A crime not to unlock potential

Offenders are not of low academic ability, argues Joe Baden, and deserve more than basic skills training

If widening participation is to mean more than just increased participation, then we have to go out and encourage people who would never have considered higher education to do so. It is not enough for colleges to sit back and expect people who don't even know they exist to come in and ask about courses. One of the most marginalised sections of the community are prison inmates and those on probation.

Research shows that about 90 per cent of educational provision in the prison system is aimed at improving basic skills. There is, of course, a need for such skills. But the massive amount of research conducted to prove this need has, arguably, created a negative stereotype regarding offenders'

academic potential, helping to establish a tragedy of lost opportunity for individuals and society. Offending behaviour is not due to low academic ability; it is the end result of low academic expectation and its acceptance by those whose job it should be to raise it. To offer basic skills in isolation is simply a continuation of what has gone before. The upsurge in violent crime is the greatest indictment of our education and criminal justice systems: a disproportionate percentage of offenders are young people excluded from school.

The government's response has been predictable: more tagging, longer sentences, and now the withdrawal of benefits from the parents of persistent offenders. Knee-jerk reactions are inevitably ill conceived. The government is implementing short-term measures only to offset public opinion, rather than addressing the root of the problem. As secretary of state for education and employment, David Blunkett stated that the roots of social exclusion lay in educational failure. Many would argue that the roots of criminal behaviour lie in social exclusion; the connection in terms of a long-term strategy on cutting crime should not be too difficult to make.

Widening participation (as far as young people are concerned) is directed at those who have been earmarked as "expected to do well". University summer schools are used to strengthen the resolve of "gifted" pupils from working-class backgrounds. But work with other young and adult learners who have been written off has had profound effects. The Learning from Experience Trust's Action Learning in the Community (ALIC) project has more than 20 very "non-traditional" students on access/foundation-level courses; 18 have conditional offers for degree places.

Our research shows that many probation/prison clients have had bad experiences of education in the criminal justice system. One described the basic skills course as "work for five-year-olds", adding "it was kinda like they were taking the piss a bit".

Many offenders say they would love to go to university but feel it is not for "people like us". One element in the success of the ALIC project is that it is staffed by people who also once thought they had no place in higher education. Indeed, life experience should be considered as being as important as professional qualifications.

The project we are currently developing will take further education study into prison, which inmates can continue on probation. There will be a range of support mechanisms, including mentoring by students from Goldsmiths College. The course will allow offenders to look at their lives from an academic perspective so they can develop a greater understanding of their behaviour and consequently address it. The programme will allow participants to go on to be undergraduates.

We are meeting the challenge of widening participation; it is time for the government to put its money where its mouth is.

Joe Baden is coordinator of the Learning from Experience Trust's ALIC project and writes in a personal capacity. The prison project will be run with Goldsmiths College, the University of North London, Amersham College and UNLOCK.