standing, after meeting Lord Longford, who suggested I write a book. I've since written another four. The second, Going Straight, is about 20 people with similar experiences to me who are now doing something positive with their lives.

"The best part of my years as a probation officer was a three-year secondment into a youth offending team. That was absolutely brilliant. Many times I was an extension to the youngsters' families, very much like a surrogate dad. But probation moved on and I spent more time behind a computer rather than with offenders. I left a couple of years ago. I now do a lot of training with drink-drivers and people with speeding convictions. I also go into sixth-form colleges and talk about the risks of drugs and of getting involved with the wrong people.

"I still do a lot of charity work. I try and pay back for what I took from society. I've advised the Government on law-and-order issues, and been to Downing Street at the invitation of Cherie Blair because of the charity work I was involved with. I also do a lot of consultancy work on home security and try to help people keep their homes safe.

"Now when I put my head on the pillow at night I feel comfortable in my own skin. I do, however, feel terrible about my crimes. The last one was 30 years ago and I've spent the last 30 years trying to put things right.

"Rehabilitation is possible for anyone if they want to change."

Lydia

"Rehabilitation is possible for anyone if they want to change."

It is that age old saying - if the person wants to.

Alcoholics, drug takers, gambling an addiction of any type, you can help the person if they want help.

Changing your life as drastically as changing from dishonesty to honesty must be this difficult. Seeing a future without the problem in your life is as difficult I believe as moving away from a relationship in which violence dominates the relationship.

Trying to change from chasing the dream of easy money to working for small amounts while you build that future possibly over a number of years must be a daunting prospect.

I do believe each person has a handle if you can find it and if you can hold onto it.

Giving people, the possibility of a future while they are in prison seems to be a possibility, which is why I believe the current Government are against short term sentences. Training and help to get a home and a job would seem the obvious choice.

I think though that it takes more than this, it takes a person to show what can be achieved by any person. A person who could fill in al the years of no hope, and no credit for good deeds, and no encouragement, which was missing in the prisoners home lives.

It also needs drastic changes in our care system to remove children from homes where they suffer abuse of any kind from neglect to sexual and physical abuse. Then we need a care system, which will actually look after children, care about their physical, emotional, and educational needs and the reason I say this is that many of the people who turn to crime are the neglected from our care system.

scotkaz

Nice to see you here again Lydia:)

I hope you and yours are well.

Lydia

A poem I know well and although it is not on my wall now it is in my diary

Big Wullie

Well done Scotkaz and Lydia for highlighting the need for rehabilitaion and forgiveness.

Never a truer word has been Uttered for a long time Lydia

Lydia

Hi Scotkaz

I got so carried away with that subject that I forgot to say hi back to you, I do read my e-mails and respond if it is a subject I feel I can contribute to.
Sometimes I am so busy with the little ones when I look back at the e-mail the whole subject has been covered

Hi Wullie,

If Labour has their way and the Tories join with them, he will not win this one. I believe instead of costing so much money keeping these people in prison the prisoners could be spending their time doing useful community service.

The government must though put the money into that system and use these people wisely, hopefully teaching them as they go not only useful work which may help them get work later but bring down the cost of services such as gardening or cleaning streets or all sorts of other things that will help others.

This could replace putting people into prisons that teach them how to take drugs and how to break into houses and cars. I believe a short time in prison can take a young person into a life they would not otherwise have had contact with in particular if they are people who are easily led.

I hope that the people in charge of these schemes could also spend some of the time trying to find out why the person committed a crime and try to show a different way forward. If we brought social work into these schemes in particular for the young we may change a few lives.

Imagine if we could fit the punishment to fit the crime. If a person steals a purse from an old person, their punishment could be doing the garden or housework for an older person letting the person see how our old live and do without. This could be life changing.

We must be realistic; this will not work for all, but if we changed only a few lives from hopelessness to being a valuable part of the community………