Dolitics: breaking the prison cycle

Dolly Theis | Issue 5 | Magazine, Uncategorised

From the Archive

Photo courtesy of Tempus Novo, www.tempusnovo.org

Criminal – or victim of poverty? It’s never a simple story

“Poverty is the parent of crime” – these are the words originally written by Aristotle often found in the emails and texts sent to me by former prison officers Steve Freer and Val Wawrosz (pictured above). I’m an ambassador, a very proud one, of their Leeds-based charity Tempus Novo (meaning New Time), which helps prison leavers and ex-offenders to find meaningful, sustainable employment. Their work is a stark reminder that we can so easily judge someone for their actions before we understand their history – and that a criminal record can be a life sentence of its own in terms of judgment and barriers to employment. Why people end up in prison is far from a simple story. “It’s no coincidence that repeat offenders come from extreme poverty”, say Freer and Wawrosz. Around half of adult offenders are reconvicted within a year of being released, which increases to 64 per cent within two years. They add: “Born into a world surrounded by crime, a lack of opportunity, zero education and low a...

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