By the age of 15 Chris felt he had nothing going for him

Chris is painfully aware of how he came to be here, serving his second sentence at Onley Young Offenders Institution, near Rugby.

Now 20, he is keen to use education to break the cycle and start living a legitimate life after prison.

If he'd gone to school in the first place, he concedes, he probably wouldn't be here serving 18 months for stealing high performance cars.

While he was growing up near Bromley in Kent, Chris - who didn't want his surname published - says primary school posed no problems.

"It was when I got settled into secondary school I started being a little bit of a brat. I was just messing around with my mates all the time, bunking off, getting into trouble.

I was always with people that wanted to mess around so I used to join in - I thought it was funny at the time Chris Me and my education

"It got serious - going out, stealing and that, and just basically lying to my mum all the time.

"I used to smoke a lot of dope then. I think that caused a good part of my problems, because it stopped me from working, and just messed my head up.

"I've never been thick, it was just getting motivated to work.

"I was always with people that wanted to mess around so I used to join in. I thought it was funny at the time. It's obviously backfired on me now..."

Chris was expelled so often he was sent to a behaviour centre connected to the school.

"I was in there for about three or four months then I finally got expelled permanently, for fighting or something like that. I can't remember the exact reason, there were so many."

"I was 15 and basically didn't have nothing going for me. I was on probation all the time, going to court for nicking and things.

"I just really wasn't learning from nothing, I just kept on going out doing the same thing, doing the same thing. I was trying to change but it was hard."

'Shocked'

Looking to the future was not a priority, he says.

"You just don't think like that when you're a kid.

"Then it started getting serious. I weren't doing it for the joke, I was going out making money to survive.

"I was thieving from shops and all sorts. But I never did house burglaries or street robberies."

During one court case his solicitor persuaded him to enrol on a literacy and numeracy course, to try to avoid prison.

"But it was stupid shitty work, for kids.

"I didn't get the custodial sentence, but I wasn't getting anywhere. All it did was save me for a few more months."

Shortly after he moved out of home and in with a girlfriend he was arrested for a violent offence, aged 16.

"It was a fight that happened that I was involved in somehow..."

They are often scared of education, they have been told they are thick Cymbre Baseley, prison education manager

After a year and a half on bail - during which time he had found a job - he was sentenced to a year at Onley for violent disorder.

"It was my first time in prison, so I was a bit shocked.

After four months inside he was electronically tagged and released.

"I was out for six weeks and I had no money so I was going out making some while I was on the tag - taking cars and that.

"One day I got arrested, and they said I'd breached all my conditions.

"When they let me out the police station I cut the tag off. I was basically wanted. I split up with my girlfriend, my head was messed up."

Chris was on the run for 18 months - during which time he worked in construction in the UK and France - before the police caught up with him.

"They banged me straight to prison for about four months and then I had to go to court for the theft of the Porsche.

Maths exam

"This time I've used my time quite wisely. Last time I was in this prison I was just messing around.

These days he can be seen getting his head down at the prison's education department, which is run by Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham.

Education manager Cymbre Baseley said it was often difficult to persuade the prisoners to take up their education again.

"The biggest barrier to educating people here is their pre-conceived ideas.

"They are often scared of education; they have been told they are thick; they think it will be like school, that it's a waste of time."

But Chris hopes it'll provide a way out of his former lifestyle.

"I've just got on with my work and really got into it. And I'm always going to the gym and keeping myself fit, and I've given up smoking.

So what's changed?

Persuading young offenders to carry on their education is difficult

"As you get older you've got to realise you're just throwing everything away, haven't you?"

Chris sat his maths GSCE this summer, and has been learning skills in gym instruction and reflexology,

"I'm going to carry reflexology on for one night a week at a college on the outside, to get the diploma."

He's also doing a European Computer Driving Licence course, learning how to build and fix PCs.

He's cagey about home life, only briefly mentioning that his parents used to split up a lot when he was growing up, but are still together.

Chris hasn't seen his mum in nine months, he says, but hopes to stay with her for a few weeks after he gets out.

"I don't want my mum to come visit me all the way up here. She gets on with her life, I just don't want her getting involved in all this sort of mess. Why should I make her suffer?

"I've told her on the phone I'm out in a few weeks so it doesn't really matter."

On the outside, Chris knows he will struggle to get housing, and is likely to suffer discrimination if he discloses his record to potential employers.

"I'm going to try and get onto a plumbing course. And I'm definitely going to finish my reflexology, because my brother's girlfriend is looking to open her own shop. We might sort out a business.

"I'll just have to see what's out there for me.

"I do wish I'd gone to school, because it would probably have made me a better person. I probably wouldn't have gone down the same road that I did."