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Decreases to educational offerings within prisons are impeding inmates' employment and skill development opportunities, in the long run creating danger to public safety, as stated by a recent analysis from a prison watchdog organization.

Pattern of Reoffending Connected to Lack of Training

Repeat offenders often create mayhem in their communities due to the inability of prisons to provide adequate education and employment programs that could help break the pattern of reoffending, the report stated.

I hold serious worries about the effect of real-terms education budget reductions on currently insufficient services and about the lack of real desire and drive for progress that this represents.”

Budget Reductions Threaten Rehabilitation Efforts

Despite commitments to enhance availability to learning, funding on direct learning programs in prisons is being cut by as much as 50%, according to latest disclosures.

While the total training allocation has stayed the same, the cost of program agreements has soared, as claimed by correctional administrators.

• Just 31% of former prisoners are working half a year after release
• 94 of 104 inspected prisons were rated “poor” or “not sufficiently good” for purposeful activity
• Average attendance in training activities was just 67% in inspected institutions

Inadequate Conditions Hinder Reform

Crowded conditions, a shortage of training facilities, equipment failures, and aging facilities have compounded the problem, per the report.

Numerous prisoners wait for extended periods to be allocated an training space and are often assigned any is available, instead of training applicable to their employment opportunities upon leaving.

Even when work proceeded, full-time positions generally occupied prisoners for just five hours per day, with many positions divided into part-time slots to stretch limited provision more widely.

Government Response and Future Initiatives

Correctional service has a responsibility to protect the public by making prisoners less inclined to commit crimes again when they are freed, but too often it is falling short to fulfill this responsibility.

Top administrators know that prisons, and ultimately our communities, are more secure if prisoners are meaningfully occupied, and that education, training and work play a crucial role in encouraging inmates to turn their lives around.

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

Until leaders in the correctional service take the provision of high-quality education and skill development more seriously, it is hard to see how extremely high reoffending rates can be lowered.

The spending cuts are also expected to impede efforts to implement a new incentive-based prison system that would allow inmates to earn reductions their incarceration by completing work, skill development and education programs.