Recommendation 35

The way offenders were treated on their release from prison has a significant impact on how they re-integrate into society.80 We received written evidence from Middlesex University, which told us that poor or inadequate resettlement pathways had resulted in lack of adequate housing options for prisoners on their release.81 On 4th April 2020, the Government announced that up to 4,000 prisoners could be released to prevent the spread 75 Q 43, Ministry of Justice, Economic and social costs of reoffending, Alexander Newton, Xennor May, Steven Eames & Maryam Ahmad, 2019 76 Qq 43–44 77 Committee of Public Accounts, Transforming Rehabilitation: A progress review, Ninety-Fourth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 1747, 3 May 2019 78 HM Treasury, Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Ninety-Third to the Ninety- Fourth and Ninety-Sixth to the Ninety Eighth reports from Session 2017–19, CP 151, July 2019 79 Q 45 80 IPE0007 - Improving the prison estate, Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Director of the Institute of Criminology at Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge) 1 July 2020; Committee of Public Accounts, Transforming Rehabilitation: A progress review, Ninety-Fourth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 1747, 3 May 2019 81 IPE0005 - Improving the prison estate, Dr Matthew Cracknell, Middlesex University, London, 1 July 2020 Improving the prison estate 21 of the disease. Eighty-one prisoners had been released by 8th June 2020.82 We asked the Ministry how many of those who had been released did not have settled accommodation to go to on their release. The Ministry told us that it had set clear conditions that people would not be released unless there was a housing solution available to them on their release. Both the Ministry and HMPPS told us that accommodation had been available in 100% of cases. HMPPS explained that this was often accommodation that the prisoner had arranged for themselves, and that it had w