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"We've talked about all kinds of things like my drug use, my offending, my family"

Working to Reduce Offending

Jimmy, 16
About two years ago, I was being held in custody at Court on various charges of acquisitive crime. I'd been smoking heroin on a daily basis for a year. When Compass assessed me, they told me about the services that were available – I hadn't known about this before. On that occasion, I was refused bail by the Court and was sent to a Young Offenders Institution (YOI). It was my first time in custody and I was keen to get any help available. The Compass worker who'd assessed me referred me to the Compass CARAT team at the YOI.

I was sentenced a week later and received a six month Detention and Training Order. During the three months I was in custody, I stopped using heroin and stayed drug free for a few weeks after my release. The start of my relapse began when I started to associate again with my old group of friends as most of them were heroin users.

My keyworker at the Youth Offending Team referred me to Compass again for support. The Compass worker came to the YOT office to see me as I didn't want to be around older drug users.

I've been seeing my Compass worker now for about six months. We've talked about all kinds of things like my drug use, my offending, my family and friends and what to do when I get bored. At the moment, I'm still using now and again but I haven't got a habit and I'm not offending any more.

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