DOCUMENT RESUME ED 388 842 CE 070 238 AUTHOR Ripley, Paul TITLE Prison Education in England and Wales. (2nd Revised Edition). Mendip Papers MP 022. INSTITUTION Staff Coll., Bristol (England). PUB DATE 93 NOTE 30p. AVAILABLE FROMStaff College, Coombe Lodge, Blagdon, Bristol BS18 6RG, England, United Kingdom (2.50 British pounds). PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Education; *Correctional Education; *Correctional Institutions; Correctional Rehabilitation; Criminals; *Educational History; Foreign Countries; Postsecondary Education; Prisoners; Prison Libraries; Rehabilitation Programs; Secondary Education; Vocational Rehabilitation IDENTIFIERS *England; *Wales ABSTRACT In response to prison disturbances in England and Wales in the late 1980s, the education program for prisoners was improved and more prisoners were given access to educational services. Although education is a relatively new phenomenon in the English and Welsh penal system, by the 20th century, education had become an integral part of prison life. It served partly as a control mechanism and partly for more altruistic needs. Until 1993 the management and delivery of education and training in prisons was carried out by local education authority staff. Since that time, the education responsibility has been contracted out to organizations such as the Staff College, other universities, and private training organizations. Various policy implications were resolved in order to allow these organizations to provide prison education. Today, prison education programs are probably the most comprehensive of any found in the country. They may range from literacy education to postgraduate study, with students ranging in age from 15 to over 65. The curriculum focuses on social and life skills. Vocational education is prevalent, and many types of teaching methods are tried. The future for prison education in England and Wales seems secure; prison education is likely to play an increasingly central role in prison reform efforts. This report includes a list of prison service establishments with addresses. (Contains eight references.) (KC) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** (NI Jewel 00 0.1) 00 C:t4 fl) (L1 au4 1 Prison education in C:114 irm4 England and Wales (Revised 1993) Paul Ripley MP 022 U.S. DEPARTMENT OP EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Office of EducabonaI Research and ImprovemenI MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDKATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION z,f(CENTER (ERIC) Moe document nos been reproduced as r ec e i ved from the person co orcianotahon Orrgonaling 61 0 Minor changes nave been made to onprone reprOductoon OullIty Points of view 01 oonfions stated in cis docu TO THE EDUCATIQN,4L RESOURCES menl do not necessarily represent ottioal OE ni position or pohcy INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- Prison education in England and Wales (2nd revised edition) Paul Ripley The Staff College MP 022 3 The views expressed in this Mendip Paper are those of the contributor(s). They should not be taken to represent the policy of The Staff College. About the author Paul Ripley Paul has had considerable senior management experience in special schools, prison education and mainstream FE. Prior to entering the teaching profession in 1971, he was a professional soldier in the Corps of Royal Engineers. He has recently finished a secondment to The Staff College as a staff tutor from the prison service and Nottingham local authority. He has written extensively on prison education and has had his work published in the UK, Europe and North America. This paper owes much to the advice and support of Ian Benson, the Chief Education Officer, Home Office Prison Department. Series edited and designed at The Staff College by Pippa Toogood and Susan Leather, Publications Department, and produced by the Reprographics Department. Published by The Staff College Coombe Lodge, Blagdon, Bristol BS18 6RG Telephone 0761 462503 Fax 0761 463104 or 463140 (Publications Section) © The Staff College 1992, 1993 All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. 4 Prison education in England and Wales (2nd revised edition) Paul Ripley Contents The context Extract from the Home Secretary's oral statement 1 The context to Parliament, 25 February 1991: 2 The background 'We must not forget that while imprisonment punishes the criminal and protects the public, 3 The present situation its other purposes are rehabilitation and preparation for a return to the community. 7 The future Since 1988 there has been a substantial increase in the hours spent on education, 8 Custody, care and justice from 5.5 million to 7.7 million. I want to see more prisoners taking up educational courses, 9 Private prisons and training in skills so that they will have a better chance of leading a life free from crime when they are released. Prisoners must 9 Other similar UK be kept constructi vel y occupied in workshops institutions and other activity... ' 10 References This was a response to Lord Justice Woolf'sPrison disturbances April 1990: report of an inquiry 10 Acronyms (1991). 11 Appendix I List of prisons The Home Secretary's clear call for constructive and their addresses in occupation, leading towards a reduction in England and Wales recidivism, was taken up by the then Director General of the Prison Service, Joe Pilling (1992). His seminal document on the balance of regime activities spelt out quite clearly, for the first time, the criteria that education services must follow. These criteria have formed the basis upon which prison education in England and Wales is measured and delivered. Pining's philosophy has been reinforced by Lord Justice Woolf and the Home Secretary in 1991: Mendip Papers While work will be at the core of the regimc, Victorian prisons other needs should also be met. Where prisoners have specific problems which, if The Victorian penal system, from which the present tackled, would help to reduce the likelihood system has evolved, was organised by a series of of reoffending, or paramount needs for Royal Engineer officers, the most notable being education or training, they should be strongly Richard Du Cane. The Victorians recognised that encouraged to address them and to engage in prison was a good means of bringing criminals into whatever treatment/education/training contact with the awesome might of the deity through programme can be provided to help. In some rigorous labour and penitence. Hence p:isoners cases these may be full-time programmes, were encouraged to read, in order that they might be which should be fitted into the sentence at the able to seek some moral fulfilment from exercising most appropriate time. Other subjects do not their minds on the Bible and good tracts. lend themselves to full-time learning and Consequently, the first people to have any notable will more appropriately be dealt with by impact upon educating in a formal fashion were the arrangements which mirror those for day prison chaplains of the 19th Century. Du Cane release in the communityi.e. time away refined the system by ensuring that a prisoner from normal employment to return to should be able to achieve the following: necessary education or trai ning programmes. Part-time arrangements of this sort can be Commencing with severe penal labourhard very effective in meeting prisoners' needs as fare and hard bed he can gradually advance well as allowing the benefits of education to to more interesting employment, somewhat be shared more widely amongst prisoners. more material comfort, full use of library (Pilling 1992) books, privilege of communication by letter, and a word, with his friends. Finally, the With these clear indications that education will advantage of a moderate sum of money to continue to play a vital developmental role in the start again on his discharge so that he may not prison service it is important to understand both have the temptation or the excuse that want of how education in prisons evolved and its current means might afford for falling again into development and delivery. crime. (Fox 1952) This was the Victorian ideal of giving all a minimum The background possible standard to ensure that the reform which had taken place within the prison could carry on Education is a relatively new phenomenon in the outsidean ideal which is still common in today's English and Welsh penal system. The original society. purpose of prisons was to hold people until such time as they were either executed or transported orThe 20th century until such time as they could financially pay their debt to society. Prisons did not have a social role asBy the 20th century, education had become an we understand it today, nor were they organised atintegral part of prison life, serving partly as a a national level until the great prison reforms of thecontrol mechanism and partly for more altruistic 19th century which brought Victorian technology,needs. Education, under the borstal system for morality and management systems into prisons. example, was a form of social development related to developing basic skills. The first Chief Education Prison education has some foundations in the 17th Officer of the prison service, AS Baxendale, argued century and loose connections to religious bodies in in the 1970s that the role of education in prisons was the late 18th and early19th centuries. The system we wider than its tradi tionally acknowledged role, which know today was introduced systematically by the was remedial and reformatory in nature. His view of Victorian reformers as part of their policy of usingits role was as a quiet ally of coercion, in the prisons fundamentally to reform by terror, and thus introduction of what was known as the humane turn criminals into acceptable persons fit to return treatment or containment model of imprisonment.