LeRoy Tales - Chapter One

The LeRoy Tales

Over the next few months or so I plan to share with you some stories of my time working with probation clients. The stories take place in a number of unspecified locations over unspecified period of time and the clients names have been changed in the innocent (until proven guilty).

Chapter One

I first met LeRoy at a 1:1 IAG interview for a major training provider. I recall clearly that this was the first of many, many times that he would correct me on the pronunciation of his name "Not Leroy man, LeRoy!".

LeRoy was a young man in his late teens and so soon to lose the get out of jail free card that the 'youth' label could bring back in the day. He had volunteered, in a manner of speaking, for a behavioural change programme designed to defuse his criminal aspirations and improve his employability.

This interview would determine his suitability and over the next 30 minutes LeRoy guaranteed his place on the programme.

It was two weeks later that LeRoy, nine potential homies, and I gathered in a room large enough for 11 chairs and 1 small desk but small enough to test the claims of the leading brands of deodorant. This would be the first of ten 50 minute group coaching sessions designed to elicit sustained behavioural change in offenders/ex-offenders.

After the standard health & safety, domestics, contract setting and icebreaker, I discover that I shall have the pleasure of working with; Andy, Iqbal, Jimmy, Kevin, Peter, Andrew, James, Chandra, Hassan and of course LeRoy for the ensuing weeks.

The time had come to ask the first of many 'hard questions' that would be asked during the course of the programme. "Who here can honestly say that they cannot see themselves ever giving up their life of crime?"

The hands of the group's three eldest members rise in the air, a little too proudly and a little too quickly for my liking and I am unable to hide my disappointment particularly well.

Andy's, Andrew's and LeRoy's hands remain in the air whilst I make and hold eye contact with each one in turn, as contact breaks their hands lower.

"What is it that's going on in your lives right now that allows you to feel OK about making a statement like that? That's assuming that you do feel OK about making it and that you're not feeling obliged to make it because you is gangsta?"

LeRoy: "I ain't no gangsta blood, it's just how it is!"

"OK! Leroy, I need you to educate me now and tell me about your life, so that I can begin to get an idea of exactly how it is for you. Are you up for that?"

LeRoy: "Sure! but first things first. If you're going to talk to me you need to be getting my right, it's LeRoy not Leroy, ya understand me?"

"Seen!"

LeRoy: "And this shit ain't going back to probation?"

"I'm just looking for an overview LeRoy not a crime watch report".

LeRoy: “My older brother is inside for dealing and assaulting a police officer, he is due out in three.  My little brother and sister both live with my auntie in Leeds.  I live mostly with my mother because she ain't too well and needs a little help.  I got another gaff where I stay with my girlfriend and my baby girl.  I ain't got a clue who or where the f_ _k my father is.  I got caught dealing is the first time last year and have been out four months, now I'm volunteering for this shit.  So what else do you want to know.”

LeRoy summation is greeted with applause and cheers of agreement.

"Thank you, I hear you, and I’m getting a sense of what might cause you to make the decisions that you do.".

LeRoy nods emphatically.

"That said, would you agree that I could still call social services and they could provide it with examples of people in the same or similar situations to you but who have chosen not to pursue a life of crime"

LeRoy tilts his head to the left and shrugs shoulders.

"Would you be interested in finding out how they do that?  How they choose not to go down the crime route, despite having it as the only example when they were growing up, despite needing money for their family and their own kids."

LeRoy tilts his head once again but nods rather than shrugs this time.

From the rear left the room Andy pipes up with "Yeah, yeah, yeah and I suppose all he needs to enter this promise land is a f_ _ _king magic action plan, right?"

"Well I can't promise a magic one but there will be an action plan at some stage.  It's how the powers that be make sure that were not all here for an hour a week talking about football."

Andy: "They're a waste of time, they never work!"

Me: "Never?"

Andy: "Well my mine have never worked".

Me: "How many have you had exactly?"

Andy: "Six maybe seven".

Me: " Are the same things going wrong each time or is each disaster new and original?"

Andy: "Pretty much the same thing each time".

Me: "Give me three examples of what has gone wrong every time before".

Andy puckers up his lips while he thinks and then replies "Limited options, no support and the funding always runs out".

Me: "Always?"

Andy: "Always".

Me: "Okay!, these problems, do they occur in order, 1 causing 2 resulting in 3, or do they all just gang up on you at the same time".

Andy: " Yeah, yeah, they all just gang up".

Me: "Let's pretend that you have to give each problem a score between 0 and 10. 0 being not that bad really and 10 being royal pain in the arse.  Now they can't all have a top score so how would you mark each problem. Take your time, think it through and when you have an answer let me know".

Andy's lips have puckered once again so I know that he is thinking and he eventually comes up with the following scores; limited options = 8/10, no support = 6/10 and funding runs out = 10/10.

Me: "So how would it be if we, the whole group I mean, develop an action plan that had solutions to your three problems built in from the start.  That would make it ideal wouldn't it?"

Andy: "What makes you think this mob are going to help me out?".

Andy's remark results in various noises of dissent from the mob.

Me: "Because you are all going to need action plans and if we improve one then  those same improvements will strengthen everybody's making it more likely that they will succeed in getting what they want. Speaking of what you want, I need to be taking notes about that.  So during the coffee and fag break have a think about what you want from these sessions and be ready to let me know. For example; Leroy ooops!, LeRoy wants to be able to decide against a life of crime, while Andy wants an infallible action plan".

Andy: "What's infallible mean dude?".

Me: "Can't go wrong".

Andy: "Cool!".

Me: "Also be aware that if what you want is not to be here, then I can sort that out as well.  Don't get me wrong that's not a threat people, it's just a fact.  There is no point in your being here if you are not determined to get something out of it".

Coffee drunk, fags smoked, flipchart up and markers at the ready to record the following results:
LeRoy -- strategy to avoid a life of crime.
Andy -- Infallible Action Plan.
Andrew -- convince girlfriend to let him see his son.
Iqbal -- to obtain complete a motor mechanic apprenticeship.
Hassan -- Infallible Action Plan.
Jimmy – a move out of the area where his old gang plan to kill him.
Kevin -- Infallible Action Plan.
Peter -- Infallible Action Plan.
James – go back to college.
Chandra -- Infallible Action Plan.

“Okay guys listen up, we're going to have to finish up the session soon, so let me tell you about the homework. (More cries of dissent) Yes, yes more hardship, you get to do homework as well. It's not that bad really, all I want you to do is break down what you want into five separate headings, because smaller chunks are easy to work with right."

"I going to be doing homework of my own too; I going to be setting all of you up with Google mail accounts. These are to be used solely for communicating information about these sessions.  The only people, apart from you, that will have access to your account are me and your probation officer.  Your P.O. has to have access to it by law.”

“The idea behind the e-mail accounts is that if you know something that can help another member of this group then you don't have to wait for the next session to let them know.  It could be a job lead, information on a college course, benefits that they could apply for but they don't know about, basically anything helpful.”

“What I would like to see is this group becoming a small but highly supportive community, one that will continue to communicate and support each other even after these sessions are over.  I know from experience that you might not feel like doing it now but as the weeks go on and we get to know which other little better I feel sure that those feelings will change.  After all we are all decent human beings right, how could we not get along?.”

“The next time that we're here we’ll find out how to plan successfully.  We have all done it in the past, so it makes sense to take a look at the times when our plans have gone well and set about duplicating our actions in the here and now.”

“Lastly don't forget to sign the register on your way out and I’m looking forward to seeing you all next week, so for f­_ _k sake stay out of  trouble.”

To Be Continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Blog Quote: What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us -Ralph Waldo Emerson