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Decreases to educational programs within correctional institutions are hindering prisoners' work and skill development options, in the long run creating danger to community safety, according to a recent analysis from a prison watchdog body.

Pattern of Repeat Crimes Linked to Shortage of Training

Repeat criminals often cause disorder in their neighborhoods due to the failure of correctional facilities to provide adequate training and work programs that could help disrupt the pattern of reoffending, the findings stated.

“I have significant concerns about the impact of real-terms education funding reductions on already insufficient provision and about the lack of real desire and drive for improvement that this signifies.”

Funding Cuts Threaten Rehabilitation Initiatives

Despite commitments to improve access to education, funding on direct learning programs in prisons is being cut by as much as 50%, per latest reports.

Although the overall training budget has remained the same, the cost of program contracts has soared, according to prison administrators.

• Only 31% of former prisoners are employed six months after leaving prison
• 94 of 104 inspected facilities were rated “inadequate” or “below standard” for purposeful engagement
• Average participation in educational programs was just 67% in reviewed prisons

Inadequate Conditions Hinder Reform

Crowded conditions, a lack of workshop facilities, equipment breakdowns, and ageing infrastructure have compounded the problem, per the report.

Numerous prisoners wait for weeks to be allocated an training spot and are often given whatever is open, instead of instruction applicable to their career opportunities upon release.

Although work proceeded, full-time jobs generally engaged prisoners for just a limited time per day, with many positions split into partial slots to extend limited resources further.

Government Response and Future Plans

The prison system has a duty to safeguard the public by making prisoners less inclined to commit crimes again when they are freed, but frequently it is failing to fulfill this responsibility.

The best administrators know that jails, and in the end our society, are more secure if prisoners are meaningfully occupied, and that education, skill development and work play a crucial role in encouraging prisoners to turn their lives around.

“We know that purposeful activity can help to facilitate safe and proper prisons and have a positive impact on reoffending rates.”

Unless leaders in the correctional system take the provision of high-quality education and skill development more seriously, it is difficult to see how appallingly high recidivism rates can be reduced.

The spending cuts are also likely to impede efforts to implement a new incentive-based prison system that would allow prisoners to gain time off their sentence by completing employment, skill development and education courses.