Life coaching could be the key that sets criminals free from a re-offending cycle, says former prisoner Alan* who spent his three-year jail term coaching fellow prisoners and Prison Officers and who was in fact the inspiration for Fiona Harrold’s Prison Coaching Programme. By Marie-Louise Cook.
‘About half the people in jail are what I call ‘average’ prisoners and if you treat those people properly and give them opportunities then they will not re-offend. I believe the most important factor is education not just of the prisoner but the family of the prisoner too. Families can do an awful lot to stop someone re-offending but they don’t because they don’t know how to help.
‘I really wanted to coach ‘lifers’ – some of them had been in there so long and had no experience of the world outside.’ Most had given little thought to what they would do once they were released from prison. ‘They’re going to go out into the big, wide world with no money and no job and do nothing but re-offend and return to prison. What I was trying to do was change their way of thinking. That was the coaching side of it, talking to them and asking them questions to make them think. Sometimes the coaching was in the background: I didn’t say, “I am coaching you” but I asked questions like, “What are you going to do when you get out?” I wanted them to come up with their own answers. I learned that from Fiona Harrold’s books – she said we all know what we want and need but it just takes somebody to draw that information out.’
His decision to spend his three-year jail term studying for an Open University Degree in Social Sciences and to do Life Coaching as part of that course led him to Fiona’s books. ‘You have to re-plan your life when you go into prison because you can’t go back to what you were doing before. You have to reassess how you are going to earn money, support your family and whether the relationships you had before you went in are still going to be there when you come out.
‘I started reading about Life Coaching and came across something written by Fiona. I wrote to her and explained that I was in prison and coaching. She wrote back and sent me a whole load of books and we began talking by phone.’
The reception to coaching from prisoners and Prison Officers was mostly very positive. ‘We ran some courses in prison where Prison Officers attended and they came away saying how great it was.’
Alan became the prison’s education orderly so looked after the prisoner’s educational needs and tested new prisoners when they arrived to determine their level of literacy. He taught prisoners too. From this, he managed to obtain a teaching job at a nearby college.
‘Some people call this ballsy: I applied to one of the local colleges for a teaching job. I was accepted even though I was a prisoner. Obviously, it wasn’t just a single interview: they observed me teaching in the prison for about five weeks. The guy said I was very good but warned me, “We have to do a Criminal Record Office check on you and it’s obviously going to throw up the fact that you’re still in prison. But you’ll be teaching adults and we can’t find any reason why you shouldn’t do it.”
‘It was the best thing that ever happened to me because I then got Stage One of my teaching qualification – the Certificate of Education - so I’m a qualified teacher.
‘Me being allowed to teach outside the prison took everybody by surprise, both Prison Officers and prisoners. Some Prison Officers had said, “You’ll never be allowed to do it.” Other prisoners were like, “If you’re going to do that, then I’m going to try and do this” and over a six month period, more of them went out to work every day. Which was great because it meant they could resettle back into the community properly when they were eventually released.’
Since leaving prison, Alan has established a consultancy business as a professional company director, offering mentoring and coaching particularly to companies that are struggling. ‘The great thing is when I walk in somewhere and somebody says, “God, I feel terrible. My business is going down the pan, you have probably never felt like this – it’s the lowest point of my life”, I don’t always tell them about the lowest point in my life but I can sit there and empathise with them. I know what it’s like to have your dignity ripped from you for different reasons. I can coach them to feel good about themselves and their businesses and quite often turn it around.’
He plans to complete his Degree in Social Sciences – he has one year left - and then to go to an American business school and do an MBA.
As an ex-offender, he was invited to join the prison’s Reducing Re-offending Strategy Board and attends its monthly meetings. ‘I actually get welcomed back by Senior Prison Officers who say to me, “Well Alan, do you think that’s going to work?” And they may argue against what I suggest but at last, they are listening. At least there is a forum for prisoners to have their say.’
*Alan asked that we withhold his name. |
