Habitual Offenders: Addressing Offending Pathways through Social Enterprise

1. Youth Offending and Criminal Careers Habitual Offenders: Addressing Offending Pathways through Social Enterprise

2. Introduction Within our analysis of life-course offending and offending pathways, the criminal careers of habitual offenders are an important focus in any discussion concerning influences on offending. Breaking out of entrenched behaviour and desistence from crime can be immensely difficult as many people who offend have a poor experience of education and little stable employment. • Research shows that, “on average, over 60 per cent of prisoners go on to offend within 12 months of being released from prison The Howard League for Penal Reform 2006). Although it is important to address secondary issues which may obstruct desistence from crime such as finding accommodation, drug and alcohol addiction, employment is often seen as the foundation to addressing habitual offending pathways.

3. Employment The need to structure our lives around stable, legitimate employment is something most of us take for granted. Having a job enables us to survive. Most importantly perhaps, work gives us self-respect, a social circle, and the sense that we can achieve something on our own merits.The link between being out of work and offending is well documented. • 67% of offenders were unemployed at the time of imprisonment (Changing Lives, 2009:13). • The 2010 Prison Survey found, “49% of prisoners were unemployed or living off the proceeds of crime immediately prior to imprisonment” (2010:35). • 76% of prisoners do not have paid employment to go to on release. Breaking the cycle of offending can be made more difficult without the purpose and routine of regular employment.

4. Policy Initiatives The crucial role employment can play in offender rehabilitation has beenhighlighted in the Ministry of Justice green paper, ‘Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders’ (2010). In it, the Ministry of Justice outlines how it is working with the Department of Work and Pensions to reform employment and learning services for offenders to tackle issues around finding work on release. • The paper suggests, “68 per cent of prisoners said that getting training and having a job would be important in helping them stop re-offending” (2010:14)

5. Barriers to Employment Over 50 per cent of people under the supervision of probation and of those leaving prison are unemployedand long-term unemployment is higher. Unemployment rates for other people with a criminal record are unknown, but, for some groups, will also be very high. Not only is the unemployment and consequent social exclusion problematic, but it is likely to increase re-offending and hence raise the crime rate. The main causes of such high unemployment are: • poor employment characteristics (e.g. literacy, qualifications, employment record); • other characteristics which can reduce employment performance (e.g.drug dependency, homelessness); • being drawn disproportionately from groups with higher rates of unemployment (e.g. ethnic minorities, men); • employer discrimination; and • problems over revealing a criminal record (e.g. lack of confidence).

6. Barriers to Employment There are also issues about how to constructively disclose a criminal record to potential employers. Employers tend to reject people with a criminal record for the following reasons (DWP, 2001): • People with a criminal record are seen, generally, as undesirable, outside • the employers’ experience and alien. • To show moral disapproval. • Concern that they (the recruiter) would be held responsible for recruiting a person with a criminal record who then offended at work. The consequent widespread and indiscriminate rejection is likely to result in the rejection of people with criminal records who would be a crime risk. However, it will also result in the rejection of applicants who pose little or no risk of offending at work, reducing the pool of applicants from which employers may choose and raising unemployment amongst people with a criminal record.

7. Employers More than 80 per cent of British bosses say they have a duty to help socially disadvantaged people – but only a handful are taking up the challenge. Employers are now being urged to turn duty into action on the back of a new report by employment specialist Working Links. • In their report, ‘The Responsible Employer (2012)’, Working Links found that UK businesses overwhelmingly consider it their duty to help the UK address both economic (90%) and societal challenges (81%). And while 76% of employers consider ‘environment and sustainability’ as their top CSR priorities, only 12% say ‘recruiting from disadvantaged groups’ is their main priority.  The report identifies barriers that prevent companies from actively recruiting from disadvantaged groups. • Some 70% of employers fear they would have difficulty finding people with the right skills. Perhaps more worrying, over a third (35%) of employers say they find it difficult to make vacancy appeals targeting people from disadvantaged groups.

8. What is Being Done? The UK prison population has soared to more than 85,000, with 20,000 prisoners discharged in the quarter ending June 2012 alone. Around 60% of offenders re-offend within two years of release (Howard League, 2001). What is being done to reduce these rates? Those coming out of care or prison and the homeless need much more help and support to find and maintain gainful employment than is currently available. • One potential method of removing those barriers to employment can be achieved through Social Enterprise. Alongside public services, a plethora of non-profit and social enterprises exist to provide support to ex-offenders upon the completion of their sentence. Helping those who experience real barriers to employment, to help them start their own business.

9. Social Enterprise In promoting social enterprise projects, NOMS set up a small exhibition at the end of 2011 at the Ministry of Justice, to present some organisations currently working with offenders, ex-offenders and communities. Projects included: • Bike Works, a London-based social enterprise which recycles repairs and refurbishes second-hand bicycles. The organisation has secured funding from NOMS ESF to deliver training to Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) The Mount to train inmates in bike reparation work. • The Giants, a North West social enterprise for ex-offenders to support them to set up their business, and engage with 100 community people to run at least one event that benefits the local community.

