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Ian Wright takes jail coaching team to St Augustine's School, Weymouth

11:00am Saturday 18th July 2009


FOOTBALL hero Ian Wright spoke about his own time behind bars when took his coaching team of young criminals to a Weymouth primary school.

The former Arsenal and England player visited St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School with four inmates from Portland’s Young Offender Institution.

The afternoon was part of Mr Wright’s new TV show Banged to Wrights, which aims to create a prison football team to eventually play in front of Premier League scouts.

Mr Wright also spoke about his own brush with the law.

He said: “I drove cars without the required papers and they caught me because I owed so much money.

“I went into Chelmsford Prison when I was 19 and it completely changed my life.

“It had a positive effect on me because I knew I did not want to end up in jail.

“It totally changed my thinking.”

The nine and 10 year olds from year five were delighted to meet the star – who is teaching the young offenders coaching skills to help with their rehabilitation.

They bundled him to the floor in excitement.

Mr Wright said: “I can’t thank the headmaster enough for giving us this opportunity.

“It’s something that we feel will benefit our boys and the children.

“They are trying to rectify what they’ve done.

“If I could say anything to any parents who might have concerns, the children are in the safest hands because the boys have got themselves in a position to be released through hard-work.”

All of the inmates training the children were allowed to be released on temporary licence due to their behaviour in the YOI.

Mr Wright added: “The guys don’t want to be in prison and they’re here because they’re model prisoners.

“We need people like the headmaster to have open minds as they deserve a chance.”

Wright is hoping that the scheme can continue for a long time, with local schools welcoming the young offenders.

Headteacher Stephen Mason said it was great for St Augustine’s.

He said: “It’s not often we have a famous person in school. I think having a very special footballer here is obviously great and the inmates know what they are doing because they were taught by Ian Wright himself.

“He knows a thing or two about the sport.”

Rebecca Plummer came to see her son Richard.

She said: “I’ve explained to my son that they’ve come from the YOI.

“All kids do things wrong sometimes.”

After learning football skills from the prisoners with his classmates, pupil Arran Sawyer said: “It’s been great doing the football and meeting Ian Wright.

“The coaches have been great and they should come again.”

Fellow pupil Sophie Warwick, aged 10, said: “I’ve seen Ian Wright on television. We want them to come again even.”


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Your Say YourDorset

southwellman, Southwell says...
10:49am Sun 19 Jul 09

I read a few lines of this...... I think its absolutely appauling that people who have broken the law are getting a dream chance the law abiding people will never have! What sort of message does this send out... Its send the message hmmm lets go mug an old lady, sell drugs or steal things to get a chance to play football with Wright! This should be stopped now! they are in the borstal because they are vicious little irks and not to be molly coddled... feed the little gits bread and water and punish them!!!

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Tike, Weymouth says...
7:22pm Sun 19 Jul 09

What a lovely story, hopefully the inmates will be learning skills which they may then be able to use whilst trying to reintegrate into society upon their release and the children have also benefited. They have presumably been supervised constantly around the children, only sad thing is that this type of thing will be impossible when the new vetting and barring rules are introduced.

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Techie, Weymouth says...
8:42pm Sun 19 Jul 09

southwellman wrote:
I read a few lines of this...... I think its absolutely appauling that people who have broken the law are getting a dream chance the law abiding people will never have! What sort of message does this send out... Its send the message hmmm lets go mug an old lady, sell drugs or steal things to get a chance to play football with Wright! This should be stopped now! they are in the borstal because they are vicious little irks and not to be molly coddled... feed the little gits bread and water and punish them!!!
And how exactly does that approach teach these lads the skills they need to get on in life and leave crime behind them?

Consider these statistics from the Social Exclusion Unit: "Many prisoners’ basic skills are very poor. 80 per cent have the writing skills, 65 per cent the numeracy skills and 50 per cent the reading skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old child. 60 to 70 per cent of prisoners were using drugs before imprisonment. Over 70 per cent suffer from at least two mental disorders. And 20 per cent of male and 37 per cent of female sentenced prisoners have attempted suicide in the past. The position is often even worse for 18–20-year-olds, whose basic skills, unemployment rate and school exclusion background are all over a third worse than those of older prisoners."

Better still, read the full report to get some context on what's going on in this story. http://bit.ly/2wslt0

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Techie, Weymouth says...
8:47pm Sun 19 Jul 09

And without wishing to become a two-post mentalist, I note your use of the antediluvian term 'borstal' and your subsequent keenness of punishment - this was certainly not the intention of the Borstal system, the ethos of which was educational and not punitive.

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southwellman, Southwell says...
6:30am Tue 21 Jul 09

Ahhh Techie!,, Seems you are a PC loving, tree hugging do gooder that has just about turned this world of ours in to the maddest place ever! I used the word “Borstal” purposely. It was not build to molly coddle the inmates who lets face it broke the law! Not because they come from impoverished back round but because they had a choice between right and wrong and they chose wrong! I came from a poor backround and I didn’t feel the need to steal, mug people or take drugs so it is not an excuse! They should be punished more severely... And before you say they should not they are being punished by restriction of freedom! Sending them to school is a total sham! Kids learn off role modals so sending a criminal to a school with a soccer legend is not showing the best role model to kids! Its still saying its alright to break the law because if we do we get to meet people like Ian Wright! Why should the tax paid have to folk out for extra security to look after a bunch of criminals? It does not matter in my book what they have done and when they have done their time should they be given the chance to prove they are worthy to be let back in to society! Please Techi take your green ideas and move somewhere else... preferably the south pole so your Pc daft ideas don’t affect the normal people!

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Techie, Weymouth says...
12:21pm Tue 21 Jul 09

I'm not suggesting that inmates haven't broken the law. They have and have been convicted and sentenced by a court and entrusted to the prison service, one of whose duties is to help those prisoners 'lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after release.'

If you don't address their offending behaviour through rehabilitation, education or whatever you're not going to make one jot of difference to reducing reoffending. All this molly coddling you're so obsessed with actually managed to reduce repeat offending in adults by just over 9% between 2001 and 2007. So enough with the ramble and the tree hugger insults, come up with some statistics, or a link or something to prove your way will work.

Did you bother to read the statistics I posted or the SEU report? The prevelance of mental health issues in the prison population is on a scale you just don't see outside; the 70% in the prison population with a defineable mental illness can be compared to between 0.4% and 11% in the general population. This can be treated and addressed.

Literacy and numeracy are poor - see the statistics above. This can again be addressed through education. You can quite easily learn the basics of a trade in prison, which gives you something to build on when you get out.

I get the feeling you're not really going to get the point of my argument, or be particularly interested in my response. If you want to have a serious discussion let me know.

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Former England footballer Ian Wright meets St Augustine’s School pupils Former England footballer Ian Wright meets St Augustine’s School pupils


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