Helen Dyson, Interim Chief Executive at Nacro, said:
“With over 70,000 people leaving prison each year and more than 728,000 job vacancies across the UK, it should be a no-brainer to equip prison leavers with the skills they need to fill those roles. We hear from so many people in prison who are eager to work or train, but too often the opportunities simply aren’t there.
“Education and skills can transform lives and reduce reoffending — yet reported cuts to prison education risk making a struggling system worse. The latest HMI Prisons report confirms what we see every day: the current approach isn’t working.
“If the Government is serious about reducing reoffending — which now costs society over £23.6 billion a year — it must invest in education and training that helps people build a better future.”
Read the latest HMI Prisons report here
Learn more about our work
We operate in more than 40 prisons and provide services across England and Wales.
We help 33,000 people across our services each year and run the CAS-2 service for the Government housing people coming out of prison on bail or licence.
We work with people at every stage of the criminal justice system, from liaison and diversion services in police custody and courts, to resettlement into the community after prison.
We use the insights from our services and the experiences of the people we support to campaign together for a criminal justice system which better serves us all. We’ve been working in this field for more than 50 years.