Working prisoners in the UK: laws, policies, and practical realities

Ben Jarman; Helen Fair

Abstract

This briefing describes the governance of prison work and prison labour in the United Kingdom. Recent years have seen a considerable focus on policies aiming to promote prisoner employment and employability and yet, as the briefing shows, this focus has been confined to small parts of the UK prison system. Reliable data describing prison work is difficult to obtain, and many of the long-standing contradictions and difficulties which have plagued efforts to turn prisons into productive, rehabilitative workplaces remain unresolved. Despite some impressive progress in some parts of the system, the nature and usefulness of prison work in the UK remain largely obscure. This briefing reviews the legal and policy landscape and what little published data exists to describe work done by people serving prison sentences, and summarises what can be said about the nature and extent of different kinds of work in practice.

Availability

Available at https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53811.

Reuse

Copyright

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@report{jarmanWorkingPrisonersUK2024,
  author = {Jarman, Ben and Fair, Helen},
  publisher = {Institute for Crime \& Justice Policy Research},
  title = {Working Prisoners in the {UK:} Laws, Policies, and Practical
    Realities},
  series = {Unlocking potential},
  pages = {43},
  date = {2024-07-10},
  address = {London},
  url = {https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53811},
  langid = {en-GB},
  abstract = {This briefing describes the governance of prison work and
    prison labour in the United Kingdom. Recent years have seen a
    considerable focus on policies aiming to promote prisoner employment
    and employability and yet, as the briefing shows, this focus has
    been confined to small parts of the UK prison system. Reliable data
    describing prison work is difficult to obtain, and many of the
    long-standing contradictions and difficulties which have plagued
    efforts to turn prisons into productive, rehabilitative workplaces
    remain unresolved. Despite some impressive progress in some parts of
    the system, the nature and usefulness of prison work in the UK
    remain largely obscure. This briefing reviews the legal and policy
    landscape and what little published data exists to describe work
    done by people serving prison sentences, and summarises what can be
    said about the nature and extent of different kinds of work in
    practice.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Jarman, B., & Fair, H. (2024). Working prisoners in the UK: laws, policies, and practical realities (Briefing paper), London: Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research. Retrieved from https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53811