Taste of life behind bars for schoolchildren

Four hundred school children will be taken into custody by the Northern Ireland Prison Service this week to give them a first-hand taste of the realities of life behind bars.

Staff from Maghaberry, Magilligan and Hydebank Wood will take charge of their young ‘inmates’ for a day to teach them about the consequences of a life of crime.

The annual ‘Crime Days’ programme is part of the successful Prison! Me! No Way! Initiative in which prison officers speak to the young in schools and youth clubs.

First to get ‘banged up’ today are pupils from Killicomaine Junior High in Portadown, Co Armagh, to be followed tomorrow by those from Parkhall College in Antrim.

Prison officers will take the children through a series of workshops exploring different areas of offending behaviour.

The theme for the year is ‘Hoax Calls and the Consequences’, with a series of workshops conducted by the PSNI Drug Squad, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue service, O2 and prison officers from England.

Mrs Carmel Donnelly, whose son was killed when the stolen car he was in crashed, is discussing the devastation caused to families by so-called ‘joy-riding’.

Colin McAllister, co-ordinator of the programme said it was to make young people stop and think about their relationships without people who they trust and what the consequences could be if they get involved in crime.

“For the schools involved, it is a chance to show their own communities that they are tackling the pressures and problems facing young people.

“It is also an opportunity for young people to explore for themselves the issues affecting them in the community,” he said.