By Nick Mann | 7 November 2011
Plans to improve rehabilitation of offenders by introducing working prisons could fail from lack of cash, the Royal Society for Arts warned today.
It said the 23% cut to the Ministry of Justice’s budget, combined with pressure to cut costs, could instead make prisons more like ‘American profit-led jailhouses that exploit prisoners and fail to rehabilitate’.
The think-tank called for rehabilitation to be put at the ‘heart’ of new contracts to run nine prisons – eight of which are currently in the public sector. The tender for the contracts, worth £2.5bn, was published at the end of October.
Under plans announced by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke in October 2010, prisoners would work a 40-hour week. Prison providers would also be paid according to their success in reducing reoffending levels.
But the RSA report said that organisational and management challenges would also need to be overcome in order for UK prisons to focus on work. The changes required would be made even more difficult by overcrowding, with prison numbers at peak levels.
In light of this, the RSA put forward its own alternative model for a not-for-profit community prison that would provide both custody and rehabilitation services on a single site.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA, said: ‘The government has been brave; there are few votes to be won when it comes to prison policy. Yet, it announced its rehabilitation revolution and, in its emphasis on work, recognised the futility of locking prisoners in their cells all day. In the current environment, it is more important than ever for the £2.5bn to be spent well.
‘Every year, tens of thousands of people will leave prison and return to the community; the critical question is whether prison has made them less likely to reoffend. Prisons, like all public services, need to be measured by their ability to increase social productivity.’
Under the RSA’s proposals, prisoners would be paid to work in social enterprises while in custody. This would continue when they left prison, with the aim of normalising work, addressing their resettlement needs and helping them secure employment.
Their salaries would make a contribution towards both reparations for victims and their own savings towards resettlement.
