Looking at employment - Nacro

Safer Society FEATURE EmployingPhoto: Michael GrieveThe point was underlined by Hans van der Ven, the Director ofHurkmans, a Dutch company specialising in laying pipes andunderground wiring. For him, offending was not the obstacle.His requirement was for motivated young people, prepared towork hard and who were not distracted by an alcohol or drugproblem. He already employed a considerable number of exoffendersin his company. Thus, largescale and specificvocational training projects may not always be appropriate,particularly if relevant jobs are not available. This is not to ruleout vocational training, but to underline the importance of basicskills complemented, according to labour market circumstances,by training in specific skills.Many offenders have multiple problems which cannot be solvedsolely through help with employment. Chief among these arealcohol or drug abuse, although others include housing, welfareand family problems. At the root of these problems is theundoubted increase in drug-related crime in recent years. Someof the most successful employment initiatives are those whichtake full account of these problems. A special section of a prisonin Rome, for example, provides intensive work to tackle drugabuse combined with work experience provided through a localco-operative. Re-offending rates are low and many prisonerswith previous drug problems are successfully placed withemployers.The aim of the WOBES employment programme in Austria is toprepared drug users for jobs in the ‘free’ labour market. Itprovides a ‘semi-protected’ environment in which intensivetraining is undertaken. Ex-offenders and other socially excludedgroups are recruited as temporary workers to undertakesubsidised employment, such as housing repairs and renovations.They are simultaneously offered accommodation, care and helpwith drug problems.The project is indicative of an increasing trend towards theprovision of more comprehensive packages of assistance tooffenders. Cumbria Probation Service identifies the problemclearly:‘Many individuals under supervision by Cumbria ProbationService have multi-faceted, mutually-reinforcing problemsinvolving drug and alcohol misuse, unemployment andaccommodation difficulties. These problems are intertwined withtheir offending behaviour in complex and varied ways ... and itis necessary to address each issue adequately on its own termsand also in its links with the other issues.’Cumbria Probation Service has established a project aimed atdelivering ‘the kind of intensive, holistic approach to themultiple needs of offenders under supervision who haveemployment, accommodation and drug and alcohol problems’(Cumbria Probation Service, 1997).Some foyer schemes also provide housing and training/employment skills for offenders. Partnership approaches havealso been developed in which close links between agencies havebeen established to provide a range of services for offenders. Butapart from these examples, genuine and effective multidimensionalprogrammes are still difficult to find.There is a need for continuity from sentence to release. Some ofthe least effective interventions we have seen have resulted fromleaving prisoners - or probationers - isolated at the end of theirsentence. However effective the pre-release or prison trainingscheme, without action to bridge the gap between custody andcommunity, there will always be a tendency towards reoffending.The value of subsidising jobs for offenders also needs to beconsidered. In Italy, there are numerous examples of subsidiesbeing paid either to employers or to offenders, to assist them infinding employment. In Bologna, for example, there was a15 FEBRUARY 1999 SAFER SOCIETY MAGAZINE NACRO