Prison education: it’s time to bridge the digital divide

A digital imaginative and prescient

To maneuver ahead in a transparent path, a imaginative and prescient for the longer term is required in addition to a method for getting there. A important advice in our briefing is for the Ministry of Justice to articulate and share a long-term imaginative and prescient for digital studying in jail. It will assist the Ministry of Justice and HM Jail and Probation Service (HMPPS) transfer in the direction of a extra sturdy digital tradition, embedding digital studying throughout the jail property.

To help this, it can be crucial that we have now a transparent understanding of what digital entry is accessible the place. Our briefing offers an summary nevertheless it has been difficult to develop a transparent image because of totally different training suppliers, a mixture of new and legacy programs, and totally different ranges of workers data.

A key advice is that HMPPS conduct and share a abstract of provision so all stakeholders have a greater understanding.

Making a digital tradition

A transparent imaginative and prescient and technique will assist to create a construction for digital studying, however to create a digital tradition, there’s extra to do.

Training and course suppliers should have clear specs for creating digital content material on the out there platforms in jail. Jail workers ought to have the coaching they should construct their very own confidence in utilizing digital instruments, and jail management should prioritise purposeful exercise, training and digital studying of their regimes.

As a verify and measure, the inspectorates (HM Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted and Estyn) even have a job to play in capturing how expertise is used within the institutions they examine. A constant strategy to this may assist to watch provision, detect gaps and perceive the affect.

A digital future

Digital entry has important potential to assist individuals construct their abilities and data and put together for launch. We hope this briefing will act as a problem and immediate for the Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and jail leaders to make sure individuals in jail are usually not left behind.

Making the jail training expertise comparable to what’s out there locally will allow learners to achieve their full potential — benefiting them, these round them in jail, and in the end the communities to which they’ll return.

Illustration by PET Lived Expertise Guide, Erika Flowers – discover extra of her work right here.