Findings from a recent survey among employers in the north-west of England suggest that personal support is the most favoured type of support both for employers and for ex-offenders when considering employing (or employing more) ex-offenders. The findings also reveal that employers need more information on the relevance and the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, as well as guidance on risk assessment and management procedures, in order to enable them to make informed decisions about, and increase their confidence in, employing ex-offenders.

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Race Relations in English and Welsh prisons have a history of critical events and flawed management. There is evidence that at the policy level the Prison Service has responded to policy directives to improve race relations. This article is based on research that examined the relationship between national legislation, Prison Service policy and practice. The focus of the article is the views of operational Prison Service staff, revealing the complexities in implementing race relations policy in the testing prison environment. The article concludes that the policies implemented by the Prison Service appear, theoretically, to be a rational and appropriate means of achieving positive race relations. Operationally the Prison Service has experienced the challenges of the prison setting, the need for proper resources and the stresses and strains in meeting the demands of its own race relations policy.

The authors argue that intermediate measures used for gauging change in knowledge and attitudes in motoring offending groupwork programmes had connections with, but were not indicative of two-year general or motoring reconvictions. They also draw attention to the different profiles of various motoring offender samples, and highlight the importance of establishing reliable baseline reconviction information on offenders undergoing offence-specific groupwork programmes before setting reconviction targets. The results indicate the need to take a multi-dimensional view, and consider the same set of data from different angles.

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