Prison arts scheme saves £150,000 per person by cutting re-offending

Only Connect, which works with prisoners and ex-offenders, saw reoffending among more than 50 criminals fall from an estimated 57.5 per cent to 25.9 per cent, saving almost £150,000 per person who stopped committing crimes, a report into the arts and criminal justice showed.

Former Scotland Yard commissioner Lord Blair said the arts can “have a transformative effect on a person’s life, particularly for young people”. Such schemes “have the potential to tackle deep-rooted problems” and “this can help them turn away from crime and start to lead purposeful and positive lives”, he added.

The Unlocking Value report, commissioned by the Arts Alliance and produced by the consultancy New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), showed that 72 offenders had been involved with Only Connect projects had now been released from jail.

Arts Alliance chairman Tim Robertson said: “With a spiralling prison population, shocking rates of reoffending and steeply declining budgets, we urgently need to find new ways of working. The criminal justice sector needs to open its doors to arts organisations and find new ways of working in partnership with them.”

Re-offending can cost £145,528 per person according to NPC calculations using averages for crimes and prison sentences.