A report reviewed a project designed to given encouragement and training to offenders, thereby enabling them to change their behaviour and become citizens with a role and a stake in society.
Source: Turning Prisoners into Tax Payers: Employment Inside & Out - Report and findings from a series of events in prisons for employers, Inside Out Trust (01273 833050) and Hooper Walker
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Dec
A report presented the findings from one of the first evaluations of a programme to integrate drug and alcohol treatment with mental health services, education, training, and employment support.
Source: Tim McSweeney, Victoria Herrington, Mike Hough, Paul Turnbull and Jim Parsons, From Dependency to Work: Addressing the multiple needs of offenders with drug problems, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2004-Dec
An analysis of responses to a consultation by the Scottish Executive on reducing re-offending found some strengths in the existing system, but also raised concerns about standards and consistency of offender services across Scotland.
Source: Reduce, Rehabilitate, Reform: Analysis of consultation responses, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | Summary | SE press release
Date: 2004-Oct
A report said that employing ex-offenders might be a growing necessity for employers, at a time of low unemployment and high demand for suitably skilled and experienced recruits. But the government needed to do more to ensure that programmes to assist ex-offenders to return to work were properly geared towards the needs of employers.
Source: Employers and Offenders: Reducing crime through work and rehabilitation, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (0870 800 3366)
Links: Report (pdf) | CIPD press release
Date: 2004-Sep
An inspectorate report said that efforts to rehabilitate offenders were being undermined by serious flaws in the provision of basic skills training. The Probation Service was failing to ensure that offenders could read, write and do basic maths - and so harming their chances of finding work.
Source: Basic Skills for Offenders in the Community, Adult Learning Inspectorate (0870 240 7744)
Links: Report (pdf) | ALI press release (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Aug
The government published a national action plan on reducing re-offending. It said that strategic direction and joined-up working between agencies were key to reducing re-offending. The plan covered the areas of employment, training, accommodation, health, drugs and alcohol, children and families, and finance. Tenants sentenced to prison would be able to claim housing benefit for up to four weeks when they were liable to pay a landlord for the period of notice. Campaigners criticised the action plan as inadequate.
Source: Reducing Re-offending: National Action Plan, Home Office (0870 000 1585) | Press release 19 July 2004, Revolving Doors Agency (020 7242 9222)
Links: Report (pdf) | Home Office press release | RDA press release | Community Care report
Date: 2004-Jul
The Scottish Executive published the written responses received to the consultation exercise that looked at how best to address re-offending and rising prison populations in Scotland. The Scottish Prison Service had proposed scrapping all custodial sentences of less than a year to reduce the 20,000 prisoners it processed each year.
Source: Reducing Reoffending Consultation: Responses, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
Prisoners reported that the sources and quality of information about the aims of cognitive skills programmes varied from hearsay among inmates to a range of written and oral information from prison staff. Some interviewees reported that prison staff had given the impression that programme participation was mandatory, especially to secure a favourable parole report. Few programme participants or programme staff referred to the link between the aims of programmes and the ultimate objective of desistance from offending.
Source: Alan Clarke, Rosemary Simmonds and Sarah Wydall, Delivering Cognitive Skills Programmes in Prison: A qualitative study, Online Report 27/04, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report (pdf) | Findings (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jun
A report evaluated a project designed to improve effectiveness in getting offenders into work as a means of reducing re-offending.
Source: Ilona Haslewood-Pocsik, Lisa Merone and Colin Roberts, The Evaluation of the Employment Pathfinder: Lessons from phase I, and a survey for phase II, Online Report 22/04, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
A report said there was evidence to suggest that, for many offenders, the literacy demands of the offending behaviour programmes exceeded their literacy skills. There was also evidence of problems for some tutors in adjusting the delivery of the programmes to accommodate the high literacy needs of some offenders.
Source: Karen Davies, June Lewis, Janet Byatt, Emily Purvis and Brian Cole, An Evaluation of the Literacy Demands of General Offending Behaviour Programmes, Research Study 233, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
Researchers evaluated basic skills programmes in seven probation service areas. There was strong evidence of an association between poor basic skills and an increased risk of being unemployed. But only a small proportion of the offenders who should have had access to basic skills provision did so; and, of those who did, attendance was often sporadic and drop-out rates were high.
Source: Gr inne McMahon et al., Basic Skills Programmes in the Probation Service: Evaluation of the basic skills pathfinder, Online Report 14/04, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report (pdf) | Findings (pdf)
Date: 2004-Apr
Penal reform campaigners said that work opportunities in prisons were failing to meet prisoners rehabilitation needs. The work offered in prisons was usually of low quality, and did little to improve prisoners employability.
Source: Work in Prisons Isn t Working, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Report (Word file) | HLPR press release
Date: 2004-Feb
An inspectorate report examined work done by the National Probation Service aimed at reducing likelihood of re-offending by increasing the basic skills and employability of offenders. Despite the 'good progress' achieved by the seven areas visited, 'insufficient evidence' was found of an established steady course of continuous improvement towards the nationally prescribed basic skills targets.
Source: Work to Reduce Crime: An Inspection of the delivery of Employment and Basic Skills (EBS) with offenders by the National Probation Service, HM Inspectorate of Probation (020 7035 2200)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2004-Feb