Young Offender

The day he entered the notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institute, Michael Maisey was excited. He was going to be a legend to all his mates. The sixteen year old was in for attempted murder. He was innocent of this particular crime but amongst the violent and dangerous young men on his wing he was about to learn exactly how far he'd go to survive.In Young Offender we see what turned a good kid into a wanted criminal. Abused by his uncle, bullied at school, at the age of 12 he found the safety he craved in the ranks of a local gang in West London. He graduated from shoplifting to armed robbery and for five years Michael was in and out of Feltham, on a downward spiral of crime and drug and alcohol addiction. At rock bottom, he began attending AA meetings. But the road to recovery would mean changing himself in the deepest possible ways. Could Michael finally learn what it meant to be a good man?Honest and inspiring, this is a powerful story of redemption. Today Michael is a successful businessman and a loving father who spends time helping others find their way.

“Courageous and brutally honest”

-- Ollie Ollerton, author of Break Point
Young Offender is a memoir to shine a light in the darkest of nights, a harrowing, heart breaking autobiography that feels like it was written in tears and blood. Michael Maisey crawled from the wreckage of what feels like every bad break in the world – domestic violence, sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol, incarceration and cruelty that staggers the mind - emerging with a story of redemption, hope and love. -- Tony Parsons
I loved everything about this book . . . There is such hope here. If one young man can make these changes, and inspire others to create value with their own lives too, then maybe we all can. Stella Duffy

Michael Maisey was born and raised in Isleworth and became one of London's most prolific young lawbreakers. He spent most of his teenage years in Feltham Young Offenders Institute after a raid on his local corner shop goes wrong. Twenty years after the armed robbery that changed his life, he is now sober, the proud father of three daughters and the founder of a non profit organisation called The CIP Project a peer led community support group which helps people with mental health, addiction, PTSD and childhood trauma. He was recently honoured by the London Borough of Hounslow for his services to the community. Young Offender is his first book.

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