5 December 2006
HRH The Prince of Wales held a seminar at Clarence House with ex-offenders, the Home Secretary and the Attorney General to help break the cycle of youth offending.
Key policymakers heard from 25 young ex-offenders supported by The Prince’s Trust and its partners, sharing their views on how the system could be improved to tackle recidivism.
"Two-thirds of people who leave prison return to a life of crime, costing our society billions of pounds every year," said Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince’s Trust.
"We need to change the system so that communities are protected from anti-social behaviour and young offenders can find a more positive path once they have served their sentence.”
The Home Secretary and Martina Milburn also signed an agreement to enable more streamlined procedures for other providers to secure contracts with central government to deliver services.
The Trust will take part in a pilot study aimed at reducing Government bureaucracy, paving the way for the charity and its partners to offer more targeted support for young people in or leaving prison.
Home Secretary, John Reid said:
“The Government recognises the excellent work that The Prince’s Trust and other partners do to break the cycle of youth offending. This event is a welcome opportunity to learn from them and to hear from young people who have benefited at first hand from the Trust’s activities.
Reducing youth offending is a central part of the Government’s commitment to building safer communities and tackling the problems associated with offending behaviour. We want to deal effectively with young offenders, while steering young people away from a potential life of crime.”
Forty ex-offenders took part in focus groups, one-to-one discussions and telephone interviews with The Prince’s Trust on the run-up to the Breaking the Cycle seminar. Many of the young people had served sentences in either adult prisons or young offenders’ institutions. Others had experienced the criminal justice system through tagging and community service.
Young offenders and ex-offenders raised a range of key issues, including:
the benefits of mentor support on release from prison
education provision; drug and alcohol misuse
prisons as 'universities of crime'
a work-focused curriculum for young people who are struggling at school
a pre-release programme, helping offenders to reintegrate back into society
A report by the young people attending the seminar and key partners of The Prince’s Trust, including the Youth Justice Board, Addaction, YMCA England and NACRO, is available here.
The Coalition of Social and Criminal Justice, whose members include The Prince’s Trust, recently revealed that 67% of people released from prison re-offend within two years, costing the UK £11 billion annually.
