LONDON, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Ministry of Justice announced here on Tuesday that since the May 2018 launch of its Education and Employment Strategy for adult prisoners, 230 additional businesses have joined the strategy's flagship offender work placement scheme.
Food chain Pret A Manger has become one of the latest companies to join the scheme to help rehabilitate prisoners into the community.
The ministry 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 ministry.
It said research had shown that 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.-dollar prison bill.
"Ex-offenders in employment are up to 9 percentage points less likely to commit further crime," said the ministry.
As part of a broader drive to enhance rehabilitation, the Education and Employment Strategy 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, over 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.
A new poll by YouGov shows businesses are supportive of employing people with a criminal record.
According to the poll, 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.
