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Reductions to educational offerings within prisons are impeding inmates' work and skill development opportunities, ultimately creating danger to public safety, according to a new report from a correctional oversight body.

Pattern of Reoffending Connected to Shortage of Training

Repeat criminals often cause chaos in their neighborhoods due to the inability of correctional facilities to supply adequate training and employment programs that could help disrupt the cycle of criminal behavior, the analysis noted.

I hold serious worries about the effect of real-terms education funding reductions on currently insufficient services and about the lack of real appetite and drive for improvement that this represents.”

Funding Reductions Threaten Rehabilitation Efforts

Despite commitments to improve access to learning, spending on direct educational programs in prisons is being reduced by as much as 50%, per recent disclosures.

While the overall training allocation has remained unchanged, the expense of program agreements has increased significantly, according to correctional governors.

• Only 31% of ex- inmates are employed six months after release
• Ninety-four of one hundred four inspected facilities were rated “poor” or “below standard” for purposeful activity
• Typical attendance in educational activities was just 67% in reviewed institutions

Insufficient Situations Hinder Rehabilitation

Overcrowding, a lack of training facilities, machinery breakdowns, and ageing facilities have compounded the situation, according to the report.

Numerous inmates wait for extended periods to be assigned an activity space and are often assigned any is available, rather than training applicable to their employment opportunities upon leaving.

Although activities went ahead, full-time positions generally engaged prisoners for just a limited time per day, with many positions divided into partial slots to extend limited provision further.

Official Position and Upcoming Plans

The prison service has a responsibility to safeguard the public by making inmates less likely to commit crimes again when they are freed, but too often it is falling short to fulfill this responsibility.

Top administrators understand that prisons, and in the end our society, are more secure if inmates are purposefully engaged, and that education, training and employment play a vital role in encouraging inmates to change their behavior.

“We know that meaningful engagement can help to facilitate safe and decent correctional facilities and have a transformative impact on recidivism rates.”

Until leaders in the correctional system take the delivery of high-quality education and skill development more seriously, it is hard to see how extremely high recidivism rates can be reduced.

The spending cuts are also likely to hinder initiatives to implement a new incentive-based correctional regime that would enable inmates to gain reductions their sentence by completing employment, skill development and education courses.