Mobile prison cell shows children life behind bars

A van that has been converted into a mobile prison cell is showing young people the reality of life behind bars.

The Harmony Youth Project, based in Bolton, wants to highlight the consequences of knife crime by taking their van to community groups and schools.

Charlie Barrett started the Harmony Youth Project 25 years ago and works closely with young people to help them on the right path.

He said: "It's a new initiative, it's something we want to bring into schools as part of the team we're putting together to detract young people from anti-social behaviour, violent behaviour and knife crime."

The van has recently visited Meros World Foundation, a youth club in Fallowfield in Manchester, opened by Kelly Brown three years ago after her 16-year-old son Rhamero West was murdered after his first day of college in 2021.

The youth club his mother created after his death provides a safe space for more than 50 young people a week.

Barrett spoke to a group of children in the van about how a split-second decision to carry a knife can have a lasting impact.

Charlie said: "We're not here to preach, we're here just to tell it as it is. It's not just me it's people who have been on the wrong end of knife crime and who have lost loved ones and the ripple effect that it's had."

Brown, who also gives workshops about the issue of knife crime in schools, colleges and prisons, said: "As we know knife crime is getting younger and younger. It's peer pressure probably fear, one thing for me it's not having anything to do. They're just on the streets bored."

Reflecting on how life would be living in a prison cell, Freya, one of the children who got to see inside the van, said: "If I was to stay in here for a long time I would not be very happy with myself."

Another child, Logan, added: "Just don't do it, just don't carry knives, if you do it you're going to ruin your life and their family's lives."

The mobile prison van has now been given council funding to go into secondary schools.

Barrett and his team are urging people to get in touch if they have got a knife crime issue in their area, so they can help to get the message across: don't carry knives, save lives.

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