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I had my son at the age of 17 and he is a real power ranger!… We are both looking forward to a brighter future.
Tiffany - Rainer Kent Housing
Taxpayer foots £80 million bill for failure to re-settle young offenders
15 August 2007
The lack of planning for young offenders leaving custody costs taxpayers more than £80 million every year, according to a report released today by RESET and young people's charity Rainer (1).
Writing resettlement plans much earlier and making sure young people have stable housing and access to training or job opportunities once released could reduce re-offending and result in a net saving of £12,333 per offender - a total of £80 million for the 6,500 15 - 17 year olds leaving custody each year.
These cost savings break down as:
- 6% cost of emergency accommodation on release
- 27% cost of further crimes
- 67% cost of re-imprisonment
Current levels of overcrowding have put severe pressures on prison resources and young people are being held further away from their home communities. Youth Offending Teams are running on stretched resources and planning is left far too late. As a result young people leave custody without clear plans for where they will live, how they will fill their time or what they will do to address issues such as substance misuse or anger management problems - factors that are crucial if they are to establish a life free of crime. These problems are compounded where families and carers have not been involved in a young person's resettlement planning and are therefore not aware of the support that they need on release.
Kevin Wood, National Manager for RESET, says: "Too many young people are being set up to fail on release. We have seen examples of young people simply being given a travel warrant and dropped off at the nearest train station after they walk out the prison gates. Others are left with no means of financial survival because of delays in benefits claims and around 15 per cent of young offenders are homeless on release from custody (2).
"Any motivation that has been built in custody, any desire to change can be completely undermined once these practical things start to unravel. It should therefore come as no surprise that reconviction rates for young offenders are extraordinarily high - a situation that is incredibly costly not only to the individuals directly affected but also to the taxpayer.
"The work has been done on this. The Youth Justice Board have a good strategy and set of ideas that could be quickly put in place - it just needs the backing from the Treasury, the Ministry of Justice and the DCFS."
A report by the Social Exclusion Unit shows that finding somewhere stable to live can cut re-offending by as much as 20 per cent and finding a job by 30 per cent (3).
Over the past two years RESET, funded by the European Social Fund and other partners, has piloted a model of resettlement where young people have access to a dedicated resettlement worker who links up support across housing, education and welfare. In some cases offenders were also matched with a volunteer mentor from the local community, who met them while they were in custody and continued to work with them for nine months after release.
Ends
Notes to editors
1. To download a summary of the report, click The Business Case for Youth Resettlement . The full report is available on the RESET website at www.reset.uk.net. The report has been produced by Dr Judy Renshaw, author of the influential Audit Commission reports Misspent Youth, Misspent Youth 98 and Youth Justice 2004.
2. RESET internal Research. Other reports relating to adult prisoners found that around one in three prisoners did not know where they would live on release from custody (Niven, S and Stewart, D (2005) Resettlement outcomes on release from prison, Home Office Findings 248, London: Home Office; (2001) Jobs and Homes - a survey of prisoners nearing release, Findings 173, London: Home Office.)
3. Social Exclusion Unit (2002) Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners, London: Social Exclusion Unit.
4. RESET (Resettlement, Education, Support, Employment and Training) is a national project that aims to overhaul current resettlement policy and practice for young people in custody. With over 50 partners, RESET is the largest ever partnership led by the voluntary sector and working with young offenders. It is funded by a combination of the EQUAL stream of the European Social Fund and further contributions from partners.
