Discussion 3 December 2020

EPALE discussion: Basic Skills Provision in Prisons

EPALE Editor

How can educational initiatives best address the basic skills needs of people in prisons? What are the major benefits and challenges of basic skills training in prisons? The discussion will take place on 17 December (Thursday) starting at 14.00 CET and finishing at 16.00 CET and will be introduced by a 20-minute long live stream with international experts who share their experiences in the theme which is followed by an online discussion until 16.00 CET.

The EPALE online discussion on Basic Skills provision in Prisons will take place on the 17th December (Thursday) starting at 14.00 CET and finishing at 16.00 CET.

The discussion will be introduced by a 20-minutes long live stream with international experts James King (Scottish Prison Service and EPEA) and Maria Toia (CPIP and EBSN), moderated by Tamás Harangozó. The live broadcast will be accompanied and followed by a written online discussion.

You can access the video of the streaming at the top of this page, starting from the 17th December at 14.00 CET, and participate in the discussion writing your comments and inputs in the comment section at the bottom of this page.

What we will discuss about

Basic skills provision is at the heart of helping societies better respond to challenges in our fast-changing world and thus it is at the centre of EU policy too. There is a growing attention on basic skills trainings in specific environments e.g. the workplace or in the family, but also in prisons. On the 13th of October 1989, the Council of Europe adopted a set of recommendations that address the importance of educational activities in European prisons acknowledging that inmates have had very little successful educational experience, and therefore now have many educational needs; and that educational initiatives in prisons can be an important way of facilitating the return of the prisoner to the community.

The discussion will include the following topics:

How can educational initiatives best address the basic skills needs of people in prisons?
What are the major benefits and challenges of basic skills training in prisons?
What are the most important challenges in the professionalisation of prison educators and basic skills teachers working in correctional institutions?

Our guest speakers

James King – Head of Learning & Skills from the Scottish Prison Service and new Secretary of EPEA (European Prison Education Association). James will provide an overview of EPEA’s role and its cooperation with EuroPris.

Maria Toia – Senior Researcher at CPIP – Center for Promoting Lifelong Learning and EBSN’s expert in adult education and pedagogy. Maria will introduce the currently running Erasmus+ KA3 policy project called EDUPRIS that focuses on developing educational tools implemented in correctional institutions.

Take part in the discussion facilitated by thematic experts from EBSN and share your thoughts and experiences on the topic!
Comments are already open so that participants can introduce themselves and start sharing their views.

Themes addressed

Barriers to learning

Basic skills

Comments

pamatprasmju nodrošināšana cietumos

Ieslodzītie, nespējot iekļauties normālā sabiedriskā dzīvē, atgriežas ieslodzījumu vietās. Personas prasmes ir viņa nākotnes pamats sabiedribā. Tāpēc svarīgi prasmes attīstīt un pilnveidot, lai indivīds spētu iekļauties sabiedrībā un darba tirgū, spētu izdzīvot un attīstīties, atbilstoši laikmeta prasībām. Būtiska ir pieaugušo apmācībai, lai pēc ižiešanas brīvībā, spēja integrēties sabiedrībā un darba tirgū nav ierobežota.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for sharing all these interesting ideas. I had an experience in teaching Basic Computer Skills in the local Prison school as part of my M.A in Adult Education teaching practicum. It was an interesting experience and I was pleasantly surprised with the prisoners' willingness to learn. I thin that one of the first challenges for educators is to recognise and understand the environment; that is the prison environment. It is not your typical school or adult education setting and there are some restrictions. In my case for example I could not use any online resources or even teach certain things related to the internet since internet access was totally restricted. I even required a special permission to even use my own laptop and bring in an USB drive with material.

Thank you for your contribution!

Dear All,

On behalf of the organisers and EBSN I would like to thank you all for joining today's live session and online discussion with Maria, James and me. It has been a rich and eventful couple of hours with many resources and inspiring thoughts. Although the moderation of the event is now finished, we would like to encourage you the continue sharing your thoughts and experiences with each other!

