Val Wawrosz of Tempus Novo Exposes the System That Keeps People Reoffending

Message us with your thoughts, burning questions, or reflections, we’d love to hear from you."99 times out of 100, they come back." Val Wawrosz heard that sentence for thirty years as a prison officer. Everyone called it bad character. He started to suspect we'd got the whole story backwards.Here's the part nobody says out loud: we lock people up at £57,000 a year, when £3,000 would keep them out. Val and Steve Freer have now moved more than 1,400 people from a prison cell into real work, with a reoffending rate under 3 percent against a national figure of up to 60. As Val puts it, we set them up to fail.This is not a feel-good charity chat. It's a quietly furious conversation about a system that's cheaper to keep broken, a prison minister who "didn't have time" to meet the two men outperforming his entire department, and a question most of us avoid: when we say everyone deserves a second chance, what about the people who never had a first?If you have ever judged someone by the worst thing they have done, this one will sit with you.IN THIS EPISODE200 job letters, zero replies, and the moment Val realised the system was riggedWhy £3,000 changes a life and £57,000 wastes oneThe lie we believe about who is really behind the wallsThe "merry go round" of release and return, and what actually breaks itWhat it does to a person, including the helper, when a life genuinely turnsABOUT VALVal Wawrosz spent more than two decades inside the British prison system before co-founding Tempus Novo with Steve Freer. The charity has supported more than 1,400 people into employment after prison, with one in five promoted within their first twelve months.Website: https://www.tempusnovo.org/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tempusnovo/X: https://x.com/tempus_novoInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tempusnovo_/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TempusNovoGET INVOLVEDIf this conversation moves you, Tempus Novo welcomes employers, partners and supporters. Reach out here: https://www.tempusnovo.org/what-we-doThe Wisdom We Share is hosted by Anjani Amriit and Robin Wald. Subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Thanks for listening to The Wisdom We Share. If this episode sparked something in you, follow, leave a review + share it with someone who’s walking a similar path.🔗 Connect with Anjani Website: https://www.anjaniamriit.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anjaniamriit/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anjaniamriit/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjani-amriit-1035543/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anjaniamriit🔗 Connect with RobinWebsite: https://robinwald.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinwaldcosmicwisdom/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-wald/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@robinwaldcosmicwisdom🎧 New episodes released regularly Be sure to follow to get all new episodes and insights direct to your inbox.