Rules on temporary release from prisons are being eased to help improve offenders’ job likelihoods.
Ministers said the move would allow inmates more opportunities for work and training whilst serving their sentences, this will overall help their chances of getting immediate employment on release.
The Ministry of Justice announced that inmates at open or women’s prison would be entitled to undertake paid work on day release after they have passed a mandatory risk assessment. In the past years this would only have been allowed if the inmate was within 12 months of release. The changes to the release on temporary licence (ROTL) scheme is part of government efforts to reduce reoffending rates which have an estimated cost of £15 billion a year in the UK.
ROTL rules became more strict after a review by the former justice secretary Christopher Grayling after the convicted killer, Ian McLoughlin, committed another murder whilst on day release.
The justice secretary, David Gauke, responding to concerns about the rule changes, said: “Well over 99% of all releases occur without any breach whatsoever, and where there are breaches, overwhelmingly they’re things like people being late. So it’s not about serious offences. We believe we can put in place a through risk assessment, that’s what’s working at the moment and I think we can continue with that.”
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “If we want prisoners not to reoffend, we need to rehabilitate them. The evidence and common sense suggests that prisoners who go into work after they leave prison are less likely to reoffend.
“And the evidence and common sense shows that if prisoners have had the opportunity to go to work on a daily basis then return to prison, and so at the point of their final release from prison they are acclimatised to work, then the evidence shows that they’re more likely to be in work. This is about reducing crime because it will reduce reoffending.”
The changes mean that a restriction on ROTL in the first three months after transferring to open conditions would be lifted and overnight release from open prisons could now be considered at an earlier stage of convictions.
The government have also revealed that there is 230 new businesses including Pret A Manger and Greene King, have joined the offender work placement scheme. There was already around 200 businesses which were already part of the scheme which builds business relationship with prisons and employers.
In 2018, 7,700 inmates were able to work outside of prisons or stay out overnight – this number is expected to rise by several hundred under the new rules.
Peter Dawson, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, accepted the ROTL changes.
He said: “More than three years after it was first promised, the government has finally delivered a significant shift towards the greater use of temporary release, recognising its proven benefits in terms of preparing prisoners for a crime-free life.
“Prisoners, employers, families and the public at large will all benefit from these changes, building on an exceptional track record of success.
“There is much further to go – prisoners are serving longer sentences than ever before, and these changes will mainly benefit only the minority who have managed to get to an open prison towards the very end of their time inside.
“Ministers should not wait a further three years before taking the next step.”
