LONDON, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in London announced Tuesday that one year on from the launch of its prisons Education and Employment Strategy, 230 additional businesses have joined an offender work placement scheme.
Food chain Pret a Manger has become one of the latest companies to join the flagship scheme to help rehabilitate prisoners into the community.
MoJ also announced that prison governors will be given greater freedom to allow prisoners to be released from the cells on temporary licenses to go to work following rigorous risk assessments
"This will allow them more opportunities to work and train with employers while serving their (prison) sentence and increase their chances of securing an immediate job on release," said the MoJ.
The ministry said research had shown time spent working in the community before prisoners are released from prison significantly reduces the likelihood of reoffending, helping cut the 19 billion U.S. dollars prison bill.
"Ex-offenders in employment are up to 9 percentage points less likely to commit further crime," said the MoJ.
As part of a wider drive to enhance rehabilitation, the Education and Employment Strategy, launched by the MoJ in May 2018, set out a series of measures to boost prisoners' skills while in custody and improve their chances of securing work on release.
One year on more than 230 businesses have registered to work with prisons and set offenders on a path to employment. This is further to the 300 businesses around Britain already employing ex-offenders.
New polling from YouGov shows businesses are supportive of employing people with a criminal record.
The poll showed two thirds of companies employing ex-offenders would recommend others do the same, while almost 80 percent of people think businesses employing ex-offenders make a positive contribution to society.
