00:00Prison leavers, on average, are less likely to find employment in London within six weeks of leaving prison than the rest of the country.
00:09This has been a problem explored by the London Assembly in depth.
00:13Today, we're at the Dusty Knuckle, a social enterprise bakery that takes a chance on ex-offenders by offering them traineeships.
00:22My London and the local democracy reporting service came to Dalston to explore the bakery, talk to some employees, and also talk to Assembly members who are currently exploring this lagging issue.
00:33We provide intensive mentoring support to young men leaving prison, returning to London, and our goal is that they'll be able to build a stable, rewarding life that they can be proud of.
00:43We work at the Dusty Knuckle Bakery because getting into work and having sustainable employment is an essential part of staying out of prison.
00:49And the Dusty Knuckle Bakery is incredible because they understand the barriers and challenges that young men leaving prison face when they're trying to build a new life.
00:58We bring young people here to see what the opportunities are, and the Dusty Knuckle takes them and helps them thrive, teaching them skills and building their confidence so that they can enter the workplace in a meaningful way.
01:08The way I started is I was actually a former trainee of Switchback.
01:11I went to prison in 2018 and basically my mentor came to me the last three months of my journey in prison and then through the gate got the support and whatnot.
01:25It actually dawned on me that I could use my experience to support others in the same position as me.
01:32There's a lot of talent and there's a lot of people that have been misunderstood while they're behind Bahá's, do you know what I mean?
01:40So I would say there's a lot of good people inside as well.
01:45So being able to give them a second chance.
01:47A lot of people are inside because of the environment they grew up on.
01:52They felt like they had no other options.
01:54So if you give them a chance and give them the right encouragement, the right path, I'm sure the majority of them will take it.
02:03The experience today has actually been moving more than anything else to actually hear stories from the experts in their own lived experience of both the experience of prison and now here at the Dusty Knuckle.
02:13We need to have a whole conversation about the justice system in this country.
02:16We have overcrowded prisons and we are putting far too many people in prison for crimes that they just shouldn't be in prison for.
02:22We know there are lots of other ways as well of rehabilitating people, of giving people community service.
02:27And again, this is a really good example that actually if you give people the tools, the resources, the confidence and the peer-to-peer support to be able to empower people to live their lives as you start to see people really flourish.
02:39And we've heard time and time again today how when people have been given that experience, they've seen them go on and do amazing things.
02:46I think there's been so many stereotypes about prison leavers, there's been so many misconceptions and myths about why somebody would even want to even think about employing somebody who has left prison.
02:59And what this investigation will do is hopefully dispel some of those myths and explain why it's so important to support prison leavers.
03:08And I think the key word for me for today's experience today, talking to everyone here at the Dusty Knuckle, talking to everyone at Switchback, talking to the people with lived experience who've left prison, is that you actually need to care for them.
03:22There are so many prison leavers who are literally homeless when they actually leave prison.
03:26They don't have that security, they don't have the support.
03:30A lot of prison leavers anyway have such difficult lives at home in terms of their relationships with their family and their friends.
03:38And they've lost a lot of that support network that they probably would have, you know, had if they hadn't gone down that path and ended up in prison.
03:46So a lot of prison leavers, particularly here in London, struggle because it is so difficult to get housing here.
03:53It is so difficult to find that support and work out where to get that support.
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