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The zig zag towards desistance

By 
Mike Guilfoyle
Monday, 1 December 2014

I vividly recall listening to reformed armed robber Bobby Cummines, co-founder of the ground breaking charity Unlock, speaking at my invitation to a Napo branch meeting about his decision to desist from robbing banks. He quipped that once platform shoes went out of fashion, he was unable to reach over the bank counter! This self -deprecating humour is peppered throughout his recent autobiography, which charts in unsparing and unglamorous detail his painful transformation from a high- profile violent offender and long-term prisoner to high profile penal campaigner and reformer.

Cummines’ compelling narrative reminded me of Tommy (not his real name) who I got to know whilst working at a probation office in an area of London memorably described by the local press as 'London at its most lawless'. Having been allocated statutory responsibility for Tommy's parole licence, he was nearing the end of a lengthy sentence for a botched bank robbery. I noted his depressingly long list of antecedent offences culminating in the robbery and the sentencing judge's damning comments, 'You are a serial offender and this type of offence is amongst the most serious to come before this court, I see little in your record to inspire any confidence that you have yet the resolve to change your ways'.  I had secured provision in a specialist Hostel as part of the agreed licence conditions and arranged day release from the local prison he had been moved to, so that Tommy could meet with his newly appointed Keyworker and myself to assess the viability and suitability of this approved accommodation.

The initial meeting was, to say the least, very challenging because Tommy had a very jaundiced perspective about having to share his room (after nearly a decade of incarceration) with another resident, preparatory to moving towards more independent living. The stressful realities of prolonged imprisonment and separation from family and friends meant that he was very suspicious of any attempts to offer what he noted 'was doing bird outside'. It was only after some measured and sensitively grounded exploration of how this provision (approved by the parole board) was a stepping stone to achieving his longer term aims of returning to live with extended family that progress was likely. After a number of telling encounters at the probation office, it was an unavoidable reality that the scene of his index offence was en route to the office and due concern had to be accorded to the presence of any victims or witnesses to the offence, living locally. This featured as part of our own supervisory oversight and it appeared to shake Tommy that he often was 'startled' when believing, however erroneously, that he was being 'watched' by his victims.  These tentative insights enabled some footholds to be established in shifting some of his entrenched thinking on the impact of his offending.

After one particular review meeting with his keyworker present, Tommy appeared to at the point of 'falling back on old ways'. He had been approached by one of his former associates (whose sentence was completed) about the prospect of 'easy money', and I noticed a palpable deterioration in his response and commitment to 'going straight'. He was wont to say, 'Mike you don't know what it’s like having no money', and the enticing lure of acquisitive crime beckoned. I steadied myself for what I sensed was a possible recall to prison, if I was to bring these worrying intimations to the attention of my somewhat over-judicious manager. I recognised the 'zig-zag' pathways that shape and influence desistance, those hard to measure grey areas that point towards the potential for positive change, so I held any immediate reservations in check. At our next meeting, Tommy appeared to have fought off his 'demons’, maybe a turnaround was on the cards? ‘Mike. I’m not going to do another sentence like that, no more bird, this time I just want to go straight, does that make sense?’. Tommy stuttered to the end of his parole licence, he waved at me on one occasion in the street shortly afterwards, I pondered as he did so, maybe he is also saying goodbye to his criminal past.