[Applause]
what if we worked with criminals to make
society safer when you hear the word
criminal what image comes to mind
growing up I only ever had reference to
the Shawshank Redemption Prison Break or
most recently orange is the new black in
fact I thought prisoners and criminals
were this tall with bald head a scar
down the face missing the teeth and the
words love and hit tattooed on their
knuckles that's what I thought typical
criminal was until I went to prison
growing up I had everything I ever
wanted in life and by the time I was 21
years old I'd started my own business I
was studying at university I had
received hundreds of thousands of pounds
worth of investment all sorts of awards
and accolades Richard Branson even
supported me and my idea however by the
time I was 22 faced with crippling debt
I made the choice the idiotic choice to
sell drugs I was arrested and put in the
police cells for 18 hours in the police
cells I had water I had a blanket I had
food I had a toilet I was okay however
my parents who had their homes raided by
police officers early that morning were
not can you imagine being in their
position wondering what they must be
going through the fear they upset the
disappointment imagine how you'd feel in
that situation I feel my parents might
have had it worse because my mum was a
police officer and my dad a retired
drugs investigator it's not meant to be
funny
and when I was released from the prison
cells from the police cells who were the
first people to pick me up it was my
parents I was rightfully sentenced to 28
months in prison and my first and only
reference is prison as I've told you is
the Shawshank Redemption I thought I was
too delicate to go to prison it doesn't
help that my cellmate was called mr. big
and when inside I expected to find anger
hatred animosity danger but what I found
were men leaving their prison cells
every morning going to a workshop going
to education and bettering themselves
they wanted to improve the life they
wanted to turn a life around because
people were in there for a whole range
of reasons yes people go to prison for
greed but the most part is people go to
prison due to poor mental health or
addiction they commit crimes based on
that and when I was released from prison
I wanted to do something so I started an
organization that supports people with
criminal convictions to secure
employment and turn their back on crime
for good the biggest barrier to people
with convictions turning their life
around is hopelessness they do not
believe a society will welcome them back
did not believe they will get a job that
they will secure accommodation so why
bother and when I found that in England
almost wanting to people reoffended
within 12 months from their release from
prison and you had a real problem so I
started to look out to the rest of the
world to find a solution to our crime
problem what if we brought together the
best bits of all the criminal justice
sectors across the world and put them
into one the ultimate rehabilitative
criminal justice sector well today we're
going to do just that as a group we're
going to go through the five stages of
the criminal justice sector starting
with breaking the law going through to
being imprisoned in Norway
coming to the end of your sentence in
Brazil being released to Singapore where
you'll be welcomed by your community
before securing employment in England
I'm really excited to bring these parts
together so shall we begin our worldwide
journey conveniently were already in
Portugal so all we have to do is break
the law who wants to go first
no well it might actually be harder than
I think because only recently Portugal
was crowned at the third most peaceful
country in the world and I think that
deserves a round of applause for
Portugal and Portugal has really led the
way twice in criminal justice reform the
first time is that the Portugal's the
first country in the world to abolish
the life sentence the maximum
imprisonment time in Portugal is now 25
years and that absolutely shifts the
thinking of a prison no longer do we
took people in prison and throw away the
key we need to be thinking about
rehabilitation from day one and removing
the life sentence means that people may
be released one day and we need to
rehabilitate them if they are going to
become members of our society the second
innovation in Portugal I'm probably one
of the greatest it's given to the world
was in 2001 when Portugal decriminalize
drug use I could tell you it's great
that imprisonment for drug related
offenses has fallen by 40% in that time
and that's brilliant
but it's nothing is nothing compared to
the amount of lives saved and since 1999
drug-related overdose deaths have fallen
by 80% 80% this equates to an average of
315 lives saved per year it gives 315
people the opportunity to get help
before it's too late
what if we had a criminal justice system
that saw drug use as a health care
problem not a criminal problem and
as such so we've broken the law in
Portugal we now need to be sentenced and
imprisoned and we're going to be
sentenced imprisoned in Norway Norway is
leading the way on prisons and
imprisonment and Rehabilitation Norway's
maximum sentence is 21 years bar a few
offenses for crimes against humanity
most people will serve 14 years but the
government has every right to extend the
sentences for up to five years at a time
every five years
what makes Norway's prisons so great is
that they only imprison 63 people per
100,000 compare that to Portugal 127
England 140 Brazil 299 it shows that
nowhere has something that works and
what makes their prisons so special is
that the guards are not seen as guards
they're seen as social workers they work
alongside the men in the prison they
attend the workshops they eat with them
they even do yoga classes with them
prisoners are encouraged to build their
own independence they live as part of
communities they cook for themselves
they clean for themselves and they go
out and manage their budget and by their
weekly food shopping what if we had a
criminal justice system but had a prison
system for to lead a positive life for
people with criminal convictions to be
the example that they can be from Norway
you need to finish your prison sentence
so you've done quite a bit of time now
in Norway you've done a bit of time in
the prison and it's time to go to do the
last two years of your prison sentence
and we're going to do our last two years
of imprisonment in Brazil nice part of
the world now Brazil does have an
imprisonment rate of 299 people per
hundred thousand that's huge it's
phenomenal
