Can education keep pace with a growing prison population?

Chief Executive Jon Collins outlines PET's response to the Justice Select Committee inquiry on the prison population.

Last month the Justice Select Committee published the evidence that PET submitted to their inquiry on the prison population, looking at the projected future changes to the population's size and composition and the implications for the prison estate.

This is particularly timely given the well-publicised crisis in prison capacity - there are now nearly 88,000 people in prison, close to full capacity - and the measures that the Government has announced to address it, including 800 new “rapid deployment” cells and legislating to allow people to be held in overseas prisons.?

In our response to the inquiry, we looked to highlight the links between the growing prison population and prison education and how we can ensure provision is fit for purpose.

A growing population

Firstly, if the prison population continues to grow and more prison capacity has to be built as a result, it will be essential to ensure that education provision can keep up.

The number of people participating in courses in prison has declined in recent years, despite the growing prison population, as funding has been cut in real terms. To reverse this decline, the funding available for prison education needs to be increased. And if the population continues to grow, even more funding will need to be found.

It will also be important to consider the drivers of the increasing prison population and their implications for prison education.

In particular, average sentence lengths are increasing, with people spending longer and longer in prison. Education provision needs to adapt accordingly, giving people the chance to progress and develop.

An easy win in this area would be to scrap the “six year rule” (which prevent people in prison accessing a student loan until they are within six years of release) and enable people to do a degree while serving the otherwise unproductive middle years of their sentence.

The impact of overcrowding

Secondly, current levels of overcrowding pose significant challenges to the delivery of education. With most prisons now holding more people that they were designed for, education departments, libraries and workshops are unlikely to have the capacity needed. This needs to be addressed.

Overcrowding also poses specific challenges for people accessing distance learning - the sort of courses PET provides. For example, with cells designed for one person actually holding two, it can be difficult for learners to find a quiet, suitable place to study.

The state of the estate

Thirdly, the state of the prison estate is a significant barrier to education delivery.

The first issue is education departments themselves, with one set of prison teachers describing “rotting walls and doors, mould, leaking roofs requiring buckets, [and a] lack of adequate heating” in their evidence to the Education Select Committee’s recent inquiry on prison education. It’s unacceptable to expect teachers and learners to have to put up with conditions like this.

In addition, the lack of access to laptops or other digital devices and the internet within prison creates real problems for education provision. People in prison do not have access to the vast array of educational resources that are freely available in the community and cannot develop the digital skills that are now essential for life outside prison. It also presents challenges for the provision of distance learning.

Prioritising education?provision

Education should be at the heart of rehabilitation in prisons but good quality education can only be delivered in prison if it is properly funded, there is sufficient capacity, the right resources are available, and teachers and learners have the right environment to work in. Access to digital learning opportunities is also key.

Achieving this is not possible in the prison estate as it currently is, and will only become more difficult if the population and levels of overcrowding continue to increase.

Nobody wants to see prisons as warehouses, doing nothing to help people to turn their lives around. If this is to be avoided, the Ministry of Justice needs to prioritise the provision of?education?as they move forward with their plans to manage the prison population?and develop the prison estate.