Recommendation 24

Prison Education is in a perilous state due to a continual decline in funding. The Government has not increased funding for prison education for the last five years. The current prison regime contains many barriers to the successful delivery of prison education. Without significant investment in the prison estate, in buildings, classrooms, equipment and technology, prisoners will not be able to get the skills and qualification that they need to find employment and turn their lives around. The Ministry of Justice must undertake an audit across the whole prison estate on the quality of physical infrastructure necessary to provide a high level of education, such as libraries, classrooms and workshops. The Ministry of Justice must establish clear guidelines about the minimum standards of provision for education across the prison estate.