09/05/2023
Police Oracle
A new report published today by the Centre for Social Justice looks at addressing our national labour shortage by using the mainly untapped workforce currently in prison
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) was founded in 2004 by the former Conservative Party leader Ian Duncan Smith. Although it describes itself as an independent think tank, it, quite naturally has very close links with the Conservative Government. Indeed, the Prisons, Parole and Probation Minister, Damian Hinds, has authored the foreword for the report.
Unlocking aspiration: Breaking down barriers to work for people leaving prison argues that we must do more to get prisoners into the workplace, both for their own rehabilitation and for the sake of the economy.
The CSJ says that “Britain’s economy is clamouring for workers”, noting that the Government dubbed the main fiscal event of 2023 its “back to work Budget” and introduced a new Universal Support scheme to help tens of thousands more disadvantaged people into the workforce. The CSJ also has an eye on the next general election, noting that the Labour party has pledged to “get Britain working again”.
The CSJ says that despite these policy positions across both main parties that we need to do more to increase the vitality of the UK labour market, one group remains absent from the discussion. That is the 85,000 men and women currently serving time in our prison estate, of whom around 47,000 re-enter the community every year. The report focusing on realising the potential of this “often written off” group of people.
The report acknowledges that first and foremost a custodial sentence and the deprivation of liberty should serve as a punishment for, and deterrent to, committing crime. It goes on to argue, however, that prison time must also be used as an opportunity to ensure that the cycle of offending is broken, and that more would-be victims are protected from the immense harm of crime.
There is a compelling body of domestic and international evidence showing that work is a route out of crime as well as a route out of poverty. A major Government study found that being in work has a statistically significant effect on reducing reoffending rates, replicated in more recent longitudinal research undertaken across the EU and US. Earlier analysis suggests a job cuts the risk of reoffending by between a third and a half.
Indeed the evidence base suggests four main benefits of getting a job for people seeking to move away from a life of crime:
With the cost of reoffending alone estimated by the Ministry of Justice to reach some £18bn every year, the net result of rehabilitation is not only huge savings for the taxpayer, but safer communities for everyone to enjoy.
The CSJ acknowledges that the Government has recently shown a keen recognition of the importance of employment in the rehabilitative process, and has just achieved their target to establish Employment Advisory Boards across all 92 resettlement prisons. Ministers have also changed the law to make apprenticeships more accessible for people in prison who are nearing the end of their sentences to gain the skills they need to secure work on their release.
This work is having an impact, helping the number of prison leavers in employment six weeks after they left custody to rise by more than half between April 2021 and March 2022 – that is, from 10 to 16 per cent. Those employed sixth months post-release rose 14 to 23 per cent in the same period.
However, the CSJ says that even these improved figures show that less than one quarter of people had a job six months after stepping out of the prison gates.
Recommendations
The report makes a total of 37 recommendations intended to make it easier for people in prison to find jobs on release. The recommendations are divided into three main categories: