Ministers want to establish jobcentres inside prisons
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Your support makes all the difference.Jobcentres are to be set up in prisons to allow inmates to compete for positions throughout Britain and Europe.
The scheme will allow offenders access to up to 10,000 vacancies a day through a hi-tech database, and those granted interviews may be allowed to leave prison if the authorities are convinced they will not abscond.
The programme, due to be announced shortly by Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, is designed to help former offenders to find jobs as soon as they leave prison and to prevent them returning to crime.
The project forms part of the Government's strategy to tackle muggings and anti-social behaviour. Several pilot programmes are being prepared for men's and women's jails. If successful, they will be extended to prisons throughout the country .
The employment drive comes after studies showing that offenders are twice as likely to reoffend if they are jobless when they leave jail. They are six times as likely to commit crimes if they have no financial support.
Last night a senior government source said the programme would give prisoners' job prospects a boost. "It's a way of preparing them for employment as soon as they leave. We hope that it will help people focus on their life outside prison.''
The Prison Reform Trust said that it welcomed new moves to help prisoners improve their skills and find work. But it said that compelling them to work could be counterproductive, and it opposed any moves to cut benefit.
"We are talking about people who are far more likely to be socially excluded and in terms of finding employment it is very difficult,'' said Joe Levenson of the trust.
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