The costs and benefits of effective resettlement of young offenders
| Pages | 18-29 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200700033 |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| Author | Judy Renshaw |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
18
1Freelance researcher,
analyst, consultant
Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 2 Issue 4 December 2007
© Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
Abstract
Resettlement programmes provide support for young offenders during their custodial sentence and for
approximately nine months after release. This article describes how the costs and benefits of providing an
effective service of this kind were estimated based on the ‘RESET’ programme, published evidence on the
costs of crime and the likely reduction in offending due to an intensive support programme. The cost of
crime has been estimated at £46,459 per year (after allowing for a reduction due to the time spent in
custody), plus prison custody at an average of £30,475 and emergency accommodation at an average of
£1,106, making a total of £78,040 for each offender. Using a fairly modest assumption that good support
in resettlement could lead to approximately a 35% reduction in frequency and a 10% reduction in
seriousness of offending, a saving of £20,407 per offender per year could be achieved. These savings
would more than offset the average cost of a good quality resettlement service of £8,074. The scheme
would break even if the frequency of offending were reduced by only 20%.
Key words
Resettlement; costs; custody; re-offending; youth offending
Introduction
In its landmark report on reducing re-offending by ex-
prisoners, the UK central government Social Exclusion
Unit (2002) pointed out the importance of support in
matters such as housing, employment or training,
improving basic skills, and addressing mental health
and substance misuse issues. The support of family
and friends was also found to be crucial. Young
offenders aged 12–17 released from custody on
detention and training orders1(DTOs) tend to need
help in these areas even more than adults as they
have little experience of living independently and can
be strongly influenced by friends (Communities that
Care, 2001). In a study of 160 young offenders
released from custody, Ecotec (2001) demonstrated
that being in full-time education is associated with a
significantly reduced risk of re-offending, yet many of
these young people do not have an education
placement for a period of weeks or months after
release. Recent performance reviews by the Youth
Justice Board2(2007) have also noted that many
youth offending teams3(YOTs) have identified post-
custody support as a key area for improvement.
The ‘RESET’ programme was developed to address
these issues. This was a two-year project, funded by
the European Social Fund under the Equal Community
Initiative Programme4. It was led by the children’s
charity Rainer5but also included a wide group of
partner agencies from the statutory and voluntary
sectors, whose representatives met regularly
throughout the project period.
Amongst other things, it provided support to young
people (under 18) given DTOs during their sentence in
custody and for a period of several months (up to
about a year) on release, in seven local authority
areas of London and Manchester. One explicit aim was
to bring together the work of the different agencies
The costs and benefits of
effective resettlement of young
offenders
Judy Renshaw1
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