Education Reductions in Prisons Endanger Public Safety, Watchdog Alerts

Reductions to educational initiatives within prisons are impeding inmates' work and training opportunities, ultimately creating danger to community security, according to a recent report from a correctional watchdog agency.

Pattern of Repeat Crimes Connected to Shortage of Training

Habitual criminals often cause disorder in their neighborhoods due to the inability of correctional facilities to provide sufficient education and employment programs that could help disrupt the cycle of criminal behavior, the analysis indicated.

“I have serious worries about the effect of inflation-adjusted learning funding cuts on already insufficient services and about the lack of genuine appetite and ambition for improvement that this signifies.”

Funding Cuts Endanger Reform Efforts

In spite of promises to improve availability to learning, spending on direct learning services in prisons is being reduced by as much as 50%, according to latest disclosures.

While the total education allocation has stayed the same, the cost of program contracts has soared, as claimed by prison governors.

• Only 31% of ex- prisoners are employed six months after release
• 94 of 104 closed prisons were rated “inadequate” or “below standard” for purposeful activity
• Average participation in educational activities was just 67% in reviewed prisons

Inadequate Conditions Impede Reform

Crowded conditions, a lack of training space, equipment breakdowns, and aging infrastructure have compounded the problem, according to the report.

Many prisoners wait for weeks to be allocated an training spot and are often assigned whatever is available, instead of training relevant to their employment prospects upon leaving.

Although work proceeded, full-day jobs generally occupied inmates for just a limited time per day, with many roles divided into part-time places to extend limited provision more widely.

Government Response and Upcoming Plans

Correctional service has a responsibility to safeguard the public by making prisoners less likely to reoffend when they are freed, but too often it is failing to meet this responsibility.

The best administrators know that prisons, and in the end our society, are safer if inmates are meaningfully occupied, and that education, training and employment play a crucial role in motivating inmates to reform.

“We know that purposeful activity can help to facilitate secure and proper correctional facilities and have a transformative impact on reoffending levels.”

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

Funding cuts are also expected to hinder initiatives to introduce a new reward-driven correctional system that would enable prisoners to gain reductions their incarceration by completing work, skill development and learning courses.