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a microscope. Take men who have
had their chance to do education
taken away. Some of them have taken
it really negatively, and some have
shown real mental health challenges,
because their education was something
that was keeping them focused on
getting through.
On the flip side, some of them have
kicked on and have kept moving.
The ability to look forward for some of
these guys is great. In one of my other
pieces of work coming out soon, I discuss
something called post-traumatic growth.
In this case, not having their education to
focus on, the incarcerated person actually
grows from the traumatic experience rather
than be stressed by it.
Can you see any justification in suspending
or cancelling educational programs in
Australian jails at the moment?
Very tough question. Obviously, we’re
dealing with COVID-19 – infection rates
inside jails overseas are skyrocketing,
especially in places like the US. I don’t
know if suspending or cancelling education
programs is right, or whether we should
be altering or changing them to be in a
different format.
There are some challenges with
that, because the large majority of the
incarcerated men and women doing
education don’t get free range access to
the internet. They don’t have the ability
to just jump online and download their
information or resources and continue
to do their work in their cells or wherever
they’re being housed. The complete
cancellation of it, to me, doesn’t make
sense. The suspending of it, potentially,
but I think there’s probably a better model
that doesn’t rely exclusively on educational
management to have to start something.
A lot of the guys at some of the facilities,
especially in Victoria and Western Australia,
have education officers who, due to
safety requirements, have been put on
stay-at-home duties. An education officer
in a prison based at home just doesn’t
work, because there’s no way they can
contact or connect with the person that
is incarcerated. The alternative, which is
being used in some places, again especially
in Victoria, has been the ability for family
members to visit and take some resources
to their loved ones, so they can continue
their work. However, with visits stopped,
that becomes impossible as well.
There are also some real practical
challenges in regards to the use of
computers and shared places. When we’re
trying to manage such an outcome, that
makes things difficult.
So, suspending or cancelling education,
no, but definitely restructuring or altering
access opportunities for people is definitely
a must.
How many people in Australian jails are
receiving an education of some sort, and do
you know where we stand compared with
other OECD countries?
It’s a very fluid question because the term
‘education’ varies depending on whether
you ask an incarcerated person, a prison
officer, or an administrative person.
Education in some areas could be a barista
course. However, the reality is, if a 60-yearold
person is doing a barista course, I’m
not certain that education is going to turn
into something when they return to the
community.
For the sake of our conversation, I’ll talk
tertiary – university or TAFE studies. There’s
a small proportion per state because of
allocations of funding.
Also, many of these education
opportunities the incarcerated person has
to fund themselves. I spoke to a gentleman
recently who wants to do a backhoeing
course, and he has to find $1500 himself
to pay for it. Now, he’s on $26 a week,
which is his payment for the work he does
in jail, and his family is at home, with his
wife on a pension supporting two children.
That education opportunity is there and
provided to him, but he can’t get access to
it. He’s not going to be able to afford to do
that, which means he misses out on doing
something that could actually turn into a
meaningful employment position when he
comes home.
As for the tertiary side of it, the HECS
FEE-HELP is obviously an option. However,
the challenge is that some of the courses
offered through groups such as Open
Universities don’t necessarily provide
opportunities that are going to be realistic
when they go home. One guy I spoke to
was in the middle of a five-year sentence
and he had just commenced an accounting
degree. However, he wasn’t told that
the reality of the situation is that, with a
criminal conviction, he’s going to find
it extraordinarily difficult to become a
member of the CPA. Are we setting that
guy up for failure?
In America, there’s a group called Convict
Criminology. They look at providing higher
education through universities that have
pairings with prisons in the US.
We’re very early on in that stage here in
Australia, but it’s something I definitely want
to explore myself as we keep progressing
through.
Are states and territories failing their
inmates or doing the best they can in terms
of education?
The commonality between all states and
territories is almost nil. Every state has its
own process. There’s no map set up where
people are being assessed before being
put into education. The reality is some
education places are effectively a moneymaking
process for the correction centre.
I’m not going to say anyone’s failing, and
I’m not going to say anyone’s pumping
out the greatest results possible, but I think
we’re missing the mark in some areas.
What’s being offered doesn’t necessarily
match what is required for when those guys
are returned back to the community. The
stories I get told really emphasise that.
I spoke to a guy who was doing a traffic
management course through his correctional
facility in South Australia. The course resulted
in him passing, getting what he believed was
a qualification. When he eventually attempted
to get a job, he still had to complete hours of
work experience on site.
Now, for him to get that, he had to
go through a police check. He couldn’t
effectively finish what he had started in an
educational sense.
There’s almost a bit of mapping that
needs to be done. What education has
occurred before incarceration, during and
prior, and then what does that look like
when they come home?
Myself and a couple of my colleagues
are in the process of getting some ethical
clearance to commence a study on
mapping educational outcomes for a set
of previously incarcerated men in Victoria,
having a look at what they had done
prior to, during and post incarceration,
and how that linked to, or didn’t link to,
gaining meaningful employment once they
were released.
I think that is going to be an important
piece that’s going to use previously
incarcerated peoples’ voices, and provide
an actual picture to the management
teams of correctional facilities, who in large
part do a fantastic job. ■
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