All the best,
Tamás Harangozó from EBSN

Thank you Tamas for

Thank you Tamas for facilitating this discussion, it was a pleasure to participate and continue with this inspiring exchange of ideas. There's a lot to take away for reflection and start a (much needed) discussion on basic skills provision in prisons accross Europe!

All the best,

Maria

Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) Project

Here is an example of one E+ KA2 project in this field that dealt with the development of the framework of basic andragogical training program for prison educators, with some useful resources:

“Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators” (BATPE) project focused on improvement of prison educators competencies needed for adequate work with imprisoned people.

These are the two documents that represent main results of this project:

Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators Curriculum: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/resource-centre/content/basic-andragogica…, and

Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators Manual: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/resource-centre/content/basic-andragogica…

The application of BATPE Curriculum and Manual should help trainers to equip teachers that work in correctional institutions with required competencies needed for educational work with prisoners in optimal manner. These competencies refer to: psychology of learners in prisons; didactics; communicational and social aspects; professional and soft skills development; planning and organization; and evaluation and assessment.

Coordinator of the project was Serbian Association of Andragogists (SAA) from Belgrade (Serbia). Partners on the project ware Koinè, the voluntary organization from San Felice a Cancello (Italy) and Gebze Public Education Center (GPEC) from Gebze (Turkey).

Thank you for sharing

Dear Uros,

Thank you for sharing these interesting and relevant materials. To me the second link does not seem to function. Could you please help?

Thank you!

Tamás - EBSN

It should be working now

Dear Tamas,

Sorry for being late with the answer - the both links should be working now.

Best regards,

Uros, EPALE NSS Serbia

Hello everyone, In Serbia we

Hello everyone,

In Serbia we have Schools for Adults Elementary Education, and providing proscribed curriculum and learning outcomes of Functional Elementary Education for Adults. Those schools can provide education in prisons, but it is not obliged nor for schools and not for inmates.

Me and my colleagues from the School for Adult Primary Education have been working in the district prison since September this year. We have positive experiences in the sense that the participants are interested and actively participate in the learning process. Our approach to them, which is no different from our approach to all our other participants, certainly contributes to that. Through learning basic skills, we also bring soft skills such as collaboration, teamwork, communication and more.

An additional courses organized by people and institutions that have many years of successful practice in prison would enable better access and work of experts in prison.

Dear Tanja, this is very

Dear Tanja, this is very interesting. Do you have any resources in English to share with us? Would be interesting to have a look at the curriculum and how you organise learning.

Relatives

In Hungary, elements of the reintegraion program provide opportunities for persons under arrest and their relatives. This also reduces the extent of their social exclusion.

Education behind bars: organization - practice - reflection

Hello!

An actual E+project from Austria: The Catholic Organisation for Adult Education and the prison Klagenfurt are cooperating since the year 2003 to enable further education and personal development for inmates. The prison’s head together with the education department of prison and the Catholic Organisation’s lecturer plan and arrange the appropriate offers for the inmates. Afterwards, the educational opportunities get organised and realised by the Catholic Organisation for Adult Education. Moreover, it selects and trains new lecturers and trainers who are going to work with the inmates. All persons involved meet regularly to connect and exchange their experiences. More informations about the project you fill here.

Best wishes from Austria

Interesting cooperation

Dear Andreas,

Thank you for the introduction of the project. This is very interesting. Are such cooperations among correctional institutions and the Catholic Church common in Austria? Do these initiative lead to qualifications?

Thank you in advance!

Tamás - EBSN

To Maria:

Could you expand the topic or give a short example of strategies envolved in engaging learners of basic skills in prison?

Thank you

the possibilities of cultural heritage for learning skills

this is a new comment, but I don't find how to do. In Belgium yo have the example of 'Itinera Nova" a project started by the City Record Office of Leuven in 2009, aiming at a complete and unabridged digitalization of the most extensive Ancien Regime source in its possession, and at gradually facilitating its on-line consultation.https://www.itineranova.be/in/home?_lang=eng. I think there are much more possibilities with win-win result.

Interesting project

Dear Mieke,

This is an interesting project. I have seen a growing number of project addressing the digitalisation of resources, artefacts. Do you know of any initiative that uses the digitalised content in an educational context?

