PRT comment: Prison education

Commenting on the findings of today’s (18 May) report by the House of Commons Education Committee, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“Yet again, a select committee is calling out the government’s chronic failure to deliver on its promises where prisons are concerned. The report lists six years’ worth of eloquent policies about prison education, all of them still to be implemented.

“It’s time for action, not words. Informed by the realistic wisdom of over 50 responses from prisoners, the report makes many practical recommendations that the government should accept and put into effect. A defined purpose for education that recognises how much longer prison sentences have become, secure broadband in every prison, more opportunities to study in the community, simple continuity in recording achievement — these are just some examples of long overdue reforms.

“But the committee also shines a light on the corrosive impact of an overcrowded and understaffed prison estate. Prison education cannot flourish where prisoners spend all day locked up, and are moved from prison to prison just to fill the available spaces. Our national addiction to imprisonment cannot be reconciled with the ambitions ministers repeatedly describe. Without a fundamental change in how we use prison, more reports like this can be guaranteed.”