DIVERT is a custody intervention programme which helps 18-25 years olds in police detention choose a path in life that leads them away from crime and towards training, education, or employment.
The success of the programme is contingent on their team of specialist Custody Intervention Coaches, who engage with the detainees whilst in their cells and work with them upon their release.
We spoke with three coaches – Angel, Ros, and Tom – about how they get through to young people in their darkest hours, and what drives them to do this work.
What is your first encounter with a young person in custody like?
Tom: You approach their cell door, flip the wicket down, and from that point on, you know you’ve got a short window of time in which to get through to them. The beauty of Divert is that, for the young person in the cell, it’s a cold call. Most of the time they’re not expecting us, and they’re certainly not expecting someone to knock on their cell door offering them an opportunity.
Ros: As soon as I pull down the wicket, there’s an expectation that I’m a member of the Metropolitan Police. It’s nice to be able to say that I’m not the police, I’m independent, and that I’m here for a very informal chat to find out how they are. At that point, you can tell that they’re thrown and that I’ve sparked a curiosity, and it’s in that window that I can start to get through to them.
Tom: They’re expecting to see a policeman in uniform, not to see me in my Divert lanyard and Millwall FC tracksuit. The stakes are high because this contact is a one-off, and will determine whether we’ll ever hear from that person again.
Angel: In their cell, they don’t have their phone on them, their mates aren’t with them, they don’t have any distractions. Just four walls and their thoughts. It’s the perfect moment for intervention, so it’s no surprise that most people say yes and are willing to engage at that point.
What’s your philosophy/approach to engaging with a young person?
Ros: All us coaches come from different backgrounds, we’re all of different ages, we all have different lived experiences.
Tom: We’re all completely different in style and approach, but we’re working toward a common goal, to support young people to make better decisions. The work that we do is not scripted, it’s not robotic, we have to be adaptable and think on our feet. Some people respond well to direct honesty, others need more of an arm around their shoulder. It’s really about knowing your audience.
Angel: Each individual presents its own challenges. Some of them are ready to make a change in their lives and grab an opportunity with both hands. Some need help on their basic skills like communication, punctuality, confidence, and that's not to mention issues with health, housing, substance abuse. At this stage, the majority aren’t ready for employment, even though they may think or say that they are. So I try to develop an action plan with them that is realistic for them, but also that’s realistic for me as, having engaged them, I have to have the capacity and ability to follow through with my end of the bargain in spite of my own heavy caseload.
Ros: It’s about showing them that, actually you have got options whilst you’re in custody to speak to someone about starting to address the things in life that are affecting you. If I sell that to them, then I have to follow through. It’s about trust, and you’ve got to build that very quickly.
Ros: Once I’ve established that this is just an informal chat and it’s completely confidential, I've had consultations with young people where they’ve spoken to me for a whole hour. I’m trying to understand what’s brought them into custody, but without really discussing the details of their actual arrest or case. Often, the people who are involved in gangs are exhausted, and this is the first opportunity they’ve had to tell someone just how tired they are of that life and how difficult it is to leave the quick money behind. It requires working on their mindset to overcome the barriers they’ve put up to exploring training, educational, or employment opportunities, and that’s not quick work.
Tom: We might hear a young person say that there aren’t opportunities. Well, if one is presented to you in custody, you’d take it. But the ball is always in their court. If we don’t hear from them when they’re released, I don’t take it personally. They have to be ready within themselves to make a change. If we hear from them in a month, happy days, then we can do some work.
Angel: I had a person call me two whole years after I gave him my card in custody!
Tom: That’s the beauty of this programme. The door is never closed with Divert.
What are the top skills or qualities you have to exhibit in order to be effective?
Tom: Listening – Our work is about listening. Our fundament skill throughout our work with a young person is listening to them. The better I listen to the individual early on, the better I can decide how to work with them.
Angel: Listening - You need to be able to sit down and understand where a young person’s coming from, and what their struggles are. The conversation is informal, and I invite them to tell me about themselves and about their life, their hobbies, and their passions.
Ros: Listening – Sometimes it’s nice to give them an opportunity to educate you. I can’t pretend to fully understand what a young person’s going through, so I’ll ask them to tell me about social media, or the difficulties of relating across the generation gap to their parents. I find they appreciate being given the space to teach an adult something, and it makes them feel valued. And at the end of it, it’s not just been me talking to them; there’s been an exchange.
Angel: Non-judgemental – Most of them have been through hard times and their lives are chaotic. For them to then sit down in front of a stranger and open up about their problems, it’s also a challenge for them.
