National Audit Office Report - Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce re-offending
The concluding paragraph of the NAO report should concern us all in terms of value for money and effectiveness.
It is helpful perhaps to read this in conjunction with consideration of the recent call from the House of Lords Committee on Justice and Home Affairs for evidence for their Inquiry into Community Sentences. The obvious conclusion is that the numbers of prison sentences must be reduced, and funding transferred to building more accessible routes into better resourced community rehabilitation.
"One of the core purposes of prisons and probation services is to prepare prisoners for release effectively and ensure their smooth resettlement into the community. However, HMPPS and its partners across government do not do so consistently. Within prisons, HMPPS does not provide sufficient activities to prepare prison leavers and those it does provide are not at the required standard. The Inspectorates have reported a significant deterioration in the quality of release planning and rehabilitation services in recent years. Moreover, HMPPS does not have good enough data on its CRS contracts to know whether they are making a positive difference”.