10. Students as Producers: Social Justice and Social Enterprise As part of the teaching, learning and assessment for the Youth Offending and Criminal Careers module on the BA (Hons) Criminology FdA Top up programme; and in order to demonstrate the value of Social Enterprise initiatives, students were invited to the “Students as producers of the world they live in: social justice and social enterprise” event at UCBC, Blackburn College on Tuesday 12th March at 10.30am. The purpose of the event was to showcase some of the work that colleagues and students have undertaken, aimed at enhancing their employability skills whilst delivering positive impacts to the Community. Whilst the initiative came via UCBC , the event was joined by a number of community organisations. In the last twelve months, those UCBC students involved in the project have been taking part in an unconventional form of education known as ‘edupunk’ which has been supported by the Higher Education Academy. This form of teaching and learning seeks to take full advantage of the free resources and tools provided by the networked world. Interim reflections on this new approach were presented to critical acclaim at Cambridge University.

11. Examples of Social Enterprise Foster Focus Chutney for Change Profile: Rachel Gilkes -Chutney For Change Set up in a bid to cut down on wasted food and to combat unemployment in the Blackburn and Darwen area. It is the brainchild of Blackburn College University Centre social science student Rachel Gilkes, who last week won a Grad Factor award along with £2,500 prize money for her idea. Rachel, 37, said: “Chutney For Change is dealing with two social issues, food waste from supermarkets and growers and unemployment. “We will be getting surplus food that would otherwise go to landfill and then get unemployed people to make the chutney. Profile: Luke Roger-Foster Focus Luke (21) has been bought up in foster care since the age of 10, where he had a plethora of issues that resulted in him being homeless by age 15. However he turned his life around. Foster Focus is a project that delivering workshops to those people that are looking at getting in to social services by linking them directly to service users to truly understand the needs of those that have used it. The social impact of this project is that it will address the stigma attached to young people in foster care by raising awareness of the issue as well as giving those who have been through it an empowering experience by sharing what they know with the sector.

12. Student Feedback Foster Focus Chutney for Change “Chutney for change, engages disadvantaged people from the community to create chutneys, jams and preserves from the surplus fruit and vegetables donated by growers, markets and national retailers. “Chutney 4 change addresses the barriers to employment for habitual offenders and can help to break the cycle, whereas Foster Focus can aid in the prevention of onset and desistance.” “Tackles two social issues; food waste and employability skills, producing a product to be sold with proceeds reinvested into the enterprise.” • “Social Enterprises have the potential to break down barriers to employment which offenders may be faced with and help to end habitual offending.” • “The beauty of ‘Foster Focus’ are that they are businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.” • “Social enterprises are estimated to employ 800,000 people. 1/3 of social enterprises start up in the most deprived communities, ultimately having a greater impact on the community. “

13. Synopsis Social Enterprise: Although the basic idea of social enterprises has existed for a long time, knowledge of its potential to address key social issues such as long term unemployment amongst the offender population has not. There are indications that the ‘demand’ for social enterprises within the criminal justice sector, as the social economy of the UK becomes increasingly market driven is increasing. Due to restraints within the public social budget and to efficiency considerations in the public sector. Thus, the promotion and development of social enterprise concerns the sectors of social policy, employment policy and industrial policy. In this new situation, social enterprise, as actors between all three sectors of activity, would be natural in implementing potential benefits. Students as Producers: Social Justice and Social Enterprise: Having had the opportunity to attend the Social Enterprise event, students were of the opinion that the benefits to social enterprise lay in its ability toengage individuals with their community whilst providing a personal approach to tackling social issues. Specific to the development of offender pathways, Foster Focus can aid in the prevention of onset and desistance whereas Chutney 4 change addresses the barriers to employment for habitual offenders and can help to break the cycle of offending. Social Enterprise has the potential to break down barriers to employment which offenders may be faced with and help to address habitual offending. The knowledge gained from the experience of the event will now serve to supplement the research undertaken in preparations for the final year formative assessment for this module.

14. Bibliography • Department for Innovation (2009). Changing Lives, Universities and Skills, Skills for Life. HMSO. • Department for Work and Pensions, (2001). Barriers to employment for offenders and ex-offenders. Home Office Research Report No. 155. • Home Office (2005). Reducing Reoffending Through Skills and Employment, HMSO. • Howard league for Penal Reform, (2001). Rehabilitating Work: What are prison workshops for?, London: Howard League. • Ministry of Justice, (2010). Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders, HMSO. • Working Links, (2012). The Responsible Employer: Employability as a component of Corporate Responsibility. Changing Lives, Creating Futures. London: Working Links.