AT JUST 12, Gary began using heroin. He is currently serving a sentence in Mountjoy prison in Dublin. Now 28, he has been clean for two years and plans to turn his life around upon his release. He is part of a group of inmates taking part in the Staying Real programme, a personal development course being piloted at the prison.

"I was very angry except when I was using heroin from the age of 12 or 13. It made the anger and pain go away and made reality go away. Later on I started snorting coke for the buzz."

Gary has been in and out of care and prisons since he was 12. He is now looking forward to becoming "something I never had . . . a real father". He has a five-year-old daughter.

"Where I was reared there was something the matter with you if you didn't do drugs.

There was something wrong with you if you didn't get into trouble. Looking back now it seems there was no other way for me. There were no rules.

My ma had her own addiction to feed and I was in the way, " he says.

There is no national support system for prisoners upon their release. But the statistics on recidivism are stark enough to warrant one, according to John McKeever, coordinator of Staying Real.

Within a year of release, 27% of prisoners will re-offend;

more than half will re-offend within four years and it costs 91,000 to keep one person imprisoned for a year, according to McKeever. "I don't think taxpayers would mind that money being spent if people were being rehabilitated but the statistics show they're not.

To see a young man of 24 or 25 and his whole life is mapped out in drugs and crime, it's truly tragic."

The programme covers employment, managing money, accommodation. But the main focus is on emotional well-being and self-examination. Through exercises, participants focus on what action leads them into bad company, drugs and crime.

"But what we don't do is paint a rosy picture of how things are going to be when they get out, " McKeever adds.

The inmates have responded very well to the programme, mainly because McKeever talks to them, not at them. "I had a chronic alcohol problem for most of my adult life. I've struggled for many years with it and now I'm totally free from it. I tell them I've never been locked in a physical prison but I've lived in a mental one."

Two groups have completed the course at Mountjoy.

There are plans to expand it into the women's prison and McKeever is hopeful it will eventually be rolled out nationwide as its impact has been "overwhelmingly positive". It has been introduced in conjunction with Jobcare and is linked to FAS, with employment options for participants.

"It's not too late for me now but I have to say I wouldn't wish the life I have had on my worst enemy, " says Gary.

"I'm lucky to be alive after some of the scrapes I got in. If I can stay clean out there I have a hope. In a way I feel like I'm 14 again. Dealing with feelings, good and bad, is something I'm learning. Better late than not at all."