Teenagers get a second chance with Dennis Stinchcombe

Bristol sports scheme sets teens straight
Wednesday, October 01, 2008,

A pioneering Bristol sports scheme that has helped young offenders turn their lives around has been held up at the Conservative party conference as a shining example to cut crime.
Youth worker Dennis Stinchcombe told activists at the Birmingham rally that the Second Chance initiative, which runs intensive sports training sessions for convicts, was helping to restore pride in the teenagers.
The boys, aged 15-18, are referred by Ashfield Young Offenders Institute and start with a day-release course in boxing, football coaching and first aid.
Sharing a platform with Helen Newlove, whose husband Garry was killed by teenage thugs, was Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve who set out his vision for stopping crime.
Mr Stinchcombe said the project was in its early days but so far had a good success rate.

"The Second Chance project is about working with young people who are hard to reach and we use sports as a platform to do that," he said.
"So far we have had about a dozen boys go through it and have had a good rate of preventing re-offending.
"We are providing role models for the boys that they might not otherwise have. Let's get some pride back into the country and pride back into young people."
A raft of proposals were announced at the session including support for 'have-a-go' heroes prepared to intervene when they see crimes being committed on the streets and putting 500 officers on the beat by slashing police paperwork.
Changes would also be made to the restrictive health and safety rules that apply to the police and sharia courts would be given no authority over criminal and family law matters.
Shadow Home Secretary Grieve said: "We'll scrap the Whitehall targets that encourage police to pick on soft targets.
"We'll amend the police guidelines so officers back those who use reasonable force to maintain the Queen's peace.
"And we'll ensure that the code for Crown Prosecutors is amended so it is crystal clear that it is not in the 'public interest' to prosecute those who perform a citizen's arrest in good faith."