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Making prison work : Comments
By Andrew Leigh, published 24/11/2009Why are prisons less a portal to a new life than a revolving door? Corrective services need to correct, not just punish.
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Thanks also, Burbs, it had not occurred to me that an illiterate person, perhaps with no English but with brain damage, could gain their Ph. D, through all sorts of adversity - if it had a sound-track, it would make a good Hollywood movie.
But the realities are more like horses for courses: to move an illiterate person with no English just that little bit along the road, to where they are literate and speak English, in, say, a couple of years. Realistically, the aim should be to provide prisoners with substantially more skills than they had when they went in: so maybe someone with Year 11 or 12, and a fifteen year sentence, might be able to approach Ph.D. level in that time.
Obvously, it depends on the two factors - what is their pre-prison education level, and how long is their sentence ?
Okay, a third factor: how brain-damaged are they already ?
Prisoners already do some work, I believe, on appropriately lousy pay and fair enough. Those who choose to study full-time may already be eligible for Study Grant, which would be quite an incentive on its own. And I agree that prisoners should have the option of staying in their cells and rotting, doing some boring and menial work, or studying. It should be their choice.
Joe