Ex-cons clear up shabby areas in a bid to clean up their acts
CROOKS set to work clearing up run-down areas under an experimental scheme have become reformed characters.
A total of 30 former repeat offenders have so far been employed on full-time pay to clean up “grot spots” across the North-west.
The four-year-old project now boasts that only 19 per cent of those involved have gone on to commit further crimes compared to a national average of almost 50 per cent among released jailbirds.
Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd declared yesterday: “What this project does is help people get normality in their lives – developing the good habits of getting up for a job and showing that they can do it.”
Under the “Your Environmental Team” project, ex-cons are employed on six-month contracts on the minimum wage.
Gary Conway, 42, one of three former prisoners on the scheme in north Manchester, said: “Getting this job has changed my prospects entirely. It’s given me confidence, it’s helped me get a CV together and I’ve been able to demonstrate teamwork.”
Gary, who was released from prison in July after serving 10 months for shoplifting, has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager after becoming addicted to crack cocaine and heroin.
He added: “I’m up at 6am every morning. There’s a reason to get up, to go to work.
“I don’t know where I would be without the project.”