There are interesting resources provided by the European Commission too.
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/digital-cultural-heritage

Thank you in advance!

on https://meemoo.be/en you

on https://meemoo.be/en you will probably find some examples.

Iwill ask other colleagues for more. But they will not answer immediately, because of the holidays.

where can I sent you the answer later

Thank you!

Dear Mieke,

Thank you very much for getting back to me with the link. You are more than welcome to add any further replies here!

Thank you again and I wish you a blessed Christmas time!

Tamás - EBSN

Thank you for the question,

Thank you for the question, Eric. From a pedagogical perspective, we have two elements here when is comes to strategies: methods and ways of organising learning. The methodology of the EDUPRIS project that I presented earlier it's just a way of doing things, for this specific group of learners in corrections. We have the method, which is a game, and delivery of the method/game, which in this case will consist of a stand alone learning programme. This approach can be easily adapted and used for other categories of prison learners, too. It all depends on the type of basic skills provision and what are the specific needs of those particular prisoners we want to engage in basic skills training. If we are talking about second chance programmes in the prison, then embed re-engaging strategies in the already existing curriculum. And train teachers to embrace a more learner centred approach in their teaching. On the other hand, if we want to deliver a stand alone basic skills programme (perhaps embedded into vocational training, as an example), then we can design it in a way that incorporates this re-engagement component right at the beginning of the programme.

Many learners in a catalan

Many learners in a catalan prison have referred to school, and the dynamics developed there, as a place where they don't feel the weigh of being prisoners, a place where they can set a different frame of mind, mind is working, mind is free while they are engaged in a task or reflection.

Learning is powerful and we

Learning is powerful and we should be able to help prison learners to get to that point, where learning and education makes a crucial difference in their lives.

The right environment for learning

Dear Eric,

Indeed, creating the right environment is key in learning in general, and it is especially important in prisons. At the same time it may well be one of the major challenges too. Do you have any links or resources to this reference?

No, I wish I have... I,

No, I wish I have... I, instinctively, mainly focus on the observation and understanding of the person from a global perspective, day by day, week after week, be aware and try to be at the right place at the right time to stretch the thread and make things happen. But yes, as you said, creating the right environment is key in learning in general. And what is "the right environment" made of? That's a great topic..

Thank you for sharing

Dear Eric,

Thank you for sharing your insights!

Best regards,
Tamás - EBSN

Where could I learn more

Where could I learn more about basic skills education practices in prisons in Europe ?

Key question!

You are asking a key question, as I believe this is something we should aim at - having an European overview of how basic skills provision is arranged accross prisons in Europe, what policies and practices are in place, who are those who teach basic skills in prison, and so on. This could be an idea of a project under the new Erasmus+ programme!

For James

To JAMES:

How do you reconcile the funding and provision of education in prison with the appalling situation some prisons are in: inmates locked up for 23 hours, basic health and nutrition services are not provided, issues of safety etc. Astrophysics may be interesting to some inmates, but aren't there possibly more fundamental issues we should also be engaged with in the pyramid of survival in prisons.

Prisoners with Dyslexia

Half of the prison population is dyslexic, but they have no diagnosis or support. We (Dyslexia Institute UK) propose that all offenders are tested for dyslexia as soon as they enter the prison system, and then suitable training/education is offered to them thereafter. To not do this can only be seen as wilful negligence on behalf of the state.

Very good point, dealing with

Very good point, dealing with adults who have learning difficulties should be part of any teacher training programme. Do you have any examples from your work on how teacher training should be approached from this perspective?

Dyslexia - Diagnoses within the prison

I also agree that if there is a resident who needs support to suit their approach or methods of learning then this needs to be addressed. We have a route whereby an experienced colleague carries out a full review with someone to identify the best approach to take or supplemental items that support their reading etc. Then a guidance sheet is shared confidentially with the educational staff and the learner is also given support items- plastic coloured filters etc and notes not to ask someone to read out loud or whatever is best for them. Then they have regular reviews again with our experienced colleague on their learning approaches and styles that suit them. We have not gone down the route of 'diagnosing' as we feel that is the remit of professionals with experience. I would be interested to hear from you more about the route that may be possible for residents in jail to have access to a professional review and potential diagnoses. I will email via your website to make contact. I know in my professional educational experience of individuals who felt empowered once they had a professional diagnoses.