Ros: Objectivity – Being open and objective is important. We’re given some information about their convictions, but I’m not trying to lead with that. It’s about being non-judgemental and hearing their stories. This is their opportunity to talk to me – a release, a moment to just admit that they’re struggling and could do with some help. Just the other day, I had someone say ‘oh, I forgot where I was for a minute’ – maybe that’s also part of what we’re trying to do.
Tom: Solutions-focused – Being a coach, you have to be solutions-based. Yes, we listen to the circumstances that got you to this point and we respect that. I’m highly empathetic. However, at some point we need to start talking about solutions and there’s no better time to do it than now. We need to be forward thinking and proactive. Yesterday may not have been great, but tomorrow’s a new day.
Angel: Matchmaking – We rely heavily on our partners in the community to offer opportunities and support for these young people. As they’re talking to me in the consultation room, I already have a list in my mind of options that would be suitable for this individual, and I’m already trying to match them with our community of partners.
Tom: Adaptability - That’s the most difficult part, the engagement in the community. The custody suite’s a controlled environment. The moment they’re released and are back out in the community, the chaos resumes. If you can pick up contact and sustain it at this point, then you’ll almost always achieve good outcomes, so being able to adapt to the individual’s circumstances and get them to take responsibility becomes crucial.
Have you noticed any trends in who you’re coming across in custody?
Angel: We have to look at the characteristics of those coming through to us and I’ve seen that there’s a strong link between those who end up in custody and those excluded from education.
Ros: A lot of young people have had negative educational experiences which they’ve taken right through to adulthood. I’ve asked young adults in custody whether if they’d had a different educational experience, do they think their outcomes would have been different? A lot of the time, the answer is yes. My background is working in prisons. There’s so much wasted talent that I’ve met in prison. I think if many had just had a positive educational experience, they simply wouldn’t be there.
Angel: We have to then ask ourselves, why are schools giving up on young people if we know that this is where it leads?
Ros: At the same time, I’ve also had people who have had positive educational experiences. For example, why would a young man in the final year of his business degree be brought in for potential drug supply? On the face of it, it doesn’t add up. But unfortunately, I think society and culture has sold them a lie on what success looks like, and equating it to material possessions, being able to show you’re ‘living your best life’, and social media lifestyles is exacerbating this pressure. Not to mention the prospects of paying off huge student debts in a shrinking jobs market. I was born in the 70s. There are so many more pressures young people have to contend with growing up now than I did in my youth. I can empathise with that.
Tom: Were seeing more and more under-18s taking risks with behaviours and finding themselves in custody. That’s where the money also needs to be invested, because that’s where the cycle starts and that’s what leads to us finding them in custody as young adults. At that point it’s too late for many, as that behaviour already become embedded and engrained.
Ros: About 95% of our referrals are men. But there are a few women. With them, I’ve found it’s mostly attached to some sort of outburst where they’ve not been able to manage their emotions.
Tom: As regards to young women that I come across in custody (it’s still very male dominated), I’d say the gravity of the alleged offences in regards to organised crimes is rising. We’re starting to see more women coming in having been caught carrying weapons or drugs, and as a generalisation their motivations tend to be driven by emotional coercion and loyalty.
Ros: Occasionally, I’ll meet young women who are caught carrying knives or drugs and I wonder whether they’ve been coerced into this by a dominant figure. Of course, women are capable of making these sorts of decisions for themselves, but my time working in a women’s prison has made me aware that a lot of the women who ended up there started off being groomed into carrying weapons and selling drugs. On the flipside, there’s also the aspect of some young women wanting to use violence as a statement to prove that they can be just as threatening or violent as any guy.
What motivates you to do this kind of work?
Ros: Sometimes, as an ‘elder’, you are trying to get through to a young person that what they do now will affect their futures. I spent nearly 20 years working in prisons, and where appropriate, I can draw on that experience to give a young person in custody insights into what their future might look like. Prisons don’t work, so if I can keep one person out of the criminal justice system, then it’s been worth my while.
Angel: My motivation is to bring change. The work is not just moving people into training, employment, and education. You’re something of a life coach, a big brother, and a trusted friend all in one. We try to support their mental health, mentoring, and housing. We’re often having the kind of conversations with them that a parent figure would have.
Ros: It’s about being able to demonstrate pastoral care to the young people in custody. Yes, we have to be professional. But if you don’t have emotional intelligence, then you’ll find the job incredibly hard to do. You can’t really do the job if you don’t care.
Angel: You see so many young people and see the potential that they have, but they’ve chosen the wrong path. Sometimes it’s easy to choose the wrong path; they’re often victims of their own environment. But they must realise that there are other pathways that they can take. That’s where I come in.
Tom: Sometimes I get frustrated when I come across people with no hope and no self-belief, but that’s largely because of their upbringing and environment. That’s the reason I do it. If there’s ever going to be someone to break these negative mindsets that they’ve developed, I will be that someone.