Give prison officers bonuses to rehabilitate
Prison officers would be given cash bonuses to rehabilitate criminals and cut reoffending under new Tory proposals.
A major review of prisons’ policy for the Conservatives by Jonathan Aitken is proposing that prison and probation workers should be rewarded for reductions in the reoffending rates.
Repeat offenders are currently costing the taxpayer at least £12 billion a year, according to the review. Up to three quarters of young offenders, and two thirds of other prisoners, are convicted of a new offence within two years of leaving jail.
Getting results at Laude Abbey
Teams of supervised ex-offenders have been working in the 14 acre gardens at Launde Abbey, a residential retreat house on the rural border between Leicestershire and Rutland.
For the last 18 months the men and women on Probation have undertaken ground clearance work and general gardening in the grounds of the Tudor house.
In Leicestershire and Rutland supervised men and women completed more than 160,000 hours of unpaid community reparation work in a 12 month period for local charities, schools, church trusts, faith groups and Local Authorities.
Sean Reynolds, Assistant Chief Officer with Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Trust, said: “We are delighted at how this on-going project is progressing. It is essential that our range of work covers both urban and rural projects. We provide supervised teams to work at a number of religious sites and it is important to provide programmes of work that are meaningful and worthwhile.”
Tim Blewett of Laude Abbey added: “The work undertaken is of real benefit and our community is delighted to be able to support the work of the Probation Service, and to help individuals to feel valued again by society and reach their true potential as individuals.”
Read other articles from the Leicestershire Probation website
Prisoners’ real life stories
Three ex-prison inmates, and users of Futures Unlocked’s mentoring and support services, tell their experiences of the challenges they have faced.
Many inmates want a new life when on the outside after release prison. They want to start again, make a new beginning for themselves and their families and put something back into community.
The reality is that however positive they are inside, living a crime-free life after prison can be difficult.
Click here to read about Danny, Lee and Mike’s experiences
What hope for prisoner rehabilitation?
Prison is meant to rehabilitate. Eric Allison writes on prisons and criminal justice in the Guardian’s Joe Public blog, on questions of mistreatment of officers by other officers and asks what hope there is for prisoners in such an environment. – 9th April 2008.
Comments included:
“Nobody takes real responsibility for rehabilitation; it’s against the spirit of our punitive times. Lip-service only is paid to it. Probation was long ago converted to an organisation devoted to ‘managing’ offenders (public protection) or dispensing community punishment. Prison governors always, and I mean always, have security as their number one priority. And so there is no real advocacy for rehabilitation. What is needed is effective case work on behalf of individual prisoners to assist rehabilitation. Offender behaviour programmes, education, resettlement initiatives and the rest are delivered piecemeal. There are some successes, but in general prisons do containment and punishment reasonably well, but not rehab. Which, in the end, produces negative and demoralising effects on prisoners and staff alike.
To introduce a proper rehabilitative regime in prisons and on release will take political vision and courage. It ain’t there”
and …
“Not using the opportunity prison provides to do something positive is one of the most mystifying state failures. Here you have criminals, both career and nascent, gathered together, under government control, 24 hours a day. And what do we do with them? Educate them? Teach them skills that could lead to jobs in the outside world? Give them serious and continued help to get off drugs?
Nope, we just lock them up for hours on end, and pay thousands for the privilege. Bonkers, absolutely bonkers.”
Ino Mag website launched
The Ino Mag website has been launched.