A window into LandWorks

“A* company are having about ten tables and benches, which is quite a big order we got and that’s got to be by the end of May, beginning of June, I find it very rewarding working with the guys, actually it’s not that different from before I left prison and I knew what I was doing because I had been in the carpentry profession all my life…

When I was coming out to LandWorks from prison on day release, it was just nice to be getting out and just doing something, rather than sitting in your cell twiddling your thumbs, or walking around the prison fixing a lock here or a door there, I worked with the prison carpenter and locksmith in prison, he was mainly the locksmith, but we did all the carpentry work in there as well, I got the job through the person running the BICS (British Institute of Cleaning Science) training course in the prison – you have to do the course if you want to get a job on the wing, so I did that, that was the first thing I did when I got into the prison, but the guy on there who was the trainer was quite helpful in that he said, I told him that I was a carpenter and that, and he said, oh, I know the prison carpenter and locksmith I’ll give him a call for you and get him to come over and meet you, and he helped me fill the forms in for the job…

I had 42 months and you’re eligible for your ROTL (Release on Temporary License) at your halfway point, so that would have been 21 months, er and I had town leave first, 2 months after that, and then I came out for my interview in March here, but then everybody got shutdown because of change in the prison laws, so it was the end of July that I started at LandWorks…

I think I found it hard sometimes, being a trainee and coming out on day release from prison, ‘cos when I got back, they all wanted to know what I was up to, and what I’d been doing and that, and I started feeling a bit guilty saying like, oh I’ve been doing this and that, I’ve had a great laugh doing this, or just went for a walk down the road, all the things that they can’t do, so I felt a bit guilty, but saying that, my sister used to feel a bit like that when she used to come and visit me in prison, she didn’t like telling me what she’d been doing, but that was something I wanted to hear, she always thought I’d get jealous over it and that, but I didn’t, I always wanted to know about everything she’d been doing, so maybe they were the same, they were never bothered, so they were obviously quite happy and that, one of the lads used to ask me loads…

The transition from prison was made very easy because I’d been coming out to LandWorks for twelve months on day release from prison…”