Coaches understand sport's power to bring about profound change in and for the people who take part. The potential to harness that power to tackle societal problems such as crime is now being widely acknowledged.

Sport's profile as a deterrent from criminal behaviour, and to rehabilitate those caught up in a damaging cycle of crime, is on an upward trajectory.

Take, for an example, John McAvoy, Professor Rosie Meek, David Dein's Twinning Project and the Alliance of Sport for the Desistance of Crime. They all provide excellent evidence of sport's growing credence as a tool for reducing crime. 

Now add to the list organisations such as Fight for Peace, Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Saracens Sport Foundation, SwitchUp CIC, parkrun and the Active Communities Network (to name just a few). They use sport to:

• raise aspirations
• improve physical and mental health
• provide access to positive role models and alternative social networks
• offer education and employment opportunities.

Their potential for reducing the UK's high reoffending rate (costing taxpayers £15billion a year) is huge.

ITTC set unconscious bias aside

Brighton Table Tennis Club (BTTC) should also be added to the above list of pioneering organisations. Its coaches have been working in Downview Women's Prison for a year and HMP High Down for the last two years.

Sessions are inevitably slightly different to those in a club setting, but founder and coach Tim Holtam urges coaches working in these or similar environments to set unconscious bias aside.

"Playing table tennis is like mindfulness. It gets their heads out of the monotony of life on the wings. You can't think about the trauma in your life, you're just playing, there in the moment."

BTTC remove barriers

Tim's advice for coaching in a prison is to remove any potential barriers to immediate participation.

"In table tennis you're stood nine feet away and you can have a conversation, so those trusting relationships build pretty quickly. These guys' mental health is under so much pressure when they're locked in their cells, so they massively appreciate the table tennis sessions."

Consistency is absolutely vital. Just ‘being there' offers offenders a weekly lifeline. One said table tennis sessions on Tuesdays were the only thing that got him out of the bed in his cell each morning. Imagine the reaction, then, if they suddenly stopped.

"That continuity and regular contact is important in any coaching setting, but it's massive in the prison," explained Tim.

BTTC champion inclusive coaching

BTTC's inclusive ethos means you'll find pensioners, homeless people, refugees and disabled people not just playing, but also on their coaching staff. 

Harry Fairchild, the first ever qualified table tennis coach with Down's syndrome, is among those to have coached at HMP High Down.

Inmates can gain a UKCC Level 1 coaching qualification. Post-release, some are invited to a nearby Pupil Referral Unit to coach young people who are at risk of ending up in prison themselves. They are ideal mentors and role models.

Positive results for BTTC

There has been an 83% reduction in red entries (reports of bad behaviour) among High Down inmates who have taken part in the table tennis sessions, as well as a 14% increase in those employed in prison jobs.

The impact of external coaches has been similarly strong in HMP Cardiff, HMP Channings Wood and HMP Exeter thanks to an English Football League Trust-funded project called Alternative Lives, delivered by the community departments at Plymouth Argyle, Cardiff City and Exeter City football clubs.

Offenders gain employability qualifications and coach fellow inmates in:

• multi-sports 
• football 
• tag rugby 
• cricket
• volleyball. 

There are also mental health, physical well-being, nutrition and mindfulness elements to the programme. 

The importance of good rapport

Jason Chapman, Deputy Scheme Manager at Plymouth Argyle Community Trust, had never set foot in a prison before the project began. He says any unconscious bias was soon dispelled.

"I was a little anxious but we soon learned that if we treat them with respect, they give respect back." he said.

"We have preconceptions of prison from films or TV but they deserve to be treated no differently to anybody else.

"Generally, they are very engaged guys who want to make good use of their time inside and make a positive out of a bad situation. The project gives people a second chance and an opportunity to better themselves after release."

Professor Rosie Meek, a leading academic expert on sport and physical activity in criminal justice, authored the Ministry of Justice's landmark Sporting Chance review of sport in adult and youth prisons last August.