Courses are due to be rolled out in various skill sets to prisoners due to leave the system.
Do you think this is a good idea/spend of money?
Assuming it’s optional, so for those who want to avail of it, it could be a great opportunity for those who want to get on the right path again.
by itsallfine24
17 comments
“*Build your way out of jail, then hopefully you’ll not come back and fail*”
There free slogan for it.
Yes, providing prisoners with valuable skills that will give them economic opportunities is an objectively good thing. That, combined with supports in finding work with fair pay and fair treatment is the best way to prevent re-offending.
The only thing I would suggest is that the skills offered should be diversified as much as possible to avoid any one profession becoming flooded with labour, as that would harm pay and conditions for everyone.
This will be great when they actually have the staff to facilitate prisoners attending the courses.
As for the jobs aspect, it’s not quite as simple as “have qualifications get job”. And as soon as a prisoner walks out the gate, there is no further assistance from the IPS in obtaining work, which hopefully is something they can address in future.
I’ll bet people will just love having ex-cons working in their homes. Now when I hire a company to do work, I’ll have an extra demand- “do not send any criminals to my home”.
Good to see there’s a shortage of skills and ex prisoners definitely face barriers to returning to work. Hopefully there’s follow on support to help them get into work and stay in work for the medium term <5yrs.
Retrofitting of what exactly?
I support it, but only with an overhaul of how the criminal justice system works.
I think the entire thing should be anonymous. There is no sense in rehabilitation if you can just Google a lad’s name and see everything he’s done – it defeats the point, as it makes it impossible to find employment regardless of any new skills learned.
It’s controversial, but I think the current system encourages recidivism as it limits other options available, and that outcomes for society are worse than if genuine rehabilitation and reintegration programs were accessible.
So if you are a taxpayer and law abiding citizen, will you also be offered a retrofitting course or equivalent QQI level 5 course for free?
Not a new idea but a good idea
Good idea but I wonder how it will work out with outside employment. Fellas with a record at a disadvantage
I think theres other things they could be trained into rather than gaining access to peoples home 😅
Prisoners get more opportunity and better treatment than homeless people
In retrofitting…
Get the builders in, they’re all ex burglars haha yeah no thanks
Yes this is brilliant not everyone in prison is a sociopath murdering rapist.
The whole point of prison in my opinion is to reform criminals and show them life can be more about crime. So many of these guys might even come from underprivileged areas where no1 not even their parents ever gave them a chance. Locking them up may keep us outside safe but if all they do is sit around and waste away the odds of them re-committing crime when they are out goes way up.
Programs like this will empower prisoners to want more from life and see that hardwork can pay off and building something will feel alot better.
This will only be a good thing for the country
Yes. It means they can get jobs and sustain themselves outside of prison. Also helps to keep reoffending numbers down. It’s a no-brainer.
In what universe could this be anything other than a good thing to spend money on?
Looked into the course on the Laoise and Offaly Training Board website. It’s 10 days (1 day/week for 10 weeks). It only includes insulation. Doesn’t seem to include a Safe Pass, which would be needed to actually get work. It does not sound adequate for actually getting a job. Sounds like a puff piece for the media to make it seem like they are trying to break the cycle without actually putting in the money, effort, and time it takes to really do that.
EDIT: Mount Lucas website lists it as 22.5 hours onsite and 9 hours online. This still seems inadequate for people with no construction background and does not include a safe pass.