Introduction

This chapter is based on a small-scale qualitative research project carried out in 2005 with young people who had spent time in Young Offenders Institutions. The research had three aims:

• • to investigate the participants’ psychosocial well-being prior to imprisonment, during their time in custody and after their release;

• • to assess how safe they felt while in custody and subsequently;

• • to explore how they felt that imprisonment had impacted on their aspirations for the future.

In April 2005, the total prison population in Britain was 73,228 and of that number 10,581 were aged under 21 (www.howardleague.org.uk). Britain has the largest number of young people in prison in Western Europe, a figure that has been rising steadily since the 1990s despite continuing questions surrounding the effectiveness of imprisonment in reducing recidivism. Reconviction rates for young offenders are high. In 1999, 71% of young people released from custody were reconvicted within two years (Solomon, 2004).

Many of the young people who go to prison have been excluded from school, have spent time in care, have mental health issues, are unemployed at the time of their arrest or have drug or alcohol problems (Campbell and Harrington, 2000).

All of the research participants live in an area traditionally associated with economic deprivation and problems of crime and disorder. For the past seven years, the area has been subject to regeneration attempts by a New Deal for Communities initiative that has placed community safety and, in particular, tackling antisocial behaviour high on its list of priorities. The area, although predominantly a residential housing neighbourhood, had seen CCTV crime prevention cameras installed in 1998.

Methodology

The primary data were collected using a series of semi-structured interviews and one self-completed transcript. All the research participants were between 17 and 21 at the time of their incarceration (Home Office, 2003). Snowball sampling was used as a means to contact potential research participants. Ethical considerations were a key issue in the research. All the participants had experienced a significant amount of upheaval in their lives and only one had completed full-time education. As such, all of the interviewees could be described as vulnerable.