Prisoners help put youngsters on the road to freedom

Recently the Northumberland Gazette covered our project in partnership with Recirculate and the Tyne Tunnel.

Twenty bikes that would have gone to landfill were refurbished by people impacted by the criminal justice system, working through our Changing the Cycle enterprise at HMP Northumberland. Every bike was fully serviced and certified road safe by a qualified mechanic. They were then donated to the Percy Hedley Foundation’s Percy Hedley and Northern Counties schools in Newcastle.

This is what we mean when we talk about transformation. The bikes are transformed. The young people receiving them gain new opportunities. And the prisoners who fix them gain qualifications and a pathway to employment on release.

We know from the evidence that employment is one of the strongest factors in reducing reoffending. So when we recirculate bikes, we are also recirculating lives. Fewer people going back to prison means fewer victims of crime. That is the logic of rehabilitation, and it works.