Kainos Community Prison Wings

HL Deb 19 November 2001 vol 628 cc112-3WA

Lord Hylton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What has been the reoffending rate among prisoners discharged since 1996 from wings of three prisons in Dorset, Kent and Suffolk managed with the help of the Kainos Community; and how this compares with reoffending by ex-prisoners who had served sentences of similar length in the rest of the prison system; and [HL1187]

Whether the Prison Service or its management board are proposing to discontinue current experiments with Kainos Community prison wings; and, if so, why. [HL1188]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker)

After financial and other difficulties with its predecessor organisation, Kairos-Apac, the Kainos Community began the operation of Kainos communities in the wings of four prisons in May 1999. The Prison Service Management Board agreed in September 1999 that these should be permitted to continue, without any commitment of public funds and for a limited period, while they were evaluated. The evaluation was to be done by independent researchers and paid for by Kainos. The board would reach a decision on the future of the programme in the light of the evaluation.

The evaluation was completed in September 2001. The Kainos trustees provided the board with a copy of the evaluation report and asked the board to take an early decision on the future of the programme because Kainos' own funding for the programme would cease at the end of 2001.

Among other matters the evaluation examined the one-year reconviction rates of prisoners who had been through the Kainos programme and a comparison group of nearly 14,000 prisoners with similar sentence lengths and from similar prisons. The reconviction rates for the Kainos sample was 23 per cent and for the comparison sample 26 per cent. This difference is not statistically significant and the evaluation report found that there was no basis for concluding that Kainos community prisoners have reconviction rates that are significantly lower than would be expected for similar released prisoners as a whole. Other Prison Service programmes designed to reduce reoffending typically show statistically significant reductions of 10 per cent in future reoffending against expected rates.

In the light of this finding, the board decided that the Kainos Community should no longer continue to operate in prisons when its present programmes came to an end. The board respects the commitment of the Kainos trustees and of the staff and volunteers who gave their time to the programmes. But it is determined that effort and scarce resources in prisons are devoted only to programmes which can demonstrate their effectiveness.

The evaluation report remains the property of the Kainos trustees. On 9 November they kindly gave permission for the executive summary to be placed on the Home Office website and this is being done. I am also placing a copy in the Library. I hope that the trustees will be able to publish the full report soon.