Frontline London: Our winning contestants get their jail break

The five prisoners who won chance to become social entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs: Richard Grimwood, Sam Walker, Derina Douglas, Katie Crilly, Pablo Sharpe

Today we reveal the five prisoners who have won a unique Evening Standard competition that will give them a chance to reboot their lives as social entrepreneurs.

Eight candidates from Isis and Holloway jails were shortlisted from the scores who applied for the scheme. They delivered their business pitches to a nerve-racking Dragons’ Den-style judging panel inside HMP Isis, while friends and family, along with prisons minister Andrew Selous, looked on.

Between them, they had convictions for robbery, burglary, fraud and intent to supply class-A drugs. But all eight were nearing the end of their sentence and had a viable social business idea coupled with a mature determination to transform their lives. The five winners are:

  • Richard Grimwood, 22, (burglary) who has devised a landscape gardening enterprise employing ex-offenders;

  • Sam Walker, 26, (weapon and drug offences), who is planning a family-friendly fitness boot camp aimed at parents and brides-to-be;

  • Derina Douglas, 30, (drug importation) who aims to create a mothers’ support network;

  • Katie Crilly, 30, (fraud), proposing a training academy offering short courses linked to apprenticeship placements;

  • Pablo Sharpe, 23, (serial offender) who wants to set up an ecologically friendly industrial cleaning business.

Mr Selous said: “Today I have seen something that is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. There’s a lot of entrepreneurial ability in prisons and it is great to start channelling it in the right way.

“All credit to the Evening Standard for being trailblazers. I would like to roll it out in Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester — across the UK.”

Backed by £105,000 from Mark and Mo Constantine, co-founders of Lush Cosmetics, the novel scheme offers a life-changing package of support.

Each of the five will receive a start-up grant of £8,000, a mentor, and a course at the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The project — the latest instalment in our Frontline London campaign tackling gangs and youth crime — comes amid rising concern over the alarming rate of “revolving door” re-offending, with 60 per cent of young prisoners re-arrested within a year of release.

Mr Selous said: “This sort of private-public partnership consortium is the way forward. We need more risk-taking governors like Grahame Hawkings at Isis and Julia Killick at Holloway, and we need to partner with philanthropists like the Constantines. Everybody deserves a second chance. It’s in every-one’s interests that young offenders can make a go of their lives.”

Governor Killick said: “This has been an incredibly exciting initiative and now we need to scale it up. For a variety of reasons, many prisoners are more suited to entrepreneurship than they are to employment.”

The scheme drew praise from shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan, who said: “The Standard’s Frontline London campaign is a fantastic way to raise the profile of an issue crucial to the future of London. It’s a scandal that so many offenders go on to commit more crimes. I wholeheartedly welcome this innovative way of giving ex-prisoners the skills and confidence they need to not only survive but thrive on the outside.”

Justice minister Simon Hughes added: “This project will raise self-confidence and life skills, and equip those taking part with the business acumen needed to succeed back in the community.”

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