There are many factors that can lead to recidivism: previous convictions, mental health issues, friendships with other criminals can all lead to someone finding themselves back on the wrong side of a prison wall.
However one of the factors is nowhere near as obvious: being released on a Friday.
Currently one-third of prisoners are released just before the weekend but this only gives them a matter of hours before vital services such as housing, benefits, and healthcare shut up shop for the weekend. As one Friday prison release leaver said:
“I was faced with just the discharge grant for the weekend, but needed clothes and food, as well as money for a place to stay. No wonder people reoffend.”
That is all now set to change thanks to the Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Act 2023.
This legislation is a rare example of a Private Members’ Bill making it into law. It was sponsored by backbench Conservative MP Simon Fell with the assistance of Lord John Bird MBE, the founder of The Big Issue.
Prison governors will now have the power to release prisoners with mental health issues, substance misuse problems or who have far to travel home, on a Wednesday or Thursday instead of a Friday.
Research suggests that this will have a huge impact on rates of recidivism. Simply having stable accommodation alone is estimated to halve the chances of someone reoffending.
Solving the country’s crumbling prison infrastructure and issues around overcrowding will take much more than simple tricks like this to accomplish but it is important to still take the easy wins where you can.
This week on the podcast we examine the controversial past of ‘golden visas’, a way in which rich foreign nationals could skip the queues of the British immigration system.
Episode link: https://uklawweekly.com/2023-uksc-21/
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Marcus