Educational Cuts in Correctional Facilities Threaten Public Safety, Oversight Body Reports

Decreases to educational initiatives within correctional institutions are disrupting inmates' employment and training opportunities, ultimately posing a risk to public safety, per a new analysis from a prison oversight organization.

Cycle of Reoffending Linked to Shortage of Training

Repeat offenders often create disorder in their neighborhoods due to the failure of prisons to supply adequate training and work programs that could help disrupt the cycle of criminal behavior, the report noted.

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

Funding Cuts Threaten Reform Initiatives

In spite of promises to enhance access to learning, spending on direct learning services in prisons is being reduced by as much as 50%, per recent reports.

While the overall education budget has stayed unchanged, the cost of program contracts has soared, according to correctional governors.

• Only 31% of ex- inmates are employed six months after leaving prison
• Ninety-four of one hundred four closed facilities were rated “poor” or “not sufficiently good” for purposeful engagement
• Average participation in training activities was just 67% in reviewed prisons

Inadequate Conditions Impede Reform

Crowded conditions, a shortage of workshop facilities, equipment failures, and ageing facilities have compounded the situation, per the analysis.

Many inmates remain for weeks to be assigned an activity space and are often assigned whatever is available, rather than training relevant to their career opportunities upon release.

Although work proceeded, full-time jobs generally engaged inmates for just five hours per day, with numerous roles split into part-time slots to stretch limited resources more widely.

Government Response and Upcoming Initiatives

The prison system has a duty to safeguard the community by making inmates less inclined to reoffend when they are released, but too often it is falling short to meet this obligation.

The best governors understand that prisons, and ultimately our society, are safer if inmates are meaningfully engaged, and that education, skill development and employment play a crucial role in encouraging prisoners to turn their lives around.

“We know that purposeful engagement can help to facilitate secure and decent correctional facilities and have a transformative impact on reoffending rates.”

Unless officials in the correctional service take the delivery of high-quality education and skill development more seriously, it is hard to see how appallingly high reoffending levels can be reduced.

Funding cuts are also likely to impede efforts to implement a new reward-driven prison system that would allow prisoners to earn reductions their incarceration by completing work, skill development and learning courses.