Former criminal starts jobs agency for ex prisoners
AFORMER violent offender has set up his own recruitment agency... for ex cons. Ian Perkins’ new venture, ReConstruct Recruitment, dedicated to finding work for ex-prisoners, was launched on Thursday.
The 43-year-old from Kitts Green, Birmingham, and business partner Rob Halliday-Stein already run Inside Out Ventures, a company that works closely with prisons to provide inmates with the skill-set needed for life on the outside.
Inside Out runs a laundry, staffed in part by released prisoners on licence.
The recruitment agency beefs up the businessmen’s resolve to find work for ex-offenders and push them back on the straight and narrow.
Mr Perkins, a man who has himself served lengthy sentences, hit on the venture after finding a criminal record branded him near unemployable.
“I went for a job as a and got rejected,” says doorman.
“It hit me so hard. I thought litter-picker the former ‘What am I going to do? What do I have to do to gain employment?’ It was the convictions that stopped me.”
Mr Perkins, who has a four-monthold son, speaks candidly about his life of crime. He fell in with the wrong crowd and paid a heavy price, he says matter-of-factly.
“In 2004, I received eight years for firearms possession and served four,” he confesses. “I was released when I was 33 and thought I’d find within a month, but no.
“It changed me as a person. After weeks of not working and the pressure of relationships and payments, I made contact with my old friends and I was back in. I was offered the opportunity of collecting some money. I went into a pub and hurt someone – and got six years.”
Mr Perkins admits he was involved work in “gang crime”.
HMP Hewell, in Redditch, offered Mr Perkins a shot at redemption, and trusted him enough to let him mentor inmates. That role even continued after his release in 2014.
“The very first day in custody brought about the feeling I couldn’t go through a full sentence,” he says.
“I felt I was wasting my whole existence and putting everyone through pain. I put myself forward for every course possible.
“I signed up for everything and started being a Samaritan in custody.”
When released, Mr Perkins became a voice for prisoners who discovered the painful truth that you never truly serve your time. The stigma remains.
He gave talks to employers, urging them to be less reticent about taking on ex-offenders. Those links – and his working relationship with prisons – have paved the way for Reconstruct Recruitment.
The company’s work is breaking the cycle of crime.
“We aim to create sustainable employment for people with convictions,” he explains. “If employers don’t employ people with convic- affiliation and organised
I felt I was wasting my whole existence and putting everyone through pain
Ian Perkins
vital in tions, we are creating an unsafe community.
“We are leading people back into a life of crime, and we are creating an unsafe environment.”
The myriad of courses available in prison are also a total waste of time unless they lead to work.
“We pay for those courses,” says Mr Perkins. “This country spends £13 billion on rehabilitation.”
ReConstruct Recruitment is much-needed pathway to work those recently released from jail.
“We build the bridge,” says Mr Perkins. “We put people back together.” a for