Scheme to cut reoffending in quest for £80,000 to survive

The Minerva project has slashed re-offending rates among ex-prisoners since it began in September 2009 and is estimated to have saved the public purse more than £8m.

Aimed at prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months – the group most likely to re-offend – it is thought to be the only one of its kind outside London that takes an holistic approach to improving offenders’ lives and finding opportunities for them after they are released.

But following the end of backing from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund last September, it faces an uncertain future and will ask Humberside Police Authority to make up the £80,718 shortfall to carry it into next year.

Chief Constable Tim Hollis has already agreed to fund this year’s shortfall of £16,259 from the force’s performance reserve.

In the year ending March 2008, before the scheme started, 58.8 per cent of inmates released from Hull Prison after serving less than a year went on to re-offend, with an average of nearly three crimes per offender.

But figures for the Minerva Project from June last year show that of the 369 people engaged with the initiative, 51 went on to commit crimes within the target period of 12 weeks - a re-offending rate of 13.82 per cent.

Analysis by the Humberside Criminal Justice Board for the 12 months to September 2011 put the re-offending rate across the Humberside Police areas at 29.7 per cent, compared to an England and Wales rate of 26.3 per cent.

A joint report by police authority chief executive Kevin Sharp and Mr Hollis said: “The challenge for criminal justice partners in reducing re-offending has been widely embraced and Minerva is a project that focuses in particular on the cohort of offenders who are serving or have served short prison sentences and therefore those most likely to re-offend.

“Initial reports from the project are highly encouraging.”

The project supports nine full-time jobs and receives £170,000 from Hull Council, £132,836 from Hull Prison, and £118,512 from Humberside Probation Trust.

The application will be considered by the authority tomorrow.