Unlocking potential – the role universities can play in reforming prison education

With the Labour government speaking of a “'golden age of lifelong learning” and a mission to reform the school systems, education is key to the government's project of national renewal.

Yet, there’s one part of that lifelong learning population that has received less attention – those in prison.

We know that UK prisons face a set of serious challenges, built up over the last decade. Overcrowded cells, crumbling buildings, and poor staff retention have pushed one of the least popular political topics into the public eye. We know that incarceration alone is not effective at preventing reoffending. In the UK, around 30% of prisoners reoffend after their release. This is a global issue, with the international picture showing equally dismal reoffending rates.

And it is not just a matter of individual rehabilitation - the economic and social cost of reoffending in England and Wales is estimated at £18 billion per year. Prison reform is not just a contentious but niche political issue – it affects us all. By reframing prison reform as part of the national renewal project, moving it from the work of charities to one component of socio-economic reform, the government could create a more rehabilitative system.

There is an international evidence base—spanning Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall, Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education, Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin State Prison, and 406 other University in Prison programs in the USA - showing that access to and participation in higher education for people in prison can have significant changes to reoffending rate. The Bard Prison Initiative, a programme by Bard College in New York State, has run since 1999. Offering a campus-style schedule of courses, they work across the state in six prisons, collaboratively with academics from across the country. Only 4% of graduates reoffend in two years, compared to the state average of 45%. In terms of prison time, the BCI has estimated that this has prevented 800 years of prison time from 1999-2021. Eight centuries of lives out of prison.

And of course, it’s not just reoffending rates that are improved. Much like outside of prison, education has a knock-on effect. Global case studies show that access to higher education in a prison improves staff morale, and staff retention – in Argentina, El Centro Universitario San Martin opens its courses to prison staff as well. Those in prison attending courses are, in general, better behaved, not wanting to lose access to the opportunities they have been given. These benefits ripple outside of prison – prison leavers return to their communities with additional skills, from time-management to decision-making abilities, and can enter the workforce with higher qualifications. Combined with the cost-saving result of reducing reoffending rates, it seems a no brainer – a way to create long-lasting change, with tangible benefits to the economy and justice sector, but more importantly, beneficial to people at the heart of the system.

Yet in the UK, this work seems slow to start.

Some projects have flourished, like the CRITO Project at the University of East Anglia, which began its accredited teaching in 2023, and DWRM (Doing What Really Matters), a social enterprise that links incarcerated learners to a network of long-distance university-level courses across the prison estate.

Here at UCL, Dr Caroline Parker, Lecturer of Anthropology, Deputy Director of the Social Data Institute at UCL, and author of a new book, Carceral Citizens, is directing a new pilot educational initiative with HM Prison Belmarsh - Unlocking Potential: Leveraging Global Best Practices in Prison Education. Working collaboratively with CRITO, DWRM, Learning in Prison, and the Global Freedom Scholars Network, Parker’s long-term goal is to create a project where Belmarsh, UCL, and Milton Keynes College can work together to effectively share knowledge and allow those in prison to benefit from the world-leading education that UCL has to offer.

Right now, Parker isn’t asking for a lot – just a classroom for 90 minutes a week and some students able to attend come once, twice, or every week if they want to. It may seem a small ask for a university, but it is a lot more challenging in a high-turnover Category A Prison. With many prison staff bemoaning that “academic holds” (the practice of not moving an individual from one prison to another, if they are engaged in education) are a thing of the past, it will likely require attention and support from above. Although this initial human encounter will not change the system of education in prison straight away, it’s a start.

It won’t be an easy task. Many universities are risk-adverse, and prison work often comes with reputational concerns. There is also the question of demand - incarcerated people are precisely those who have been denied access to education, and as a result, deciphering what "demand" means here is by no means straightforward. For many organisations, the current focus on degrees with clear career pathways attached to them means that providers must keep -up-to date with a constantly changing workforce – digital and IT courses are in high demand, yet the resources are not always there. Linked to this too is the want to provide humanities subjects, to ensure that prospective students have the freedom to explore subjects, much like the wider population has.

These challenges won’t be solved quickly or easily, but it is clear that there is a community of experts willing to teach, and students willing to learn. The UK is famed for its higher education sector, which can play its part in all forms of national renewal. Projects like the Unlocking Potential and CRITO show that this work is not done insolation – whether its academics teaching across the estate, to prison leavers sharing their experiences to better shape lessons. Together, they could reframe how we look at justice and rehabilitation, and might just end up teaching us something new.

For more information about Unlocking Potential: Leveraging Global Best Practices in Prison Education, please contact Dr Caroline Parker.

References:
Yukhnenko, Denis, Leen Farouki, and Seena Fazel. "Criminal recidivism rates globally: A 6-year systematic review update." Journal of Criminal Justice 88 (2023): 102115.