Sir, Research published by the Forum on Prisoner Education has found that the Government is virtually ignoring the recommendations on prison education made by the Commons Select Education and Skills Committee a year ago.

The committee made fifty-five recommendations, but just four have been met. No action has been taken on 26 of the recommendations, in spite of the evidence of the benefits of education.

Prisoners who take part in education are three times less likely to reoffend and yet, as the prison population continues to rise with overcrowding the inevitable result, fewer and fewer prisoners are able to benefit from education services. Prisoners are dissuaded from taking classes because they are offered higher remuneration for menial and unskilled work, such as packing teabags. The concentration on basic skills education, found by the committee to be based on “little more than a hunch”, continues unchanged leaving woefully little for more able prisoners. There remains a lack of clear ownership of prison education.

If the Government is to be “tough on the causes of crime”, then it must urgently reconsider its dismissal of many of the wise recommendations made by the select committee.

STEVE TAYLOR
Director, Forum on Prisoner Education
FRANCES CROOK
Director,
Howard League for Penal Reform
BOBBY CUMMINES
Director, Unlock (the National Association of Ex-Offenders)
BARONESS LINKLATER OF BUTTERSTONE
Chair, All-Party Group on Offender Learning and Skills
PAUL MACKNEY
General Secretary,
NATFHE (The University and College Lecturers’ Union)
PAUL MAXLOW-TOMLINSON
Chair, Prisoners’ Education Trust
LORD RAMSBOTHAM
Former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
JULIET LYON
Director, Prison Reform Trust
London E8

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