Calls to end Friday prison releases which 'trap people in a revolving door of reoffending'

• Report by Granada Reports Political Correspondent Lise McNally

People leaving prison are being "set up to fail" - leaving them vulnerable to criminal gangs and reoffending - because of the day of the week they are released, a former inmate has warned.

A third of all prison releases happen on a Friday - which means people have just a few hours to access vital help with housing, benefits, addiction support and healthcare before services shut down for the weekend.

This, it is claimed, can leave people at a risk of homelessness, and more likely to reoffend.

"If you're let out on a Friday, there are so many things you have to get done in such a short window of time," explains former prisoner David Higham.

"You've got to sort your housing out, your medication out, your probation - and the clock's ticking, because you've only got until 5 o'clock, once that comes around, that's it, you're done, and then you've got nothing from the Friday night until the Monday morning.

"It's just setting people up to fail - that is not looking at the wellbeing of that individual and making sure they have the best start in life."

Drug addiction led David in and out of prison from when he was just a teenager.

He would leave prison determined to make a fresh start and stay clean - but says rehabilitation for many is almost impossible, without proper support to help people transition from prison to civilian life.

"Walking through that gate, I felt alone, isolated, full of fear," he said. "I was institutionalised - I did not know how to function in the community.

"It was easier for me to go out and rob and take drugs and commit crime, because I knew how to do that. I did not know how to be a civilian."

He added: "I was in my head thinking 'What I am I going to do with myself?'

"I had thoughts that were like 'You're not good enough, you're not capable enough'... And in the end, I'm going back to what I know.

"I got up off that couch, walked out the door, and walked straight back into taking heroin, and crack cocaine, alcohol and committing crime.

"Because, I knew how to do that. I'd been doing that 24/7 for over 25 years.

"When we look at people and say 'Why would you choose to do that?" I don't know how to live your life. I don't know how to be a citizen."

But since leaving prison for the final time more than 10 years ago, David has worked to help others break what he calls "the revolving door of release and reoffending".

He set up The Well Communities, a not-for-profit which provides addiction support services across the North West of England.

Staff and volunteers there say Friday prison releases make higher rates of reoffending "almost inevitable".

"If your coping strategies have always been drugs, and by that Friday night you find yourself with nowhere to live, with no money, no food, it's kind of a given that that's the pathway you're going to follow over the weekend", The Well's Ged Pickersgill said.

"Once people become entrenched in the same behaviour patterns they were exhibiting before they went to prison, they're up and running again.

"Once you're in that cycle, it's very difficult to get out."

Now the Conservative MP for Barrow and Furness is trying to change the law to make sure that prison leavers and their support workers don't get locked in this "Friday race against time".

Simon Fell is bringing a private members Bill through parliament, which if passed could give prison governors the discretion to release vulnerable people up to 48 hours early, giving them time to access the support services they need before the weekend.

The Cumbrian MP says his Bill is "as close to a win-win as you can get".

The government, which is supporting the Bill, accepted a lack of time to access services before weekend closure is "increasing the likelihood they will commit further crimes".

Speaking in the House of Commons, Justice minister Damian Hinds said it would be a "simple change" but a "landmark reform".

"By removing the barriers that a Friday release can create," he said, "we can maintain public protection by ensuring custody leavers have a better chance to access the support they need to reintegrate and turn their backs on a life of crime.

"Ultimately, it will result in fewer victims and less crime."

If passed, the change in the law could come into force in a matter of months, which cannot come soon enough for people like Dave, who want to make sure those leaving prison have the tools they need to leave it for good.

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