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Most young offenders go on to reoffend. In fact, between 80 and 85 per cent of them are reconvicted within two years. The real figure is probably even higher. After all, it is unrealistic to think that all young offenders - and about 7,000 children aged 10 to 17 were detained in custody between 2002 and 2003, according to the Youth Justice Board - are caught.

Yet young offenders are often very keen to avoid reoffending when they leave custody, says Gemma Buckland, senior policy officer for Planned Resettlement into Sustainable Employment (Prise). But good intentions can fly out of the window when offenders are released back into the environment in which they offended in the first place, without employment, training or secure accommodation.

"If it's not available then and there, that window of opportunity is lost," she says. "Any work with the young people which might have been achieved in custody is undone if there is no suitable training or education on release, or if they are not provided with appropriate accommodation."

Prise is a European-funded project tackling the high levels of recidivism among young people leaving custody. It is led by Rainer, the national charity for under-supported young people aged 10-25, and is a partnership of 27 organisations, including the YJB, Connexions and the Prison Service. Its overall objective is to reduce offending and help young people to resettle into a law-abiding and fulfilling life.

"Most young people coming out of custody are not ready for a job," says Buckland. "There is discrimination against ex-prisoners finding work, but more significant than this are the barriers in terms of their education and training."

What makes it worse is that many young offenders have no secure accommodation to live in once they are released, which makes it even more difficult to find training or employment.

Paul is 21. For the past four years he has been in and out of young offender institutions, mainly for robbery. "Every time I came out of prison I just went back to the same group of mates. We had no money and nothing to do, so I'd start to rob again. Without a job or a training course you're going to end up back inside. We all did."

He lived with his mother, but she became fed up with the police perpetually knocking on the door with warrants for his arrest and he ended up in hostels, living with other people involved in crime and drugs.

When Paul was released this year his probation officer suggested he tried the Prince's Trust. "I was ready to make changes," he says, "but I didn't know how. No one came to talk to me while I was in prison, but the Prince's Trust gave me the lift I needed. It showed me there were other things I could do apart from robbing. The courses gave me something to do and faith in myself."

He has worked with the Merseyside Fire Service for three months now. He hopes one day to work with young prisoners, helping them to see the options open to them when they come out of custody, and is being trained in mentoring. This time he is still living with his mother.

He feels the courses he went on and his subsequent employment were key to his rehabilitation.

The government is concerned about resettlement and, in response to its concerns, the YJB is putting together a national strategy. This aims to ensure all agencies work together in four stages: pre-sentence, custody, community and in mainstream services. The action plan is due to be launched in April 2005.

Meanwhile, the risk factors for persistent offending ceaselessly reappear, says Lionel Skingley, senior policy and communications officer for crime reduction charity Nacro.(1) "They include, for example, harsh or neglectful parenting, poor educational attainment and peer pressure. It's pointless adding to the hardship they have already faced with a custodial sentence that makes them less, not better equipped to behave differently in the future. It's a long haul to address all these issues, but we must if we are to help people to resettle."

Jean Byrne, head of service at Centrepoint, believes supported accommodation can provide the balance between a strict regime, which helps the young people feel contained, and nurturing staff who can build trust and help them make substantial changes in their lives and attitudes.


"We try to emulate the strict but caring parent most have missed out on earlier in life," she says. "We aim to help young people see themselves differently, with choices and opportunities for their futures. They have powerful, self-defeating beliefs and need constant affirmation that they can change their lives."

This means going back to basics, which most find difficult. "They have an outward bravado and are streetwise but this masks a deep insecurity," says Byrne. "We need to provide the building blocks for their future, starting with self-esteem. In a residential setting we have the opportunity to model a different way of life, with different values. The culture they come from is one of short-term gain and the importance of material goods but they respond surprisingly well to praise and encouragement."

Buckland says: "The figures show we are spectacularly failing the young people who end up in custody. The range of factors which lead people to reoffend are the ones that led to the offending in the first place."

And this will continue to happen unless these factors are addressed in custody or on release.

 

Good Practice In Lewisham

The Mansion House Scheme run by Centrepoint in Lewisham supports vulnerably housed and homeless young people aged 16-25 in eight one-bedroom flats. Half the young people there have been in custody.

Alongside support for residents, staff provide a "floating service" for young people in their own accommodation. Sharon Lewis (above), who has managed the scheme since it started in March this year, says: "Because one team works across both static services it means we can offer much greater flexibility.

"One young woman is pregnant and can't remain in Mansion House. We will help her find suitable accommodation and then provide support through the floating service, offering continuity of services and relationships at a time when she is most in need of stability."

Residents are expected to visualise a future for themselves without the negative aspects of their past, such as crime or drugs. The team helps them identify how to achieve their goals, step by step, often beginning with self-esteem building activities or life skills courses, to help them develop the self-belief they need to move on.

One 19-year-old woman living there has been involved in crime since she was 12 and has been in and out of custodial institutions for most of her adolescence.

She is now ready to change. Initially she did not believe she could make anything of her life, after missing out on her education and with no skills she could identify as useful to an employer.

The staff helped her realise she needed to set small, achievable goals that would lead her in the direction she wanted to go. She is now highly motivated and enrolled in a law course with ambitions for a career in the legal profession.

"It's been incredible to watch her change," says Lewis. "By offering intensive support and practical advice we can help people visualise and achieve a different, positive future."

(1) Reducing Reoffending by Ex-prisoners, Social Exclusion Unit Report, Home Office, 2002.