Our lead researcher, Max Yoshioka, writes for The Huffington Post about our next report on entrepreneurship and ex-offenders.
How to end the un-virtuous cycle? In the UK and elsewhere, identifying how to successfully reintegrate ex-offenders and prevent them from re-offending is a major challenge.
While - at least in the public mind – the main goal of imprisonment is the punishment of the criminal, an equally if not more important task is his or her preparation for re-entry into society. The UK prison system performs poorly in this regard, with 45% of all released prisoners reoffending within a year, and 66% of released juvenile offenders doing so. Two year re-offending rates are around 60%. Beyond simply being a proof of the failures of our prison system, these new offences are estimated by the National Audit Office to cost the UK economy up to £13 billion annually, a bill largely footed by the taxpayer.
Read the full article here