Free to code

Hi, a project in learning how to do coding in prison is the Free to code partnership

https://www.free2code-initiative.eu/https://www.free2code-initiative.eu/

The Free to Code initiative provides the opportunity for detained people (between 18 and 60) to learn Coding and improve their job opportunities and re-entry into society. Coding is not only a way of turning people into software engineers but of developing computational thinking through Mathematics, Logic and Algorithms. It is a new way of thinking about the world!The Free to Code initiative provides the opportunity for detained people (between 18 and 60) to learn Coding and improve their job opportunities and re-entry into society. Coding is not only a way of turning people into software engineers but of developing computational thinking through Mathematics, Logic and Algorithms. It is a new way of thinking about the world!

This is a very interesting

This is a very interesting project, thanks for sharing. I had a quick look on the project website and I am assuming that prisoners attending such training already have a good level of digital skills. Am I right in my assumption or is it possible to teach coding to prisoners with lower levels of digital skills?

Training as a prison educator

Hello everybody.

According to my experience, prison Educators should be involved as trainers in order to introduce Teachers into a specific penitentiary context or to share best practices about basic and soft skills which inmates are expected to achieve.

Formal education and informal education have to dialogue, day by day.

Marco Brancucci

Pedagogical Professional Functionary @ Juvenile Prison - Italy

EPALE Ambassador - Italy

EPEA Representative of the South Region

Thank you, Marco. If you

Thank you, Marco. If you refer to external teachers who work in the prison school, then yes, they definitely need additional training on the specifics of penitentiary context. And using already existing prison resources (the prison educators in this case) as a form of teacher mentorship sounds like a great idea!

Dear Marco,Thank you for your

Dear Marco,

Thank you for your comment. Are there any initiatives aiming to bring the voice of prison educators in teacher training programs? I imagine there could be other social partners in contributing to the professional development of teachers wishing to work in prisons?

Thank you!

Tamás from EBSN

3D printing in prison to learn the profession

Hi, a project on professional education in prison is "3D printing in prison"

https://3djail.eu/en/

The project aims to give an answer to such issues by involving detainees in one the most innovative phenomenon of ICT economy: 3D-printing, by focusing the skills needed in order to set up and use a 3D-printer. As a matter of fact, 3D-printing is going to play one of the most relevant roles in the creative and productive processes for small and medium enterprises all around the world in the fields of fast prototype-making, industrial design, engineering, architecture, clothing, jewelry, medicine and scientific research. Notably, such revolution is happening in a European industrial framework, where the demand for personnel with appropriate technological skills increases but is not covered by the existing labor-market.

Congrats for your interesting

Congrats for your interesting activity.

What are the countries involved in your project?

Thank you.

Marco

Very interesting

Hi there.

This is a nice example of what can be done with new technologies to motivate people. Very interesting, indeed.

Being able to achieve what we have in mind so simply and quickly is in fact an excellent example of how digital technologies today allow.In this case, with adult audiences, certainly with very particular interests, to which it is possible to respond quite effectively.

Congratulations!

Note the initiative in the UK: an Inquiry into educ in prisons

Education: Are prisoners being left behind?

Inquiry

The inquiry is examining how current arrangements support learners in custody and how well prison education delivers the skills needed by employers. The inquiry is considering education for adults, young people and children in custody.

It will look at what barriers exist, for instance, to delivering apprenticeships in a custodial setting. Also, what educational offers are in place to accommodate various length of sentences and different learning needs.

The Committee is interested in how school exclusion policy impacts on youth custody and how alternative provision settings support young people who experience challenges in education and learning.

Where possible the Committee is interested to hear prisoner learners’ and former prisoners’ own perceptions of how the prison education system is working and what might need to change.

Latvia has good experience of

Latvia has good experience of NFI in prisons.

We have had a programme for the introduction of non-formal training (NFI) in prisons "Šķeļot viļņus" (“Tackling the Waves”). This programme aimed to improve the quality of life of young people at risk of social exclusion who are in prison and to promote the development of the skills of those working with these young people in the field of social inclusion.

