A GROUND-breaking scheme has been launched in North-East prisons which aims to help inmates go straight when they are released.

The Reducing Offending Through Advice (Rota) scheme was launched yesterday by Lord Filkin, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, at Deerbolt Young Offenders' Institution, in Startforth, Barnard Castle, County Durham.

The scheme provides videophone links between four North-East prisons and local advice providers.

It is hoped the phone links and advice will reduce the number of prisoners who are homeless on release by 20 per cent, help prisoners manage their finances, help them retain jobs or find employment and prevent the breakdown of their marriages and family life.

The prisons involved in the scheme are Deerbolt, Holme House Prison in Stockton, Acklington Prison and Castington Youth Offenders' Institution' in Northumberland.

Lord Filkin said: "Reducing re-offending rates has got to go up the political agenda rather than down it.

"If we can help more offenders to be less likely to re-offend then we are doing something right for them.

Mark Dixon, an inmate at Deerbolt, said: "This is the third time I've been inside and I think this scheme can help me.

"In the past when I've been released, they've said there was support but there was nothing.

"I had nowhere to live and had to stay with friends, go into hostels where there were other criminals and drug users and you just get back into crime."

The Rota scheme is a partnership between the prison service, the Legal Services Commission and the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

The videophones will help inmates have face-to-face discussions with solicitors and advisors in CAB offices in Barnard Castle, Stockton and Castle Morpeth, Northumberland.

A spokesman for the CAB said: "It is estimated it costs taxpayers £100,000 in damages, legal costs, and prison costs every time a former prisoner re-offends.

"If we can stop five people from re-offending, the project will have paid for itself. We hope to open this to 500 people."

As part of a co-ordinated package of measures to resettle prisoners and prevent them re-offending, CAB advisors will be part of resettlement teams, which it is hoped will lead to better results.