Employing Ex‐Offenders: A Risk or an Opportunity?

Abstract

This paper considers barriers to the employment of ex‐offenders. It is based on interviews with offenders in the last six months of their sentence, employers with experience of employing ex‐offenders and other specialists including probation officers and employment officers. The findings suggest that ex‐offenders seeking work can count on very little help from the criminal justice system and that both employers and ex‐offenders are ignorant about the risks and opportunities which exist. Indeed, obtaining work for ex‐offenders may depend as much on eradicating ignorance amongst employers as it does on focusing help on ex‐offenders.