Cricket helps rehabilitate criminals

The Gloucestershire Cricket Board has joined forces with the

Ashfield Young Offenders Institution (YOI) to help rehabilitate teenage

criminals through sport.

GCB development officer Adam Jones has been offering weekly

taster sessions at the Institution in  

Pucklechurch with the aim of forming a team to play against local clubs

during the 2013 season.

He said: "Most of the lads haven't played a lot of cricket

before, so at the moment we are just trying to get them interested in the

game.  A lot of them are naturally good

at sport so I am sure they will pick it up quickly. It is great to be able to

use cricket to offer them a second chance."

The sessions have been running since October alongside

academies set up in a number of different sports including football, rugby and

basketball.

Stewart Stacey, head of PE and enrichment at Ashfield HMP

and YOI said sport plays a huge part in the inmates' rehabilitation.

He said: "It is a massive engagement tool, especially in

this establishment. It breaks down barriers between groups - we get quite a few

lads from London who are from a gang culture – and it also improves their

emotional management."

The academies are all set up in conjunction with outside

partners and the partnership with the GCB is also set to include the delivery

of a Young Leaders coaching award.

As well as using sport to develop inmates while they are

serving their sentences, Stewart says it can also have a positive impact in

helping individuals stay out of trouble when they are released.

He said: "If we give them the opportunity to get involved

with sport here it has a big effect on the reducing the rate of reoffending.

With a sport like cricket, a lot of them won't have played a lot of structured

cricket before but the idea is that they will enjoy it and want to continue

playing when they are released. Joining a club can help give them a focus and

may also mean changing their social group which can be a really positive

thing."

Over the past few seasons Ashfield have hosted a number of

games against local clubs including Chipping Sodbury and Carsons and

Mangotsfield  - something they hope to

repeat in 2013.