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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:29 pm
Time: 8:29 pm
Results for welfare recipients
1 results foundAuthor: Giles, Margaret Title: Welfare and recidivism outcomes of in-prison education and training Summary: This report represents the final stage of a three-phase study of the project "Labour market outcomes of education and training during incarceration". The two earlier phases were the extraction of WA Department of Corrective Services (WADCS) prison and training data (Phase 1), and the extraction of Centrelink (CL) welfare data and the linkage of these data with the WADCS data (Phase 2). Analysis of the contribution of in-prison study to reduced recidivism and reduced welfare dependence (Phase 3) is reported here. Phase 1 of the overarching project involved the extraction of five years of prisoner data (including socio-demographics, offences and prison education and training information) from the WADCS. The data were then cleaned and sorted and a Linkage Key (based on 14 alpha-numeric characters take from surname, given name, date of birth and gender) was constructed. Descriptive statistics were produced. The data included prisoners who had been in prison at any time during the period 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2010 (Giles and Whale 2013). Phase 2 of the overarching project involved two steps. First, a subset of Centrelink welfare data (including a Linkage Key) was obtained from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) on behalf of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) which (then) managed Centrelink data. Next these data were merged with the WA prisoner education and training dataset constructed in Phase 1 to produce a comprehensive longitudinal dataset. This WA prisoner education and welfare dataset contains prisoner/ex-prisoner socio-demographics, offences, prison time, recidivism, study, and welfare reliance (Giles and Whale 2014). Phase 3 of the overarching project, summarised in this report, involved the analysis of the WA prisoner education and welfare dataset constructed in Phase 2 to examine the impact of in-prison study, and other factors, on recidivism and welfare use. The study tested different measures of recidivism, welfare dependence and in-prison study and, using multivariate regression and survival analysis techniques, the relative impacts of in-prison study on post-release outcomes. This report finds that prisoners choose to study if their most serious offence type is Economic Crime and if they were incarcerated earlier in the dataset period. Factors influencing the successful completion of classes are the prisoner being of nonAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent or male, the most serious offence type being an offence other than Economic Crime or the sentence type being Fine Default. Fewer prison terms or shorter prison terms can also contribute to all classes being successfully completed. Factors affecting up-skilling include the prisoner being non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or from rural WA, with sentence type of Fine Default or most serious offence of Economic Crime. Fewer prison terms and longer sentences also contribute to up-skilling. Prisoners who enrol in Forklift Classes or Resources Courses are more likely to up-skill than other prisoners. How study in prison is measured is critical to estimating its influence on post-release outcomes such as recidivism and welfare dependence. Findings in this study include that prisoners who have up-skilled are less likely to recidivate (in terms of increased offence seriousness) and an increased number of successful classes will also reduce recidivism. In addition, ex-prisoners who are best able to remain in the community for longer have studied and successfully completed all their classes. Study also affects welfare dependence, in particular, receipt of unemployment benefits or student allowances. That is, the more classes that were successfully completed or involved up-skilling, the shorter time the ex-prisoners spent on welfare in the immediate post-release period. Although the study was constrained by the variables included in each of the contributing databases, the results confirm the usefulness of prison study generally in reducing reoffending and improving post-release outcomes. Future research could obtain additional data, such as self-report or verified education and employment information, verified physical and mental health status information, and learning disability diagnostic data, which have been shown, in the labour economics literature, to be important confounding factors for labour market participation and success. Details: Canberra: Criminology Research Advisory Council, 2016. 102p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 27, 2017 at: http://crg.aic.gov.au/reports/1516/33-1213-FinalReport.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://crg.aic.gov.au/reports/1516/33-1213-FinalReport.pdf Shelf Number: 144923 Keywords: Correctional ProgramsPovertyPrison EducationRecidivismVocational Education and TrainingWelfare Recipients |