U-turn on Prisoners' Pay Does Nothing to Help Rehabilitation

Commenting on the Government's decision to halt the intended pay rise for prisoners, Paul Cavadino, Chief Executive of Nacro, the crime reduction charity, said:

"This is an unfortunate U-turn. Keeping prisoners' pay at the current low levels does nothing to help victims of crime.

"On the contrary, if we want to cut reoffending we should be moving towards better work opportunities for prisoners with more realistic wages. That would be an incentive for prisoners to learn job skills and save money for release, increasing their chances of becoming productive law-abiding members of society."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Payments to prisoners for work or meaningful activity have not increased since the mid-1990s.

2. The proposed increase was from £4 a week to £5.50 a week.