Bank Accounts And Their Magical Crime-Fighting Properties…

Eric Allinson, the Guardian's prison correspondent, has heard of a wizard scheme:

There are times when even though something stares you in the face, you cannot see it.

So it was when I heard of the scheme, by the Co-operative bank, to supply bank accounts to serving prisoners. That was in 2006 and although I thought it a good idea (I am for anything that "normalises" prisoners) I had no idea how effective it would be in reducing reoffending rates.

I’m a little confused here – who was previously denying back accounts to old lags?

The project started at Forest Bank, a private jail in Manchester, after a member of staff realised the problems prisoners without a bank account faced when they were discharged and approached the Co-op bank seeking their help.

What help? What was stopping them?

Within a year, 500 inmates had opened accounts and 193 of them were tracked on release and a report on their progress was published by the Research Unit for Financial Inclusion at John Moores University, Liverpool.

The report that 37% of those monitored had reoffended, compared to the national reoffending rate of about 76%, a 50% decrease.

Well, that’s great (although it’s pointed out in the comments that that’s not exactly a random sample), but why do they need ‘help’ in this? Isn’t getting a bank account something anyone can do?

The Co-op and the university have now published more up-to-date figures and those leaving jail with bank accounts are still half as likely to reoffend as those without.

Of those on the pilot, leaving prison with a bank account, almost 80% said they had never had one before. Interviewing some of them provided some revealing responses.

The responses certainly are revealing, though I suspect not in the way bleeding-heart Eric intended:

"Having an account gave me a sense of self-respect, made me feel part of society," said Jonathan. "It [the account] opened many doors and gave me a sense of identity," said another. "All I knew about was the giro," said another, "and I used to go in and draw it out. Knew nothing about banks."

Funny. I’d always assumed that not being in prison was sufficient to give one a self of self-worth…

As I implied at the start, some things are so blindingly obvious, their very dazzle prevents us from seeing them; of course having a bank account will go a long towards preventing reoffending; try getting a job, or accommodation, without one. Or try coping with the nightmare costs of using meter cards, to pay your utility bills, because direct debit is barred to you.

It’s not, though. The only thing stopping these inadequates from getting a bank account of their own was their own fecklessness; now, the state is going to hold their hands for them.

What a step forward!

But Eric can see it as a way to gain something even more to be treasured by the loons:

Prison service and the public take note, the more you do to integrate prisoners back into society, the less likely they are to reoffend. Treat those leaving our jails as normal human beings and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results. In the light of the success of the Co-op scheme – now taken up by other banks, the Ministry of Justice may care to consider opening another avenue of normal society, currently closed to those behind bars, by complying with the European Court of Human Rights instruction to stop denying prisoners the right to vote.

Well, there’s a vote winner!

Of course, if these prisoners want to be treated as ‘normal human beings’, the answer is simple. Isn’t it?