Making second chances count for something deeper

Success can mean very different things to people, but rarely is it the result of one person’s achievements. As I’ve written before, when I took my first steps as an entrepreneur, I was fortunate to find and hire some very clever people who knew much more about running a business than I did. I also enjoyed the support and encouragement of an amazing family that allowed me to keep my head in the clouds and my feet on the ground. (In fact, on more than one occasion, Mum and Dad kept me out of trouble — and even out of prison!) I’ve never taken my support network for granted, but I know that there are many people out there who must live their lives without such a network. Quite a few still succeed, but many others struggle and fail, often due to circumstances beyond their control. For instance, prisons in the US, the UK and elsewhere are filled with people from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Their stories demonstrate that a lack of opportunity is often a root cause of this outcome.

According to data from the Prison Reform Trust, in England and Wales more than 46 per cent of all prisoners reoffend within a year of being released, costing taxpayers between £9.5 billion and £13 billion a year. Among those serving sentences of less than a year, that reoffence figure jumps to 60 per cent.

These are staggering, unacceptable know of at least one solution: jobs.

I’ve long felt that people should not be judged by the worst moment in their lives, or by the poor choices they’ve made when the options were awful from the start. So I’ve encouraged our businesses at Virgin to find ways to give people a better chance in life by training and employing workers with a criminal conviction.

Virgin Trains has been pioneering the hiring of ex-offenders, with 25 people now working in different parts of the company. They’ve been given a second chance at life, and have vastly better odds of never committing a crime again.

The Virgin Trains experience has been a strong mobilising force across the entire Virgin Group, and several of our businesses are looking into expanding ex-offender employment opportunities or working with at-risk communities.

Last summer, I had the pleasure of meeting with two wonderful members of the Virgin family in the UK who have struggled with the law in the past but are determined to turn their lives around.

Tammy Moreton is a good example of the difference a job can make in an ex-offender’s life. When she was 18, Tammy said she hung around with the “wrong crowd”. She spent the next two years in and out of custody for various offences.

Upon leaving prison, Tammy sought help from New Leaf, which connects ex-offenders with mentors. The Prince’s Trust helped her start working with Virgin Trains, and she was quickly offered an apprenticeship with the revenue protection team. Tammy has been with Virgin Trains for two years, and her manager is her biggest cheerleader, praising how she has grown into her role.

The lovely young lady I met was full of hope about the new stability in her life and she’s grateful for having been given a second chance. Better yet, Tammy is training to mentor others who are trying to escape the same vicious cycle in which she’d been caught.

A different experience

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Jacob Hill’s story is a bit different. Jacob was once a promising young entrepreneur who reached the finals of our Pitch to Rich competition and acted as an ambassador for Virgin Media Business Pioneers. His company, Lazy Camper, sold camping kits to festivalgoers — an ingenious idea that got a lot of attention.

But Jacob found himself with a load of debt he couldn’t repay. In these kinds of existential situations, people often make bad decisions — I have, too — and Jacob’s decision to supplement his income by selling Ecstasy and cannabis landed him in prison.

Today he’ll tell you that going to prison was the best thing that could have happened to him. During that time, he completely re-evaluated his life and focused on the things that are truly important. Now released, he’s full of energy and determined to make right on his wrongs.

When we met, he told me about his plans to set up a business helping companies hire ex-offenders.

Tammy and Jacob are just two examples of many. If we are serious about reducing reoffence rates, we must allow people to move on from their past deeds and provide the second chances everyone deserves.

Not too long ago, I listened to a presentation by Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the British philanthropist who has devoted her life to prison reform and the reintegration of people with a criminal conviction into their families, communities and the workplace.

Quoting one of her mentors, Edwina summed up the challenge the prison system faces by asking: Do we want warehouses for the incorrigible, or greenhouses for the reformed?

At the moment, we are looking at the former. But the latter is possible — and within reach.