PGA: Investors must avoid ‘cherry-picking’

Paddy Scriven, general secretary of the Prison Governors Association, provides guarded support for the government’s plan to introduce a pilot scheme for private investment in the rehabilitation of prisoners:

“If we’re looking at tackling reoffending, then this is a very positive step, providing it works.

“The thing that has to be guarded against is that if this sort of scheme spreads and it is payment by results, that the not-for-profit sector people and charities that are administering it don’t cherry-pick the most likely successes and leave the very hardline cases to the Prison Service, or more importantly the Probation Service. Then the success is measured unevenly.”