“Prisoners who take any form of learning activity have a significantly lower re-offending rate on release from prison than their peers. The proven re-offending rate is 34% for prisoner learners compared to 43% for prisoner non-learners”.
(MoJ/DfE 2017)
During the 2002/2023 academic year, there were 1,854 students studying with The Open University across 150 prisons.
For those in a prison, education is not always valued, and therefore students can experience a lack of support and understanding from prison staff when they are trying to study.
Those in prisons or secure hospitals are expected to study in rooms that, although made for one, usually hold multiple people, usually without a desk. Often they are expected to have a prison job during the day, and can only study in the evenings around that.
All students in secure environments have to study primarily off a printed version of the module website, with no access to the interactive activities, StudentHome, or the OU library.
Many of the students will transfer to a different prison at least once, if not two or three times each academic year.
Taking all the above into account, the Open SU library study volunteers try to support these students by completing research requests for them, something I was doing at the time of writing during the Christmas and New Year period. I completed request number 581, so you can see that as a team we have fulfilled quite a substantial number since the support programme started in 2019.
And it’s really good to see the impact the service has on the students we support. At least they have more chance of accessing wider reading and resources to complete their studies, and hopefully be more prepared to access opportunities on the outside on release.
Some feedback:
Tell us in your own words how this service helped you…
“Able to progress with my research. Without it, I would not be able to complete my PhD. Also useful when volunteers are unable to find an article, they replace it with one that has possible relevance.”
“As I am currently having issues/delays accessing the online content/campus, this has allowed me to supplement my reading materials with cutting-edge service, and this is such a relief from the stress of feeling overwhelmed at what I can’t do. Thank you so much!”
“Thank you so much! I love you guys, this is so amazingly helpful!”
“Perfect first time use – I will suggest any improvements as I continue to use this valuable service!”
“In a world driven by technology, to have a service that enables to experience independent study, gives a massive boost to the aspect of being a student, allowing a sense of normality too.”
“With seriously limited opportunities to find materials for further study and assignments, this service has allowed me the opportunity to feel like a proper student and to achieve almost the complete experience.”
“This has encouraged me through curiosity and interest for further studies on articles, websites and new/resources.”
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