Educational Cuts in Prisons Put at Risk Community Security, Oversight Body Alerts

Decreases to learning offerings within correctional institutions are disrupting inmates' work and training options, in the long run posing a risk to community safety, according to a new report from a correctional oversight body.

Cycle of Repeat Crimes Linked to Shortage of Training

Repeat criminals often cause disorder in their communities due to the failure of prisons to supply adequate education and employment programs that could help disrupt the pattern of reoffending, the findings noted.

“I have serious concerns about the effect of real-terms education funding cuts on already inadequate provision and about the lack of real desire and drive for improvement that this signifies.”

Budget Reductions Endanger Rehabilitation Initiatives

Despite promises to enhance access to education, spending on frontline educational programs in prisons is being reduced by as much as 50%, per recent reports.

While the total education allocation has stayed unchanged, the cost of program agreements has soared, according to correctional administrators.

• Just 31% of ex- prisoners are working six months after leaving prison
• 94 of one hundred four inspected prisons were rated “poor” or “not sufficiently good” for meaningful activity
• Average attendance in educational activities was just 67% in inspected prisons

Insufficient Conditions Impede Reform

Crowded conditions, a shortage of training space, equipment breakdowns, and ageing infrastructure have compounded the situation, per the report.

Numerous prisoners wait for extended periods to be assigned an activity space and are often assigned any is available, rather than instruction applicable to their career prospects upon release.

Even when activities went ahead, full-day positions generally engaged inmates for just a limited time per day, with numerous positions divided into partial places to stretch meagre provision more widely.

Government Response and Upcoming Initiatives

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

Top administrators know that prisons, and in the end our communities, are more secure if inmates are purposefully occupied, and that education, training and employment play a crucial role in motivating inmates to turn their lives around.

It is understood that purposeful engagement can help to enable safe and proper prisons and have a positive effect on recidivism levels.”

Unless 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.

The spending cuts are also expected to hinder initiatives to introduce a new reward-driven correctional system that would allow prisoners to earn time off their sentence by completing work, skill development and learning programs.