Education key to prison rehabilitation, says UCU

The union said extra funding, not cuts to the police service and prisons, was required if offenders were to access to education, which studies show is the most effective tool in reducing reoffending.
                                                                                                               
The union also criticised the current retendering process that happens every three years, arguing that such a major overhaul left many offenders without the stability to their learning needed to help them get on.
 
UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We need a much more thoughtful approach when it comes to what happens in our prisons. The government might like to sound tough on crime, but locking more people up or educating those already behind bars cannot be achieved without proper funding.
 
'If David Cameron wants prison to work he needs to ensure there is proper investment for education programmes and should look again at the current retendering process that disrupts so much of the fine work prison educators do.'

*Prisoners who do not take part in education are three times more likely to be reconvicted than those who do. The purpose of prison education