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Cuts to educational programs within correctional institutions are hindering prisoners' work and skill development opportunities, in the long run creating danger to public security, according to a recent report from a prison watchdog agency.

Pattern of Reoffending Linked to Shortage of Education

Repeat offenders often cause mayhem in their communities due to the inability of correctional facilities to supply sufficient training and employment opportunities that could help break the pattern of reoffending, the report indicated.

“I have serious worries about the impact of real-terms education funding reductions on already inadequate provision and about the lack of genuine desire and drive for progress that this represents.”

Funding Reductions Endanger Rehabilitation Initiatives

Despite commitments to improve availability to learning, spending on frontline learning programs in correctional institutions is being cut by as much as 50%, per recent reports.

While the overall training budget has stayed unchanged, the cost of program agreements has increased significantly, as claimed by correctional governors.

• Just 31% of former prisoners are employed half a year after leaving prison
• Ninety-four of 104 inspected facilities were rated “inadequate” or “not sufficiently good” for purposeful activity
• Average attendance in training programs was just 67% in reviewed prisons

Inadequate Situations Impede Rehabilitation

Overcrowding, a lack of workshop space, equipment breakdowns, and ageing facilities have compounded the problem, according to the analysis.

Many inmates remain for weeks to be assigned an activity spot and are often given whatever is open, rather than instruction applicable to their employment opportunities upon release.

Although work went ahead, full-day positions generally occupied prisoners for just five hours per day, with many roles split into part-time places to stretch limited resources further.

Government Position and Upcoming Initiatives

The prison service has a responsibility to safeguard the community by making inmates less likely to commit crimes again when they are freed, but frequently it is falling short to meet this responsibility.

Top governors understand that prisons, and in the end our communities, are safer if prisoners are meaningfully occupied, and that training, training and employment play a vital role in motivating inmates to turn their lives around.

It is understood that purposeful activity can help to facilitate secure and proper correctional facilities and have a positive impact on recidivism levels.”

Unless leaders in the prison service take the provision of high-quality education and training more seriously, it is hard to see how appallingly high reoffending levels can be lowered.

Funding reductions are also expected to hinder initiatives to introduce a new incentive-based prison regime that would enable prisoners to gain time off their sentence by completing employment, skill development and education courses.