Turnaround is designed to embrace the whole community in reducing prolific offending in Bristol
Some facts:
There exist some 110 prolific offenders:
• Generating 63% of acquisitive crime in Bristol
• Committing 25,000 crimes amounting to 29% of the total crime
• With a socio-economic cost of £225,000 per head pa
• Costing a total of £24,750,000 pa
• Creating fear and anger
The typical profile of a prolific offender contains a dysfunctional family history, abuse, poor educational achievement, exclusion from school, drug addiction and a revolving door in and out of prison from the age of 14. Most prolific offending is driven by the overwhelming need to service a Class A drug habit costing £250 - £1000 per week.
A pre-requisite for full social rehabilitation is, invariably, personal recovery from substance abuse and, underlying this, in the vast majority of cases, some form of abuse experienced during childhood. In this context, structure, continuity and effective inter-agency working combined with a consistent and trusted relationship are of crucial importance in getting prolific offenders to start taking responsibility for their lives and move towards crime-free independent living.
The vision of Turnaround is to create a safer city by reducing offending. This will be achieved by targeting the most prolific offenders while limiting the risk of young people becoming involved in crime.
The mission is to:
• Support the statutory agencies in reducing reoffending.
• Involve all parts of the community in understanding that all can contribute to creating solutions.
• Identify and support the most effective interventions to reduce reoffending, allowing organisations from the statutory, business and voluntary sectors to play to their strengths
• Break the cycle of re-offending by empowering individuals to take responsibility for their lives while making a difference to others.
• Create individual integrated pathways out of prison for prolific offenders with intensive mentoring support with a target of reducing re-offending levels by 30%.
• Fund programmes to divert young people from crime so that they can fulfil their potential.
• Provide opportunities for volunteering in UK and abroad.
• Establish a range of community social enterprises and micro businesses to provide training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for participants.
• Create a model that can be replicated across the UK.
Turnaround does not wish to reinvent wheels or step on toes. There are at least 500 organisations in Bristol already delivering excellent solutions to the problem. Turnaround aims to bring integrity to this, ‘joining things’ up to create an integrated, personalised plan for each individual offender. Turnaround will initially focus on existing prolific offenders, but, when resources permit, will extend its brief to preventative interventions with young people. Turnaround also aims to identify additional resources and involve parts of the community that may not feel they have a role to play. What prolific offenders need is the motivation, stability, opportunities and support to turn their lives around.
A new website will be available here soon. For further information about Turnaround Bristol please use the following contact details:
Simon Edwards
The Hub
35, King Street
Bristol BS1 4DZ
M: 07786 386253