Last week, the Ministry of Justice published some important new research that, by linking prison data with schools data, explored the backgrounds and past educational experiences of the people in England’s prisons.
The findings of this research won’t surprise anyone who has worked in a prison. It confirms that people in prison disproportionately come from disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, it found that 93 per cent of people in prison had lived in the most deprived 20 per cent of areas in the country as children, 59 per cent had been eligible for free school meals and 14 per cent had been in care.
It also found that nearly four in five (78 per cent) had special educational needs identified while attending school, and 18 per cent had had a statement of special educational needs or an education health and care plan (suggesting a higher level of need). In the general population the equivalent figures are 12-23 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
The research also shows that people in prison frequently had very disrupted experiences of school. More than half (56 per cent) had been persistently absent from school (missing more than 10 per cent of sessions in at least one academic year), including 15 per cent who were severely absent (missing more than 50 per cent of sessions). Fourteen per cent had been permanently excluded from school.
Finally, they had far fewer academic qualifications than their peers. Nearly one in five (18 per cent) had not achieved any GCSE passes by end of key stage 4, compared to less than 5 per cent of the general population). Just 9 per cent had achieved five or more GCSEs or equivalent at grades A*-C by the end of key stage 4; for the general population it was 52-80 per cent.
All of this shows that people in prison have grown up in tough circumstances and have too often been failed by the school system. As a result, they have far lower levels of literacy and numeracy than the general population. As Ofsted and the prisons inspectorate have highlighted, many people in prison struggle with reading, filling out forms and the many other tasks that make day-to-day life, let alone a job, manageable.
Time spent in prison could be a chance to address this. But at the same time as this research was published, news emerged that some prisons are facing very substantial cuts in their education budgets. Although some of the upcoming changes are driven by money moving between prisons and between local and national provision, the Prison Governors’ Association has suggested education budgets will be cut by at least 5 per cent in real terms for most prisons.
This, with no fat left to cut in the system alongside rising costs and a growing prison population, will undoubtedly lead to prisons being forced to offer less than they have done even in recent years. This is a serious misstep. Prison education can be central to rehabilitation, with the Ministry of Justice’s own research showing how important it is. People who participate in education in prison are more likely to get a job on release and less likely to reoffend. At Prisoners’ Education Trust, our learners consistently tell us that education also helps their mental health and wellbeing.
But prison education is currently nowhere near good enough. Education in more than half of prisons was rated inadequate by Ofsted last year, and is already chronically underfunded. As a result, prison education departments are overstretched and under-resourced, particularly when you consider the high levels of need that they are working to address. Budget cuts will only further damage services that are already struggling, making it impossible to deliver the sort of personalised, supportive approach that is needed.
New contracts for prison education that begin next month are an opportunity for a fresh start. But without more money it’s difficult to see them leading to any real improvements, and budget cuts are surely unsustainable. The government should therefore look again at how they can not just reverse these cuts but actually increase funding for prison education, enabling more people to gain the skills and qualifications they need to turn their lives around.
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