 From
the Door of Prison Into Rehabilitation Sean is currently a T.H.O.M.A.S. Client I am 22 years and I come from the Preston area. I had a good childhood, but my father left when I was seven and my mother brought me up on her own. There weren’t the same problems that you find with other single parent families. I had everything I needed. My times in primary school was good, but when I got to high school I was bullied for about two years until I started to retaliate. I was expelled and I had to go to another school; I didn’t want to go through all the ‘fitting in stages’ again so I started nicking off and this is when I started to go off the rails. I began to go around with the wrong kind of people, and drinking and taking cannabis at week-end. I didn’t take any G.C.S.E.’s or any exams. And I started using cannabis everyday. When I was sixteen I went to clubs and took ecstasy cocaine or any other drugs connected to that scene. I did that for two years, no work just getting into crime. Tackling people on the street, those who were smaller than me, bullying them. When I was 18 I got into heroin. I remember the first time I took it I felt sick and after that things started to spiral out of control. I got into more serious crime, burglary, mugging people on the street. By the age of 20 I was in prison. I was quite scared at first not knowing what to expect; but after a few weeks I got used to it and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Really it was quite easy. I was given a C.A.R.A.T. worker who looked at my drug problem. I thought that I would be alright when I left, but within two days of leaving I was using again. That lasted for about three months before I was again arrested for burglary. I was sent to prison, but this time it was an adult one and it was a lot different than a young offender’s institute. I did a detox there then I was sent to Kirkham which is pretty bad for drugs. I got mixed up with drugs and I didn’t want to; then ended up escaping from there. I was out for about two weeks but I was picked up by the police, sent back to Preston and from there I was sent to Lancaster. Whilst I was there I reflected on my past years, realizing that over those years I had done nothing but use drugs, abuse myself and other people. I knew that I needed help but didn’t know how to go about it. I told one of the officers at Lancaster who gave me a copy of the ‘Edges’ magazine and a leaflet telling all about the work at T.H.O.M.A.S. I had known for a long time that I needed help but I was too obnoxious to ask for it. I finally did at Lancaster. On my day of release I came to T.H.O.M.A.S., and I will not say it’s been easy because it’s not it’s been quite hard. I have learned a lot of stuff about myself. I’ve learned good things and bad things; I’ve discovered who I am. One of the main things that stands out for me is – that I actually care for a lot of people. I love my mum and my family and I don’t think I really did when I was doing drugs. I’ve also discovered lots of skills that I have. I am a good listener, I can talk to people, in group sessions I can help people as well. I like that, because that’s the kind of career that I want to go into, mainly helping young-offenders. I want to do a counselling course at Blackburn College. I have some voluntary work set up with the youth service. Hopefully that will give me some ideas regarding the career I want with the young offenders. I also want to get on the Drama Workshop Group, that is a definite for me. It’s the Empowered Group at the T.H.O.M.A.S. project which runs a drama group, it goes out to schools, carrying the message that drugs use can ruin lives. It’s run by the ex-addicts and there is a large support group there. That’s what you need. I am also helping out in the drop-in on a daily basis. This serves meals to the homeless and I’m enjoying that as well. |
