In just a few days time we will be wrapping up the fundraising for 2026 and announcing a final total tally. It’s looking really impressive and that’s down to all our incredible Loopers really pushing hard to get the generous donations and match funding that will turn young lives around. Shall we call this the final stage of the tour? Stage 22!

One of our biggest fundraisers this year asked if he could visit one of the projects supported by WWMT, to see for himself, first-hand where the funds go, and how they impact young people. We were delighted to oblige, and when an opportunity was offered to us by Onwards and Upwards/XO Bikes to invite a Looper to visit Pentonville Prison as short notice, we knew exactly who to invite!

This is Grand Looper Ben’s report from that visit last week. Our immense thanks to Ben not just for taking the time out to visit Pentonville and writing this report, but for all his incredible efforts to raise funds for the William Wates Memorial Trust. Our gratitude knows no bounds.

“Stage 22”

Kindly WWMT are very encouraging of sponsors visiting their grant charities and they offered me the opportunity to do so yesterday, to see XO Bikes in action in HMP Pentonville. Fascinating to go into one of Britain’s best known prisons, a Victorian monolith that could easily have been the set for Porridge just without the humour, to see first-hand some of the challenges faced and what XO are trying to do to help. Quite timely too given the issues faced with chronic overcrowding in Britain’s prisons.

*About XO Bikes* . XO Bikes are one limb of the umbrella charity Onwards & Upwards whose mission is to help ex-offenders from the cycle of reoffending by creating jobs that change lives for good. Rather like Timpsons have made a point of giving opportunities to ex-offenders, Onwards & Upwards currently have three brands, XO Bikes, XO Barbers and XO Clobber which provide training both in prison and outside which then translate into commercial ventures, the profits from which get ploughed back in. In the case of XO Bikes, they run four week courses in prison as well as more advanced ones outside for ex-offenders to enable them to become work-ready bike mechanics, refurbishing donated bikes to sell in bike stores in London. They had some very cool XO branded matt black bikes each of which has the offenders prison number and bike number stencilled on it, so creating a real story (no cameras or phones allowed so no image I’m afraid).

Then the question is what difference does XO Bikes make – surely vocational training in prisons is hardly new? I think that to answer this you have to start by looking at some general statistics, many of which I guess you’ll be pretty familiar with. First of all, the UK has the highest prison population per 100,000 people in Western Europe. The figure for Scotland is 148 and 139 for England & Wales. France is 130 and Germany 69 with the Scandi countries being a lot lower too. Secondly, we have one of the worst reconviction rates, with 37.5% of adults released from custody or starting a court order reoffending and a remarkable 67.1% of people released from prison sentences under 12 months reoffending. I don’t think it takes a genius to work out that if you stick someone in a cell for 20 hours a day with nothing to do beyond chat to other prisoners from whom they pick up tips, and then release them back into exactly the same environment that led them to offend in the first place, you get repeat, rewind, repeat.

What XO are able to provide in their in-prison workshop is a practical course that the inmates can put to use on the outside, either just fixing their own bike or as a trade. The course also provides a civilising outlet for the prisoners because it is something like 5 hours/day for 4 weeks so they get a lot more time out of their cells and away from the infernal racket on the prison wings (which we also visited and where my abiding memory is of the perpetual clanging noise which would send me crazy in no time). I spoke to one of the prisoners doing the training who said the attraction of it for him is that he would be able to earn money fixing bikes by advertising his services on Facebook where he wouldn’t need to disclose his record which otherwise pretty much prevents him getting any regular employment. He was also the single father of a seven year old (presently being looked after by his Granny) so he could do it working flexibly from home. I’d guess his circumstances were hardly unique.

The other thing that was striking was how XO endeavour to give the people on the course a sense of self-worth. Aside from the environment in the workshop being infinitely nicer that that on the prison wings, its little things like getting a framed certificate on completion of the course (we gave one to one guy and you could see how chuffed he was, possibly the first one he’d ever had in his life), a plaque on the wall and their identity on bikes refurbished. They build them up, not grind them even further down.

The net result of this is that the reoffending rate of people who’ve been through the XO bike course was quoted as being just 5% – it’s easy to conclude supporting work like theirs is a no-brainer. About half the people passing through prison each year in England & Wales are on short sentences. So the savings would clearly be considerable with the cost per prisoner being estimated by the MoJ at £56,618 per annum, or £155/day. 

My conclusion is that WWMT are spending the money well. And if you have a half-decent but unused bike cluttering up the back of your garage, donate it to  XO bikes. Conversely If you don’t have a bike or e-bike but want one, then you could do worse than buy one from them.

Ben Money-Coutts