A PRISON officer holds the key to keeping Bolton's youngsters out of jail . . . with his stark, no nonsense presentation of life behind bars. Mr George Hayden has been a prison officer at Hindley for almost 12 years, and is one employee who has decided to put his efforts into cutting down on his 'clients'. He has become increasingly disillusioned by the ever growing number of younger inmates, and as the average age of prisoners in the young offenders' institute dropped to below 17, he decided it was time to act.
He started what was to become his 'one man' crusade at Farnworth's St James' CE School, where his daughter was a pupil. That was about three years ago, and since that time, George has spoken to more than 10,000 students, covering Bolton, Wigan, areas of Salford and even parts of Merseyside.
The presentation has been developed and delivered during his own spare time and out of his own pocket, and has been mirrored by a national initia0tive carried out in other parts of the country.
However, George remains very much an independent force. He said: "I really enjoy giving the presentations. I gave the first one and the response was fantastic. It has snowballed and I feel it is the only truly positive thing I get to do.
Brutal
"I cannot give anyone any figures on my success, but if I can keep one youngster away from prison it makes it all worthwhile.
"When I started working at Hindley the lads in there were mainly around the 20 year age. Now about 90 per cent of them are aged under 17 years.
"It is not a rosy picture that I paint. Prison is a hard, brutal environment and I can often scare the life out of the kids I speak to. I simply tell them the truth.
"I know that perhaps 85 per cent of the children I speak to will never go to prison, because that is the way they are, and have been brought up. A small percentage are not interested in what I say at all, because no matter what they hear, they will unfortunately probably end up in trouble. I concentrate particularly on the 'maybes' - the kids who do not fall into either category."
As part of the presentation George brings in props - including weapons and clothing. In addition, he has a video of prison life.
He said: "Initially, I took in a camcorder film I had done, but I approached Salford University for help, and they developed a video which has since been used as a documentary."
George speaks not only to schools, but Parent Teacher Associations, and a variety of other groups and organisations.
But he needs more support for the presentation to progress. He said: "I think the project needs more help and hopefully the publicity will show that we as a service care and want to help prevent youngsters being scarred by a term of prison."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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