Freed, but nowhere to go
A study by social workers in Catalan prisons in a new reinsertion programme shows that 67% of prisoners have nowhere to go once they are released
Access to housing continues to be a serious problem for vulnerable groups in Catalonia, especially for people who have spent time in prison. On the day of their release, 90% of the former prisoners do not even have a place to spend the first night of freedom because 83% have no family infrastructure. Nobody will be waiting for them at the prison gates.
These figures are the result of the survey of 73 former prisoners carried out by social workers in Catalan prisons who form part of the new support service assisting newly released prisoners, which the foundation Intress started two years ago. Núria Iturbe, a psychologist and professor of criminology at the UB, and Ana Martínez Catena, professor of criminal law at the UPF, are the authors of the study on the usefulness of this service, as a tool for improving prisoner reinsertion which will play a vital in avoiding re-offending.
Most participants in the study, from prisons in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, left prison with no family mechanism of support and no social structure to return to. Social isolation is, according to the researchers, a high risk factor in recidivism. In Catalonia, criminal recidivism is at 30%, of which 65% commit a new offence in the first year.
The on-release support service, manned by professionals, is voluntary and lasts for one year. So far the indicators are positive as of those who do join, only 15% drop out. They receive no financial reward for participating.
Finding housing and jobs are the great needs of the group and perhaps most difficult. Women are the most unprotected as on sentencing, their social and family support dissappears quickly.