Basically - how to work with NFI initially to give a methodology to employees they then use to work with young people in prisons. NFI has a fantastic tools to use in prisons, both in support of employees and young people, in terms of working on personal development and adapting to the needs and interests of young people themselves

Here is the site for it (partly available in English too):

http://skelotvilnus.blogspot.com/search/label/ENG

Report: Review of European Prison Education Policy

Report: Review of European Prison Education Policy and Council of Europe Recommendation (89) 12 on Education in Prison

https://www.europris.org/file/report-review-of-european-prison-educatio…

Europris Expert Group on Prison Education report

Here’s a link to the Europris Expert Group on Prison Education report that James King presented to the Council of Europe last year: https://www.europris.org/file/report-review-of-european-prison-educatio…

Guido Adragna - EPALE Team

Teacher ( Correction house. Lithuania)

A positive educational initiative is that a person serving a sentence has the opportunity to complete secondary education and finish school. However, the curriculum should include psychology lessons. As inmates do not have sufficient social skills, they would need classes to learn about themselves, study how to manage situations that are conflicting and stressful. They should learn how to change and use their positive qualities in freedom.

The pandemic has changed a lot about teaching. In classrooms we all have to do two meters of social distancing and wear masks. We have no access to websites through the internet. Inmates can‘t access the live internet to do research projects.

Lessons learned from a SkillsHUBS project

In addition to the comment of J. Giordimana, I would like to add some lessons learned from the three year project (sorry a bit longer, because I cannot attend the discussion). It is well documented in the literature that basic skills such as literacy and numeracy tend to be disproportionately low amongst prison populations compared with the general. The influencing factors associated with this are also well documented: these include negative experiences of - or exclusion from - education, disruptive childhood experiences, low self-esteem and (perhaps unrecognised) special education needs.

SkillHUBS was an Erasmus+ funded transnational three-year project involving 7 partners plus associates has addressed this EU and worldwide issue. The project ended in October 2020 and has aimed on developing, piloting and disseminating innovative methods, tools and methodologies for the identification, assessment and development of selected basic and transversal skills in the European prison population. The project objective has been to equip prison learners with basic and transversal skills enabling them to attain a more equal position in the labour market and everyday life following their release from prison. In this sense, the project promote the understanding according to which skills learning becomes the means to the end of developing positive personal social and human capital and well-being. There are three concrete project outputs that are supporting this aims.

- First is the Research Report (see http://www.skillhubs.eu/), a comprehensive document which aims at identifying existing good practices, skill gaps, mismatches and related policies in EU in the field of skills assessment as well as at analysing, accessing and benchmarking the existing practices of inmates up-skilling in EU prison systems. The results of the qualitative, quantitative and desk research conducted in the countries of the partnerships are being presented and analysed and based on them an insightful set of recommendation is being provided to the reader, that were integrated in the model of prison education named and the set of recommendations.

- The second and core project output is a Combined skills training model ‘The Engine’, that is a collection of integrated and innovative methodologies for educators to use in designing their own locally-situated programmes for prisoner up-skilling and re-skilling where alternative approaches to traditional, formal accredited programmes are needed. The hypothesis is that prison learners’ ability to integrate into the education system, labour market and – eventually - employment will be improved. The methodologies include the Employer Skills Needs Research & Gap Analysis; Skills Training Curriculum Framework; and Individual Learner Record, collectively known as ‘The Engine’. The Engine has been trialled in pilot in three different prison-learning contexts in Slovenia, Malta and Romania.

- And last, but not least is the set of eight policy recommendations intended for policy makers and policy influencers in organisations which operate or have an interest in prison administration, legislation and prison education across the EU.

The real value of the SkillsHUBS project ideas and achievements can be examined through the statement of David Breakspear, active prison reform campaigner, ex offender from UK, on why prison education so important, that he expressed during the online closing conference of the SkillHUBs project, 6 October 2020: “When you are released from prison regardless of anything else, you are coming out with a minus against your name. You need to come out with a fighting chance. We need to educate the society as well about the importance of education, about the importance of second chance. I think prison education is important because it allows those being failed by education system to be given another chance at education but not just because it’s right thing to do but because of the humanity behind it. Education and prison education is not just important for the individual that is going through the prison system itself but it’s also something that we need to use to start to educate society at the same time.”

