John Burton has been in and out of prison his whole adult life but turned his life around since his last release in 2017. In a podcast interview he tells how he is now helping others to do the same

John Burton has a big chink of his adult life in prison for offences drug trafficking and money laundering

But since his last release in 2017 he has completely turned his life around. He knows first-hand the huge challenges faced by those people coming out of the prison system who are determined to change their lives and made a positive contribution to society.

John runs an organisation called Inside Connections out of Vauxhall in north Liverpool. He is featured in the latest Baltic Broadcasting Company’s monthly podcast. He talks about his mission to help ex-prisoners rehabilitate themselves, just as he has done.

He reaches out to those who have been released or on temporary release from jail and is achieving a great degree of success in securing people training and jobs in the construction sector.

In the interview, he says: “We have got people who have committed serious crimes when they were 17 and 18. But they are 40-year-old men, now, and they accept what they did was totally totally wrong. But when you are a teenager and you are getting bullied into doing stuff then it your peers who make life worse.

“We can see the change that has occurred in them over the past 20 years or so – they are coming out as different people. Inside Connections is about one word – aftercare. When you leave prison there is no aftercare. We offer training and educational courses and there are job opportunities at the end of every course we do.”