YOUNG OFFENDER INSTITUTION PROJECTS
Outside Chance currently presents full afternoon behaviour challenging workshops - 'A Career In Crime?' - in HM YOI Huntercombe with 15-18 year old juvenile remandees and offenders.
Our high impact Powerpoint workshops take the inmate through how he was usually introduced into crime, a path which takes a very familiar route, how easily he will be caught again should he choose to reoffend on release, the effect of his offending on his family, partner, friends and, in the future, his children. We also explain, using case studies, how little money he has actually made from crime compared to the time he may have already spent in detention. The difficulties he might face in the job market, housing problems and relationships. We close with practical demonstrations of anti-crime technology.
The 'wagging finger' approach simply does not work with young offenders. We tend to focus on the complete futility of continuing in a field where the inmate has already proved, not only to society but also to himself, that by his detention, he is clearly out of his depth. Continued offending will, invariably, be met with longer and longer prison sentences, often for relatively petty crimes. By homing in on the inmate's own thought processes, he will often bring himself to the conclusion that he has no future in crime, a view he will often report in his post-workshop Evaluation Form and which is also borne out by the statistic that the 'peak age' for offending in the UK is currently 19 years. Our aim is to short circuit that process by diverting them away from repeat offending at a younger age and at the earliest possible stage.
We then work on building up his self confidence and self esteem, both of which have, invariably, been damaged by their period in detention. Self worth and self belief that he can change, the possibility of self employment, of better relationships with his family, particularly his mum who is, in many cases, his only remaining contact with the outside world.
In independent studies by Research Development Statistics, a division of The Ministry of Justice with access to all court and prison movements across the United Kingdom, the outputs of Outside Chance show an encouraging reduction in recidivism over two years+ following release in the young men who pass through our sessions of 62% compared to the national average of 76%, just over 3 in 4, in 18-21 year olds and of 74% compared to 88% in 15-17 year old juvenile offenders, a 14% reduction in each age group.
'A Career In Crime?' remains the ONLY workshop operating in ANY UK prison to be publicly endorsed for the last 8 consecutive years by UNLOCK, The National Association of Reformed Offenders.