let's set the scene
On this page, we present a case study based on our two years of work in Mile End, London. We focus on the complex ecology of factors which have lead to this social need, and examine the landscape in which these young men live.
Everyone’s got that feeling inside they don’t wanna go to prison. Who wants to go to prison? No one. 75% of our group been in prison. |
What landscape - geographical, social, and national - are we situating this project in? We need to look holistically at these boys' place in the world, at their own context.
Read more about:
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E3
- We live in a good environment. |
Mile End lies east of Whitechapel, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. It features on Booth's Poverty Maps of 1889, and was the first place in London to be hit by a V-1 German flying bomb during the Second World War. Its strong history of social reform included the match girls' strikes for better working conditions and pay. This was followed by many marches for women's votes, and the growth of the suffragette movement in the area - Sylvia Pankhurst made her home here. Gandhi, refusing to stay in a hotel, stayed over at Kingsley Hall during the Round Table conference with the British government. Innovation continued with the now little-known East London Group, a prolific movement of trained artists and aspiring East Enders in the 1920s and 30s. It is currently home to 16,500 people [1], including Danny Boyle. Wiley has blessed the postcode by penning a song about it.
E3 in 1889, showing a mix of 'semi-criminal' and 'well-to-do' households
Tower Hamlets is one of the more polarised boroughs in the city. It has the third highest unemployment rate in London [2], yet the proportion of low-paid jobs in Tower Hamlets is one of the smallest in the capital [3]. Canary Wharf shimmers on the skyline; more than four in every ten children in the borough live in poverty - the highest rate in the whole of the UK [4]. It is the second most divided borough in London in terms of income inequalities, with two of the richest and four of the poorest wards in the city [5].
It is also the third densest borough, by people per hectare [6]. Within that, the ward of Mile End has the highest proportion of overcrowded housing [7]. Population is growing faster here than anywhere else in London [8]; almost 25% are under the age of 15 [9]. 47% of 19 year olds lack any Level 3 qualifications (equivalent to AS/A levels, Level 3 BTECs etc.) [10] White Brits are an ethnic minority, at 31%, with 32% of British Bangladeshis taking the majority [11]. 34.5% of the borough overall are Muslim [12]. With 13% of Reception-age children and more than one in four 10-11 year olds classed as obese, it has the fourth highest rate of obesity in the country [13]. Prevalence of long-term illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, is 34% higher than the national average [14]. People in the richer areas of the borough can expect to live 12 years longer than those in the poorer areas [15]. The statistics above remove the everyday realities and humanity from the lives of the borough's citizens - both negative and positive. Let's add that now. 
The area is changing; there are many new tower blocks going up, and the changing demographics are an issue for some:
I've lived here for 43 years, with my husband, just round the corner. We're selling though. I'm not racist, but the area's not what it used to be. It's full of these now, it's just... On a recent jaunt from the lofty shiny towers at Canary Wharf to 'do some good in the community,' one of the employees commented:
This place is a shithole - I can't believe people would want to live here. Addressing attitudes like this is no small task.
In 2010, a group of young men from Mile End, part of the Mile End Community Project (MCP), made a short film about their 'hood' and the stereotypes and expectations that they themselves and others have. It won first prize in the Adobe Youth Voices competition, and screened at one of the largest documentary film festivals in Amsterdam. It is also used regularly in schools. What constitutes the group's 'area' is a couple of streets. For these young men, geography is mapped not by bureaucratic boundaries or even by postcode, but by estate. 'Mile End' is not a general area, but a very specific one.
Some estates have one come out and two go in [to prison]; we’re smaller, we don’t do that. At the south end of these streets, Canary Wharf is framed perfectly, a geographical and symbolic backdrop. The young men grew up in its shadow, so removed from it, although one of their friends now works there - a quiet source of inspiration.
Queen Mary University across the road, one of the top 40 universities in the country, provides potential income.
You can get a three year guaranteed income from university students [looking for drugs]. It’s like you’re your own boss. There is a general feeling that in the area there is little provision, little to do, for young men of their agegroup.
