THE Scottish Executive has pulled the plug on the Lanarkshire based ''Airborne Initiative'' [pictured], a project that for the last 10 years has worked relentlessly with the most damaged, socially deprived and excluded young people that any youth project could attempt to work with. The reason for pulling the funding is said to be that the project has failed with these, almost unmanageable, young men.
Only 50% of these young men have managed to complete the gruelling programme that aims to get them to face up to their mistakes, take responsibility for their actions and learn new social skills to stop them offending. The 50% who have completed the programme have been able to return to their multi-deprived communities, to lead a more law-abiding life, socially acceptable lifestyles. That in my book is a monumental success. Those who have failed are likely to be those who have major mental health issues, addictions for which we have no readily available cure, been abused in our care systems and have had to survive a lifetime of being told that they are a failure.
Well, the public should be careful not to judge too quickly the so-called failure of the dedicated Airborne Initiative team and the courageous young men who dared to have some hope of a better lifestyle. These young men were prepared to stand out from the crowd, behave differently from their offending peer group in order to complete the course and keep themselves out of our over-populated prisons.
The politicians say this was a failure. How can that be when every measure that has been taken, by every political party, to improve the success rate of prisons by reducing re-offending rates has failed miserably? For decades around 80% of those entering the prison system have returned to prison within two years. If that is supposed to be a success, then it is time that our political masters joined a numeracy class to understand basic maths.
The short-term thinking of politicians never fails to amaze me. A programme like this initiative that has only been running for 10 years cannot be measured against a prison system that has been in existence for hundreds of years.
Max Cruickshank,
13 Iona Ridge,
Hamilton.
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