Searching for ‘What Works’: HM Prison Service accredited cognitive skills programmes

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of prison‐based cognitive skills programmes in England and Wales in reducing reconviction. Two‐year reconviction rates were compared for adult male offenders who had participated in a cognitive skills programme between 1996 and 1998 (N = 649) and matched adult male offenders who had not participated (N = 1,947). There were no significant differences in the rates of reconviction between the treatment and matched comparisons. This contrasts with a previous study of prison‐based cognitive skills programmes. Possible explanations for the current finding are discussed. For example, these results may merely reflect expected variation; international experience mirrors the variable reductions in reconviction rates found so far in the evaluation of prison‐based programmes. This evaluation relates to a period when programmes were expanded rapidly, and this may have affected the quality of programme delivery.

Citation

Falshaw, L., Friendship, C., Travers, R. and Nugent, F. (2004), "Searching for ‘What Works’: HM Prison Service accredited cognitive skills programmes", The British Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636646200400007