Education Reductions in Correctional Facilities Put at Risk Community Security, Watchdog Alerts

Cuts to educational offerings within correctional institutions are disrupting prisoners' employment and skill development opportunities, ultimately creating danger to community safety, per a new analysis from a correctional oversight organization.

Cycle of Repeat Crimes Connected to Lack of Education

Repeat criminals often create mayhem in their communities due to the failure of correctional facilities to provide adequate training and work opportunities that could help disrupt the cycle of criminal behavior, the findings noted.

“I have serious worries about the effect of real-terms learning funding reductions on currently inadequate provision and about the absence of genuine desire and drive for improvement that this represents.”

Budget Cuts Threaten Rehabilitation Efforts

In spite of commitments to improve access to education, funding on frontline learning services in correctional institutions is being reduced by up to 50%, according to latest disclosures.

While the overall training budget has stayed the same, the cost of course agreements has soared, as claimed by prison governors.

• Only 31% of former prisoners are working six months after release
• 94 of 104 inspected facilities were rated “inadequate” or “not sufficiently good” for meaningful activity
• Typical attendance in training programs was just 67% in reviewed institutions

Inadequate Conditions Hinder Reform

Overcrowding, a shortage of training facilities, machinery failures, and aging facilities have compounded the situation, according to the report.

Many prisoners remain for extended periods to be allocated an training space and are often given whatever is open, instead of training relevant to their employment prospects upon release.

Even when work proceeded, full-day positions generally occupied prisoners for just five hours per day, with numerous roles split into part-time places to stretch meagre resources further.

Official Response and Upcoming Initiatives

The prison service has a responsibility to safeguard the public by making inmates less inclined to reoffend when they are released, but too often it is failing to fulfill this obligation.

The best administrators know that prisons, and ultimately our communities, are safer if prisoners are meaningfully occupied, and that education, skill development and work play a vital role in motivating inmates to change their behavior.

“We know that purposeful engagement can help to facilitate safe and decent correctional facilities and have a positive impact on recidivism levels.”

Unless officials in the correctional service take the delivery of effective training and skill development more seriously, it is difficult to see how extremely high reoffending levels can be reduced.

Funding reductions are also likely to hinder efforts to implement a new incentive-based prison system that would allow prisoners to earn reductions their incarceration by finishing work, skill development and learning programs.