Call for ex-offenders to lead agency to help vulnerable young people into work
Janaki Mahadevan
Thursday, April 7, 2011
An agency led by ex-offenders should be created to help vulnerable young people into work, a consultation with young people on the fringes of the criminal justice system has found.
What’s Your Story? sets out recommendations based on the views of 582 young people aged 12 to 27 across England, who are either ex-offenders or are at risk of entering the criminal justice system.
Led by charity User Voice, the report said a national employment agency led and staffed by ex-offenders would help to drive down levels of unemployment and crime. According to the research, government should also offer incentives to encourage employers to take on ex-offenders.
Mark Johnson, founder of User Voice, said: "Despite the level of exclusion these young people experienced, and the chaotic nature of many of their lives, this project has shown they have much to add in improving criminal justice services.
"The overarching conclusion of this work is that excluded young people be given more opportunity to engage in improving the services that seek to address their offending. This is more, not less important as public spending cuts impact on services. Local justice agencies need to work together in developing more effective feedback procedures and in enabling excluded youth to play a collective role in securing better outcomes."
Of the young people questioned during the research a fifth had received 10 or more types of sentence; 43 per cent had spent time in a young offender institution or prison; 45 per cent said they had drink or drug problems and 16 per cent said they had mental health problems.
The young people involved in the project said one of the biggest challenges they faced was being unable to find employment. For many young offenders criminal record details must be legally disclosed in job applications a number of years after an offence has been committed.
The report also concluded that there should be an increase in the opportunities for marginalised young people to work with the police in tackling local crime and improving community relations.