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Cuts to learning programs within correctional institutions are impeding inmates' employment and skill development options, in the long run posing a risk to community safety, according to a new report from a correctional watchdog agency.

Pattern of Reoffending Connected to Lack of Training

Habitual criminals often cause chaos in their communities due to the failure of prisons to offer adequate training and work programs that could help break the pattern of reoffending, the findings noted.

I hold significant concerns about the impact of real-terms education budget cuts on currently insufficient provision and about the absence of real appetite and ambition for improvement that this signifies.”

Budget Reductions Threaten Reform Initiatives

Despite commitments to improve access to learning, funding on frontline educational programs in correctional institutions is being reduced by as much as 50%, according to recent disclosures.

Although the total education allocation has stayed the same, the cost of program contracts has soared, according to correctional administrators.

• Just 31% of ex- prisoners are working six months after leaving prison
• 94 of 104 inspected prisons were rated “inadequate” or “not sufficiently good” for purposeful activity
• Average attendance in training activities was just 67% in reviewed institutions

Insufficient Situations Impede Reform

Crowded conditions, a shortage of workshop space, equipment breakdowns, and ageing facilities have worsened the problem, according to the report.

Many prisoners wait for extended periods to be allocated an activity space and are often given whatever is available, instead of instruction relevant to their employment prospects upon release.

Even when activities proceeded, full-day positions generally occupied inmates for just a limited time per day, with numerous roles split into partial places to extend meagre provision further.

Government Response and Future Initiatives

Correctional service has a responsibility to protect the community by making prisoners less inclined to commit crimes again when they are released, but frequently it is failing to meet this responsibility.

The best governors know that prisons, and ultimately our society, are safer if inmates are purposefully occupied, and that education, training and work play a vital role in motivating inmates to turn their lives around.

It is understood that purposeful engagement can help to facilitate secure and decent prisons and have a positive effect on reoffending levels.”

Until officials in the prison service take the provision of high-quality training and skill development more seriously, it is difficult to see how extremely high reoffending rates can be reduced.

Funding cuts are also likely to hinder initiatives to implement a new reward-driven prison system that would enable inmates to earn reductions their sentence by completing employment, training and learning programs.