The Government has announced it will fund two new projects designed to encourage enterprise and employment among offenders and ex-offenders.
The £1.8m funding is part of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Small Business Service (SBS) to bridge the gap between prison life and a positive life on the outside.
The two projects are designed to give offenders and recently released ex-offenders the opportunity to support themselves by developing enterprise skills and setting themselves up in business.
Business in Prisons is a training project across 18 women’s prisons and 17 male prisons, run by the Dukeries Training Agency. In Credit is a Stevenage-based initiative to establish a network for women recently released from prison and wanting to set up their own enterprises.
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Small business minister, Nigel Griffiths, said recent research showed that being in employment reduced the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half.
“The costs of re-offending to society and to victims are enormous,” he said. “For a significant number of offenders and ex-offenders, self-employment is the best way out of the cycle of re-offending.”
