Ex-offender hopes 'to better the lives' of others

A Guernsey man who spent time in prison says he wants to set up a support group for ex-offenders.

Josh Coutu said he wanted to tackle the isolation many people felt coming out of prison.

"Isolation is what causes people to re-offend because everything they know is back inside," he said.

He said he hoped that a support group for those who were struggling would "help better the lives of other ex-offenders and then that positivity will wrinkle out to everyone".

In 2018, Coutu was sentenced three years in Les Nicolles prison for burglary and possession of a controlled drug.

He said: "I regret what I did. I regret the harm I caused."

He said that time was a "horrible low" but he had since worked on himself with the help of his family and was now "so much better".

Coutu said re-building his life could have been made easier with more support from the prison ahead of his release.

He said: "They open the big door and you walk out, the door closes and that's it you're no longer their problem.

He added that "getting out of prison physically and mentally happened at very different times", and that his and his family's efforts were a big part in helping him rehabilitate.

But, for those who do not have that motivation or support system, Coutu said it could be a very different story.

He said: "A lot of them reoffend because they have nowhere safe to go... If you have nowhere safe to go, you're going to go back to where you felt safest and, for a lot of people, that's prison."

Coutu, who now works as a carpenter, added: "It was all through my own will, no-one helped me."

He said there needed to be a societal change in how prisoners were rehabilitated into the community and that there should be more "one-to-one time with each prisoner".

"Allocate the funds to something like that, you'd see a heavy decline in people reoffending," he said.

Les Nicolles Prison has been approached for comment.

It runs a "rehabilitation and resettlement" model, which it said "focuses on an integrated approach to assisting convicted offenders away from crime" which has been developed over the past 12 years.

The Mill Street Community Café offers voluntary positions to ex-offenders.

"If someone's got a history, they leave it on the doorstep," café director and manager David Savident said.

He added that spaces such as that were needed to offer those people a space to get back on their feet and into a routine.

He said: "I think it's really important that people can come, seek advice and seek a living."

Savident said he had worked with a number of ex-offenders over the years and that it had been a "privilege" to see the difference a job role can make.

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