Education Cuts in Prisons Endanger Community Security, Watchdog Reports

Cuts to educational initiatives within correctional institutions are hindering prisoners' employment and skill development options, ultimately posing a risk to public safety, per a recent analysis from a correctional oversight body.

Cycle of Reoffending Linked to Shortage of Education

Habitual criminals often cause disorder in their neighborhoods due to the failure of prisons to offer adequate education and employment programs that could help disrupt the pattern of criminal behavior, the findings stated.

“I have serious worries about the effect of real-terms learning budget cuts on currently inadequate provision and about the lack of real desire and drive for progress that this represents.”

Budget Reductions Endanger Reform Initiatives

In spite of promises to enhance availability to learning, funding on direct educational services in prisons is being reduced by as much as 50%, per latest reports.

Although the overall training budget has remained the same, the expense of course contracts has soared, as claimed by prison governors.

• Just 31% of ex- inmates are working six months after release
• 94 of 104 closed prisons were rated “poor” or “not sufficiently good” for purposeful engagement
• Average participation in educational activities was just 67% in reviewed institutions

Inadequate Situations Hinder Reform

Overcrowding, a shortage of training facilities, machinery breakdowns, and ageing facilities have compounded the situation, according to the report.

Numerous prisoners remain for weeks to be allocated an activity space and are often given whatever is available, instead of training relevant to their employment opportunities upon leaving.

Even when work proceeded, full-day positions generally occupied prisoners for just five hours per day, with many roles split into part-time places to stretch meagre resources further.

Government Response and Future Plans

The prison service has a duty to protect the public by making prisoners less likely to reoffend when they are released, but too often it is falling short to meet this obligation.

Top governors understand that jails, and ultimately our society, are safer if inmates are purposefully occupied, and that training, skill development and work play a vital role in motivating inmates to turn their lives around.

“We know that purposeful engagement can help to enable safe and decent prisons and have a transformative impact on reoffending rates.”

Until leaders in the correctional system take the delivery of effective training and training more seriously, it is difficult to see how appallingly high reoffending rates can be lowered.

Funding cuts are also likely to hinder efforts to introduce a new incentive-based prison system that would allow prisoners to earn reductions their incarceration by finishing work, skill development and learning programs.