Community & Social Justice Education & Young People 2026
Unlocked Graduates

Transforming Prisons: Our 2025–2026 Impact Report

Unlocked Graduates recruits, trains and supports high-calibre graduates to work as prison officers in some of England and Wales's most challenging prisons, with the aim of breaking cycles of reoffending. Founded in 2017 and marking its tenth year in 2026, the programme has placed nearly 900 prison officers across 38 prisons, collectively reaching 140,000+ prisoners. Retention is 17 percentage points above the standard entry route. The 2025-26 impact report highlights the launch of Unlocked ChangeMakers (a middle leadership programme for custodial managers), publication of the Leading Prison Landings training manual, and independent economic analysis showing £59 in social savings per £1 invested. The programme was praised unanimously by the House of Lords Justice & Home Affairs Committee in 2025.

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📋About

Two-year Leadership Development Programme recruiting, training and placing graduates as prison officers; Unlocked Ambassadors alumni network and Trailblazers peer mentoring programme; Unlocked ChangeMakers middle leadership development for custodial managers; Innovation Acceleration Programme (IAP) for frontline change projects; publication of Leading Prison Landings: The Unlocked Guide to Jailcraft; academically peer-reviewed research; annual conference and international knowledge exchange Custom geography from upload: England and Wales

📊Key Metrics

140,000+ prisoners reached by Unlocked participants and Ambassadors since 2017, across 38 prisons in England and Wales Key Metric 1
Retention for Unlocked participants is 17 percentage points higher than standard entry route after two years, with over 85% of the 2023 cohort still operational at programme end Key Metric 2
Independent analysis estimates £59 saved for society over five years for every £1 invested in the Unlocked Graduates programme Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • 75% of all programme graduates continue to work towards breaking cycles of reoffending in their primary role, with nearly 40% promoted to a frontline leadership role — demonstrating sustained, career-long commitment to prison reform beyond the two-year programme
  • 95% of the first Unlocked ChangeMakers cohort of custodial managers reported improved ability to drive culture change, with 100% of direct reports noting improvement in team development and management — evidencing that the Unlocked model can be extended effectively beyond graduates to existing prison staff
  • Around 90% of participants had not considered a career in the prison service before hearing about Unlocked, with 100% of partner prison governors rating training and support as good or excellent — and the House of Lords Justice & Home Affairs Committee citing the programme unanimously in its 2025 'Better prisons: less crime' report

📍Geography

UK-Wide

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