EDUCATION

“Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.” (John Ruskin)

A recent survey has revealed 80% of prisoners left school before they were 18 and 36% have no qualifications. Figures show 48% were employed, suggesting 52% were jobless; a statistic considerably higher than the national unemployment average (5%).

The survey, Brain Cells: Listening to Prisoner Learners, was conducted by the Prisoners Education Trust, Inside Time and RBE Consultancy last year.

Listen to the following package on prison education:

Educating Prisoners. by emmavictoriawilson

Some people think that although education is important, it is not necessarily a priority.

Former leader of the conservative party, Michael Howard, is keen to expand prison capacity: “Everyone I know thinks that the education of prisoners is very important. But you can't do this if the prisons are dreadfully overcrowded as they are now so it is important to provide the capacity to ensure that the community is properly protected from those who commit serious and violent crimes and those who persistently offend.”

Conservative MP Richard Drax also agrees that although prison education is important, in the light of the public spending cuts, sacrifices have to be made everywhere, and the priorty for the prison service is to deal with capacity issues.