If the prison system provided decent education then rehabilitation outcomes would be so much better, says Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector at Ofsted
Prison education is in a dire state. Ofsted inspects England’s nurseries, schools, colleges and apprenticeships too, but for years prison education has been the worst performing area we look at.
Perhaps that’s not surprising. Some might say that educating prisoners shouldn’t be a priority. But if we’re serious about rehabilitation as a society, education in prison should get much more attention than it currently does. If prisoners leave at the end of their sentence without any of the basic skills needed to navigate their way through life, then they are much less likely to find work and more likely to reoffend. On average, almost a quarter of the people sent to prison are reoffenders.
