Why the Failure of the Rehabilitation Revolution Fails us All, from Inside Time

 By A psychology Assistant at a Southern prison, from insidetime issue September 2011

A prison psychology assistant wonders why all the government’s good ideas about rehabilitation have been shelved

A strain of vindictive stupidity stalks the land. At a time when our public services are being restructured, reduced or cut completely we have been offered a way to make savings that would have had a positive impact on one of the most difficult areas of public policy and possibly even changed the country’s approach to penal justice.

A recent U-turn on sentencing policy is a huge upset to the justice minister Ken Clarke, who had planned to end the rise in prison numbers and begin a “rehabilitation revolution” to reduce this country’s re-offending rate. It seemed like an idea whose time had come, with drastic changes needed to save money and a Tory party in power who wished to disavow their “nasty party” image. Clarke’s proposals were distinctly un-Tory, but they were also clearly welcomed by the party leadership, who would have known exactly what they were getting when they appointed him.

That the Coalition was forced to change its mind on the policy at a time when the argument for economic austerity had been all but won is a sign that public anger towards offenders is the only force sufficiently dangerous to change the mind of a government hell bent on its drive to reduce the size of the state.
Pictures of “Baby P” galvanised the nation’s conscience three years ago and forced the Labour government to address the chronic under-support of child protection services. Since then, this campaign has been more or less forgotten as social services are forced to make job cuts in the wake of massive budget cuts to local government.

In the current climate when the government remains immune to the lobbying of disability rights groups, healthcare professionals and public sector unions, there is much to learn about our priorities. We live in a country where to be “too lenient” is a political problem but to be negligent of the needs of the extremely vulnerable is not. News of cuts to disability benefit, to mental health and social services have created nothing like the furore raised to the suggestion that we reduce the amount of time offenders spend in prison from two thirds of their sentence to a half.

This change would have saved the Ministry of Justice £130m, but now that saving will have to come from other aspects of its work. One of the prime candidates is the probation service, which monitors the behaviour of offenders upon release. It will be a supreme irony that the same vituperative public who demanded a reversal of sentencing policy in the name of their safety will very likely be out at further risk by the u-turn.

A psychology Assistant at a Southern prison

Unholy Alliances, but hey, whatever works.

Nick Clegg gets behind the Justice Secretary's working prisons proposals.
Unleashed from behind the Times paywall. Spelling mistakes theirs, not ours.

 

The bosses of Britain’s top companies are to be drafted in by Kenneth Clarke in an effort to get prisoners working in jail.

The Justice Secretary believes that inmates should be offered hard work to relieve the “stupefying boredom” in prisons throughout England and Wales.

The Confederation of British Industry and large UK firms are to join an advisory group to help develop constructive work opportunities for prisoners, giving offenders skills they can use when they are released.

A report by a leading think-tank published today provides support for Mr Clarke’s ambition but adds that the creation of a proper working week for prisoners should develop slowly if it is to be a success. The Policy Exchange recommends that thousands of inmates should be paid a new prison minimum wage of £3.10 an hour for an eight-hour day. Deductions would be made to a victims fund and towards helping released inmates resettle.

Almost three quarters of the public support expanding work opportunities using outside employers in jails, according to a YouGov poll conducted for the report.

But those questioned were more evenly divided on the issue of paying prisoners for their work. Just over half believed that they should be paid, but 41 per cent said that inmates should get nothing for prison employement.

Blair Gibbs, head of the crime and justice unit at Policy Exchange, said: “People expect prisoners to work in jail but under the current system no inmate is compelled to work and most do not choose to, meaning that they leave prison totally unprepared for working life.

“Creating a market for real work in prison where inmates are encouraged to replicate a full working week should reduce employment rates on release and cut reoffending rates. Real prison work is a long overdue justice reform that the public support.”

The report is published as Mr Clarke revises plans for sentence discounts of up to fifty per cent for early guilty pleas. He is expected to publish his revised overhaul of sentencing within the next ten days.

Mr Clarke said: “This survey shows overwhelming public support for our plans to expand real work in prisons. We will shortly announce the establishment of an advisory group, to include major UK firms and the CBI, to help encourage the growth of hard, constructive work in jail, in a way that does not disadvantage the law-abiding workforce.”

Part of Mr Clarke’s proposals include a drive to bring more outside firms into jails to provide skills and jobs to prisoners which will improve their chances of getting work on release.

In April Mr Clarke told The Times that he wanted more companies involved in providing employment opportunities in jails. He said they should have the opportunity to train and recruit among prisoners whose lives could be turned around so they could lead an honest life on being released.

Some firms are already providing employment in jails but Mr Clarke said they were reluctant to advertise their involvement because “newspapers write them up as ‘employing jail birds’”.

Among companies working in jails are Travis Perkins in Stocken prison, where inmates repair plant tool hire equipment, and ASD Lighting in Gartree jail, where inmates assemble components. Many other small firms have contracts with prisons but most of the work is general packing and assembly, recycling, textile finishing and laundry work.

The report said that only low-risk prisoners with at least two years of their sentence should initially be involved in real work employment. They should be tested to ensure they are free of drugs and have a reading age of 11 or above.

On this basis the report estimates that between 2,600 and 7,300 of the 60,000 sentenced adult male population would be ready and available for work.

The report suggests that some manufacturing or industrial work outsourced abroad could be carried out in prison.

Prisoners would make contributions to victims and their own future resettlement on release from their weekly wage. Take-home pay would be about £25 a week.

A quarter of the wage would go towards resettlement and their would also be deductions for tax and national insurance.