Working paper 61

Offender engagement with third sector organisations: 

a national prison-based survey

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. This 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 each prison engages with an average of 20 organisations. However, respondents were aware of an average of only four organisations and reported engaging with no more than one. There is an apparent mismatch between the stated involvement of TSO in prisons and prisoners’ awareness and use of their services. The paper discusses some policy and practice implications of these findings. One proposed solution, for example, is to introduce third sector co-ordinators more systematically in prisons, who could improve marketing as well as access to these services.

Research contacts
Dr Dina Gojkovic, Dr Rosie Meek and Dr Alice Mills