Jails ‘failing to educate prisoners’

Not one prison was rated as outstanding for the education and training it offers in the last four years, and just 35 per cent was judged to be good, according to Matthew Coffey, the watchdog’s national director for further education and skills.

He insisted that these figures were “unacceptable” and that there would be a “national outcry” if this was the standard of education in England’s schools.

Giving Ofsted’s annual Further Education and Skills Lecture at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, Mr Coffey said that cutting the number of re-offenders was “in everyone’s interests”.

“It is unacceptable that Ofsted judged only 35 per cent of prisons good for their education and training provision,” he said.

Currently, almost 50 per cent of adult prisoners, and 72 per cent of juveniles reoffend, Mr Coffey said.

“The challenge is to halt this cycle of re-offending, this revolving door, in and out of prison. The situation is only marginally better than it was 10 years ago.

“Every prisoner costs the taxpayer on average approximately £34,000 a year. Coincidentally, one year at Eton will also cost you around £34,000.”

Too many prisoners are released without good job skills which makes them less likely to find a job, which can lead to re-offending, it was suggested. Mr Coffey argued that prison sentences do not focus enough on increasing an offender’s chances of finding work. He called for the Government to consider giving courts the power to determine by individual case how long a conviction must be declared to a prospective employer.