but in assess and assess he is the
mother of innovation as we say in the UK
and Brazil has come up with a system
that heals itself in fact they run
prisons there's 49 prisons in Brazil
that I run absolutely by prison
and volunteers from the local community
there are no guards and no prison
officers in these prisons these prisons
run a third of the costs and still
embody the values of the Norwegian
prisons which is centered around work
education and family links what if we
had a criminal justice system where
prisons and prisoners were in carry
encouraged to lead on their own
rehabilitation and trusted to do so
everyone in a prison in Brazil is called
Dora Cooper and oh and as were in
Portugal might know that word is a
person in recovery because like Portugal
Brazil's Persis people in prisons as
needing support and help not punishment
and I think that's something that we
need to adopt in our whole criminal
justice sector journey so you've served
a bit of time in Norway and you've
served some time in Brazil it's now time
to be released this is a really daunting
time for prisoners very scary very
intimidating but if you get released to
a country like Singapore you'll notice
people wearing yellow ribbons and the
yellow ribbon campaign is so successful
in Singapore that nine in ten
Singaporeans recognize the other ribbon
and their aims and the values of the
initiative the aims are simple to let
prisoners and prison leavers know that
there is a second chance they believe
that you'll be locked up by the walls of
society when you're released from prison
if they don't challenge it so every year
they do a run around a prison members of
the public can join they raise funds
they see it as their community
responsibility to rehabilitate people
with convictions to give them a second
chance to know that they are welcome
back in their society and Singapore has
managed to reduce reoffending and got it
down to a rate of twenty six percent
compared to England which is 40-odd
percent you can see how incredible that
is but Singapore is not even the best to
it they inspired Fiji and Fiji adopted
the values of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign
and in 2006 there reoffending rate was
at 50% Fiji after adopting the Yellow
Ribbon Campaign managed to reduce their
reoffending
it 23.5% through community acceptance
adoption and offering second chances so
what if we reduced reoffending from the
community's perspective by Alfred
offering a welcome in society that
believes in second chances
having served your sentence having been
released to Singapore having been
supported by the government to secure
housing to to feel reintegrated into
society to access the services you need
to access it's now time to find a job
and we're going to go to England to find
our job England is currently faced with
our lowest record level of unemployment
at three point eight percent employers
are desperate for talent and they've
turned to the criminal justice sector to
actively recruit people with criminal
convictions before release and when
they're released into the community
employers are now benefiting meeting
their targets keeping commerce going by
recruiting people with criminal
convictions our government believes in
this so much that they formed an
organization called the new futures
Network which works with employers and
prisons to bring the two together to
influence education in the prison to
offer employment to people whilst
they're in custody and most importantly
offer them a job before they're released
imagine that imagine knowing that you're
coming to the end of your prison
sentence and you have some meaningful
activity waiting for you out there some
activity that will pay the bills will
give you a chance to get your own
accommodation and not rely on the state
pay taxes and contribute to society and
not take from it these are the values of
the new futures network but England's
also going one step further and we've
adopted a campaign called ban the box
where employers remove the tick box from
their application form and no longer
asked do you have a criminal conviction
at the first stage over a hundred and
fifty employers have signed up to this
campaign it equates to hundreds of
thousands of jobs where people with
criminal convictions can be given a
second chance to secure employment
what does all of this mean if it's not
put into the perspective of someone's
story into a true criminals story a
criminal like Derrick Derrick has been
in prison for seven years of the last
ten years doing three different
sentences he'd worked most of his life
after developing a common cold it led to
further complications and he needed a
heart transplant the medication he
needed to recover from the heart
transplant was made to last two years
but when that ran out the need to
medicate did not Derrick started using
heroin and when the funds to pay for the
heroin ran out Derrick ended up selling
heroin Derrick was arrested and as I
said in and out of prison for the last
10 years a total of seven years imagine
where were you 10 years ago imagine
seven years of that being inside a
prison cell begs to differ so it's an
odd question to think about and Derrick
thought there was no hope and one day he
was in his prison cell and he felt he
had a big slop around the back of the
head and he just said I need to turn my
life around he got out of prison last
year and he applied for a job with our
organization Derrick is now in in
full-time employment and since securing
his job he's been able to pay his bills
and see his kids again but what if
Derrick never had to go through the
prison system
what would our criminal justice system
have looked like for Derrick well first
and foremost his drug addiction would
have been sorted in Portugal when he
went to Norway he'll have been really
rehabilitation and supported by the
governors and the guards in the prison
and by the time he was released to
Singapore he wouldn't have to have
worried about finding a house or finding
extra support for his problems because
the government would have supported him
in doing that
Derrick pulled himself up by issues and
managed to get himself a job and turn
his life around
in fact Derrick's now a qualified tutor
dedicating every day to supporting other
people with criminal convictions to turn
their life around and I think that's
absolutely incredible and extremely
powerful so when I asked the question of
if we worked with criminals to make
society safer I don't think that's the
right question the question is what if
we worked with people like Derek to make
society safer thank you
[Applause]