Treasurer Andrew Carver proposed the Society’s July debate, ‘Prisoners and the unemployed should undertake useful community employment.’ He started by reminding the floor that community sentences are an alternative to custodial ones for crimes such as damaging property, minor theft, assault, benefit fraud. Prisoners given a community sentence must complete specified work – e.g., litter clearance, graffiti removal, redecorating public buildings – as ‘community payback’, acknowledging their debt to society and connecting offenders with victims. A range of one-to-one or group training programmes focus on anger management, substance and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and sex offences. Community work is unpaid and is not an easy option, involving between 40 and 300 hours, with embargos on certain social activities, a curfew, an electronic tag and other restrictions. How does community payback benefit society? In London, over 1 million hours are completed every year at a cost of £2,800 per person per year; our high prison population costs £36,250 per person per annum. Moreover, a 36% reoffence rate with community sentencing compares very well with a 60% reconviction rate within 12 months, for custodial convictions. Nearly half (47%) of prisoners have no qualifications and 42% have been expelled from school. Of the 68% who were unemployed before conviction, 65% are reconvicted within 1 year of release. Andrew outlined the highly successful, local “Clink’ project, where prisoners receive comprehensive training in the catering and horticultural industries, allowing them access to viable employment on release. Andrew then discussed the unemployed. He said that 18 - 21 year olds who have not found a job nor training placement in the past 6 months should not receive job seekers’ allowance, unless they agree to start an apprenticeship or community work; community work should consist of at least 30 hours per week, rewarded with a youth allowance, (from Day 1 of their benefits’ claim) and 10 hours’ job searching per week. In an aim to reduce welfare dependency and benefit fraud, the Government is planning to make community work compulsory for the long-term unemployed, freezing the allowance for non-compliance. Andrew said that the unemployed should give something back to the taxpaying public, by undertaking important community work. They should help themselves by experiencing the workplace again, and thus becoming a more attractive proposition for potential employers. Opposer Richard Mascall opened with the memoirs of former Chief Inspector of Prisons, David Ramsbotham. He quoted the case of ‘John’, a 27-year old ‘revolving door’ offender, with serious family, mental health and educational problems. It is difficult to help the many prisoners like John to stay out of prison. But the 56% of prisoners who do not re-offend have three important advantages: a home, stable relationships, and a job. So why did Michael Howard close the last hostels attached to inner-city prisons, when many newly-released prisoners have nowhere to go? What about jobs? Companies like Accenture and Ricoh have signed up to a ‘Ban the Box’ scheme, which removes the ‘previous conviction’ tick box on job application forms. However, how does prison equip inmates for work? Prison inspectors reported that work experience for prisoners (e.g., sweeping floors) is ‘mundane, repetitive and unrelated to resettlement objectives’. The best alternatives are Resettlement Prisons and Release on Temporary Licence (RoTL), offering prisoners outside employment before release; although 99.92% of RoTLs were successful, just 1 in 4 Resettlement Prisons offered useful RoTLs. Poor funding means that, of more than 5,000 prisoners released every year, only 335 have RoTL experience and nearly one third of adult male prisons had inadequate training facilities. Richard then discussed the employment of the unemployed. Both the Mandatory Work Activity and the Work Programme and Community Work Placements cost money and did not work. With an unemployment rate of under 5% (1.5 million, with 0.9 million simply between jobs), do we need costly and ineffective support? Only 368,000 people claim Job Seekers’ Allowance for more than 12 months; why give them unskilled labour instead of training and education? Forcing people to work would cost money for supervision and administration. The type of work offered would be that undertaken by minimum wage earners, who would then lose their jobs. Unscrupulous employers would benefit from a cheap workforce. Richard concluded that paid work for prisoners is useful, but we need to spend more on RoTLs and training, rather than ‘community work’ of doubtful value. In 2014/15, welfare spending was £2388 million, with unemployment benefit about 1% of that. Scrapping unemployment benefit would save just 32p for every £1,000 of tax. Making the unemployed work is costly and of little value to them or to society. The motion was won by 9 votes to 1, although some members, agreeing with the principle of the debate, favoured the opposer’s doubt about the practicalities of it. The Society’s topical debate will take place at the Old Coulsdon Centre on September, at 8 p.m.; subject and speakers will be decided on during our <strong>August</strong> recess. 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