Prison! Me! No! Way! replacement scheme could start within weeks

Friday 24 February 2023

A scheme to replace the popular Prison! Me! No! Way programme which was offered in schools could begin before Easter – although no dates have yet been confirmed.

The initiative ran sessions, primarily aimed at students in Year 8, designed to educate students about the consequences of crime.

It was suspended prior to the covid pandemic to allow the Home Affairs Department to review future funding, but then the scheme was dropped altogether with no clear alternative being proposed.

Video: Prison! Me! No Way!!! was introduced in the island as an independent charity in July 2005.

Last year, Home Affairs Minister Helen Miles confirmed that she was hoping to reintroduce a replacement education programme in schools and hoped to launch pilot sessions this year.

During a quarterly hearing of the Children’s, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing on Thursday, the minister revealed that the pilot could begin during this school term.

Deputy Miles said: “We have appointed an officer to run the programme. He has been trying to communicate with the schools and get some pilot sessions in place. The initial pilots would be to children in Year 7 and we are still hoping that those sessions will begin before Easter.”

Pictured: Home Affairs Minister, Deputy Helen Miles

Elsewhere in the hearing, Deputy Miles said that the “ramifications” from the explosion at the Haut du Mont block of flats on Pier Road could last several years. She added that it would have “significant costs” but that there is “a commitment from Government that the necessary funding will be found to do the job that needs to be done”.

“The thing I need to say is this is not going to be over any time soon. We are expecting the ramifications of this incident to last for years,” she added.

Pictured: The ramifications of the Haut du Mont investigation could last years, according to Deputy Miles. Photo credit: Jon Guegan

The minister also committed to a review of the island’s firearms legislation in light of recent inquests held in Plymouth into a series of shootings in 2021 carried out by gunman Jake Davison.

Strong criticism was levelled at the Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms unit in granting Davison – who killed five people - a licence, and subsequently failing to revoke it.

Deputy Miles said: “It is important to say that the current firearms law was passed in, I think, 2000, but actually developed in about 1995 and there has been a considerable change in public expectations since then and also in the variety of weapons available to the public.

"Another area that has recently raised the profile [of this area] was the recent inquest of Jake Davidson in Plymouth."

She added: "Although my ministerial plan prioritises this focus, I just need to say that ideally we would like to do that sooner, but the timing and limited resources available to us for revising legislation have meant that we have kept other proposals in train at the expense of this.”

The Scrutiny Panel hearing was chaired by Deputy Catherine Curtis sitting alongside Deputy Beatriz Porée and Constable Mark Labey.