Heroin addict turned pastor slams government’s ‘war on poor’ – Liverpool Echo

A former heroin addict who spent time in prison before becoming a pastor who helps people out of addiction slammed the government's "war on poor people".

Roy Farrell was 14 when he first got involved in crime as he hung on the streets, avoiding his mum's "soggy mashed potatoes".

Addiction came soon after when he started selling drugs and trying his supply of cocaine and, later, heroin.

READ MORE:Boris Johnson joins drug gang raids alongside force Tories cut to 'breaking point'

He told the ECHO : "I grew up, got kicked out of school at an early age, didn't really fit at home because they weren't on my wavelength, couldn't fit in different jobs because I didn't feel good enough.

"When you don't feel good enough, you want to go to a place where you feel that you can contribute, you feel that you have a say, you feel that you can make an impact.

" Gangs and crime was that for me. I felt I brought something to the gang. I felt I brought something to the group that I was a part of. Although it was being very negative, that's what I brought.

"So then you get caught up in drugs. The deeper you go in drugs, the more isolated you become.

" The more you get involved with drugs, the more isolated you become from society, family, your network of friends, everyone who loves you.

"You get disconnected."

As drugs took over Roy's life, the harder it became to escape;

Walls grew up between Roy and the positive influences that could save him.

Roy said: "The deeper I got in drugs, the less connected I felt to my family, the less I believed in myself that I could be anybody.

"The deeper I got in drugs, the less connected I was in taking a positive route in life because I just didn't feel that I could do that anymore. Because I was so deep in that lifestyle.

"And then the good friends that you grow up with, they don't really want to associate with you because you're living that life.

"Over time, you progressively detach from those people. They go on with their lives, they get married, they have kids, they get a good job.

"You're still living that life, you're still caught up in that whole cycle of prison, drugs, rehabilitation. I've been to rehab many, many times.

"I probably spent seven or eight years trying to break free from addiction, but in those seven or eight years, everybody has moved on with their life.

"Everybody's moved on. I'm still caught up on the hamster wheel trying to break free."

Now Roy is a pastor helping other vulnerable people with a history of addiction to get back on their feet and find purpose.

When he came out of prison the last time in 2004, Roy went to a drug outreach centre in Dublin where he found a leaflet for Victory Outreach, a church that works with people who've experienced homelessness and addiction.

Desperate to escape the temptation of home, Roy moved to Liverpool where a branch of the church had been set up.

He told the ECHO : "I've been doing this for 17 years now. The biggest thing with men and women that we have is lack of purpose and lack of identity.

"They don't know who they are, they don't know where they fit, and they're looking for purpose. They're looking for something to belong to, to cling to.

"And crime is always the easy option. Crime, and that lifestyle, is an easy option, because you're exempted, straight away.

"So it goes back to education for me, you know, how we educate people and how we can fit them into places and give them an identity and give them purpose."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined a 'county lines' drug raid in Liverpool on Monday, December 6 for the launch of a crackdown on drugs gangs and crime.

The Prime Minister also suggested penalising middle-class and so-called "lifestyle" drug users who don't fall into the prison cycle, by threatening to take away their passports and driving licences.

During the visit, he told the ECHO : "Half the homicides of young people in this country are caused by drugs gangs, at least half, and probably more when it comes to homicides of young men; its way over that, its a massive factor.

"Half the acquisitive crime in this country, burglary, robbery, are caused by drugs gangs. It doesn't have to be this way, it really doesnt you can change this. And the way to change it is to do what were doing.

"The 300,000 people who are the biggest problem, get them into rehab. Of course you have got to be tough on crime; Im not suggesting you should be soft.

"But in the end their problems are not going to be solved just by banging them up the whole time, because they come in and out of prison.

"You have also got to stop the gangs and thats what were doing here."

Pastor Roy Farrell wonders: "Is it a war on drugs, or is it a war on poor people?"

He fears that threats and punishment will drive a wedge between people caught up in drugs and the rest of society without proper supports to help them recover.

Roy told the ECHO : "I think some of it sounds pretty good. I think the rehabilitation side of it is definitely something that's needed, and less of a punitive approach.

"I think the punitive approach, you don't really get the victory with that.

"All you get is a more angry young person who goes inside a jail, gets schooled in other ways and how to commit crime.

"I think a more positive rehabilitation approach would be more beneficial. So the moment they come into prison, straight away, you're giving them purpose."

But prison is a hard place for people to get off drugs, even with the offer of support in there.

Roy still visits prisons as part of his ministry.

He told the ECHO : "The environment is very, very toxic. It's hard to explain that. But most of the people just go with the flow in the environment.

"I think they do try. I don't know what it's like now - I haven't been for many years. But I do pop in and out of prisons every now and again.

"The funding is limited. The opportunities are - there are some, but it's very difficult.

"In there, it's very difficult to make positive changes to your life. I know they do courses and they'll try and do work experience.

"I think if they did a lot more of that, like intervene early and try and create a pathway for them coming out of prison with the necessities in place, like shelter, finances, and something for them to do."

Nacro is a charity that works to "provide second chances" and to give hope to offenders on their exit from prison.

They echo many of Roy's views on the government's proposed approach to drugs and crime.

Nacro's service user involvement manager, Andrea Coady, said: "We welcome a lot of the Prisons Strategy White Paper as it provides a framework for giving people hope on their release from prison promising access to substance misuse treatment, mental health support, education and training whilst in prison, somewhere to live on release and better opportunities for employment.

"We now need to see these plans get put into action.

"Government has committed to ensuring that everyone released from prison has somewhere to live.

"This is critical to ensuring that people can rebuild their lives and make positive contributions to their communities, but long-term funding needs to be in place to ensure that this commitment becomes a reality, and we also need to make sure that people have the right support in place.

"We are also delighted to see that Government is considering restricting the numbers of people being released from prison on a Friday, which currently sets people up to fail as they struggle to access vital services before the weekend and can be left with nowhere to live and no support in the first few days after release, creating a mountain to climb before people have even begun their rehabilitation journey.

"On the bigger picture, this is a missed opportunity to make more radical change. England and Wales already imprisons more people than anywhere in Western Europe, and the prison population is set to grow to almost 100,000 people by 2026.

"A depressing ambition for any modern society, particularly when we know that the link between the size of the prison population and levels of crime just isnt there.

"Short prison sentences are less effective than community sentences at reducing reoffending, and we know that longer prison sentences are not an effective deterrent but can be a really costly way of damaging already damaged people.

"Building more prisons is not the solution to reducing crime and creating safer communities.

"Hope of a better life is what every person in prison needs to turn their life around, going forward we hope these proposals will give it to them."

See more here:

Heroin addict turned pastor slams government's 'war on poor' - Liverpool Echo