United Kingdom: ex-prisoners will receive support to start their own businesses with a new fund

James Furber, the high sheriff of Greater London, has thrown his weight behind a new fund that aims to help people leaving prison become entrepreneurs. The programme will provide inmates with peer and professional mentors who will assist them with business planning and personal development.

Successful candidates will be given the cash they need on release to start their own business. The scheme was launched by Beating Time, an organisation that provides choirs in prisons, and Enterprise Exchange, which runs self-employment courses in prisons.

“Visiting prisons I see huge potential in many prisoners,” said Furber. “We’ve doubled our prison population in the last 20 years. If we want change, we have to create the opportunity to change, which is why I’m supporting this initiative by Enterprise Exchange and Beating Time.”

In the year ending June 2016, 74,713 people were released from prison in England and Wales. Only 27 per cent of those people found work. Re-offending is another common problem that stable employment could help solve, the two companies said.

The current prison population is around 85,000, yet for those serving sentences under 12 months, 60 per cent will go on to re-offend in the year after their release. Stable employment reduces the probability of re-offending by up to 50 per cent.

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