Education matters to all

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

Especially for prisoners as it could be the key between them becoming ex-offenders or re-offenders, and when it’s costing around £40,000 per year to keep someone in prison it makes sense to do something about it, and fast.

ENGLAND and Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe, growing at an average of 2,500 per year, and with estimates of continuing increases it is apposite to concentrate on seeking to minimise re-offending.

Currently, more than two-thirds of all prisoners re-offend within two years of release, with the re-conviction rate within two years of men aged 18 to 20 rising to 75%. One of the contributory factors to this situation is the fact that very high numbers of offenders leave prison without the skills and characteristics to play a more positive role in the economy and society. Half of all prisoners do not have the skills required for 96% of jobs and only one in five is able to fill in a job application form.

The prison population has a high level of people with low IQ levels. Around 7% of prisoners, (almost 6,000) have an IQ of less than 70; a further quarter have an IQ lower than 80, (against an average IQ of 100 in broader society). Such low IQs affect an individual’s ability not only to cope with prison life and hinder communication and understanding, but is also a significant barrier to learning and skills development.

Half of all prisoners are at or below the level expected of an 11-year-old in reading, two-thirds in numeracy and four-fifths in writing. More than half of male and more than two-thirds of female adult prisoners have no qualifications at all. In addition, up to three-quarters of men in UK prisons suffer from two or more mental health disorders.

Despite the huge prevalence of learning disabilities and learning difficulties amongst those held in custody, there is no routine screening or assessment of people in prison to identify their needs properly. People with learning disabilities and difficulties are unlikely to benefit, and may be excluded from programmes designed to stop re-offending.

We know from the work Union Learning Reps carry out in workplaces that people with these barriers need specific, well-designed provision to enable them to develop their learning and skills. Prison buildings, their routines and rehabilitation programmes, are not designed for this group of prisoners, who are often overlooked and need a different approach to reducing their risk of re-offending.

The report, Time to Learn: A study of prisoners’ perspectives on prison education, published by the Prison Reform Trust in 2003 said that prisoners have to choose between education and the most basic needs such as phoning their families or taking exercise and, in one case, even taking a shower. The report said prisoners are being denied opportunities for education and training in jails in England and Wales because of a failure to prioritise learning across the prison system.

The report highlights a number of barriers to learning in prison including a shortage of places on courses and in training workshops resulting in long waiting lists, particularly in local prisons and an overall lack of vocational and accredited skills-based workshops; wide disparities in education funding between prisons resulting in striking variations in curriculum; limited opportunities for distance learning, and inconsistencies in procedures to assess education needs and a failure to automatically follow up assessments, resulting in poor sentence planning.

There were a number of recommendations in the report, many mirroring initiatives developed by Union Learning Reps to enable workers to access learning, including:

:: Opportunities for education and training should be made available to all prisoners. The resources available should be comparable with those in mainstream provision, including supervised access to the internet.

:: The curriculum should be of equal relevance to the needs of all prisoners, taking into account the wide range of different abilities and backgrounds.

:: Learning passports or personal records of achievement should be introduced which include targets for education and training to be maintained by prisoners and supported by staff.