CR spoke with Tim Rosier from Reflex

Emily: Is that care just there for them for the 48 hours, or does it go on for longer?

Tim: It goes on indefinitely, for however long the young person wants to engage with them. Caring for Ex-Offenders are not funded according to time; their passion is very similar to Reflex's in that they want to see young people and offenders of all ages in fact, break that cycle. They link with a network of local churches or Christians who will walk alongside them and then meet them at the gate and will journey with them forever, if needs be.

Emily: Earlier on you mentioned about the London riots. How has the image of young people been changed due to that and is there a stereotype?

Tim: It's really interesting actually, because I think the way that the London riots were reported only served to cement a negative stereotype of young people; being hoodie-wearing yobs, with little regard for anyone else in their communities. The riots themselves were a very shocking thing and we saw the images on our screens, in our papers and on the internet. We saw the sort of things that were going on. The reality is the actual number of young people involved with that sort of behaviour was very small in comparison to the general population, yet you see it across the front of the papers with often tracksuit-wearing young people with a burning van or a burning building behind them and they are very emotive and evocative images. I think it's actually served to cement some of those negative stereotypes. However the independent panel report and some of the research that took place after the riots showed the true extent of the issue; nine out of 10 of those who were convicted of an offence in the riots were already known to the police and on average, of those convicted, they had an average 11 previous convictions. The riots themselves were not just a phenomenon in their own right, it was actually a symptom of a wider issue of youth offending, for a small group of young people in society.

Emily: Do young people in prisons feel like they are stuck in a stereotype?

Tim: Dealing with stereotypes is part of the issue. Sometimes it's of their own making cos they will serve to service that stereotype, but I think that young people will sometimes feel that they're not given a fair chance. That stereotype is sometimes reflected in employment; they find it hard to get a job or to engage with people. I do think that breaking the cycle of offending does demand something of the young person, the young offender, to change their ways, but it also commands the society and the community from which they've come to also step up to the plate and change their behaviour. It demands a response from them that's positive. There are two sides to it; it's about repairing relationship.

Emily: What is the difference between a prison for adults and a Young Offenders' Institute?

Tim: It's pretty complicated actually. The prison system and the age boundaries within that bear no resemblance to education or anything else. There are different types of prisons. People have heard of a Young Offender Institution, a YOI; there are actually two types to those: there's a juvenile YOI and that's for young offenders up to the age of 18 and then there's also another type of YOI that houses 18 to 21-year-olds. At the age of 21 you would then normally go into an adult prison and serve your sentence there. So obviously when somebody becomes an adult at 18 there's this crossover and you don't just suddenly wake up on your 18th birthday and have life sorted; there's this transition to adulthood. The secure estate reflects that. You've also got secure children's homes for the younger teenagers that are from the ages of 12 upwards and also secure training centres that are essentially intense educational centres within a closed estate. There's only four or five of those across the country so they're fairly unique. There are actually different types of establishment according to what the risk and need is, as well as what your age is and it can be quite a minefield to understand that.

Emily: So at Reflex you specifically go into Young Offenders' Institutes?

Tim: Yep, we work primarily in Young Offenders' Institutions, both the younger ones and the 18-21-year-olds. We also work within two or three adult estates, but primarily focus on the young adult offender, that's ages 21-24. We recognise that when we work with these young people, there's this transition to adulthood; we work with them as children, young people and young adults on that journey of discovery. We are in discussion with some secure training centres as well, but primarily our work is in YOIs or adult prisons.

Emily: How did Reflex begin?

Tim: It started with a dream of a guy by the name of Geoff Baxter. He felt compelled and moved in order to go and serve and do something in his local Young Offender Institution. He started by writing his own programmes and engaging as a volunteer and over the years that snowballed. He started to go into other local prisons within the North East and it's grown to what it is today. Now YFC undergird a lot of the work that Reflex do and support it and they've been involved for about eight or nine years. The snowball effect does mean that prisons have heard of us; they've heard of our success stories and sometimes prisons approach us and that's how it is today. We are working now within 15 prisons and we are actually in discussions with three or four others as well.

Emily: That's great. Part of your ethos is that Reflex is faith-based but not faith-biased. What does this look like in the work that you do?

Tim: We are unashamedly motivated by our Christian faith that believes that everybody has potential, everybody has worth, everybody has the ability to change and everybody can contribute something good to their society if they are given the chance. What we're not about is coming along and by the back door making people Christians. That's not what we are about. We're motivated as Christians in order to reach these people, but we work with all people, of all faiths or none. It's not a prerequisite to become a Christian. We just want people to realise their potential and break their cycle of offending. We don't want to hide our faith, our faith is our motivation for doing it, but actually in practice it means we work with all people. We have had some great Muslims on our course, we have had atheists, we've had people who don't know what they think yet and that's fine. We engage with all people.