Monday 26 September 2011
by Will Stone, Health & Social Affairs Reporter
Legislation geared at scooping up to £1 million a year from prisoners' wages to put towards supporting crime victims was criticised today as a false economy.
Under the Prisoners' Earnings Act, which came into force yesterday, 40 per cent of prisoners' wages over £20 per week - after tax, national insurance and any court-ordered or child support payments - will be deducted and given to Victim Support.
The victims' fund will affect about 500 inmates doing work in the community but ministers are also planning to bring in powers to target the wages of prisoners working inside jails - though the average prisoner working behind bars earns just £10 a week.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "For too long the financial burden of repairing the damage done by crime has fallen to the taxpayer alone."
Victim Support welcomed the move, saying that the money will be used "to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities."
But prison reform charities said funding for crime victims should come from other sources.
Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Frances Crook said employers might not co-operate and prisoners might not work.
"So Victim Support will lose out, the community will lose out, people won't have a job to come out to when they are released. Everybody will lose."
Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon also said it was important not to put prisoners off working altogether.
She added: "It's always a problem if people leave prison with absolutely nothing. It's likely to cause further offending. And so a scheme like this has to be thought through carefully so that money is set aside for victims but that we also pay attention to resettlement."
willstone@peoples-press.com
The victims' fund will affect about 500 inmates doing work in the community but ministers are also planning to bring in powers to target the wages of prisoners working inside jails - though the average prisoner working behind bars earns just £10 a week.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "For too long the financial burden of repairing the damage done by crime has fallen to the taxpayer alone."
Victim Support welcomed the move, saying that the money will be used "to deliver real, practical support for victims and communities."
But prison reform charities said funding for crime victims should come from other sources.
Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Frances Crook said employers might not co-operate and prisoners might not work.
"So Victim Support will lose out, the community will lose out, people won't have a job to come out to when they are released. Everybody will lose."
Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon also said it was important not to put prisoners off working altogether.
She added: "It's always a problem if people leave prison with absolutely nothing. It's likely to cause further offending. And so a scheme like this has to be thought through carefully so that money is set aside for victims but that we also pay attention to resettlement."
willstone@peoples-press.com
