Press Release

The Prince’s Trust launches a report into young offenders: Breaking the Cycle of Offending

5 February 2007

In December 2006 The Prince’s Trust ran a seminar with the Prince of Wales, the Home Secretary, senior policy makers and young people with a criminal background. The purpose was to tackle the root causes of offending and to hear from young people about what helped them stop re-offending.  In advance, over 40 young people with an offending background participated in a consultation.

The young people identified a number of barriers to turning their lives around, including a lack of confidence and not having a single point of contact to deal with during their sentence and rehabilitation.  Some referred to prison as “a university of crime”.

The young people felt that support from a mentor with the same experiences would make a huge difference.  They also wanted more access to courses, including pre-release programmes, and incentives to take part.  On release from custody, young people wanted an activity to engage with immediately, such as a community project, and practical support with independent living. 

Responding to the young people’s views, The Prince’s Trust will now establish a mentoring service for young offenders and will work on initiatives with Government to tackle recidivism.  A taskforce will also be established, led by Clinks, which will involve offenders and ex-offenders in the development and delivery of services to reduce re-offending.

The report is available here.