Sir Richard Branson, (0) ONE of the UK’s most high-profile businessmen, has contacted managers in the various businesses he owns to suggest they should employ ex-prisoners. ‘1 deserves a second chance’, he says, ‘After all, 2 of us is perfect’. He was in trouble himself when he was younger: on one occasion for tax reasons, on the other for protesting 3 American policy during the Vietnam War. On 4 occasion was he innocent, and he could have ended in prison.
‘Being a prisoner affects your whole life. Very 5 even manage to get a job interview after they are released’, he says. Branson is also working with a charity called Working Chance, which has successfully placed nearly 200 female ex-prisoners 6 work. He was impressed by the fact that many of those helped by the charity do not return to a life of crime. Re-offending tends to be the norm amongst adults released from prison, most of 7 are reconvicted within two years of 8 released.