Mike Cutland believes there is ‘skilled labour’ in the prison which employers could ‘tap into’ in order to help overcome staff shortages.
His comments come at a time when a number of businesses have been forced to close, reduce their opening hours or shelve expansion plans due to a lack of available staff. There are more than 200 hospitality and catering vacancies listed on the government’s website, as well as 138 openings in the retail and sales sector.
Last week prison officers and staff held a private event with members of government and various industries to outline their vision for a strategy to reduce reoffending rates.
Mr Cutland said they were hoping to work with various sectors to create a ‘joined-up approach’.
He said: ‘There is a huge staff shortage across many industries in the Island such as hospitality and retail and many businesses are folding as a result of this. There is skilled labour at La Moye which employers could tap into in order to fill those vacancies.
‘There is always room for any prison to communicate with various industries to better understand skills gaps and this is exactly what we are hoping to do through our strategy. We want to illustrate the importance of a collective response to reintegrating prisoners.’
Mr Cutland said that two of the most common causes of reoffending in the Island are a lack of employment and accommodation opportunities.
‘Often when people go to prison their ties with the community are severed and they lose accommodation and employment. It then becomes hard to re-establish yourself in the community when you have the prison stigma attached to you.
‘We need to try to improve these opportunities for people who have recently come out of prison and that is why we want to work with accommodation providers and industry representatives,’ he said.
He added that there are plenty of prisoners who ‘want to better themselves when they leave’ and have skills that could benefit the Island’s economy.
‘Depending on the type of offence someone has committed, they may not be able to slot back into certain jobs but there are many prisoners who have a lot of skills. We need to give prisoners a concept of hope and help shift their identity from being an offender to a more valued member of society.
‘The prison already offers inmates educational opportunities and if we work with industry representatives we could teach inmates skills such as cooking, artwork or carpentry which could help them get a job when they reintegrate into society,’ he added.
Mr Cutland said that the last statistics on prisoner reoffending rates were released in 2009 and revealed that 50% of prisoners reoffended within 12 months of their release. He said that it was widely known that those who served community service orders were less likely to reoffend than those who had spent time in prison.
