… I’ll get somewhere to put a few possessions so I can lock a door behind me and put my head down on a pillow. That’s a good thing to do, find somewhere to live, which I’m sure I’ll be able to do soon. Yeah, and get some work. I ain’t fussed. I’ll probably just end up driving trucks or something like that … something like that again.”
“Court brought me here on a Community Order to … probation sent me here. The court, via probation, sent me here for the offence of … to serve my sentence … in a nutshell… for carrying a knife, yeah, yeah. Got stopped, found a folding knife in my wallet. Yeah, I got done for that and hence got a Community Order for that. I wasn’t using it. I wasn’t brandishing it. I wasn’t about to brandish it. I’ve not been in trouble with the law for donkeys’ years.
When you think of knife crime, you know, kids and knives, but I’m a 50-year-old bloke with a penknife on me. I didn’t have a balaclava on, I wasn’t … do you know what I mean? Broad brush strokes. I just went ‘guilty’ … I said yeah, I had a knife on me. I didn’t think that I’d get anywhere near the fine or the amount of hours. I had the fine, but that’s not the big crux, it’s the community hours that they gave me. I thought it was excessive.
Yeah, they just gave me the option of coming here to do my community hours, which I took because of the location. I came here and had a look around and said yeah. I think they gave me options of a few other places, but because of where I am, this is the nearest place I could come to, to do it. I’m out in the sticks.
LandWorks, I got it immediately. I see what you do here. You’re producing things, both food and products to sell as well as giving, and getting offenders to do that. Yeah, I can see. It’s a money-making scheme as well as a scheme to help people … both. It’s cool.
Gardening … mainly gardening. I’ve never gardened in my life, no, no, no. So yeah, done a lot of gardening, a lot of plants and stuff, and a bit of upkeep and maintenance as well with Steve. Yeah, working with Steve, and then working with Dan, and Mon, yeah, yeah. I suppose, spring and stuff like that, summer and that, yeah. Yeah, those guys love it. They love the garden … she does particularly, and I think Dan does. I’m not a gardener … no, I’m a city boy. My mother’s a keen gardener, but I never have been. You? Creepy crawlies as well, yeah, I’m not big on them. Like you say, you get covered in soil don’t you, so it’s not for me but I don’t mind helping out. I’ve got to do my thing. I’ll do what I’m here for, whatever it may be. I just do what I’m told. I’ve never protested over any preference to what I wanna do. I get told what to do when I get in and do it. Yeah… mostly gardening. It’s all good.
It’s all cool if it’s all cool. You guys are cool who run it. It’s a nice environment, that’s for sure. [What makes it nice?] The staff of course, and the approach as well … just the approach, the way it’s run, I think. It’s not too confrontational or too demanding. There’s a variety of things to do. Yeah, because it’s a business, there’s just a variety of things to be involved in, so it’s not mundane. It’s not like, you know, painting coal, you know, it’s not painting the Forth Railway Bridge or picking up litter, it’s a bit more rewarding than that.
[Think of it as a punishment?] Absolutely … not punishment per se here, this is punishment … it is, isn’t it, that’s exactly what it is, it’s a non-custodial sentence … you’ve gotta give back, you’ve gotta have my time and my labour as opposed to me losing my liberty, that’s exactly what it is, isn’t it. Yeah. That’s how I view it, that’s how I view it. Initially, obviously, that’s why I’m here. Yeah. […] I’ve got to come here to give back, that’s part of my sentence.
The staff have been great to me here. Everyone’s been really kind, really nice, helpful, made me feel welcome. Yeah, a good bunch of guys.
I’m without housing currently. I’m still NFA, still without somewhere officially to live, but I’ve got an appointment this week to sort that out, so that’s been beneficial. Saw the housing officer, and she immediately come up with something, trying to get hold of those people, so that was really helpful, yeah, yeah. [NFA for a long time?] Yeah, two years. Let’s just leave it at that. Two years, yeah, and in those two years, all over the place. […] I am out that way, but I’m not street homeless. Yeah, yeah, yeah, staying at people’s houses and stuff … friends, relatives, etc.
May (LandWorks health and well-being lead) has been useful, very useful. Yeah, it was very helpful. She managed to communicate with the housing officer which I was struggling to do. She managed to crack that egg. She was good, she was, she was really good.
A window into LandWorks 