‘Squandered opportunity’: Australian prisoners are being denied education

The ACT’s only prison hasn’t offered any education services in more than a year — an “abject failure” that has greatly impacted detainees and efforts to reduce recidivism, the territory’s independent inspector has found.

The ACT’s Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) released its report on the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) late last week. In the first review of the prison since 2019, the inspector found that conditions in the prison have declined over the past three years, and that this cannot solely be blamed on the pandemic.

AMC is the only adult prison in the ACT, housing men and women on remand and serving sentences, ranging from high-security accommodation to low-security cottages. In 2020-21 there was an average of 411 people incarcerated in the prison.

The inspector raised “grave concerns” that there has not been an education provider in the prison since August last year, and found that the ACT government had “let down” detainees and the community.

“There’s been a failure within the ACT government to address this deficiency,” OICS deputy inspector Rebecca Minty told Crikey.

Numerous studies have found that prison education has a positive impact on an individual’s rehabilitation prospects and on preventing them from returning to prison upon release. The ACT government has a stated aim to reduce recidivism by 25% by 2025.

Minty says the lack of education on offer at the territory’s only prison will jeopardise chances of achieving this aim.

“I think it will impact the ability of people to reintegrate into society,” she said.

The previous provider, Foresite Training, officially withdrew its services in October last year after it stopped delivering services two months earlier. The ACT government issued a tender for a new provider in November last year but has still not selected a replacement.

The inspector found that only 18% of surveyed detainees said that the education on offer was meeting their needs, while 34% said they had a sense of achievement by participating in the activities. These figures provide a “disturbing picture of the abject failure” of the ACT government to provide education services to detainees, the OICS said in the report.

According to a survey of detainees, nearly half of those incarcerated in the ACT prison had not completed Year 12, and 9% had completed Year 8 or less. 

The education services previously offered at the prison were mostly TAFE courses conducted by Foresite Training. These programs ranged from basic Certificate I courses to more advanced Certificate IV and diploma courses.

One detainee at the prison interviewed by the OICS outlined the importance of being able to access education.

“As an incarcerated student, it is much more than an education and improved career prospects,” they said. “It is an identity, a cognitive behavioural tool, an opportunity for a family member to be proud of you and ultimately an instrument to a life beyond imprisonment.”

Australian National University professor of criminology Lorana Bartels, who consulted on the OICS report, says the lack of education on offer is a “squandered opportunity” to use the time in custody to help with rehabilitation and drive down recidivism.

“There’s really no good public policy reason not to be making these investments,” Bartels told Crikey.

A 2013 RAND Corporation report found that inmates who participated in a correctional education program had a 43% less chance of returning to prison, and a 13% higher chance of obtaining employment after being released.

An Australian Institute of Criminology study from 2016 using Western Australia as an example found that the more classes completed by someone in prison, the lower the chance they will return to prison, and the less likely they are to increase the seriousness of their offending.

“Education is the nucleus of rehabilitation and reintegration,” Minty said. “If that starting point is missing, it’s difficult.”

A recent US paper also estimated that there is a $3 return for every $1 spent on education programs in prison.

“If you want to be really hard-nosed and look at it in economic terms, it’s good bang for your buck,” Bartels says.

Due in part to the lack of education opportunities, the OICS found those detained at AMC experienced widespread boredom, with 80% of detainees saying they felt bored most of the time.

“It was quite dispiriting — this feeling that they weren’t able to use their time in a productive and positive way,” Minty says. “We heard from detainees that there’s no motivation to get out of bed in the morning. They sometimes got out of bed for medication then went back to bed.”

The boredom has also led to other health risks, with nearly 60% of the prison population at AMC being smokers, far higher than the Australian population.

Bartels has been visiting the AMC prison since it opened in 2008, and has seen this boredom first-hand.

“That pervasive boredom has been a pretty constant thread, but it has definitely been worse in the last couple of years,” she said.

“There’s just nothing to do, and that is actually a really dangerous thing for a prison.”

There have been a number of security incidents at AMC in recent years. In late 2020 there were riots and serious fires resulting in significant damage to the prison, and more unrest was seen at the site in early 2021.

A spokesperson for the ACT government said that separate education providers will deliver a range of courses under a new tender process while a longer-term provider is found, which it said could take up to two years, but the programs are expected to commence “early next year”.

“This follows a procurement process that did not deliver a value for money solution for the ACT government,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said units in Certificate II Construction have remained available at the prison, and 67 detainees have completed multiple courses as of August.

Crikey understands the prison also offers programs aimed at giving incarcerated people awareness of the skills needed to reintegrate into society and reduce their risk of reoffending.