Polmont

POLMONT YOUNG OFFENDERS INSTITUTION

YouthLink Scotland provides youth work services for young offenders in Polmont Young Offenders' Institution through its Outlet Youth Centre.

Polmont Young Offenders' Institution houses young people aged 16-21 years convicted by the courts to serve custodial sentences. Polmont has the capacity to accommodate 655 young people.

The project was set up 1999 in order to enhance the personal and social development of young offenders, and to assist with their integration back into the community. The main objectives of the project are:

• To develop a set of youth work approaches which place young offenders at the centre of assessing their own needs, identifying programmes, activities and evaluating outcomes which enable them to have greater control over their lives both within and outside the institution.
• To develop a greater understanding of the support required by young offenders between those working with young people in a variety of agencies in community settings and prison officers by providing opportunities to share skills, knowledge and experience.
• To produce a set of resources, case studies and models which will be available for replication in other contexts.

A variety of activities are offered:

Peer Education

Peer education is the process of empowering and enabling people to learn from one another. It is well established that, both inside and outside of prison, young people spend a lot more time with their own age group than any other. Peers also turn to one another for help and advice before turning to any other group. The youth work services within Polmont seeks to use peer pressure in a positive manner through our peer literacy programme, whereby we train young people to help other young people with their literacy needs.

A Culture of Two Halves

This project focuses on sectarianism, football and crime.  It explores the impact of bigotry and sectarianism on Scottish culture, and in particular on Scottish football culture. Its participants aim to produce an anti-sectarian peer education programme, and video which can be used to facilitate awareness raising sessions to other young people within Polmont. The young people will look at materials relating to the roots of sectarianism in Scottish football, and its criminal manifestations. Many of the young people in the project group have been imprisoned because they themselves have committed crimes related to, or influenced by, sectarianism. The heritage partner for this project is the Scottish Football Museum.

The project has received an award of £12,600 from Young Roots, a Heritage Lottery Fund grant scheme, which enables young people to explore their heritage. YouthLink Scotland manages and develops Young Roots in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund. Link to young roots.

Sexual Health

This programme looks at the issue of sexual health, providing both factual information and looking at attitudes and values young people have relating to masculinity, and the impact this has on sex and relationships.

Music, Art and Drama

The project has developed an arts programme within the OutLet. This programme contributes in a structured way to the personal and social development of the young people through the medium of music, art and drama. This work is delivered in partnership with Artlink Central, with funding from both SPS and Lloyds TSB. The highlights include bi-annual plays delivered by young offenders to their peers, families and friends.

Anti-Bullying

The project works with young people within Polmont who have been identified as bullying others. The youth work staff work in partnership with prison staff to challenge this behaviour, working with individual young people on an intensive basis.

Transitional Support

YouthLink Scotland's OutLet Youth Centre is working with Polmont Young Offenders' Institution to develop transitional support for young offenders leaving Polmont. This support is provided through community link workers from local youth work organisations specifically appointed by the partnership to provide the necessary support resources drawing upon their local knowledge and understanding of the young people's individual needs and circumstances.

The transitional support provided by the community link workers to the young offenders covers various services. These include:

• assistance with filling in job applications and writing CV's;
• help applying for grants;
• being accompanied to a hearing;
• discussing fresh ideas before release;
• assistance with sorting out a bureaucratic housing problem;
• being taken and registered with a doctor;
• being taken to leisure facilities;
• being accompanied on a visit to parents home;
• being accompanied to various agencies (DSS, housing etc);
• setting up careers interviews;
• acting as a sounding board for ideas;
• having someone they can trust and rely on;
• having support they do not have to seek out or justify.

The way forward for the development of transitional support

YouthLink Scotland is fully committed to the provision of transitional support for young offenders. We believe that transitional support has a major role to play in tackling youth crime, particularly in terms of helping to break the cycle of re-offending. There is considerable demand for transitional support amongst young offenders currently serving custodial sentences, YouthLink Scotland strongly believes that the current provision of transitional support should be extended to meet this demand. Community workers in each of Scotland's 32 local authority are ideally placed to ensure that the provision of transitional support is as effective as possible. The development of a national transitional care policy should address the following issues:

• There must be greater liaison, and co-ordinated working, between agencies working in prisons, and those working in the community. A more strategic approach to transitional support would improve the integration of young offenders into the community, and in the long-term could help to reduce levels of recidivism.
• Many agencies provide services to young offenders. YouthLink Scotland believes that there should be a dedicated person in each local authority area who can provide support services to young offenders upon completion of their sentences. An example of current good practice is the work being undertaken by YouthLink Scotland in partnership with Glasgow City Council and Inverclyde Council.
• A significant number of agencies concentrate their activities on particular geographical areas. The danger exists that, by doing so, the level of transitional support which a young offender can expect to receive on release is at risk of becoming a postcode lottery. Young offenders are required to fit into the available services, rather than these services being geared to meet their needs. These factors underline the extent to which a more strategic approach to transitional support, matching available support resources to the needs of young people, is required.
• A degree of uncertainty currently exists regarding which agencies or individuals have lead responsibility for a young offender upon release. Giving this responsibility to the community link worker would resolve any uncertainty, and ensure that effective transitional support structures are put in place.
• To help agencies and community link workers make the necessary arrangements to provide effective transitional support they must receive more than six weeks notice of a young offenders release date.

Further information can be obtained from Lyndsey Middlemiss, YouthLink Scotland's senior development officer at Polmont Young Offenders' Institution on 01324 722332 or by email at lyndsey.middlemiss@sps.gov.uk .  

A wide range of other youth work services are offered through programmes at Polmont Young Offenders Institution, including work undertaken by Fairbridge in Scotland, Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Princes' Trust-Scotland.

For further information on these services contact:

Fairbridge in Scotland. Tel: 0131 475 2303

Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Tel: 0131 556 9097

Princes' Trust-Scotland. Tel: 0141 204 4409