Job scheme bids to end ‘revolving door’ of crime...
PROJECT IS A WAY OUT FOR PRISONERS IN DESTRUCTIVE CYCLE OF OFFENDING THEN JAIL
FOR many who pursue a life of crime there is no way back.
Once they serve their time, they come out, take up where they left off, and are jailed again.
But for 30 young adults in Salford there may be a chance to escape that revolving door.
In a scheme called Jobs not Prison they will be helped to get work.
Broughton Trust, based in the city, will run the project and has already found local companies willing to offer full and part-time employment, and a dedicated worker to support those taken on. A grant of £13,400 from Project Gulf, the Salford-based initiative set up to tackle organised crime, will provide the funding, plus £5,000 from GMP, and £7,500 from the force’s Operation Challenger – a regional wide scheme to dismantle crime gangs.
Graham Cooper, project manager with the Broughton Trust, said: “The ethos of this is to give people who have made mistakes in the past the opportunity to gain employment without any of the barriers that normally affect people those who have been involved in the criminal justice system.
“This project seeks to remove these barriers and directly place them into a workplace that pays good wages. These opportunities can provide a future without looking over your shoulder.” Last year the M.E.N. revealed how former armed robber Gavin Noakes, from Salford, had turned his life around and saved his son, Jake, from repeating his bad choices. Both are now building a positive future working for Salford-based civil engineering company, UDP.
Gavin served nine years in prison after being shot four times by police who ambushed him and three other armed robbers as they were about to carry out a £100,000 security van heist at a bank in Haslingden.
Graham said: “If each company took on one person from a marginalised or disadvantaged background and gave them an opportunity like this...the knock of that is massive – families and siblings have their lives changed too.
“People who are on the precipice of leading a life of crime or have done so start to change when they get a chance. I have seen it with Jake and his dad. The light’s on – they have got it.”
Detective Superintendent Chris Packer said: “We appreciate the difficulty that those with criminal records can have when striving to get back into employment and therefore the support that this project offers has our unwavering commitment.
“These people are able to start working towards a safer and more prosperous life for themselves and their families, and as a force there is nothing that we desire more.”