UNLOCKing Experience
On this page:
- Summary
- Need
- Objectives
- Activities
- Achievements
- News/Media
- Focus on: Young people
- Would you like to book Bobby?
- Useful resources
1. Summary Back to top
The experience of people with past convictions is a hugely valuable but tragically overlooked resource. Individuals, communities, government departments, statutory, commerical and voluntary sector organsations can all benefit from listening to and learning from people with direct experience of crime, the criminal justice system, rehabilitation and rebuilding a life. Where the results are likely to affect people with previous convictions, consultations, committees, boards and panels should draw from this experience to inform their decision making for the benefit of all.
To find out the most recent developments in this area, click here.
2. Need Back to top
There are around 8 million people on the Home Office’s Offender Index , of which 99% are in the community. At a number between one fifth and one quarter of the UK’s working population, these millions of citizens; men, women, parents, grandparents, children, employees and employers, constitute a very significant part of UK life.
Despite the numbers there is still a huge stigma attached to having a criminal record. Both individuals and entire families can find themselves socially excluded in their own communities.
3. Objectives Back to top
- Reduce the social isolation of people with convictions through the sharing of experience between themselves
- Increase the extent to which people with convictions and their experiences are heard, respected and valued by society, in policy, services, media, communities and by the general public.
4. Activities Back to top
- Sharing: Develop opportunities for people with convictions to share their experience
- Contributing: Seek opportunties for people with convictions to contribute to the work of Parliament
- Consulting: Promote opportunities for people with convictions to contribute towards consultations
- Deglamourising: Run sessions in schools and colleges to deglamourise crime using first-hand experience
- Promoting: Work constructively with the media to encourage positive stories
5. Achievements Back to top
6. News/Media Back to top
7. Focus on: Young People Back to top
Through the ‘Combating Crime in the Community’ project, we're able to deliver hard-hitting and behaviour challenging sessions, aimed at reducing the growing number of youngsters who view crime as a ‘cool’ career option, and offending as a way of life. When the course was first piloted we reached approximately 500 young people over 12 months. Many of those taking part were involved in petty crime and/or drug-taking, came from deprived or difficult backgrounds where other family members or associates were themselves involved in crime or serving prison sentences.
Sessions take the form of workshops run by UNLOCK Chief Executive, Bobby Cummines. The vary in length from one to four hours, and are customised according to the location and needs of particular groups whose size varied from six to twenty in number. Participants ages typically range from nine to 20 years, and include young people who are at risk of offending (including mainstream and special schools), on anti-social behaviour orders, in pupil referral units, excluded from mainstream education, or detained in a Young Offenders Institution and preparing for release into the community.
Some of these children are involved in street crime and drug taking and can come from deprived backgrounds where parents and siblings are themselves involved in crime or already serving prison sentences. During the workshops we give them an insight as to where their behaviour may lead – i.e. the reality of prison based on personal and bitter experience; as well as giving a realistic picture of the effect that prison would have on themselves and their families as well as the future consequences of having a criminal record when trying to obtain employment and housing after release.
"My view of prison is very different and I now understand the pain for the families..."
Becki aged 17
“I think that the lesson was very good because it tells you how bad it is in prison.”
Luke aged 11
"It made me think long and hard about what a waste of my life prison has been.”
Jake, HMP YOI Rochester
“Many of these young people have committed crimes, or are on the verge of being involved in crime. In some cases there is an unwritten expectation that family members get involved in crime related issues and go on to spend time in the terms of a custodial sentence. It is this cycle that needs to be broken and for young people to be shown an alternative way to discover their skills and strengths and to use them appropriately in society. The feedback from the young people, more or less in their own words was “Wow” even “Gobsmacked”. This is face to face reality and it is starting to hurt, because we are are being given the truth about what can and does happen to people that commit crime or obtain a custodial sentence. The audience will certainly be thinking twice before indulging in an activity that could damage their lives and that of others.”
Teacher in Charge, The Challenger Centre Pupil Referral Unit
"Your honesty and openness with them made many stop and think… Your flexible approach with the differing needs of the sets was thrilling to see, you captured their attention & imagination, correcting any glorified views without deflating their own egos. To be able to sit in the classroom and watch you weave a sense of awe in these boys, is truly magical. Within the first ten minutes all of the pupils in the class are involved and vying for your attention, each one of them is made to feel respected and an important member of the group.”
Citizenship Co-Ordinator, Greenacre School for Boys
8. Would you like to book Bobby? Back to top
Contact us on enquiries@unlock.org.uk
9. Useful resources
Back to top
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