We finally have the figures detailing our Sycamore Tree provision for the last financial year:
Courses 114 (our third best year!)
Prisons 36
Learners 2,164 (highest ever number!)
Completed 1,988 92%
Passes 1,948 98% (highest ever pass rate!)
of those 1,948 passes, 186 achieved level 1 (9.5%) and 1,762 achieved level 2 (90.5%)
At least 49 different surrogate victims shared their story. At least 253 group facilitators helped 45 tutors to deliver the courses. That is around 350 volunteers actively involved, inside prison walls, delivering a programme which not only makes offenders look at themselves and their victims in a way they probably never have, but also offers a different taste of justice to the one we are all used to.
This is a fantastic set of results and is testament to the hard work and commitment of all those ST Tutors, Group Facilitators and Surrogate Victims, not to mention the many supporters and Prayer Group members who have continually held Sycamore Tree in their prayers, and prison staff - the support of whom is utterly invaluable.
Since the First Sycamore Tree course at HMP The Mount in 1998 our historical results are as follows:
Courses 1,043
Learners 16,348
Completed 15,415 (94.2%)
Passes 10,116 (93.3%) (since accreditation in 2004-05)
What an achievement! 1,043 Sycamore Tree courses and over 16 thousand learners!
With the evidence we have (and have had for 6 years) to prove the changes in attitudes in offenders who take Sycamore Tree, alongside the widely reported figures on the impact of Restorative Justice on the scandalous reoffending rates we have in this country, I just can’t believe the government aren’t falling over themselves to get Sycamore Tree into every prison in the land.
For £40,000 a year you can pay for one prisoner to be a prisoner, and you’ll give yourself less than a 1 in 3 chance of not paying for him to be a prisoner again within two years of his release. Alternatively you can pay for his initial imprisonment plus £3,600 for him and 19 of his co-residents to take a course that will halve their chances of returning (based on generic RJ figures), thus saving potentially tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds.
Our trans-Atlantic cousins have a phrase that has crept into our colloquial terminology. A phrase that I feel would be apt at this point; this is “A NO BRAINER.”
We are very pleased with the results I have detailed above and we very much look forward to the time when our leaders will give us the opportunity to change the hearts and minds of offenders in every prison in the land.
