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Reductions to educational programs within correctional institutions are disrupting inmates' employment and skill development options, ultimately posing a risk to community safety, according to a new report from a correctional oversight body.

Cycle of Reoffending Connected to Lack of Education

Habitual offenders often cause disorder in their communities due to the inability of prisons to offer adequate training and employment opportunities that could help break the pattern of criminal behavior, the report stated.

I hold serious concerns about the effect of inflation-adjusted learning funding cuts on currently inadequate services and about the absence of real desire and ambition for progress that this represents.”

Funding Reductions Threaten Reform Efforts

Despite promises to improve availability to education, spending on frontline educational programs in prisons is being reduced by up to 50%, according to latest disclosures.

While the total education allocation has stayed unchanged, the cost of course agreements has soared, according to correctional governors.

• Only 31% of former inmates are working half a year after leaving prison
• 94 of 104 inspected facilities were rated “inadequate” or “not sufficiently good” for meaningful activity
• Typical participation in training programs was just 67% in reviewed prisons

Inadequate Situations Hinder Rehabilitation

Crowded conditions, a lack of training facilities, equipment breakdowns, and ageing infrastructure have compounded the situation, according to the report.

Numerous prisoners wait for extended periods to be allocated an training spot and are often given whatever is open, instead of instruction relevant to their career prospects upon leaving.

Although work proceeded, full-time positions generally occupied inmates for just a limited time per day, with many positions split into part-time places to stretch meagre resources more widely.

Government Position and Future Plans

Correctional system has a duty to protect the community by making inmates less inclined to reoffend when they are released, but frequently it is falling short to fulfill this obligation.

The best governors know that jails, and in the end our society, are more secure if inmates are meaningfully 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 secure and proper prisons and have a positive impact on recidivism levels.”

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

Funding reductions are also likely to impede initiatives to introduce a new incentive-based correctional system that would enable prisoners to earn reductions their incarceration by finishing work, skill development and education courses.