Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up for Social Affairs’ myFT Digest, delivered straight to your inbox.
The Ministry of Justice has called on Britain’s top companies to help expand existing programs that help ex-prisoners find work as part of efforts to curb soaring reoffending rates.
Prisons Minister James Timpson’s new initiative will oversee the establishment of regional employment councils to link probation and prison services with local businesses and the Department for Work and Pensions.
According to the Ministry of Justice, these councils will help find work for offenders on probation and tens of thousands of people serving sentences in the community, expanding existing employment schemes.
The chief executives of bakery chain Greggs, supermarket Iceland and ready-to-eat meals company Cook are set to join the new council.
Mr Timpson said on Friday: “Putting ex-offenders into stable jobs is a surefire way to reduce crime and make our streets safer.” It added that it would build on the existing employment advisory committee that collaborated with the government.
Mr Timpson’s appointment as prisons minister last summer comes amid a crisis in the prison system with prisons nearing capacity, reoffending rampant and a series of damning inspector general reports highlighting deteriorating conditions and violence. It overlapped.
His appointment raised hopes among reformers that Britain’s approach to criminal justice would shift away from retribution and toward rehabilitation.
He was a longtime advocate of prison reform as chief executive of his eponymous lock-cutting company, Timpson’s, where 10 percent of his staff were ex-offenders.
Starting in 2019, he also led the creation of an in-prison employment hub to connect inmates with potential employers before their release. This increased the number of prison escapees finding work within six months of release from 14 percent to 30 percent by 2023.
“The employment advisory committees that I have led have made great progress, and these employment advisory committees will now expand on that work and keep even more criminals away from crime,” Timpson said Friday. Deaf,” he said.
According to data from the Ministry of Justice, recidivism accounts for approximately 80% of all recorded crimes.
Many ex-offenders struggle to keep jobs and need help with things like addiction, mental health and housing issues, but the latest data shows many are employed six weeks after leaving prison. The recidivism rate for unemployed people is about half that of unemployed people.
Rosie Brown, co-CEO of COOK, said: “Work provides an important way for people to restore their lives and relationships after a stretch in prison,” adding: He added: .
“Recidivism is reduced and families, communities and society as a whole win.”
Julia Pike, co-managing director of Suffolk’s Sizewell C nuclear power station, which also supported the initiative, said integrating ex-offenders into the workforce had “huge” benefits for companies, “particularly At a time when labor and skills shortages are widespread, it also presents important opportunities for individuals looking to rebuild their lives.”
