Unlocked Graduates, a charity that recruited hundreds of high-calibre graduates into the prison service, was one of the few glimmers of hope in our broken justice system. But Unlocked’s future is now in doubt: its graduate programme is over. The current cohort of prison officers – who are making a huge difference to the lives of inmates and their hopes of rehabilitation – will be the last.
Unlocked set out to transform prison officer hiring – and it succeeded
Unlocked’s fate has been clear for some time: last year, the Ministry of Justice failed to renew the programme’s contract. This week, prisons minister Lord Timpson confirmed that discussions on the graduate programme ended in failure. Timpson tried to gloss over the end of the scheme by announcing a ‘future leadership programme’ which will seek to recruit around 35 potential future prison governors each year. But ignore the spin: Unlocked’s fate spells the end of a decade of efforts to transform prison culture.
Unlocked’s founder Natasha Porter founded the charity in 2016 with the aim of focusing on rehabilitation and addressing the terrible damage and cost of reoffending. Since 2017, it has placed 900 graduates in dozens of jails across England and Wales. Porter told me that ‘a remarkable prison officer can radically alter outcomes for prisoners’ – something I know from experience.
There were a few exceptional officers in HMP Wandsworth when I was jailed there. One in particular shared my love of Warhammer, the miniature warriors hobby. That officer, ‘Smith’, stopped by to chat about paint schemes and techniques. He made me feel human, and helped me stay sane during lockdown. Good prison officers like him – and the Unlocked graduate officers – make a huge difference to inmates at their lowest. If prisoners stand any chance of being rehabilitated, relationships like this are vital: they help break the cycle of conflict in prisons and help prepare for those who have been locked up for life outside.
Unlocked set out to transform prison officer hiring – and it succeeded. The charity attracted a far higher calibre of applicants than the main prison service recruitment scheme; a former president of the Oxford Union and an editor of Cambridge’s Varsity were among the successful candidates. The organisation is generally popular with prison governors, and is seen as bringing great value to the jails it works with.
It seems baffling then to work out why Unlocked’s graduate scheme is no more. When I asked the Ministry of Justice for comment they were reticent. My sense is that the MoJ has a culture that tends to reject anything that isn’t under its direct control. An external organisation like Unlocked, even when it is clearly doing good, doesn’t stand a chance.
Whatever the reason, the demise of Unlocked couldn’t have come at a worse time. Prison service recruitment is in such dire straits that they are hiring officers who struggle to speak English. Violence in prisons is endemic. Released prisoners often end up straight back inside.
‘There is a crisis facing our criminal justice system,’ says Porter. ‘As with all of the most difficult and entrenched problems, we require our best and brightest leaders to help fix it. Over the last decade, Unlocked has brought exactly these kinds of people onto the frontline of our prisons – those with experience of incredible academic and professional success, but who the government has historically failed to attract. All the evidence shows it’s starting to work.’
She’s right. What a pity that the powers that be don’t agree.
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