AbstractThe efforts of a specialist employment agency for ex‐prisoners resulted in 65 men starting work soon after their release from prison. The present study considers evidence regarding their involvement in further criminal activity in the subsequent ten years. The claims in terms of modifying subsequent reconviction rates must be modest but, remarkably, of the men who worked in the job for at least a year, not one was reconvicted. The authors argue that the task is to find work which is commensurate with the offender's skills and further suggest that finding suitable employment may be particularly beneficial for offenders with a “medium risk” of reconvi