Inmates must work to pay back victims

Prisoners will no longer live a life of "enforced, bored idleness" and instead be forced to work to pay compensation to their victims, Ken Clarke said yesterday.

The Justice Secretary said he wanted prisons to become “tough places of hard work and reform” and ensure more private firms are brought in to rehabilitate offenders on a payment by results system.

Too many prisoners existed in a system where getting out of bed was “voluntary” and instead they should work nine to five jobs to gain a trade or skill, he told the conference.

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Mr Clarke wants private firms to create the jobs for criminals and is even looking at the possibility of creating purpose-built workplace prisons where higher wages could generate even more cash.

About one pound in five would be put in a fund for victims, with the rest used to cover the cost of keeping people behind bars, pay the benefits of prisoners’ families or kept in trust for when they are released.

The Ministry of Justice is looking for about 2 billion of savings from its budget as part of the drastic Whitehall-wide spending review ordered by Chancellor George Osborne to tackle the UK’s deficit.

Comment: Page 12.