Westminster research is helping to improve educational opportunities for prison inmates in the UK and South America.
There are many reasons to educate our prison populations. It gives inmates a positive focus and improves their employability and rehabilitation prospects in the outside world. And yet – in countries like England, Wales and Brazil, where prisoner to guard ratios are off the charts, inside learning is hugely restricted.
Dr Sacha Darke and Dr Andreas Aresti’s unique prison education model brings Westminster students inside prisons to learn alongside inmates – changing the lives and perspectives of both groups. Darke and Aresti are also helping to bring this programme to Brazilian and Argentine prisons.
Convict Criminology: learning turned inside out
Darke and Aresti are pioneers of Convict Criminology (CC) – a collaborative research field which brings the voices of inmates and former inmates into the subject.
Through their research-activist group, Convict Criminology at Westminster, Darke and Aresti brought their innovative academic mentoring scheme to four UK prisons. All four programmes – at HMP Pentonville, HMP Grendon, HMP Coldingley and HMP Warren Hill – were designed and delivered by convict and non-convict academics.
Two academic articles written by inside learners, in collaboration with Westminster students, have been externally peer-reviewed and published. The 2022–23 cohort are currently working with Darke and Aresti on four academic papers to be presented at an international CC symposium in June 2023, and submitted for publication by University of Westminster Press.
Breaking down barriers to prison education
Darke and Aresti have identified several key barriers to Higher Education (HE) study in prisons – each of which are directly tackled by the programme.
Prison courses often stop at level 1 or 2 qualifications. Pentonville’s Westminster-accredited course, however, reaches level 3 (foundation year), creating a pathway to HE. Westminster students and prisoners study undergraduate degrees together in a shared learning environment at Grendon and Coldingley. The Coldingley programme reaches Master’s level, and Darke and Aresti have also supervised inside learners and former prisoners studying PhDs.
Aware of the lack of HE resources at prison, the University’s Outreach Team ran a textbook drive that resulted in over 50 degree-level textbooks being donated to Pentonville, with further materials being purchased by Westminster throughout the programme’s run.
To counter the lack of internet access, Westminster students – who serve as learning mentors on all programmes – print course materials requested by inside learners.
The responsibility of a learner makes me more aware of my actions and solidifies my seeing myself as a student, rather than an offender.
– An insider learner at HMP Grendon on the importance of accessing reading materials
Countering practical barriers, such as disruption to learning, inside learners in Pentonville and Coldingley's programme – where students study for university credits – cannot be transferred during courses. Further, the project supports such learners by breaking down barriers to educational progression – Darke and Aresti provide access to information on HE courses and support in making applications for courses and funding.
Changing the lives and perspectives of inside and outside learners
Of approximately 140 inside learners who completed Pentonville’s programme, 21 had begun Open University degrees by March 2022. One Coldingley inside learner and one Coldingley alumni commenced PhDs under Darke and Aresti’s supervision in 2020. Another Coldingley inside learner will commence a PhD in 2024. Darke was the examiner for a 2019 Criminology PhD student who subsequently transferred to Coldingley prison and participated in the study group in 2020.
By learning side-by-side, the project has helped challenge inside and outside learners’ preconceptions of one another and fight stigma around crime and imprisonment.
“For the time that I am in the groups we have shared, the walls and bars fall away,” said one inside learner. “It has given me the chance to experience a glimpse of life as a constructive member of a wider society.”
An outside learner stated: “It is a privilege to be able to hear such silenced voices that I rarely encountered in my academic path. It made me realize the importance of including these voices in the debate on prisons, to have a more honest view that will inform policies.”
More than 15 Westminster alumni have since gone on to work or volunteer for prison, probation and prisoner support services.
At Grendon and Coldingley, 10 inside learners have been moved to lower security prisons or released.
A review of this scheme highlighted the benefits of providing a challenging course, one that is the same as done by university students. It has helped the inside students to feel more included in wider society, to aspire to greater things when they are released and ‘to conceive of themselves as part of the general public’.
- The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA)
Another Vision for South American prisons
Universidade Estadual de Maranhão (UEMA) academics replicated Darke and Aresti’s model at a prison in Maranhão, Brazil in 2019. In total, 31 inmates and 10 UEMA students had participated in the ‘Another Vision’ programme before 2020’s global lockdown.
The Brazilian government has praised the project and is seeking to expand its reach. In November 2019, Darke and UEMA academic Dr Karina Biondi discussed further rollout with Maranhão state prison authorities and the Secretary of State for Penitentiary Administration, Murilo Andrade. At the meeting, it was agreed that UEMA would establish programmes at two more prisons. “The proposal is undoubtedly very good and adds to our goals of guaranteeing education and training to interns,” Andrade says.
The education model is also being replicated elsewhere in Brazil. Having visited Darke and Aresti’s Pentonville programme, the Brazilian criminology research group Grupo De Estudos em Criminologias Contemporâneas’ (GECC) were “specially inspired by the design of the project.” GECC recruited inside learners into their own Criminologia de Condenados project in order to advance Convict Criminology in Brazil.
A coordinator from Argentina’s University of Buenos Aires (UBA) visited Westminster’s prison projects and came to be “particularly interested in exploring the possibility of implementing peer tutors and reading groups with students from inside and outside, replicating Westminster’s model.” UBA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Westminster, creating “a platform for future exchange and projects regarding Higher Education in prison.” This knowledge exchange has continued into September 2022, with Darke returning to Argentina to visit UBA’s prison projects.
Find out more
Connect with Sacha Darke
Connect with Andreas Aresti
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