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Decreases to educational offerings within correctional institutions are impeding prisoners' work and training opportunities, ultimately creating danger to public safety, per a recent analysis from a correctional oversight agency.

Cycle of Repeat Crimes Linked to Lack of Education

Repeat criminals often create disorder in their communities due to the inability of prisons to provide adequate education and employment programs that could help break the pattern of criminal behavior, the report noted.

“I have serious concerns about the impact of inflation-adjusted education funding reductions on already insufficient provision and about the lack of genuine appetite and drive for improvement that this represents.”

Funding Cuts Endanger Rehabilitation Initiatives

In spite of commitments to improve access to education, spending on direct learning services in prisons is being cut by up to 50%, according to latest reports.

Although the overall education allocation has stayed the same, the cost of program contracts has increased significantly, according to prison administrators.

• Just 31% of former prisoners are employed six months after release
• Ninety-four of one hundred four inspected facilities were rated “inadequate” or “below standard” for purposeful engagement
• Typical attendance in educational programs was just 67% in inspected prisons

Insufficient Conditions Impede Reform

Crowded conditions, a lack of training facilities, equipment failures, and aging infrastructure have compounded the problem, per the analysis.

Numerous inmates remain for extended periods to be allocated an training space and are often assigned whatever is available, rather than training applicable to their employment prospects upon release.

Even when activities proceeded, full-day jobs generally occupied inmates for just five hours per day, with many positions divided into part-time places to stretch limited provision more widely.

Government Response and Upcoming Initiatives

Correctional system has a duty to protect the community by making inmates less likely to reoffend when they are released, but frequently it is failing to meet this responsibility.

Top administrators know that jails, and in the end our society, are more secure if inmates are meaningfully engaged, and that training, skill development and work play a vital role in motivating prisoners to reform.

It is understood that meaningful activity can help to enable secure and decent correctional facilities and have a positive effect on reoffending levels.”

Until leaders in the prison service take the delivery of effective education and training more seriously, it is difficult to see how extremely high reoffending rates can be reduced.

Funding cuts are also expected to hinder efforts to implement a new incentive-based prison system that would allow inmates to earn time off their incarceration by completing work, skill development and education programs.