Education Technology Day must be extended to prisons
“The UK is in the midst of a prisons’ crisis yet few are discussing how education and technology can ease the issues,” says James Tweed of edtech company Coracle.
“If I have one hope for Education Technology Day it is we finally start talking about the people who have often had the worst educations – prisoners.
Education Technology Day takes place on September 23rd to honour the people who contribute to education in technology.
One of those people is James Tweed of prison education company Coracle. Tweed set up his King’s Award-winning company in response to a need he saw for secure digital education in prisons after donating books to inmates.
Today, 2,750 of Coracle’s laptops are in 90 prisons across England and Wales and his team of coders and educators operate out of the Coracle headquarters in Chesterton Mill in Cambridge.
“Prisoners are also one of the few groups in society unable to use the internet as it is banned in British jails. This is understandable and I agree that we can’t allow many inmates to use the internet.
“However, we must also accept that it often means many are released with no digital skills and so are totally unprepared for life on the outside which is increasingly digital.”
A report published by researchers at Nottingham Trent University earlier this year produced evidence that education is in high demand among prisoners.
The study, “The development of accredited digital higher education distance learning opportunities for prisoners”, also noted that figures from Prison Reform Trust show that higher education can reduce reoffending, which currently costs the UK £18.5 billion per year, by up to 40 percent.
Tweed, CEO of Coracle, says the report should be ‘essential reading’ for the new government.
“Currently our prisons are overflowing and we are wasting billions every year on reoffending.
“Yet here in this report it is spelled out in crystal clear detail – provide education to prisoners and they will embrace it.
“Prisoners love their laptops as they are the one thing in their lives they can control. But they also provide a chance to work toward a better life.”
The report also contains interviews with five prisoners who used the laptops in their cells.
One prisoner quoted in the report as saying: “I’m hoping it opens the door to a chance… It felt like I was actually doing something useful with my time rather than just sitting around doing nothing.”
Another inmate remarked how prisoners spend most of their time ‘banged up’ with nothing to do all day apart from watching the prison TV, and said education was a very good alternative. “I’d much rather be reading something on a Chromebook than watching the TV,” the prisoner said.
The report, written by Dr. Anne O’Grady and Dr. Paul Hamilton, noted that for prison education programmes to be successful, ‘buy-in’ from prison staff and from government departments is essential.
It also suggested much more needed to be done to improve digital skills in the prison population in order to prevent “digital exclusion”.
James Tweed added: “Digital exclusion is a major issue. Let’s make Education Technology Day a time when we discuss this as it must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
