A top American criminologist will today outline how volunteering programmes for prisoners could cut UK re-offending rates. Speaking at CSV’s annual lecture at the House of Lords next week (Tuesday 24 April) Dr Shadd Maruna of Queen’s University Belfast will argue that volunteering can release offenders from cycles of desire and frustration that lead to crime.
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Dr Maruna will speak to an audience that includes a former female day-release volunteer who was jailed for drug smuggling and believes volunteering helped with her return to society (case study below).
Nearly 60% of prisoners re-offend within two years of their release, (1) and released prisoners are thought to be responsible for at least a million crimes in the UK each year, costing around £11 billion. (2)
Dr Shadd Maruna will argue that prisoner volunteer work may rehabilitate offenders even when so many other types of rehabilitation have failed.
Dr Maruna says: “One reason for the failure of reintegration is that offenders are resettled back into the cultural trap of consumer desire and obstacles to success; what criminologists call a ‘bulimic society’. Volunteer work, on the other hand, opens doors to a new way of life, helps change peoples' mindsets and challenges these materialist values.
"The benefit for offenders is that volunteering provides a sense of accomplishment, improves self esteem and builds a sense of responsibility for your actions. But more than that, they also might find meaning and purpose in their lives that was not there before. Through volunteer work, ex-prisoners can also integrate more easily back into society because the community can see that they are worthy of support, that rather than always asking for help from society, they are instead giving something back."
CSV organise opportunities for serving prisoners in a number of prisons. Volunteering has a positive impact on the prison, the community and most significantly the serving prisoners. 98% of young offenders who volunteer while on ‘Release on Temporary Licence’ as part of the CSV pre-release scheme were shown to complete their task successfully. (3)
Case Study – Prisoner Volunteer
Former CSV day release volunteer Katie Garside, aged 27 and originally from Rochdale was released from prison last November after serving 3 years 9 months for smuggling cocaine into the UK from Barbados. Katie didn’t realise she was pregnant when she entered prison and gave birth to a baby daughter whilst inside. For the first 18 months of her child’s life they lived together in the mother and baby unit at the prison before having to give her up for foster care. They were reunited after she left prison.
During the last year of her sentence Katie signed up on the CSV day release volunteer scheme. For the first few months Katie volunteered at a local PDSA charity shop and after proving her commitment was able to volunteer for an extra day a week at a leisure centre. At the centre Katie was able to make the most of her NVQ level 4 in fitness instruction which she had gained whilst in prison. She was taken on part time at the centre at the end of her sentence.
Katie says: “The truth is prison doesn’t prepare you for life outside. It is just so mundane. You spend all day doing nothing. You don’t even look after yourself and you rely on other people to do everything for you. It can be a real shock to many people when people finally do leave. You don’t have help with housing or finding work and for many people when money gets tight it’s easy to get drawn back into crime.
“Volunteering gave me the chance to get out and see the real world, be responsible and relearn the skills I needed to get on. It sounds funny but you forget how hard a day’s work can be. My volunteering helped me readjust to life outside.
“It also gave me a lot of confidence and definitely helped me get my job. At first I was worried about how people might view me or treat me. They all knew my background but I was treated normally. After a couple of weeks at the charity shop I was even responsible for looking after the till which shows they must have trusted me.”
CSV’s annual Edith Kahn lecture will take place on Tuesday 24 April at the House of Lords. Places are limited, for enquiries contact Paul Donohoe at the CSV press office on 020 7812 0037 or email pdonohoe@csv.org.uk
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For further press information: Paul Donohoe 020 7812 0037/ 0779 624 385 pdonohoe@csv.org.ukor Jason Tanner 020 7812 0038 jtanner@csv.org.uk.
Notes for Editors
1. Shepherd, A. & Whiting, E. (2006). Re-offending of adults: Results from the 2003 cohort. London: Home Office, p.1.
2. Social Exclusion Unit (2001). Reducing Re-Offending by Ex-Prisoners. London: Home Office, p.5.
3. CSV’s experience shows that 98% of young offenders who volunteer while on ‘Release on Temporary Licence’ complete their task successfully, and secure a reference and contacts. The period over which we took our stats was 1986 -2006 and the success rate has been consistently 98%.
4. The CSV National Day Release Pilot Scheme (NDRP) ran as a two year pilot from June 2003 -2005. NDRP placed 115 prisoners during this period.
5. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Last year 227,000 people gave 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages. www.csv.org.uk