Evaluating Social Action for Rehabilitation

This e-book presents findings of an evaluation of restorative justice in prison settings. The findings are based on an independent evaluation that was carried out by qualified researchers using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research was carried out over a specified timeframe and with financial support from the Cabinet Office. The research was conducted between 1 November 2013 – 1 July 2015 (20 months).

 

During the research period, the Silence the Violence programme was delivered to 162 participants in total.  In particular:

• Seven  cohorts attended the programme in HM Prison Forest Bank in Manchester, a Category B Male prison for adults and young offenders;
• Nine cohorts attended the programme in HMP & YOI Isis in London, a Category C prison, based for male offenders under the age of 25; from which two attended a 1-day intensive programme
• Five cohorts attended the programme in Wormwood Scrubs in London, a local category B prison for male offenders over the age of 21.

During the research period, Milestones was delivered to 61 offenders, who were released from HMP & YOI Isis, HMP Winchester and HMP Forest Bank. An additional 45 offenders were mentored by partner organisations under contract to Khulisa.  However, useable data was only secured for 40 Milestones participants giving us a total final research sample of 194 participants.

A triangulation of these findings was carried out through:

• Qualitative research that was carried out with financial support from Buckinghamshire New University and resources (in-kind and cash) from the Restorative Justice For All institute
• A review of the Ministry of Justice Data lab
• Control Groups that accessed with the support of the Prison National Offender Management Information System (p-NOMIS).

 

The initial hypotheses that we wanted to test were:

• H1. Offenders completing the Khulisa Social Action intervention programme (experimental group) exhibit reduced rates of reconviction compared to people who have not completed the Programme (control group)
• H2. Offenders who participated in the Khulisa Social Action intervention programme express higher levels of self-confidence after the completion of the programme, compared to the levels of self-confidence before their participation;
• H3. Offenders who participated in the Khulisa Social Action intervention programme express higher levels of motivation for desistance from crime after the completion of the programme, compared to the levels of motivation for desistance before their participation;
• H4.  Offenders who participated in the Khulisa Social Action intervention programme express higher levels of life satisfaction after the completion of the programme, compared to the levels of life satisfaction their participation;