“Coming here, you’ve got to want to change. If they don’t want to change, you will change no-one. You can get a 100 people out here on this programme. If they think they’re going to want to get out and get involved in different shenanigans that could lead to this and that, you ain’t going … More Billy says: “Coming here, you’ve got to want to change…”
“I class myself as a gentleman really, literally, always have done. Then a load of crime got involved from a very young age. So, I ended up doing 40 years in different institutions, incarcerated all over the country, leading up until now… Life in prison? I don’t have anything else to talk about. The next … More Glyn says: “It’s like you’re on a track and you come to a fork in the track. All them years ago I took the wrong fork. This time I’ve got out, I’ve took the right fork…”
“Drug abuse got me here. I just got in a bit of a bad place for a little while and things went a bit wrong. Now, no more drugs. Get on with it now. There were no drugs for 15 months before I came to prison, I can’t see it being any different. I’m very … More Fred says: “Just to have that normality again is just… it’s a godsend coming here, rather than being in there.”
“I’m coming towards the end of my sentence and felt that coming out to LandWorks would give me a very good introduction into future employment and future understanding of how life is going to be for me post-release. I turned it down [before] and I used to have a laugh with the boys and give … More Billy says: “without time in prison… you’d have never got me here in a million years”
“My time in prison has been an experience, one I could’ve done without… Do you know, LandWorks has been a godsend to me, it really has, and you need more of these units around the country, definitely. They get you in touch with humans again, instead of people in bloody black suits. You’re just like … More Matt says: “my time in prison has been an experience, one I could’ve done without”
“I phone my wife probably four times a day. I always call her in the morning to make sure she’s got to work. I like to know she’s in work. When she’s gone to work I phone her mobile, but in the evenings, it’s on the landline. I put so much money on phone credit, … More Matt says: “I always say it’s worse for them on the outside, definitely worse for them…”
“It’s like in Prison, you start talking to someone, you know within a few minutes whether they’re full of shit, whether they’re telling the truth, whether they’re making up … you know, everything comes in that first few moments and it’s “bye” or you keep talking. Those are the options. Going home’s going to be … More Lee says: “It just took a little bit of time for me to realise that there are nice people in the world…”
“I was on bail for 18 months and I couldn’t take a contract on because it would’ve been in excess of 12 months. I’d already put a tender in, I’d got a job basically, but I couldn’t take it, so I had to sit around doing bit-part jobs while I waited to go to court. … More Lee says: “but it’s like when the judge says four-and-a-half years, you think “oh shit…”
“It’s a learning curve. If I was bitter and angry, I wouldn’t be on the resettlement wing and coming out here. I’ve come through the whole system, not one nicking, haven’t even said ‘boo’ to a goose… When I actually get released in December, I leave on the Friday and I start work on the … More Lee says: “As soon as you say you’re an ex-convict, “next”, that’s the way it goes…”
“There are the things that the courts never gets to hear, because the police say you are this, this is what you are. I’m a hard-working person and this is what I do, but all they heard was ‘this is what he is’ and ‘that’s what he is’ and ‘this is because we think this’. … More Lee says: “For 18 months I’ve been sat in that prison with a stagnant mind. I need something to do and here it is…”
