At the risk of getting whacked over the head with a live trout by a lecturer the next time I walk past the CASE building… wouldn’t prisoners perhaps benefit more from a slightly more useful / pragmatic course? Something teaching skills that lead more directly to a job?

Then again, some are on life sentences anyway, so I suppose educating them in whatever catches their fancy might not be bad after all… helps them pass the time…

Robert, I’m sure you won’t get whacked across the head next
time you walk past. We believe in open discussion; its such a wonderful world, don’t you think?

I believe that if we tell prisoners what they should or shouldn’t study that this is the same sort of patronising approach we
get from the (appropriately named) “Chris Woodhead”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/2737537.stm .

No doubt their first time through the skills’n’career-driven
education system was such a success they’ve found themselves where they are.

Education not training, mate. Big difference. We educate
people, we train pear trees.

H. M. P. Cardiff is an imposing building that could leave many
with preconceptions about what lies behind those big doors.
Unfortunately, if you do enter with preconceptions your
experience within those confining walls will be unrewarding.
Luckily for me, I have none, possibly due to the fact that I grew
up in an area that saw many jail sentences handed down to my
peers. It is these ???life??? experiences that prepared me for the
environment into which I entered and removed any pompous
and ignorant views that some individuals hold.

Contained within these walls is a prime example of what Mark so
eloquently refers to as ???education not training???. These
individuals like myself who had had a bad experience of the
education system during their teenage years (which undoubtedly
resulted in their demise), overcoming life???s difficulties and
returning to education in order to better their prospects on
leaving this establishment. They do this through choice not via
some promise of an easier life whilst ???inside???. Luckily for them
organisations like CASE, CeLL (UoG) have the foresight to see
that education for education???s sake can play a major role in
redeveloping deprived areas and more importantly individuals,
whatever their previous background.

These individuals have been sentenced by a jury of their piers to
serve a life???s imprisonment. It is therefore not my job or anyone
else???s to judge their crimes or the person, to me they are just
students and should be treated accordingly. This positive and
open-minded attitude toward these prisoners then led me to
encounter my most rewarding teaching experience so far.

Obviously there were some disconcerting moments during the
session, but not of the sinister kind. Prison nuances that have to
be learnt. For example, the prisoners always refer to any
authoritative figure as ???boss???; The doors perpetually being
closed behind you and locked (should be tried elsewhere as your
always ensured to have a captive audience). But once these
nuances are learned and taken as daily events these prisoners
are just the same as any other student. In fact I would go as far
as to say that these individuals have the ability to contribute
widely to society as a whole if given the chance on completion of
their sentence. Hopefully, people who have led a privileged life
can appreciate those individuals who have not been as fortunate
as them, and should allow them the dignity of one more chance
within society. Therefore, organisations like CASE working hand
in hand with the prison service should take the initiative and
present more opportunities for these individuals and others like
them.