Source: AFP
Cameron Moseley hopes to never go back to prison thanks to a pioneering scheme in London which aims to reduce re-offending by training ex-prisoners to become bike mechanics.
The XO Bikes program responds to Britain’s new Labor government’s intention to reduce overcrowding in prisons, in part by rehabilitating prisoners so they can find work.
“There’s not a lot of work out there for people like me,” said Moseley, 30, who has been in and out of prison three times.
He was most recently released in July after serving a two-year sentence for actual bodily harm.
His probation officer referred him to XO Bikes, a charity set up two years ago that takes participants through a six-week course on how to build and repair bikes.
They can then either work as mechanics for XO Bikes, where they can earn around £26,000 ($34,000), or use industry-standard qualifications to apply for work elsewhere.
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“If I didn’t have this I’d probably turn to crime again,” Moseley told AFP at the XO Bikes repair shop in Lewisham, south-east London.
The initiative was launched in March 2022 by Stef Jones, a 58-year-old former advertising executive.
Source: AFP
He came up with the idea while volunteering at Brixton Prison in south London, where he saw prisoners returning to prison because they were often unable to find work after being released.
“If nobody else is going to give you a job, I’m going to give you a job,” Jones said he remembered thinking at the time.
The scheme sees vetted participants repair bikes donated by various groups including the Metropolitan Police, rail companies, companies and members of the public.
Every donated bike is stripped down and cleaned, and then every part, from the brakes and gears to the tires and frame, is tested, rebuilt, and then tested again.
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Refurbished bikes are returned to their original finish or branded XO Bike and stamped with a unique number for the ex-prisoner who repaired it.
The bikes are sold on XO’s website and in its two stores, with profits then reinvested into the program.
“You’ve got a bike with a past and a guy with a past, and you’re giving them both a crack at a decent future. That’s the idea,” Jones said.
Trainees also gain “a routine, companionship, support, encouragement, confirmation that you belong on this side of the street, that you have options,” he added.
Timpson
Gary Oakley, 38, says the scheme has given him purpose and a sense of “pride” since he left prison in April after serving 18 months for assault.
Source: AFP
“Having something to look forward to keeps me from being depressed, sitting in a closed space and going out the other side and ending up back in.”
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UK government statistics estimate that around one in four prisoners re-offend, costing England and Wales around £18 billion a year.
It contributes to the prisons being almost in force. Earlier this month the government was forced to release 1,700 prisoners early to ease overcrowding.
After coming to power in July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer — a former human rights lawyer and attorney general — appointed businessman and justice reform advocate James Timpson as prisons minister.
Timpson’s family-owned key-cutting business has training academies in dozens of prisons, with ex-convicts making up 10 per cent of its workforce.
He believes prisons should become “restorative” and wants more companies to hire adults with criminal records.
The Department of Justice estimated in a 2013 study that 18 percent of ex-prisoners reoffended within a year, but the rate rose to 43 percent for those out of work.
Source: AFP
About 65 ex-convicts have completed the XO Bikes program, Jones said, with some graduates working at major sports companies.
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Only two participants subsequently submitted a repeat.
“It’s working,” said Jones, who now wants to replicate the plan with a barbering class.
Source: AFP
