Education key if government's plans to cut reoffending are to have any chance of success

UCU today said that prison education was essential if the government's new plans to cut reoffending were to have any chance of success.
 
Responding to a speech from the justice minister, Ken Clarke, where he remarked that over half of all crime committed in the country was by people who had been through the prison system, the union pointed to studies that show that prisoners who do not take part in education are three times more likely to be reconvicted than those that do*.
 
A National Audit Office (NAO) report earlier this year^ said that many prisoners were failing to get the rehabilitation they needed. The report found that many prisoners were spending all day in their cells, rather than being engaged in education and rehabilitation.
 
The union also used the speech to draw attention to problems at the country's largest provider of prison education. The Manchester College runs courses in more than 80 institutions across the country, but has already got rid of 236 members of staff this year. UCU is currently balloting its members, who teach in prisons and are employed by The Manchester College, for strike action in a row over contracts.
 
The union says the college's attempts to try and introduce different contracts for members of staff essentially doing the same job risk jeopardising the education and rehabilitation of thousands of prisoners. At the end of last year the college singled out its prison education staff for a pay freeze.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Ken Clarke is right to highlight the impact that reoffending prisoners have on society. Prison education is the key factor in cutting reoffending. The government needs to back today's rhetoric with a real commitment to prison education. Our post-16 education system is threatened with huge cuts and there is a real risk that the teachers required won't be available to educate offenders.
 
'It is also deeply concerning that Britain's largest prison education provider is trying to force through a rash of contracts that will seriously jeopardise its prison education provision. The Manchester College might have a more profitable package after the changes, but there will be fewer rehabilitation opportunities for offenders as an already depleted staff base struggles with inferior terms and conditions.'
 
notes
* A Social Exclusion Unit report from 2002 showed that prisoners who do not take part in education are three times more likely to be reconvicted than those that do
 
^ More on the NAO report