Two wrongs don’t make a right but a job opportunity just might
This month Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness talks about plans to prevent crime in our region by supporting ex-offenders with employment.
Time and time again we see the same mugshots in the paper. A familiar face from a few years back and off to prison they go once more, and rightly so. They have done wrong before, they do their time and out they come, only to do it all over again. They target the honest law abiding folk amongst us who are working hard to get on with our lives. This isn’t always the case, nor does it have to be and I want to tell you more about what we’re doing to try and break this cycle, and for good.
If we are going to stand a chance at preventing crime, in particular preventing the same offenders from burgling our homes or stealing from our bank accounts, we have to improve employment opportunities for ex-offenders. If we don’t, there is no stopping that revolving door of people leaving prison, re-offending, and returning to prison.
Let’s face it, getting a job can be tough at the best of times. Getting a job after leaving prison, even more so. In fact, only 17 per cent manage to get a job within a year of release. And, so we have a problem.
Once prison has served its purpose we don’t want the same people serving time again - there are no winners with this cycle, we need to break it. Something has to change and a job can be the change that’s needed.
This is where Recruitment Junction comes in. Recruitment Junction is a fantastic organisation working across the North East from Sunderland to Alnwick. Its mission is to help exoffenders ‘rediscover a sense of purpose through work’. It’s a local solution to a much bigger problem and it benefits us all.
The scheme was set up as Government data shows nearly half of prison leavers re-offend. The Recruitment Junction, working alongside my Violence Reduction Unit, aims to provide support for up to 150 individuals in the first year with the expectation that 50% will secure employment in that period, and I really hope they do. After all there can be a lot of skills and talent sat in prison cells.
If we can get more prison leavers into secure, well paid jobs, we can stop more people becoming victims of crime, improve lives and prevent the revolving door of people leaving prison, re-offending and returning to prison.