“I’m here because when I got out of prison and I was at probation, I was asking if they can help me find some voluntary work and I presumed that because they deal with a lot of people that get hours to go places from probation that they’d know like lots of voluntary places that would take people on with criminal records, but they wasn’t very helpful, apart from mentioning this place and it took them ages to actually get me up here … a couple of months. I was crying out for some voluntary work coz, you know, I was sitting at home, nothing to do, climbing the walls.
…I think it was the best thing that could’ve happened to me … like just the wake-up call and having to spend time in prison…
But yeah, it was absolutely horrible in there … brutal […] You don’t get a minute to yourself coz you’ve gotta share a cell with someone and that’s one of the biggest worries what they’re gonna be like. I had a couple of nutters. I had a couple of good ones, but they went quick. I had six in like three months. My first cell-mate I had, I had for six weeks. So, for the last six weeks I had five different cell-mates.
I did lots of courses […] I got onto a cleaners job on the wing, which is a good thing coz you get out of your cell more. I even got a job on the servery, which is where all the top dogs go. It’s usually the scousers that run it, and I think they got me on it coz I used to play table-tennis with ‘em coz I’m good at table-tennis and they all loved it, and they liked playing me coz I was good.
But I didn’t enjoy the servery. I was just too anxious. Well, I had the most boring job to begin with, so I’m sort of stood there handing out bread rolls, but there’s always people that’ll try and take the piss and can I have two mate or just take two, and I just thought I don’t want this confrontation if it comes down to it, you know, but the good thing about that was when you’re on servery you get an extra hours ED, which is extra domestics. So, you get out of your cell between six and seven pm for an hour and then you can play table-tennis, but as I started to beat the scousers, they stopped wanting to play me […] so I jacked it in and then I think I was doing kit-orderly. You’ve just gotta get all the dirty washing together and hand out the new kit on Saturday…
The pluses from not being in prison… not being in there, but coming out, appreciating your freedom, being off the drink and drugs, much more positive outlook on life. Yeah, loads and loads of benefits. It’s just a nightmare in there, every day. […] I say it’s the best thing that could happen to me coz I think otherwise I would’ve gone stupid. I believe everything happens for a reason and I believe you’re where you’re supposed to be. The worse it is, the better it is when you get out innit.
I can remember my first visit to LandWorks. I just met Chris, noticed the koi pond coz I said I like koi ponds, I like koi fish, and just said the place looked really nice. It reminded me of Spain coz it was a really nice day. Chris showed me around a bit, and I thought it looked like something I like … the atmosphere, everyone seemed just chilled, and you know, non-judgemental, everyone kept telling me that as well. I think on the way out, Chris had to make the decision whether to take me on or not and he basically said to me … I think he said something along the lines of as soon as you mentioned the koi pond and how beautiful it is here, I knew you’d get on here.
Last week was my first four-day week. So yeah, I’m doing four days. I like the routine, the structure, having a purpose in life. I love what I’m doing here with the woodwork, the fact that I was just like enjoying sanding the chopping-boards and like being told I was doing a really good job of that, to now be on the actual lathe making bowls.
But yeah, I was like really scared of it to begin with because I do know what a lathe is. I’d worked at one before, a place that had one in a woodwork place, and the guy there was like renowned to be like really good on it for this, that and the other. So yeah, it scared me like with how fast it spins round and all that…
The highlights of being here is … there’s loads and loads. I love this place, like socialising with people. I mean before I got arrested, you know, I could go weeks without seeing people or speaking to anyone, or even leaving the flat. Yeah, socialising and structure and routine, you know, I get up at six o’clock every morning coz I always wake up with the weight of the world on my shoulders and I need a couple of cups of coffee and a few fags to come round and then I get the 8.29 train and then I get picked up, come here, have a fag and a coffee, crack on with work…
So far the place has been very non-judgmental. Everybody’s been sound. I don’t think I’ve seen one argument since I’ve been here, which is absolutely perfect for me coz I’m just a very quiet placid introvert really, but I can socialise to some extent, I just don’t like doing it too much. It’s better here coz I know it’s people that have sort of been in my situation and people that have their own struggles, you know, it’s not people like out in the real world, talking bull-shit, trying to impress you with, you know, what they drive, or you know, what they can afford and all this kind of fake teeth and chiselled bodies and all that crap.”
A window into LandWorks 