Junior Smart is a mentor for the SOS project in the London Borough of Southwark. The scheme works with young prisoners who have links to criminal gangs - and it is proving successful.
Smart says that in the past two years only one in 10 of the 18- to 25-year-olds he has mentored have gone on to commit further crimes. This compares with the average of nearly four out of 10 for prisoners over 18. He puts a lot of this success down to his own experience in jail, where he spent 10 years for drug-related offences.
"I've seen and experienced the same things they have," he says. "I know how the young people will feel when they're rel-eased and when they're turned down for a job as I have faced the same challenges."
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