Just one in 10 businesses feel comfortable employing former inmates and nearly half of those released last year were unable to find a job, a new study has found.
Research conducted by criminologist Saviour Formosa reveals that 93 per cent of businesses were averse to the idea of employing someone who had spent time behind bars.
The research findings were unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela yesterday at the conclusion of a prisoner training initiative.
The €275,000-training programme included workshops for hands-on skills such as masonry, plumbing and tile lying as well as courses for computer literacy and overall employability.
Mr Abela said the programme was developed by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology together with the University of Malta after Dr Formosa’s prison research found that a large number of ex-inmates were unable to find steady work.
The study offered a brief glimpse into the hardships faced by former prisoners and found that more than two-thirds of those who left prison in 2010 could not land a job. Some 78 per cent of those who had spent time in prison at some point in their lives were unemployed.
“It’s pointless changing the sign outside this building from prison to correctional facility if we are not going to rehabilitate and help people form part of society. This situation just leads people back to criminality,” Mr Abela said.
It’s pointless changing the sign outside the building from prison to correctional facility if we are not going to rehabilitate people
On a positive note, he said the situation had improved since 2010 and the number of ex-inmates who failed to find a job straight after leaving prison last year had dropped to about 40 per cent.
This, however, was not enough and Mr Abela said he was aware the prison system still needed tweaking.
To this end, he said he had set up a review board headed by Martin Scicluna, a former government adviser and former senior UK civil servant, to assess the state of the prison and prioritise what had to be addressed immediately. The jovial atmosphere of yesterday’s ceremony became a bit strained at one point when one inmate seized the opportunity to lament the programme’s ineffectiveness directly with the government.
The inmate, serving a short sentence for aggravated theft, told Mr Abela he had completed numerous courses, including some of those that ended yesterday, however, employers were not interested.
“You can do all the courses you want. The only thing employers care about is whether your criminal record is clean,” he said.
EU Funds Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg told the inmate the government was working on other avenues to offer jobs to former inmates.
He said in the coming weeks the government would be unveiling a €40 million programme funded by the EU aimed at bolstering social cohesion and integration.
The aim was to help former inmates get on their feet.
“We want inmates to be viewed as a part of society and not a group kept aside,” Dr Borg told the prisoner.