Trapped in a downward spiral of addiction and crime, feeling hopeless and rejected by society, men are being released from prison into society without any of the skills needed to make a new start.
Over the past eight years, Nehemiah has transformed the lives of about 200 men through running 'A New Direction' in HMP Brixton and HMP Wandsworth. The course has enabled men to deal with the root issues which have been fuelling patterns of addiction throughout their lives.
HMP Kingston, in Portsmouth
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Justice announced prison cut backs. It was decided that all London prisons would become holding prisons and so sadly, having worked in Wandsworth for two years, we were informed that we would have to leave. Unfortunately, the length of our prison programme means that the majority of prisoners would be unable to complete the six month course during their short stay.
Although it is disappointing to leave Wandsworth, we are very excited to announce that we have recently started to run 'A New Direction' in HMP Kingston, in Portsmouth. Kingston was redesignated as a Category C Lifers prison, on 4 April 2011, and is, therefore, eminently suited to our programme.
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Dougie's Story
“Stealing cars, bikes, drinking, fighting, burglaries - that was normal life for me and my friends – I was always up to no good. I was first arrested when I was 12 – I don’t remember what for, it was probably theft.”
Raised in South London, his dad absent and his mum struggling to cope, Dougie fell into a life of crime from a young age. “Mum tried everything she could to keep me on the straight and narrow,” but a pattern of criminal behaviour set in and Dougie spent several years in and out of youth detention and then prison. At the age of 21 he was sent down for 12 years for armed robbery. He describes prison life as “madness and crime”, and spent his time in his cell “thinking up what crimes I could commit when I leave, to get money.”
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On C Wing in HMP Wandsworth nine years into his sentence, Dougie heard about Nehemiah’s rehab programme. Transferring onto the unit and enrolling on A New Direction, daily life changed overnight. “At first I hated it – no TV in the daytime, no sleeping in the daytime, you’ve got to be in class all day. It was completely different to the wing.” The turning point for Dougie came during the programme’s second module: “We learnt how the brain works, and suddenly I got hooked. I could see myself in the things they said – about criminal addictive thinking, the stuff we do to make ourselves feel better, how we convince ourselves we’re doing things the right way. I fought in my head for a while about it: can I change, do I want to change? Because it’s hard to change and crime is the easy way out. But I knew I had one more chance when I got out, and if I messed up I’d be back for a life sentence.”
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A core part of A New Direction is thinking about goals for the future and identifying dreams and aspirations. Dougie is a strong candidate for sustaining his success, having worked hard to achieve a Level 3 NVQ in personal training, with a fitness training job lined up for after his release. His ambition is to one day run his own company teaching fun and fitness classes in schools. With his parole approaching in September he worries about going to a hostel and slipping back into old patterns: “A hostel is just the same as the wing but with no wall around it.” He hopes to gain a place at Nehemiah’s Supported Housing project “so I can settle into a routine and get help with stuff when I need it. Just having someone to talk to like it’s been here, that will help. Someone I can ask simple questions, like how do I open a bank account.”
He’s determined to make a new start. My son was 14 months old when I came in, and now he’s 11. My dream is to be a success when I get out, to settle down and have another child, be in a relationship, and have a home.”
Names have been changed to protect privacy.
