allowed out during the day to help. They work with the police, the probation service and other, voluntary organizations to help those who feel trapped and frightened in the violent criminal gangs that operate across London. For Smart, the extraordinary journey from gang member to mentor began when he witnessed, from within, a prison system that was so obviously failing its inmates. He recalls a drug addict he befriended who, to his dismay, kept returning. “I was touched by the people who kept coming back in,” he says. “I couldn’t believe that nothing was being done about it. I was talking to the inmates and they knew what needed to be changed in their lives, but the problem is that the prison system only deals with the 'index' offence.” “One guy had a £300-a-week cocaine habit, which he funded through burglary. He would tell me stuff about how he would walk into a house, even when he knew people were there. So although he had a drug addiction, it never got dealt with. The thing that got me about that is that it is simply a revolving door.” That case and scores of others persuaded Smart to start working as a prison “listener” – an inmate who helps reassure new arrivals and talks them through their first days inside. From there he developed what he calls his own “little plan” to run his own scheme once out of prison – using the experience of