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Prisoners at High Security Prison enrol at Leeds Beckett University
Thirteen prisoners at the High Security prison, near Pocklington in East Yorkshire, will study the Learning Together criminology module at the prison together with 11 final-year Leeds Beckett University students.
The Learning Together course has been developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge which delivers a similar programme; however, the notable difference is that prisoners on the Leeds Beckett course will be registered students, with all participants receiving 20 level six (final year undergraduate) university credits on completion of the module.
Dr Bill Davies, Co-leader of the Prison Research Network at Leeds Beckett University and Senior Lecturer in Criminology, explained: “The Learning Together project gives prisoners that are stuck doing courses below their ability the opportunity to learn at a higher level. They want to learn and they want the chance to keep occupied. The aim is to offer them a chance to start on a different trajectory for their futures.
“One of the prisoners at Full Sutton has only served five years of his sentence. With 30 years left, he is not allowed to study a degree through the Open University until he has only six years left in prison. Even then, as university-level education involves a lot of critical discussion, this can be difficult through distance learning. Meanwhile, the only courses offered face-to-face within prison are generally at GCSE level or below.”
Shaun Williamson, Head of Reducing Reoffending at HMP Full Sutton, said: “I am a firm believer that prisoners who are serving long sentences should have access to a wide range of activities which assist in stimulating thought, and providing opportunity to grow and progress. Education is an extremely important conduit in which to assist with this, generating creativity, hope and inspiring a whole range of potential opportunities. It provides real potential for rehabilitation, whether this is during transition back into the wider community or supporting a custodial journey, creating a sense of being and self-worth played out through positive achievements.
“During my own recent studies at the University of Cambridge, and whilst supporting Dr Helen Nichols, Co-Leader of the Prison Research Network and Senior Lecturer in Criminology, through her PhD studies, I was made aware of and introduced to the ‘Learning Together’ initiative which was being developed at Cambridge. I saw this as both an innovative and inclusive way in bridging the gap between the limited delivery in place within prison and access to a higher, more stimulating curriculum. We have created a transformational learning experience which will provide benefits for all students engaged within the course.
“The framework to the programme will, for Leeds Beckett students, bring to life criminological theory, whereas for the internal students, there is a real prospect of making learning real, creating the chance for positive use of labelling with potential for those prisoners engaging with the module to be seen as university students and future graduates of Leeds Beckett University, rather than being known by, or for their offence.”
The module, which centres around prison itself from a criminology perspective, starts in January and will run for twelve weeks, with one session taking place every two weeks at HMP Full Sutton. Every other week, the prison and student groups will meet on their own to discuss the previous week’s topic and look ahead to the coming week.
Topics covered include: justifications of imprisonment – why prison is used as punishment and why we punish; the legitimacy of punishment; the sociological and psychological impacts of long-term imprisonment; rehabilitation and desistance; convict criminology – a strand taught by Dr Bill Davies, a former prisoner himself, around the transition from prison life to academic life; and maintaining prison standards – a strand taught by Nick Hardwick, Head of the Parole Board and former Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons.
Professor Nick Hardwick, Dr Helen Nichols and Dr Bill Davies
Professor Nick Hardwick said: “I have had a connection with Leeds Beckett University for a number of years now because I have been very attracted by Dr Bill Davies’s and Dr Helen Nichols’s innovative approaches to prison research and education in prisons. I was very proud to be awarded an honorary doctorate of laws by the university in the summer of 2016.
“Bill and Helen have been at the forefront of developing the “Learning Together’ concept in which students are taken into prisons to learn alongside prisoners. Prisoners benefit from being exposed to positive and different external influences whilst it would be a rare student who did not come away from these encounters with a broader outlook on the world. The course is as academically demanding as any held at the university itself, it is the first of its kind to be accredited and we hope it will lead to the model being extended to a wider variety of courses.
“Being a student is partly about becoming an adult – deciding what kind of person you are. For the students, we hope that working together with prisoners with very different backgrounds and in a very different environment, will help give them a breadth of vision and insights that will be an important part of their overall university experience. We know that for prisoners to stop offending they have to see themselves in a different way – to develop ‘a new me’. By the end of the course I hope the prisoner participants will stop seeing themselves as just ‘offenders’ or ‘prisoners’ but see themselves as ‘students’ too with all the possibilities that implies of a new, positive life ahead when their sentence ends.”
Others teaching as guest lecturers include Dr Ben Crewe and Professor Alison Liebling from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Rod Earle from the Open University.
Dr Helen Nichols focused her PhD studies around education in prison. She explained: “Prison can be both a physically and mentally challenging environment and education offers an opportunity for prisoners to engage in something constructive that can be beneficial both prior to and following release. Through offering this programme, we’re giving both prisoners and external students the opportunity to achieve more from an educational experience by breaking down social barriers in the process. As a university, we want to be socially responsible to our students at the university and to our wider community.”
For students and prisoners, assessment will be a reflective learning log, which is built up throughout the course each week, and a group presentation. Groups will be made up of two students from each institution. Following assessment there will be a graduation ceremony held at the prison.
“When the prison module has been completed, we don’t want to stop here,” said Dr Nichols. “We want to be able to continue to offer the prisons new subjects to study, allowing them to build up their university credits with us. Our Youth Work and Community Development course is already interested in running a module and we are keen to involve men’s health, psychology, sport, nutrition, speech and language therapy, English, and more courses as we progress and build our relationship with the prison.
“There are currently around 85,000 criminals in prison, with 75,000 of those being released at some point in the future. With plans to release more prisoners in the future, education is going to be a very important element of prison that universities can support, opening up opportunities for those prisoners when they are released.”
In May 2016, Dame Sally Coates published a report for the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, detailing her recommendations for the improvement of education in prison. One of the recommendations relates to the ability of prisoners to access higher level learning. Her report shows that one fifth of the 101,600 adult prisoners participating in prison learning in the academic year 2014-2015 would have preferred to be studying at a higher level than they were currently and that three fifths of prisoners leave prison without an identified employment, education or training outcome.
Prisons Minister, Sam Gyimah, said: “I want to see prisoners spend much more time engaged in the sort of purposeful activity which prepares them for life on the outside - pursuing worthwhile qualifications or work opportunities that will help them get a satisfying job on release.
“We are committed to helping all offenders turn their lives around and quit crime for good. Schemes like Learning Together are making a vital difference in giving offenders a new start, and the chance to enter the workplace and make a success of their lives.”
A range of collaborative learning programmes currently exist, including the University of Durham’s Inside-Out programme, based on a project established in the US. The Learning Together project adopted by Leeds Beckett was originally set up by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with HMP Grendon, which is a Category B establishment and therapeutic community.