How Inside Job works:
a focused, trusted, post-prison employment service for people serving sentences.
Inside Job is the first programme of its kind, designed and run by the people it serves. Statutory post-prison employment support is inadequate (under 50% of UK of prisons currently meet their post-release employment target) and often fragmented. Our model coordinates prison staff, serving prisoners, employers and specialist providers to increase our candidates’ chances of finding and sustaining paid work after release. This is how our model works:
Inside Job’s Three Step Model
Recruiters:
We train and pay people serving their own sentences to recruit Candidates and prepare them for work
Employers:
We run focused Interview Surgeries, taking one employer into prison every month, to interview Candidates
Specialist Support:
On release, we fill in the practical and emotional potholes in the road before placing Candidates into work
Inside Job does not charge recruitment fees
With recruitment fees running at 25-30% Inside Job typically saves an employer £5000 on a £25,000 job.
How Inside Job reduces reoffending
We know what to do to stop the cycle of reoffending because the Ministry of Justice has done the research…
CBT creates 5 of the 7 desistence factors
Having hope and motivation
Having someone believe in you
Having the opportunity to contribute
Having a non-criminal identity
Having work
Having family ties
Having housing
The Ministry of Justice has identified seven key factors which impact recidivism. Three are external and tangible: housing, family and work. In other words – somewhere to live, someone to love and something to do.
Four are internal: hope and motivation, belief from others, opportunity to contribute, and a non-criminal identity. In short: I know who I am. I know that I can. You believe in me. You’ll let me try.
The need for post-prison employment
Lack of work:
Fewer than 20% of people find work when they leave prison. Around 70,000 people are released each year, that’s 56,000 jobless people, who are all half as likely to reoffend if they have a job.
Peer-led:
Inside Job stemmed from the idea of a then serving prisoner, Jonathan, on an UpStart programme in 2019. Knowing talented people in prison who really wanted to work but didn’t believe anyone would employ them, Jonathan saw both need and opportunity. We realised Internal Recruiters, as peers, are best placed to identify candidates who genuinely want to contribute and work, because they have a well-developed “sniff-test”.
Trust:
We realised that many people serving sentences do not trust official agencies to help them. BUT they trust their peers because they have shared experience and understand how important it is to talk straight and not let people down.
Support Inside and Outside:
We realised that support needs to come both from the inside and outside. Our External Consultants find employers who want to have social impact and improve our society. They work closely with our Internal Recruiters and candidates, both inside prison and post-release.
Inside Job’s co-founder, Jon Floyd, at a recent community job fair in Birmingham.
My ambition is to use the experience I’ve gained in prison to help employers identify the people in prison who want, and deserve, a job. Inside Job works for me too. It’s given me purpose and the opportunity to contribute.
What Inside Job achieves
WHAT INSIDE JOB GIVES CANDIDATES
Best case, a job: worst case, hope.
All candidates who work with Inside Job get a good CV, Disclosure Letter and interview practice with a professional recruiter. Some get interviews, job offers and post-prison employment. All of our candidates develop a greater awareness of their employability and become more motivated to look for work. That gives them hope.
WHAT PRISONS GET
Better Resettlement Outcomes
Inside Job only works where it has intimate knowledge and good relationships with the prison already because it is running Choirs Beating Time in the establishment on a continuous basis. We are a small scale but highly effective employment intervention. Inside Job supplements, rather than duplicates, existing resettlement initiatives in the prisons we work in.
WHAT EMPLOYERS GET
Loyal, resilient employees
Employers who give people a second chance know those individuals are often their most loyal and hardest working employees. Inside Job’s candidates have the same skills, experience and attitude employers want from the rest of their work force. We are not asking for special treatment or a lowering of standards. Our candidates will inject greater resilience and diversity into any team.
Inside Job gives employers an efficient, professional, no fee, recruitment process.
For every 4 people you employ from prison, you’ll save the British taxpayer £514,000.
That’s because reoffending costs £514,000 per person: 50% of people who leave prison reoffend – but having work halves that percentage.
HOW WE IDENTIFY CANDIDATES
Inside Job identifies people who have proven themselves by contributing to their prison community. People who are determined to be of use. Our candidates are often “Listeners” (Samaritans in prison, a vital peer service), literacy mentors for Shannon Trust (where literate prisoners teach illiterate prisoners to read 1-2-1), they run the prison Gyms and Libraries, advocate on the Prison Council, are doing degrees or making music and art to improve the atmosphere for all who work, live and visit their prison. Some even win Awards!
WHAT EMPLOYERS, WHO EMPLOY FROM PRISON, GIVE…
Reduce Crime, Rebuild Families and Save the Taxpayer Money
By recruiting with Inside Job you are helping to stop the vicious cycle of reoffending. Reoffending rates are nearly 50%, having a job halves that. If you employ an imprisoned parent, you will be sending a working parent back to a family. You’ll be creating a role model for some of the 320,000 children with a parent in prison in the UK and helping lift them out of poverty.
Success Stories
Click below to read some examples of Inside Job success stories.
Our Employers
Our Partners
Ex-Seed:
Phil Martin, Founder of Ex-Seed is the author of the definitive book How To Get A Great Job When You Have A Criminal Record. It contains 99% of the Know How our Insiders will ever need.
Phil established and operated a dedicated careers department at HMP Springhill, whilst serving his own sentence, so he was uniquely placed to help us develop Inside Job in prison. He has subsequently set up Ex-Seed, an employment agency for people with convictions on the outside. Ex-seed is one of the Agencies Inside Job works with to identify the best work opportunities for our candidates.
A Fairer Chance:
Maggie Walsh (MBE), founder of A Fairer Chance, has placed over 1800 people with a criminal record into work. She has a long standing relationship with East Sutton Park (ESP) and on a voluntary basis has helped over 160 women from ESP into work.