ARTISTRY

PRIMEDIA – ICT & Multimedia Tools for Prison Education

The overall aims of the PriMedia Network, financed by the LifeLongLearning Programme Gruntvig, is to identify current good practice in the application of ICT & multimedia in offender learning, including in-depth evaluation of the effectivity of specific examples; to test their potential application in a variety of prison contexts; and to exploit and disseminate good practice in prison education across Europe and beyond.

The main objectives of the Network are to:

1. Create an ongoing European network to promote ICT and multimedia in offender learning

2. Encourage the use of ICT and the new technologies as part of the delivery of key competences in offender learning

3. Promote the use of new technologies in adult prison education in centres where they have not previously been used, especially in eastern Europe

4. Encourage inmates to get involved in ICT and multimedia as part of their prison education.

5. Encourage links between prison educators and ICT & multimedia practitioners

The Network identifies current practice and methods in using new technologies of benefit to delivering prison education, and will organize workshops, courses and seminars in different European countries promoting effective practice in using ICT and multimedia to support prison education, including film & video showings and exhibitions of photographic work.

Results:

We found that all the prison schools involved in the project are concerned by the limitations placed on digitalisation by prison authorities.  A common complaint from teaching staff at all of the project institutions, including our own, is that inmates leave prison schools unprepared for the digital world outside the prison walls. There is a need for international review of practises in prison education around ICT and use of the internet.

We found that there are significant differences between countries in regard to inmates’ right to education.  In Norway and Lithuania, only citizens of the country have a legal right to formal education. In Greece and Spain, every inmate has the right to formal education, even those who are undocumented immigrants or have transitory refugee status. Again, this is something we believe should be reviewed internationally to ensure every inmate has the right to formal education. This would be a significant step towards improving the integration of foreign national inmates in prison education.

Summary of the project

The key objective was to ensure that inmates leave prison institutions with the tools to contribute as functioning members of society, in whichever country they reside in the future. In order to achieve this goal we understood the need to work cooperatively with other EU nations to ensure the skills and qualifications students gain are recognised and valued by employers.

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During the project we were able to visit prisons in Lithuania, Greece and Spain.  As a project team we have built up a network of contacts with both school leaders, teachers, education ministries and prison staff in the three different countries.  Each prison school has presented information on their structure, curriculum and funding systems.  The team has gained a good understanding of the different systems governing prison education in the three countries. We have also been visited by one of our partner organisations, Panevezys Correction House, who sent a delegation of five prison staff to Halden Prison this year.  We have offered the same opportunity to our other partners in Greece and Spain, a group of staff from the Centre de Penitenciari de Joves have now applied for funding to visit Halden Prison.

In three of the four prisons we visited, we were able to observe the integration of foreign inmates in education.  In Avlonas, 65% of inmates were foreign nationals from 20 different countries, CP de Joves had 90% foreign nationals and CP Quatre Camins also had a significant number of foreign inmates, mostly from Morocco and South America. Unfortunately, the prison system in Lithuania has very few foreign national inmates and we were unable to observe intregration of foreign nationals here.  However, the school had a large number of pupils from the Romany minority, some of whom had limited knowledge of the Lithuanian language. These students were enrolled in primary education to build up their academic and language skills. In both Spain and Greece, foreign national inmates have the same right to education as all other students.  In fact, education in these countries is compulsory for all those inmates who have not completed mandatory education.

Use of digital resources – we found that the use of digital tools and resources varies greatly from country to country.  Computers and other technical equipment is expensive and not all the prison schools have the funding to provide technology. Panevezys was the most limited in terms of technology, however the science teachers in this prison used SMARTboard technology to show experiments and inmates could take part in an Office course in the school’s computer room. In Greece, SMARTboards had been donated by local companies and the larger classrooms had them.  The teachers were very well trained in the use of this technology and used the boards consistently and effectively during the sessions we observed. The students had computing classes, including basic programming. In Spain, the students also had access to computing courses, including a nationally recognised vocational computing course.  SMARTboards were also used in a number of classrooms.  All the prisons had limited internet access for inmates.  In Lithuania inmates had no access at all.