Engaging prisoners in education: Reducing risk and recidivism

Engaging prisoners in education is one of a range of measures that could alleviate risk in prisons. For prisoners, the main challenge with incarceration is monotony, often leading to frustration, raising the risk of injury for staff and other prisoners. This article investigates how prisoner engagement in education can help alleviate risk in prisons through relieving monotony and by promoting critical thinking skills. It concludes by exploring projects undertaken in Australia and the UK to introduce digital technologies into prisons to allow access to higher education. This increased access to learning could help realize the benefits of reduced risk and decreased recidivism rates