Wandsworth shows prisoners are an untapped resource

A remarkable conference took place inside the walls of HM Prison Wandsworth on Thursday 7th November. The highlight was a presentation by a group of nine prisoners who have been given an unusual amount of trust and responsibility for working with other inmates. Employed at the prison as resettlement orderlies, they provide housing advice to many of their homeless fellow prisoners.

Each prisoner has been recruited to the scheme after completing an application form and undergoing searching interviews, plus security checks. The main motivation for the orderlies, who earn £11 per week, is the wish to help fellow prisoners and to obtain training that will enable them to gain worthwhile employment on release. Each orderly is trained to NVQ level 3 in advice and guidance, by Maria McNicholl, a development worker from the St Giles Trust, based at the prison.

Homelessness is one of the factors most associated with re-offending by ex-prisoners. Research cited by the Social Exclusion Unit suggests that stable accommodation can make a difference of over 20 per cent in terms of reduction in reconviction. As many as a third of prisoners lose their housing on imprisonment and around a third of prisoners about to leave prison say that they have nowhere to stay.

The event also featured the launch of the ‘Resettlement Passport’, a guide for prisoners, which helps them to plan and document their preparations for release. The resettlement conference was attended by Ken Sutton, director of regimes, HM Prison Service, representatives of many of the prisons in south and east England that regularly receive prisoners from Wandsworth, and a number of key voluntary and statutory sector agencies who contribute to the rehabilitation of prisoners. It was organised by Wandsworth Prison in conjunction with the Prison Reform Trust and the St Giles Trust, who have been working in partnership for the past year to give greater priority to resettlement in the prison. The developments have been assisted by funding from the AB Charitable Trust.

Governor Jim Heavens, who hosted the event, said:

"Prison should provide prisoners with opportunities and knowledge. It is then for the prisoner to decide whether to make use of these opportunities. The advantage of this scheme is that prisoners find it refreshing to receive information and advice from someone in a similar situation."

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust commented:

"This conference has identified a rich seam of untapped talent within the prison system. Prisons are desperately hard pressed and chronically overcrowded. They would be well served by making more use of the skills and expertise of serving prisoners. Custody often removes responsibility and creates dependency. Here is an example of a scheme that contributes to public safety, benefiting both those who are giving and those who are receiving the service."

Notes:

Homelessness and unemployment among ex-prisoners
 
1. Each year, 90,000 prisoners are released in England and Wales.  Of these, around 30,000 will have nowhere to live on release.  This is despite the fact that stable accommodation can reduce reoffending by over 20 per cent.

2. One third of prisoners were not in permanent accommodation prior to imprisonment.  Around 1 in every 20 prisoners were sleeping rough before they were sent to prison.

3. The majority of prisoners depend on housing benefit to help with their rent before they enter custody.  However, entitlement to Housing Benefit stops for all sentenced prisoners expected to be in prison for more than 13 weeks.  This means that many prisoners have very little chance of keeping their tenancy open until the end of their sentence.

4. Around a third of prisoners lose their housing as a result of their imprisonment. 

5. The Home Office has found that women prisoners are particularly likely not to have accommodation arranged for their release.  Just 59 per cent of females had accommodation arranged, compared with 77 per cent of young male offenders and 66 per cent of adult males.
 
6. The Revolving Doors Agency has found that 49 per cent of prisoners with mental health problems had no fixed address on leaving prison.  Of those who had a secure tenancy before going to prison, 40 per cent lost it on release.

7. The Big Issue conducted the largest survey of its vendors in 2001.  More than one-third of Big Issue vendors are ex-prisoners. Only 13 per cent received any form of resettlement advice before their release from prison. 

8. The Rough Sleepers Unit has also found that few prisoners are given any advice about housing issues while in prison.  This is despite the fact that ex-prisoners thought that housing, along with employment, was fundamental to avoiding reoffending.

9. A Home Office study recently found that 71 per cent of prisoners with no accommodation arranged on release had not received any housing advice. 

10. Getting ex-prisoners into stable housing can act as a gateway to effective resettlement.  Over three times as many ex-prisoners with an address on release find paid employment as those without an address.  Homelessness can also prevent ex-prisoners from accessing support services such as benefits or registering with a GP.

11. Over two in three prisoners are unemployed at the time of release – around 13 times the national unemployment rate.  Around two in three of those who do have a job lose it when they enter prison.

12. Ex-prisoners make up 2-3 per cent of the average monthly inflow to the unemployment total.

13. The Trade Union Congress has found that: “Helping ex-offenders into jobs is one of the most effective ways of preventing them from re-offending: all of us are less likely to be the victims of crime if we can help ex-offenders into work”.

14. Prisoners face great difficulties finding employment after release.  Low educational attainment, health problems and a lack of stable housing can make it problematic for prisoners to find a job.