Some 80% of all offending is reoffending, yet only half of all prisoners in England and Wales are involved in prison education or work, the committee found.
In a report published last week, 'Ending the cycle of reoffending— part one: rehabilitation in prisons', the Justice Committee warns living conditions are so dire that prisons may be breaching human rights legislation. Many prisoners spend 22 hours or more each day in their cell, and prisoners are often asked to choose between attending rehabilitative activities or receiving visitors, spending time in the open air or having showers.
Children in youth offending institutions were ‘routinely’ receiving less than the minimum 15 hours of education per week. Prisoners on remand, who make up 20% of the prison population—the highest in 50 years—do not have access to the same education, work and behaviour programmes as convicted prisoners.
Giving prisoners greater access to rehabilitation programmes is a key element of former Justice Secretary David Gauke’s independent sentencing review, published in May, which made recommendations to address the prison capacity crisis.
Chair of the Justice Committee, Andy Slaughter MP said: ‘Prison rehabilitation and efforts to break the cycle of reoffending aren’t working and cannot succeed in a system which is facing critical pressures on so many fronts.
‘Continuing with a cyclical system in crisis mode which offers little real opportunity to turn around prisoners’ lives is a false economy.’
Law Society president Mark Evans said: ‘The government can and should act now to ensure prisoners are equipped to re-enter society.
‘It is crucial that prisoners can access education courses while in custody to help prepare them for release and reduce the risk of reoffending. The chaos in our prisons reflects the wider crisis across the criminal justice system.’
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