Offenders in the post-industrial labour market: lubricating the revolving door?

UK policy makers are increasingly seeking to improve the skills of offenders as a means of reducing re-offending. However, the past forty years have witnessed profound changes in the nature of work. Yet there has been little research which has explored their experiences in the post-industrial labour market and the consequences for re-offending. This article begins to address this gap in our knowledge. It draws upon a series of in-depth interviews with offenders undertaken by the author as part of the evaluation of a prison-based vocational training project. A key conclusion which emerges is that many offenders have been consigned to the margins of the labour force and spend much of their working lives in the informal labour market. This may have profound consequences for re-offending.