I See Trouble Ahead

I think everyone would agree that finding a newly-released prisoner a job as soon as possible would be A Good Thing. Surely it must therefore be very good news that all prisoners will be required to join the governments Work Programme as a condition of being paid Job Seekers Allowance on release? Well, I'm not so sure and sadly I predict all kinds of trouble ahead. As is so typical of governments nowadays, they seem to feel they know best and I bet the idea wasn't discussed with bodies such as Probation, who just might have a constructive view on the subject.

Long experience tells me that prisoners being released often have a whole host of immediate and pressing problems to deal with such as where the hell to live or how to sort out their script for methadone. In addition they are bound to want to make urgent contact with family, children and partners as these relationships are quite likely to have suffered significantly during any period in prison. They will have urgent need to see their probation officer and may well have quite onerous licence conditions to adhere to. These are just some of the possible pressures laid upon newly-released prisoners and that give rise to the often-heard refrain 'my heads up my arse' or 'my head's in bits.'

So on top of all this we are now going to add an immediate requirement to provide evidence that serious efforts are being made to find a job. Failure to turn up for interviews with the Work Programme provider, or satisfy the adviser that you are compiling your CV, or applying for jobs will mean a sanction of some or all of a claimant's benefit. The pressure is going to be enormous because of course the Programme provider, such as A4E, will be paid by results. A price is effectively on each released prisoners head and can amount to as much as £5,600 if someone stays in a job for two years. 

All I will say is that the advisers involved would be well advised to bone up on their people skills because they're going to need to tread very carefully and sensitively with some potentially very stressed and angry people. Failure to exercise some compassion and understanding at an often very difficult stage in a person's life is quite likely to be counter-productive and rebound in a great deal more prison recalls, or worse in my view. It could be yet another example of the unintended consequences of a bit of social policy that hasn't been fully thought through.