AN East Lancashire charity has won praise from Government experts for its work with former prisoners.

THOMAS - Those on the Margins of Society - is a Catholic-faith project which targets ex-offenders and tries to rehabilitate them.

A report by the Government's Social Exclusion Unit said Blackburn-based THOMAS provided a supportive environment for prisoners on release.

"It highlights the important role of faith-based communities willing to engage at the hard end of social exclusion," added the authors of the report, Reducing Re-offending by Ex-Prisoners.

Father Jim McCartney, the charity's founder and managing director, said: "The voluntary sector has a tremendous contribution to make in dealing with re-offending.

"We can be entrepreneurial and flexible and are less controlled by bureaucratic systems.

"I am pleased the Government's Social Exclusion Unit recognises the important role of faith-based initiatives.

"And I have been encouraged in recent months by the tremendous support we are receiving from colleagues from other faith-based traditions."

THOMAS has recently started work with the Muslim community to tackle reoffending.

The charity runs a drop-in centre and offers a mentoring scheme for offenders which begins several months before they leave prison.

It also operates the Reconcile project, a 12-week drug rehabilitation programme for former users who stay in one of two houses rented from Blackburn with Darwen Council with a live-in support worker. Former users are asked to keep strict hours and are routinely drug-tested.

The programme also includes counselling, education and information technology training. Anyone who gives a positive drugs reading is asked to leave.

Prisoners are:

13 times more likely to have been in care as a child

14 times more likely to be unemployed

Among ex-offenders:

60 to 70 per cent were using drugs before they were imprisoned

More than 70 per cent suffer from some type of mental disorders