Summarised by Estera Možina, Slovenian Institute for Adult Education

Thank you for this valuable

Thank you for this valuable contribution, Estera! A lot to read and learn from this project. My understanding from the project website is that pilots are currently undergoing in the partner countries. May I ask how these were organised, in terms selecting the inmates to participate, duration of training, who are the teachers delivering the modules etc.?

Basic skills

Teaching basic skills in today’s world require digital tools to support the learning process.

We need artifacts as pen readers, OCR scanning and tools helping the writing process, just to mention a few tools.

In the prison world it is very hard for the security units allowing digital tools. It’s a scandal.

NOBODY should leave a prison without basis skills in

Reading and writing
Calculating
AND THEY MUST HAVE BASIC KNOWLEDGE IN USE OF DIGITAL TOOLS AND UNDERSTANDING THE DIGIAL SOCIETY

profession - in prison

Both basic education and vocational training can be acquired in Latvian prisons. For example:

At the place of implementation of educational programs (Metalworking, Construction, Manufacture of wood products, etc.) “Daugavgriva Prison”.

https://www.dbt.lv/lv/Izglitibas-programmas

Basic skills, benefits and challenges

In Bulgarian prisons there are some special programs, related to the process of acquiring basics skills like orientating and solving problems, learning about different types of emotions and how to control them, solving conflicts and etc. There are also different types of workshops, which can highlight the sense of the community. The elementary schools in the prisons provide to the involved in the educational process with basic skills in literacy and numeracy. Some of the secondary schools and courses provide professional training in different fields like clothing production, turnery, furniture manufacturing and etc. All these educational opportunities during the period of incarceration will allow the inmates to succeed in the labor market after the release. Of course there are many other important benefits like decreasing the level of risk recidivism. One of the most important challenges is to find the best way to motivate the inmates to be involved in the educational process and to make them to believe that this is the way they will be back to the society in a successful way.

Latvia has similar problems:

Latvia has similar problems: one of the most important challenges is to find the best way to motivate the inmates to be involved in the educational process and to make them to believe that this is the way they will be back to the society in a successful way.

We know that the education

We know that the education provided in prison has not the quality enough to be competitive. There are no rehabilitation programs for post-prison care. The correctional programs are not enough too and they need to be updated. It's good that you have some positive experience. I think we need some program for life skills which are basic for marginal groups and to have low recidivism.

Prison education plays important role into mental care of inmate

Prison education is complicated as it is. From the perspective of viewer as I am seems many projects ar performes with a motivation: "we must to do something with this!" it is an excellent motivation to commence first steps in the field of creating strategy but not enopugh to create and performe projects that demands very specific researches on operational and even on tactical levels.

Quite often we do comparisons of training systems for inmates and for regular secondary schools, colleges etc. Unfortunately those comparisons are well for reporting but not that good enough for results if by results we understand humans that did not return back to those walls or something like that.

I highly agree with the point of view that psychological studies are extremely recommended to teach to inmates. Many of them cannot deal with themselves if we look at them from perspective of regular citizen.

Many of them just try to avoid of insufficient circumstances and obstacles they face in cell. On the one hand this is good for motivation. So, applying skills outside of cell, outside of prison can remind them absolutely different things we expected they will.

In many situations it is almost impossible but new prisons are demand and not just need that can wait for many years. So, facilities with new installations that create different way of life within them are also one step to solution how to improve, to get better results for any kind of training, education.

Sure their attitude is different and even some groups of inmates present absolute intolerance. I agree with those who rely on the opinion of medicine professionals that proper medicine checkups are absolute need to find out the mental problems (I am not saying disease) these people possess. And in some cases they could or even might be separated into groups which is mainly performed all around the world.

We have to keep in mind these people are not softies. All the activities applied in field of prison education must to be performed with certainty and this is thing that matters for them.

Prison education did and does extremely well job because of playing important role in the set of measures for correction needs or needs to keep up inmates humanity, to take care of them psychologically by doing this job!

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