Prisoner project bid to cut offending

Prolific offenders at Leeds Prison are being given one-to-one help in finding a home after their release and also being guided on how to control their anger, tackle drug addictions and rebuild relationships with their families under a project run by probation officers.

The scheme, called Positive Futures: Breaking the Cycle, is the first in West Yorkshire to focus on the needs of inmates serving sentences of between three and 12 months.

Experts say this group of criminals are the most likely to commit more offences on the outside because the law does not require prisoners on short sentences to be supervised after their release.

Most have breached Asbos and community orders in the past and some were responsible for thefts, robberies, car crime, violence and drug offences.

The scheme is open to men who have been in prison more than once and who wish to settle in Leeds on their release.

A probation officer meets each offender at the prison gates when they have served their sentence and takes them to the agencies who are best placed to deal with the problems in their lives.

Homelessness advice groups, housing associations, employment and training providers, drug rehabilitation services and Gamblers Anonymous are among the organisations involved.

Counsellors will also work with the offender's family in an attempt to resolve any relationship problems.

Debbie Addlestone, a West Yorkshire Probation Trust team manager who is heading the project, said: "We want to be a broker. We want to identify exactly what needs these offenders have.

"We work with each individual to find out what we can do to stop them reoffending and we approach other agencies to help us.

"It will save society a fortune if it works. The savings to the health service and the reductions in court costs will be huge."

The one-year pilot project is aimed at reducing alarming Government figures which show that 61 per cent of criminals serving short jail sentences go on to commit more crimes within a year of their release.

Yorkshire's director of offender management, Steve Wagstaffe, said the scheme was aimed at closing the "revolving door" through which prolific offenders return to jail.

Similar projects had already proved successful in Hull, Sheffield and Scarborough, he added, bringing reoffending rates down from 80 per cent to less than 50 per cent.

He said: "We are talking about hundreds of people, not thousands, but, even so, the impact these schemes are having is pretty stunning.

"We are liaising with housing associations, councils and private landlords.

"We are trying to get these people jobs or at least give them some skills to help them find a job. We are helping them visit drug programmes.

"There is a whole range of interventions which we can offer because it makes sense. It makes economic sense and it probably makes communities a bit safer as well."