Why ex-offenders should be given a role in cutting youth crime

Why ex-offenders should be given a role in cutting youth crime

Ex-prisoners have a lot to teach young people and will be listened to, says Stewart Dakers

Ex-prisoners know the streets, the youth on them, and what is in their heads. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty images

As the justice system struggles to address youth crime, there is one resource which could do more to retrieve and reform young people, to divert them from crime, and to restore a positive attitude in them than a dozen public enquiries and a battalion of QCs.

The people who know the streets, the youth on them, and what is in their heads, are people who have been there themselves, ex-prisoners. Yet they are never consulted.