Anti-social behaviour, misbehaving. These parks only cater for young people. Graffiti, breaking windows, mugging - mugging is done out of a thrill. As a form of communicating, perhaps the below is preferable:
Young people’s voices aren’t being heard on their own terms. Why can't they be themselves, dress on their own terms. I need to survive in this world as well. [1] Tower Hamlets Borough Council, Mile End Ward profile, May 2014
[2] London's Poverty Profile: Unemployment by borough, 2012 [3] London's Poverty Profile: Tower Hamlets, 2012 [4] Tower Hamlets Borough Council: Child poverty in Tower Hamlets briefing, Nov 2013 [5] London's Poverty Profile: Income inequalities by wards, 2012 [6] GLA London Borough Profiles, 2011 [7] London's Poverty Profile: Overcrowded housing across London, 2012 [8] NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Prospectus 2013-16, p3 [9] Tower Hamlets Borough Council, Mile End Ward profile, May 2014 [10] London's Poverty Profile: 19 year olds lacking qualifications, 2012 [11] London's Poverty Profile: Tower Hamlets, 2012 [12] Census 2011: Religion (sheet KS209EW) [13] NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Prospectus 2013-16, p10 [14] NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Prospectus 2013-16, p10-11 [15] London's Poverty Profile: Inequalities in life expectancy, 2012 |
MCP
We were wondering, why is Mile End getting sidelined, why don’t we have a space like a youth centre, so we don’t have to keep walking around the block |
Throughout all of Maslaha’s work, there is an understanding that a social issue or need is multi-layered both in terms of its causes and therefore practical interventions. The research followed a number of themes as listed below but it became clear quite quickly that these themes do not sit in isolation but overlap. This complexity has to be considered when thinking through possible solutions otherwise we believe the interventions will not have a sustainable or systemic impact.
Research themes:
In the 1990s this initial informal group lobbied the council for a building which they could use for young people who were hanging out on the street. After some persistence they were given a small space which was then taken back after a year. They then found their current space in Hamlets Way after lobbying the housing association. Since then they have run a number of different projects with different organisations such as Queen Mary University of London, Adobe Youth Voices and Bold Creative, which have explored identity through film, sporting activities such as football and boxing, and entrepreneurship activities such as designing clothing to sell on a commercial basis. The organisation is currently reviewing its future plans and direction as well as considering looking for a larger space. The core group MCP work with can be from 40 to 50 young people, ranging from 10-23 year-olds. These are mostly male although a number of young Muslim women have been engaged with a couple of projects in the past. MCP also has a strong relationship with the families of these young people and has often been contacted if a young person has been arrested. The core group we have been working with has been up to 18 young men, mostly Bangladeshi, with one or two Somali and Pakistani individuals. All the focus groups with the young men have been conducted at the MCP offices, usually in the evening. They can range from 90 minutes to 3 hours with breaks for prayer as the mosque is a few steps away. A number of external visitors have helped with the focus group and workshop sessions including those working in probation and providing employment for ex-offenders. |
CJS
Duty solicitors, are dead, judges are just ripping into them. |
We held a session on what 'sort' of person goes to prison, and what the point of prison is.
This is what prisons are for according to the visitor from the Probation Service:
In your community you can’t find someone who can get you guns, and then you make connections in prison. You go in for petty crime and you come out with connections. In England, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old [1].
Most of the group have been in direct contact with the criminal justice system - Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), on exclusion from school; probation; young offender institutions; community sentencing, etc. 
Friendships can be defined and tested:
If your friends do something, you’ll do it. The law of joint enterprise in particular - where a person can be convicted of a crime they were not directly involved with or even present at - is a contentious issue. Criminal liability is shared amongst a group, regardless of 'who' did 'what.'
Prison however can be a wake up call for some: People generally think they’re not gonna get caught. They do it out of boredom, thrill seeking. For the adrenalin rush. There’s a percentage in your head – 50% I ain’t gonna get caught. You’re gonna take the risk to see the outcome, it’s like starting up a business. You don’t know how it’s gonna end up, you take that chance. Once you go to prison and come out you realise it’s not worth the risk. |
