Case Study

Change your thinking, change your life

11 Feb 2025

When you spend time in prison – on four different occasions in Jahzeal’s case – there’s plenty of time to reflect on your life choices. It’s time Jahzeal put to good effect and continues to do so now as a Reflect keyworker for Ingeus, sharing his lived experiences with young people crossing onto the wrong side of the law. 

“You can’t just be sitting there going ah no, I messed up,” he says. “I thank God for every time I got sent to prison. God sent me there to keep me away from something else, or to learn something. You may have done something that landed you in this position, but you’ve got to learn from it. From every bad thing that happens, there’s something that you can learn.” 

Personally, Jahzeal learnt of his innate ability to talk to people, in the right way, at the right level. Waiting for an appointment in the probation office following his release, it would prove to be a lifechanging skill – for him, and others: 

“There was this kid, came in and sat down right next to me, in an empty waiting room, muttering about his probation officer,” recalls Jahzeal, who says he also first ‘got into trouble as a kid’. 

“I just started talking to him. I said he might not care, at 18, what his life was shaping up to, but he would, and he’d have all these hurdles to jump, like me, 20 years on. The receptionist heard me, it changed the trajectory of my life, and hopefully the kid’s too.” 

Jahzeal was quickly spotted as an excellent peer-mentor in the making and, after training and volunteering, began working for Ingeus’ Commissioned Rehabilitative Services, which help people break the cycle of reoffending. He now leads the Reflect intervention for young people across Leicestershire and Rutland, and co-created the Evolve workshop within it: 

“We talk about where people see themselves in the future, what they want and how to work towards it. It makes them think carefully,” explains Jahzeal. “You’re going to have a lot of setbacks, but you can’t let that stop you. Slow steps move you forward, that’s how life is. You have to put the work in, and not see any results, and then one day you will. 

“My drive had always been money, but when I started as a peer mentor I knew I was doing something much more important. I knew I wasn’t going to stop until I got the job I wanted, until I got a job that satisfies me. 

“I work with 18-24 year-old males with a conditional caution or community resolution. They’ve made a mistake but engaging with the Reflect course will save them a criminal record, and hopefully a whole lot else.” 

Offering practical and emotional support covering issues such as accommodation, finances, victim awareness, and decision making, Reflect offers a face to face assessment, followed by one-to-one and group sessions tailored to the needs and goals of the young person. 

“When I was young, I didn’t see anything wrong with the way I was living, in and out of prison,” adds Jahzeal. “I’ve had a lot of time to think since then, and all the feedback from being a peer mentor, it made me realise, ‘Jahzeal this is what you’re good at, this is what you should be doing’. 

I once read that your life is a reflection of your thoughts. Change your thinking and you change your life. I’m certainly proof of that.”