Jobs inside and out: the key to reducing re-offending
Several years ago ‘Robin’ was convicted of assault. At 33 he had spent more time without a job than with one. Most of the work Robin had done since leaving school was casual labouring. This was interspersed with long periods of unemployment. With not a lot on his CV and little experience of the routine of work, research shows that Robin was less likely to find a job or course when he left prison. As a result there was a much higher chance that he would re-offend.
Combine this with the fact that in prison Robin didn’t have much of an opportunity to develop his skills. He cleaned cells and did some grounds maintenance but with a relatively short sentence he didn’t have much time to get involved in the prison workshops or to gain a qualification. These factors all increased the likelihood that he would offend within the first 12 months of release.
But things didn’t work out like that. Shortly after leaving prison Robin was referred to a local social enterprise. Set up by seven social landlords in 2002 to collaboratively purchase goods and services, Fusion21 links its procurement muscle to job creation.
For every £1million worth of work awarded to a construction contractor for example, 1.5 people – such as Robin - are trained through the Fusion21 Skills Programme and employed by that contractor. So far a total of 799 jobs for local people have been created, with 235 of these positions going to people who have a background of offending.
Robin was one of the 300 people who were given placements on the Future Jobs Fund scheme. Due to his hard work and motivation, he secured a permanent role with a housing association as a neighbourhood support officer. He’s still working for them today.
Robin’s background is typical of many ex-offenders. Research shows that if a former prisoner secures employment then they are between 30-50 per cent less likely to re-offend. Despite this evidence, two in three individuals have no job when they are sent to prison, fewer than one in eight inmates work today in prison industries and three quarters of prisoners do not have paid employment to go to on release.
And the figures get worse. Despite a trebling of investment in the prison skills system over recent years, re-offending rates are still high. Recidivism is particularly common amongst young people and offenders serving short sentences – where, in the past, there has been little attempt at rehabilitation. Almost 50 per cent of adult offenders released from prison re-offend within one year. Three quarters of young people released from custody and 68 per cent of young people on community sentences reoffend within a year.
Late last year the Ministry of Justice published Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders. This green paper aimed to begin the debate about new ways to rehabilitate people who commit crime, get offenders off drugs, tackle prisoners’ mental health problems and ensure inmates pay their way. It also looked at issues around sentencing reform and improving the youth justice system.
Proposals were wide-ranging, but a common theme throughout was work. By making prisons places of hard work and industry, the government aims to make sentences more strenuous and meaningful – instilling in prisoners the discipline, routine and sense of purpose provided by work opportunities. This, government believes, will end the enforced idleness that has dominated the prison system.
Importantly, Breaking the Cycle pointed to the central role prisons must play in giving inmates employment experience and the chance to develop their vocational skills. In the proposed ‘working prison’, offenders will complete a full working week of up to 40 hours and prison work will focus more than ever on increasing inmates’ chances of finding a job on release.
In May 2011 the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills went a step further, outlining their reform programme for offender learning. In Making Prisons Work: Skills for Rehabilitation, Ministers admit that past investment in offender training has boosted the number of prisoners participating in courses and advanced the quality of learning provision. But crucially it hasn’t translated in to an increase in regular jobs and continuing education for offenders on release.
In light of the new payment-by-results context in which many services tackling re-offending will now operate, government will be holding providers to account like never before. Making Prisons Work states: ‘We know that other factors besides employment contribute to reduce reoffending, but this lack of follow through into work or further training on release represents a missed opportunity to have a more positive impact.’
These other factors are, of course, important. A study by the Social Exclusion Unit, points to a multitude of issues influencing whether an individual re-offends. Drugs & alcohol, mental & physical health, education & training, attitudes & self control, institutionalisation & life skills, employment, accommodation, debt and family circumstance all play a part. But recent research and the government’s latest policy papers on re-offending all indicate that employment plays a central role.
Regular work can help ex-offenders remain in mainstream society and generate the life-style shift needed to break criminal habits and address other problems such as drug and alcohol misuse. A job to go to immediately on release can give ex-offenders financial security and the ability to find stable housing.
In their recent report ‘Inside Job’, think tank the Policy Exchange outlines the broad benefits of employment. They cite evidence showing the positive impact work and skills development can have on an individual’s mental health, their sense of achievement, satisfaction and self confidence. Vocational training provides structure and purpose to an offender’s day as well boosting their own sense of identity.
The report Making Prisons Work outlines how government will use vocational training in prisons to realise some of these wide-ranging benefits. One plan is for prisons to work more closely with local employers and ask them to be involved in the design of offender training programmes. This would help to make inmates more attractive to employers on release – specifically within their local job market and it could also help to plug regional skill shortages.
But in reality how can busy employers get involved with the delivery of skills programmes for offenders? What would this look like on the ground and what’s in it for employers? What about health and safety issues, quality assurance and the costs involved?
In Merseyside Fusion21 is working with HMP Liverpool and local employers to run a prison industry transfer pilot. The aim is to create a replicable model where businesses put part of their production processes into prisons in order to reduce their overheads, tackle skills shortages and give something back to their local community.
In the current economic climate, where many jobs on the outside are uncertain, this pilot will only focus on businesses that want to expand their production. Jobs will not be taken away from law-abiding people.
Instead, prisoners will be given the chance to build up their work histories, gain accredited training through on-the-job experience and give something of value back to their local economy.
Fusion21 is working with trades suited to prison industry transfer such as horticulture, building, manufacturing and social housing maintenance. Such a model could also work well for industries that currently import goods or outsource the assembly of products to foreign countries. Prison workshops could help companies reduce their costs and carbon footprint by manufacturing or constructing products in the UK. A large proportion of prisoners have a low skills base – almost 47 per cent have no qualifications - so certain areas of these industries that are straightforward to learn and non-technical would be ideal.
As part of this approach, Fusion21 is in talks with the National Apprenticeship Service to see whether trainees could begin their apprenticeships during the last three months of their sentences. This would give offenders continuity between life inside and outside prison – so they have something constructive to occupy their time straight after they are released.
Conversations are also underway with the probation service to look at how community payback schemes can move beyond litter picking and enhance an offender’s chances of getting a job.
One idea is to help probation trusts manage land which is now sitting empty. Offenders would learn skills by maintaining the land and probation trusts would earn income. Another idea would be to deliver housing associations’ neighbourhood plans which list the environmental changes they’d like to make if they had the money.
Fusion21 has also set up Employer Pool, a social enterprise which helps unemployed people and ex-offenders find local jobs. This system enables employers to take on workers without the need to offer them permanent contracts. The reassurance of Fusion21 being the ‘host’ employer encourages those operating in the Employer Pool to take on workers and create job opportunities – something that will help former prisoners like Robin find work on release.
These are just some of the many initiatives put forward by organisations following the publication of Breaking the Cycle and Making Prisons Work. But the key to success is two fold. Firstly prison industries and services that help ex-offenders to find work must be self sustaining. They need to generate a profit which ensures they don’t have to rely on government handouts.
Secondly programmes must be replicable. There are many projects already running that do great work to tackle re-offending through employment routes. But this work is disparate and there is only so much a single provider can do on their own, especially if their work is grant dependant. Only co-ordinated solutions that can be rolled out nationally will have enough power to reduce this country’s re-offending rates - which remain so high.
Dave Neilson is chief executive of Fusion21 www.fusion21.co.uk