Offender engagement with third sector organisations: a national prison-based survey

Abstract

This paper is the second in a series that investigates the involvement of the third sector in the resettlement of prisoners. Working paper 57 found that nearly 20,000 third sector organisations reported engagement in work with offenders through seven resettlement pathways. The current paper scopes prisoners’ experiences of these organisations by presenting key findings of an all-prisoner short survey distributed in eight prisons nationally. The findings indicate that prisons engage with an average of 20 organisations, but respondents are aware of an average of only four organisations and report engaging with no more than one. There is an apparent mismatch between the stated involvement of TSO in work with offenders in prisons and prisoners’ awareness and use of their services. The main policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed, including one proposed solution to introduce more systematically third sector co-ordinators in prisons, who could improve marketing as well as access to these services