Vocational education and training provision and recidivism in Queensland correctional institutions
This project investigates the nature of vocational education and training (VET) programs being delivered in correctional centres, including the factors assisting or hindering the delivery of these programs to prisoners. The research also statistically determines the factors most associated with reducing the rates of return to prison of offenders. A brief review of past research was undertaken and interviews with those involved in the corrections system were conducted. As well, various databases were examined to investigate the factors most associated with offender recidivism. The first part of this report provides a review of Australian and other research into the nature of offenders, and in particular, the links between reduced rates of offender recidivism and access to education, training and employment programs at the prerelease and post-release stages. This is followed by a discussion of the findings from 145 interviews with correctional staff, prisoners and trainers in several Queensland correctional centres. Interviews examined staff and prisoner perceptions of the factors facilitating or acting as barriers to the provision of VET programs in correctional institutions. The final section of this report uses quantitative methods to examine the characteristics of offenders who become involved in VET while in prison, and their recidivism rates. The research found highly motivated offenders engaging in and completing multiple VET programs which were not only providing them with technical skills, but which also improved confidence, self-esteem, and broader sets of generic skills. They were very positive about the role that prison staff and trainers were playing in assisting them to develop skills to help them to re-integrate back into the community upon release. The availability and access to dedicated training workshops in correctional centres as well as to outside trainers (and in some cases, tutors) who were highly professional and respectful of prisoner needs, and their often disadvantaged backgrounds, were further supports for the continued emergence of a throughcare approach to prisoner management. Significant evidence emerged from the analyses explaining the importance of pursuing a more integrated program which develops employment skills is that offenders involved in VET were less likely to return to the corrective system. On average, being involved in VET before initial release was associated with a decrease in the chance of returning.
Education Reduces Crime: Three-State Recidivism Study. Executive Summary.
Education Reduces Crime, Three-State Recidivism Study-Executive Summary is published through a partnership between Correctional Education Association (CEA) and Management & Training Corporation Institute (MTCI), February 2003. You may download the complete study at CEA, is a non-profit professional association serving educators and administrators around the world. They are committed to educating individuals/students in correctional settings. CEA is the largest affiliate of the American Correctional Association. Involved in this publication partnership are MTC is a leader in inmate rehabilitation through education. MTC is the third largest operator of privatized correctional facilities in the world with approximately 13,000 beds under contract. MTC also manages and operates 23 Job Corps centers in 19 states for the U.S. Department of Labor, preparing disadvantaged youth for meaningful careers. The MTC Institute, a research unit within MTC, sponsored the printing and distribution of this document. The Institute staff involved in this publication partnership includes: Why read this booklet? With the increased numbers of inmates crowding our jails and prisons, it is imperative for the public to reconsider the traditional view of the purpose of incarceration. Rather than accepting the old adage of locking them up and " throwing away the key, " we must consider recent research findings that show many prisoners can be rehabilitated, through education and training, and eventually contribute constructively to society upon reentry. These studies are demonstrating that prison can be a place where criminals are transformed into law-abiding citizens, productive workers, and good parents. If you think this is important, please continue reading. The Three-State Recidivism Study reviews one of the major functions of the criminal justice system, that is, to rehabilitate. Over the past decade, greater emphasis has been placed on the other major rationales, specifically incarceration and punishment without much commitment to rehabilitation. The result of the push to incarcerate and punish that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s is an unprecedented growth in the size of the nation's prison and jail populations, even as crime rates have decreased. Given the economic hardship of maintaining federal, state, and local correctional systems, and the number of people in jails and prisons, society can no longer afford to ignore ways to reduce crime and lower over-burdening costs resulting from high incarceration rates. Since there are methods and programs that work, our intent is to bring this information to political leaders, the media, and the public to shed light on successful …
The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice ten years on: Successes and future challenges under the Stockholm Programme. CEPS Paperbacks. June 2010
This book celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) by bringing together the views of key practitioners and policy-makers who have played an outstanding role in thinking about and shaping EU policies on freedom, security and justice. 
 
Ten years ago, the member states transferred competences to the EU for law and policy-making in the fields of immigration, asylum and border controls, and began the transfer process for criminal justice and policing. This decade of European cooperation on AFSJ policies has experienced very dynamic convergence, the enactment of a large body of European law and the setting-up of numerous EU agencies working in these domains. Such dynamism in policy-making has not been without challenges and vulnerabilities, however. As this collective volume shows, the main dilemmas that lie ahead relate to an effective (while more plural) institutional framework under the Treaty of Lisbon, stronger judicial scrutiny through a greater role for national courts and the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, better mechanisms for evaluating and monitoring the implementation of EU AFSJ law and a more solid fundamental rights strategy. The contributions in this volume address the progress achieved so far in these policy areas, identify the challenges for future European cooperation in the AFSJ and put forward possible paths for making more progress in the next generation of the EU’s AFSJ.