Education Cuts in Prisons Put at Risk Public Safety, Oversight Body Warns

Reductions to learning offerings within prisons are hindering prisoners' employment and skill development options, eventually posing a risk to public security, per a latest report from a correctional watchdog agency.

Cycle of Reoffending Connected to Lack of Education

Habitual criminals often cause disorder in their neighborhoods due to the inability of correctional facilities to provide adequate training and employment opportunities that could help break the pattern of criminal behavior, the report indicated.

I hold serious concerns about the impact of real-terms education budget reductions on currently insufficient services and about the lack of genuine appetite and drive for progress that this represents.”

Budget Reductions Endanger Rehabilitation Efforts

Despite promises to improve access to education, spending on direct educational programs in correctional institutions is being reduced by as much as 50%, according to latest reports.

While the overall education allocation has stayed unchanged, the cost of program contracts has increased significantly, according to correctional administrators.

• Only 31% of ex- inmates are working half a year after leaving prison
• 94 of 104 closed prisons were rated “inadequate” or “below standard” for meaningful engagement
• Average attendance in training activities was just 67% in reviewed institutions

Insufficient Situations Hinder Reform

Overcrowding, a lack of training space, equipment breakdowns, and aging infrastructure have worsened the situation, per the report.

Many prisoners wait for extended periods to be assigned an training spot and are often assigned whatever is available, instead of instruction relevant to their employment prospects upon release.

Even when work went ahead, full-day positions generally occupied inmates for just five hours per day, with many roles split into partial slots to extend limited provision further.

Government Response and Upcoming Plans

Correctional system has a responsibility to protect the community by making inmates less likely to reoffend when they are freed, but frequently it is failing to fulfill this obligation.

The best governors know that jails, and in the end our society, are more secure if inmates are purposefully occupied, and that training, training and employment play a vital role in encouraging prisoners to reform.

It is understood that meaningful activity can help to enable secure and proper prisons and have a positive impact on reoffending levels.”

Unless officials in the correctional service take the provision of effective education and training more seriously, it is difficult to see how appallingly high reoffending levels can be lowered.

The spending reductions are also likely to impede initiatives to implement a new reward-driven prison system that would allow prisoners to gain time off their incarceration by completing employment, skill development and learning programs.