Airborn Plus Criticised By Youth Organisations

Vincent Crane Smith, who runs the Aldercraig outward bound centre for troubled teenagers and young people in the Borders, said the initiative’s name was tarnished “beyond resurrection” and instead the money should be used to fund either existing programmes or brand new initiatives.

MacAskill stressed the importance of drawing on the experiences of the trustees to fund an “Airborne Plus” scheme following changes in criminal justice since February 2004. He believes any new project must target the drugs problems of those who took part over the decade-long project’s existence.  He said: “I firmly believe that the experience and knowledge of those involved shouldn’t go to waste.

Tackling re-offending requires a constructive approach and the trustees can be part of the solution.  MacAskill added that the new Airborne scheme would be part of a more integrated approach to build selfesteem among young offenders alongside their manifesto pledges for an extra 1000 police officers and cutting down on the availability of cheap alcohol to young people.

He added: “The previous scheme wasn’t perfect – especially in the area of tackling underlying drug addiction problems. But it is about developing key elements of the initiative that got results and changing the behaviour of an especially difficult group of young men for the better.

But Smith said that there was little reason for resurrecting a “proven failure” that was badly run and managed. “Of course we need more resources and new, innovative ways to save young people from re-offending but it really is a very, very sensitive area that does not require the re-installation of a proven failure,” he said. “What is the point?  Even the name is tarnished beyond redemption. People associate it with the television programme which showed it as a drug-taking den where the young people were shown no direction.”

Smith said instead the money would better service existing projects that were proven to work. “It is an area that needs more government intervention and it would be good to get more resources to help re-offending among young people but there are other diversionary and rehabilitation schemes out there already working. Why revisit the ghost of a failure that was stalked by controversy since its inception?”

However, MacAskill said the new scheme would be modernised before it would be introduced. The project offered a mixture of class-based tutorials and outward-bound activities for some of Scotland’s most hardened young criminals aged between 18 and 25.