Davie is a 32 year old male who has lived in Dundee and Angus all his life and he has been involved in the Community Justice System since his mid teens.
Looking back, Davie recalls looking after his younger brother and sister regularly when his mother was unable to look after them because of her alcohol and health issues. This contributed to regular truanting and limited engagement in the education system from primary school onwards. Davie’s father was often absent, which combined with his mother’s health issues, resulted in his aunt taking his brother and sister into her care. As he was the eldest, this left Davie largely to his own devices. With continued non-engagement and attendance at high school, Davie became more involved in underage drinking, drug misuse and antisocial behaviour. As a result, he was allocated an education worker who supported him by arranging remedial gardening work as an alternative to attending school. Although he enjoyed the gardening work, it did not change his behaviour, and he was eventually referred to the children's panel aged 14.
This pattern of antisocial behaviour continued and at 16 years of age, Davie experienced custody for the first time. He was held on remand for eight weeks, having been accused of several offences which included breach of the peace. When he appeared in court, Davie pled guilty to all of the charges and he was made subject to a probation order. He admits that at that time he “didn’t care about anything or anyone other than himself’ and was not interested in the support that was offered to him from Community Justice Social Work Services. Although he was kept informed about the court process, Davie feels that there could have been more emphasis put on the consequences of breaching bail. That said, he admits he may not have listened to any advice on this subject at that time, even if it had been offered.
Between the ages of 16 and 28 Davie continued to offend on a regular basis. This resulted in a number of short-term custodial sentences, initially at HM YOI Polmont and then at HMP Perth. His experience of HM YOI Polmont involved being surrounded by prisoners of similar ages and life experiences to his own. Davie describes Polmont as having a fairly violent ‘school yard’ culture, with everyone trying to establish their own position within the hierarchy that existed within the establishment. His drug use stopped in HM YOI Polmont as there were fewer drugs in circulation and as a consequence, Davie spent a lot of his time exercising and becoming fit, which he saw as a good thing. He describes his experience at HMP Perth as being different - more serious, with a new dynamic because of the wider age range and the diverse mix of the prisoners’ backgrounds. Unfortunately no structured work was undertaken to address Davie’s offending at that time because of the short-term nature of his sentences.
On several occasions, when sentencing resulted in a community order, Davie did undertake offence focused work with Community Justice services. Over the course of his offending history, he advised he received mixed support from within the community. This was especially the case upon his release from custody when he had no resources to help him keep appointments and he felt he was penalised for this. There were delays in claiming benefits and issues with temporary accommodation on several occasions, all of which reinforced that the system didn’t work. This also did not help change his attitude towards offending as “'violence got you everything you needed' when the system let you down, and because he felt that those who he offended against were likely to do the same to him given the chance.
Davie states that things started to change for him around the birth of his first son. He regrets missing the birth while he was serving a custodial sentence but this experience helped him realise that he wanted to change and become a better person for his son. About the same time, he started working with a social worker from Angus with whom he built a very good working relationship. This was because he felt he was listened to and that his circumstances were taken into consideration, something he said he appreciated.
Davie continued to work with Community Justice Services and a drugs support worker in an attempt to address his substance misuse problems. This helped him recognise that when he got his substance misuse under control, he stopped offending. Davie successfully completed his community order and he has continued to work with the drug service who supports him to remain drug free. Davie has since had two more children and although the path has not been smooth, with social work involvement and a new community order, he has now regained full custody of his two eldest sons and full time access to his youngest son. Davie also worked for about eight months when he did not have the full-time care of his children. This was the first legitimate employment he had in his life and he really liked the 'normality' it brought. He hopes to get back to work when his childcare commitments allow him to.
Davie explains that his attitude to offending has changed drastically from his attitude in the past when he was offending regularly. He admitted feeling in some way justified when he was committing offences against individuals, who given the opportunity would have done the same thing to him. On reflection, Davie realises that he had little empathy for the individuals he was offending against but he can now understand the negative impact he had on his victims’ lives. He believes that getting older and being in a more positive place in his life has made him feel more a part of society. He also feels that all the work and support he has received from the Community Justice Social Work Service has made a ‘big difference (providing) lots of tools to help him deal with real life situations”.
Reflecting on what support worked best for him, Davie said the most important thing was feeling that he was understood, listened to and that the social worker he worked with genuinely wanted the best for him. The consistency of this approach has enabled Davie and his social worker to develop and sustain a trusting, productive working relationship.
Davie’s focus is now very much on his children and he aspires to give them a better family life with nurturing and positive family relationships. He hopes to gain employment when his childcare responsibilities allow, to join a Sunday league football team and to live what he refers to as a ‘normal happy life’ like everyone else.