Convicts taught to end crime cycle

Blunkett says inmates must be given a first chance

David Blunkett has used his first visit behind bars as home secretary to launch a new scheme using education to help prisoners "turn their backs on crime".

The home secretary announced details of the computer-based pilot project on Wednesday during a visit to Leeds Prison, which only last year was branded a "hellhole" by the Prison Board of Visitors.

Our aim is to ensure that hey leave prison equipped to get a job and turn their backs on a life of crime

David Blunkett
Home Secretary

Mr Blunkett praised the improvements made at the prison in the last 12 months under a new governor.

And he said there needed to be a culture shift to end the "revolving door" of offending to rehabilitate prison inmates.

Leeds Prison's education programme was praised by outgoing Chief Inspector of Prisons David Ramsbotham and is one of six jails picked for the pilot project.

Pilot projects

The new learndirect scheme, also being piloted at Feltham, Hindley, The Mount, Styal and Wellingborough, should be underway within three months.

Prisoners will use computer-based education programmes to gain skills and qualifications to take into the outside world.

Two-thirds of inmates in British prisons currently fail to meet the basic literary skills of an 11-year-old.

Narey: Education is a key priority

Mr Blunkett said the government did not want to make prison life comfortable but aimed to giving prisoners a "first chance".

"If we want to carry on simply with a revolving door with prisoners leaving and a very short time later coming back having committed a worse crime... then we simply carry on doing very, very little education and training with lousy conditions."

Instead a more meaningful approach was needed, he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

Reoffending concerns

Current figures show 58% of offenders are re-convicted within two years of release from prison.

The new initiative was welcomed by inmates of the jail, which houses 1,200 prisoners.

Gareth Lewis, 24, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said: "The education programmes being run here are alright but a bit limited.

"I hope this new thing will help me get a job when I leave."

Education successes

Martin Narey, Director-General of the Prison Service in England and Wales, said prison education schemes last year got 12,000 people trained to an employable level for the first time in their lives.

The prisons budget faces a £54m cut but Mr Narey said the amount spent on education would rise.

"There are efficiencies I have got to make but I am not making any efficiencies in education or any other priority areas, such as health," he said.

Mr Blunkett's visit to the prison, based in the Armley area of Leeds, is the first by a home secretary in 20 years.

Later, he arrived in Bradford - recently the scene of some of the worst race riots in Britain for the past fifteen years.

He announced a £5m package as part of a long-term strategy to ease racial tension in the area.