A man who escaped a life of drugs and crime to work for a service supporting others has welcomed a key law change that will help people trapped in a “cycle of chaos” – but it could also add significant pressure to his caseload.
James Kelly works as a substance use practitioner at the Nottingham Recovery Network, which is based in Hounds Gate, Nottingham, and led by the Framework charity.
The Clean Slate team at the organisation helps support drug and alcohol users who have been in and out of the criminal justice system.
Birmingham-born Mr Kelly started using drugs at a young age, and was in and out of prison throughout his teens and beyond.
However, he eventually left the West Midlands to come to Nottingham, where he turned his life around and eventually began volunteering.
He now works for the team, working closely with the police, probation service, prisons, courts and community safety to provide trauma and recovery support for those in a cycle of substance use and re-offending.
Clean Slate also plays a key role in the Open2Recovery scheme, which provides access to residential rehabilitation for people experiencing repeated cycles of substance use and offending.
“Nothing really changed for me until I started to get shown compassion,” he said.
“It has helped me in what I do now, because I share that same compassion for people, and I sort of have a bit of insight into what people are struggling with. I can advocate for people.”
At the end of May, the significant change to the Sentencing Act is coming into force, which will see fewer short-term sentences – those less than 12 months – handed out by the criminal justice system.
Framework, which delivers four criminal justice substance use services across the region, says fewer short-term sentences will help stop people cycling in and out of prison, unable to rebuild their lives upon release each time.
“I’ve done a lot of short-term prison sentences, so there wasn’t a chance for me to be rehabilitated,” Mr Kelly added.
“To get on any sort of rehabilitation course, you need to be serving over 12 months, so essentially you are left to your own devices, and you come out, and you are trapped in that cycle. What I love about Clean Slate is they are doing things differently.
“Short-term sentences have really been harming our service users. The short prison sentences contribute to levels of homelessness going up, people being so chaotic; hopefully, after a period of about a year to two years, it will start to settle as people start to get housed and get their lives back together.”
However, the change means significant pressure could land in the laps of the Clean Slate team, including Mr Kelly as a practitioner.
Jez Wilson, the regional strategic manager of Framework’s criminal justice substance use services, said: “What you will see is the inception of more community sentencing treatment requirements.
“I was in a strategic meeting today; the rough estimate of numbers is that you’ll see a significant increase in people coming into service, and that will impact on capacity.”
Mr Wilson said that the service could see the number of cases increase by 200.
Despite this, no further funding is planned.
“Even if it is 50, it is a lot,” he added.
“So it is about how do we respond as a criminal justice substance misuse service and the management of that, because there is no more money coming in. What do we do? Some of that is we have to change how we manage or be more innovative in our interventions.
“It never comes with the money. We are talking about a substantial increase in people being managed in the community; what does that look like from a capacity and financial sense? Well, it is going to be at capacity because there is no financial support coming in.”
The team is trying to come up with ways to negate the impact, which could mean some service users are seen in group settings rather than on a one-to-one basis.
While Mr Kelly said there could be problems, he sees the positives in the change and emphasised the group sessions could be beneficial for some service users.
“It has the potential to go each way,” he said.
“But we will be in a position to assess people to figure out if they will sit well in a group. I think sometimes a group can work better, because they will be coming up with their own solutions.
“You’ll have all the people with the lived experience coming up with their own ideas, so they are more likely to listen to each other rather than staff members.”
