Of angels and devils

By Peter Lee-Wright Producer of Little Angels

An estimated 80% of Britain's youth prisoners will re-offend after release, and the majority of these crimes are drug-related. A groundbreaking BBC film explores the drugs and crime cycle from the young offenders' point of view.

Michelle Pickthall was serving six months for theft when we first met her.

She was released from prison when she was 19 and was determined to steer clear of the heroin that led her there.

"Now I'm coming out, going straight and staying straight," she said.

Michelle wanted to 'go straight' after her release

Shaun Mann was 20 when he got out after serving a year for theft.

With the support of his mother Angela, he too was hoping to stay clean.

"I had to rob to feed my habit," he said.

"I wanted to get caught so I could get off the gear. Jail's the best place to get clean."

Through a combination of documentary interviews and improvised dramatisations, Michelle and Shaun tell in their own words their story of trying to go straight and stay straight.

Childhood trauma

Michelle's world fell apart when she was 10 and her mother died of cancer.

She was taken in by her grandparents after her father struggled to cope.

She ran away when she was 13 and ended up working the streets with a heroin habit.

Heroin takes you to the depths, then digs deeper, till even death is a risk worth taking

Michelle Pickthall

"I have been a prostitute since I was 13," she said.

"That was when I found myself on the streets and then I started using smack to forget, forget about the punters I had to go with to get the money to buy the gear."

Shaun and his brother were only little when his parents were divorced and his mother had struggled hard to bring them up decently.

Falling in with a bad crowd, Shaun was excluded from school at 14 and has been on heroin since he was 15.

Seductive

Heroin offers a seductive way to occupy Michelle and Shaun's time and obliterate the hurt, but at a price.

Once embarked upon, it is virtually impossible to stop.

Shaun said all the people he knew were "smackheads and losers".

Shaun hopes he can get his life back on track

"Every kid I used to know around here was on the gear...most of us are inside now," he said.

Michelle said heroin made her feel "warm, relaxed, snuggled up in a hundred comfort blankets".

"It made me forget everything, made everything go away," she said.

"Heroin takes you to the depths, then digs deeper, till even death is a risk worth taking."

Both have tried to go straight, but no-one around them believed they would or could.

Lack of support

With no support other than a weekly visit to a probation officer, the outcome is all too predictable.

The terms of their licence requires them to return to an agreed address, which almost invariably means to the home territory and community that introduced them to crime and drugs in the first place.

Youth crime

80% of young offenders sent to jail re-offend

75% of first-timers who are merely cautioned don't re-offend

They have nothing to occupy their time or promise them a future, other than their former associates.

Boredom alone counts for a considerable amount of recidivism.

Shaun hopes he can get his life back on track but questions whether he will succeed in his local area.

"What can you do in Skelton?" he said.

"What everyone does in towns like these - chase the next buzz to stop you from dying of boredom."

Breaking the cycle

Some Young Offender Institutions have very good drug rehabilitation and education units.

But often the inmate is not in long enough to complete their programme and they are still vulnerable when released to fend for themselves.

In fact, Angela, Shaun's mother, hopes he goes back to jail.

Angela has continued to support her son

"I think it's the best place for him," she said.

"He can get off the gear, but you're never totally relaxed because you know the day's going to come when he's back out again and then is it all going to flare up again?"

Shaun, now aged 21, was charged with theft in March 2002.

Instead of a prison sentence, Shaun currently adheres to a Drugs Testing and Training Order.

This requires him to attend for testing, probation, counselling, and picking up his daily methadone prescription.

He has currently fulfilled the terms of that order and will shortly start job training.

Shaun has been clean for three months.

Will these orders succeed in breaking the drugs and crime cycle?

Little Angels will be broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday, 13 August at 2100 BST