PRESSURE from the Government to reduce the amount of people in prison has provoked more and more interest from the courts in the work of a pioneering centre for young offenders in Okehampton, C-FAR's chief executive said this week.

As the Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation congratulated its ninth group of graduates on completing the ten-week residential course since June last year, the charity spoke of how it was now getting referrals from both crown and magistrates' courts as well as prisons and young offenders' institutions.

The centre, which is the first of its kind in the country, runs intensive courses as part of a year-long programme in developing the social and life skills of persistent young offenders who are determined to change their lives.

Chief executive Trevor Philpott said there had been something of a mind-shift: 'The majority of referrals did come from prisons and young offenders' institutions but we are now getting offenders straight from courts who have been given deferred sentence orders and community probation orders.

'Our stand at an open day at Exeter Magistrates' Court was very popular with many magistrates wanting more information about what we do — this is a result of Government pressure to reduce the amount of people in custody,' he said.

The UK has the second largest prison population in Europe — the number of people in prison has gone up from 58,000 to 66,000 throughout the UK in seven years.

Mr Philpott, who was speaking to around 80 invited guests at a prize-giving ceremony at its Okehampton Camp base — including guest of honour Mary Anne McFarlane, chief officer for the Devon and Cornwall Probation Service — said almost 80 per cent of young people re-offended when they came out of prison and from this it was evident custody did not work.

He said most of the young people who went through C-FAR's course came from deprived and sad backgrounds and underneath that macho exterior was an individual who was very insecure.

'We give them belief in themselves so they can achieve something better in their lives,' he said.

Among the former C-FAR trainees who were at the prize giving were Steve, who is currently an assistant bar manager in Bristol, and Gavin, who has worked as a volunteer with the Prince's Trust for 12 months and is about to go to college to do an instructor's course.

Thirty-six per cent of trainees who have gone through the C-FAR programme are now in full-time work, 24 per cent are involved in the New Deal scheme, eight per cent are in full-time training and a number of trainees are going through a drug rehabilitation programme.

C-FAR guests were told that only three trainees had re-offended and these had been committed back to custody.