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WHY MAKE THE CONNECTION?
Associate Professor Helen Farley
leads Making the Connection. She has
encountered “heaps of opposition” to her
work, but that hasn’t stopped her.
“Educated prisoners are up to 40 per
cent less likely to re-offend,” she says,
explaining what drives her in this regard.
Since the project commenced nearly
five years ago, the rate of eligible
Queensland prisoners studying has
doubled. Across Australia, however, this
rate is only 1.5 per cent. Buckley thinks
he might know why there’s such a
small uptake.
“Not having access to resources is the
biggest challenge,” he says.
“Also, not being able to ask questions.
You don’t have access to tutors or
lecturers … so you really have to work hard
and basically build skills on your own.”
In fact, this is why he decided to add
a business degree to his study portfolio;
he didn’t have the resources needed
to complete his engineering degree.
He offers another reason for the
minuscule uptake. “There were a lot
of people who wanted to do more but
didn’t have the basic skills that you need
to start uni-level courses.
“Sixty per cent of prisoners will leave
prison in 2018 and can’t read and write
at functional levels.”
Nevertheless, a promising fact:
prisoners’ university retention rate is
superior to that of the general student
population. Farley says this is because
there’s significant engagement between
universities and prisoners prior to them
commencing study, so by the time they’re
ready to study, they’re committed to it.
“I love seeing that look on their face
when I’m talking to them about it, and
they think, ‘Maybe I can do it’,” she says.
Although it can be a noisy, stressful
environment, Farley says it helps that
We offer institution-wide access
there are fewer distractions in prison: no
girlfriend problems, for instance. Prisoners
can access PCs during the day and are
allowed to take study laptops to their
cells for lockup, which is usually between
6pm and 7am.
Buckley can vouch for the efficacy of
educating prisoners. In fact, he believes in
it so much he has become an advocate
for this cause, and is in talks with
Queensland’s department of education
to expand projects like Making the
Connection.
“We spend $4 billion a year on prisons,
yet we aren’t getting results,” he says.
“Sixty per cent of ex-prisoners are back
in prison within three years of being
released.
“As a society, we send people to prison
and often write them off. If we invested
a small amount at that point, we could
save a lot of money, harm and hurt down
the line.” ■
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