Progress Update

Today I have completed my Project Update form which details what I have done and what I plan to do over the next few weeks.

Over the next few weeks I am going to focus on finding statistics from American rehabilitation programmes to see how successful they are and then compare these to UK programmes. After this I can make a reasoned judgement as to which country is most successful and why.

Presentation

Today I started on my presentation. I decided to use PowerPoint because I thought it would be the best way to put all of my information and pictures on there. I didn't want to put too much writing on each slide as I want to talk about the slide as well. As I haven't completed my report yet I didn't upload my findings or the analysis of the response to my survey because I want to keep this open for as long as possible. After each slide which showed a picture of, for example my plan, I discussed why I chose this option and any problems I had. I documented my different research methods to show that I have used both primary and secondary resources and assessed how reliable and valid each source was. After showing my tutor the first attempt I have decided to find a YouTube video which talks about rehabilitation to make my presentation more accurate. I am also going to add in case studies that I have found and complete a graph which shows my survey findings. Finally, I wrote about what I would do differently if I did this project again.

Oxford Journals

This week I have been reading through the 'Oxford Journals' in the Law section to find out how rehabilitation views and methods have changed in the last 10 years.
I used the 'British Journal of Criminology' to read an article about the post-release of young adult offenders. This journal was published in 1990 so I can use it to compare the methods with ones used today. The article argues that prison is often not the best solution for young offenders and also reasons why young offenders often are reluctant to go through rehabilitation.
Following on from the research I conducted about Intensive Probation I have also read an article entitled Intensive Probation for Young Adult Offenders which was also from the British Journal of Criminology, published in 1993.

I also decided to re-advertise my survey so that I had a broader number of responses so now I have 49. I am able to keep it open until I choose to collect and analyse the data.

I have also started to produce my presentation, explaining why I have chosen this title/topic. I have added my plan onto the slideshow and as I finish my research I will add this to my presentation.

 

Work Schemes in Prison

Today I have researched about projects in prisons which promote work experience and training. I have found statistics on the employability of prisoners which carries on from my research of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Many prisoners are employed whilst they are in prison but find it hard to transfer these skills to jobs when they leave. Many prisoners are employed in low level jobs whilst in prison such as laundry which doesn't provide them with the neccessary skills to get a job when they leave.
Specifically I looked at the scheme in HMP Coldingley which deals with medium-long term prisoners. It only accepts prison transfers who are willing to work full time whilst in prison and their aim is to give prisoners the skills to get a job when they leave.
I have also researched the Transco scheme which is for young offenders. It was first introduced in 1998 and has since started more schemes. I am going to continue to find statistics for this scheme to show its success.
Finally I have researched different rehabilitation methods for prisoners serving different length sentences. Some programmes are completed within 4 weeks for people on short-term sentences and is supposed to provide the prisoner with a foundation which can be built upon. There are also different schemes for women prisoners, youth offenders and sex offenders.
I have been getting my information from Home Office reports as well as the Ministry of Justice website so they are reliable.