Good Practice

Prisoners' Education Trust (PET) believes in working with others to achieve change and innovation, this section celebrates best practice by champions of learning, training and skills.

Here, we highlight some of the best examples of initiatives led by prisons, ex-prisoners or other charities to support people in prison with their learning or rehabilitation. Browse articles written by PET staff and partners below.

 

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    PLA case study #4 - Angela Cairns, Shannon Trust

    All | Prisoner Learning Alliance

    Shannon Trust works in 120 prisons in the UK. With its army of prisoner mentors, it supports over 4,000 prisoners a year to learn to read. CEO Angela Cairn tells us more.

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    Building bikes in jail

    All | Employability

    PET's Head of Policy, Nina Champion, recently took part of a cycle race to raise money for the Margaret Carey Foundation, a charity which teaches prisoners how to refurbish old bikes, giving them positive and practical skills.

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    PLA case study #4 – Mark Blake – Project Development Officer, BTEG

    Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) | Government policy

    In the fourth installment of our spotlight on members of the Prisoner Learning Alliance, Mark Blake discusses the importance of BTEG for Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic people in communities and in the criminal justice sector.

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    PLA case study #3 - Tracy Hammond, Communication and Engagement Director, KeyRing

    All | Learning difficulties

    Tracy Hammond, Communication and Engagement Director at KeyRing, talks about her work ensuring people with learning disabilities are not left in the margins, both in prison and on the outside.

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    Cell In The City

    All | Arts

    Cell Rideout’s GOTOJAIL project aims to deepen public understanding about how prison works, by planting a replica cell in busy shopping centres. Media Manager Katy Oglethorpe travelled to Coventry to find out about the project and speak to some of the former prisoners who are helping to bring it to life.

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    PLA case study #2: Charlotte Weinberg, Executive Director, Safe Ground.

    All | Arts

    In the second of our spotlight on members of the Prisoner Learning Alliance, Charlotte Weinberg tells us about her work at Safe Ground.

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    PLA case study #1: Sarah Turvey, Director, Prison Reading Groups

    All | Literacy

    Two years ago, PET set up the Prisoner Learning Alliance, a network of charities and other organisations working in education in the prison sector. Individually, PLA members span the prison learning journey, from basic literacy, to further education, to employment. Collectively, the PLA aims to provide the expertise and strategic vision to inform future priorities, policies and practices.

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    Barriers behind bars: educating foreign nationals in prison

    All | International

    An EU-funded project is looking to find out about how the education received by foreign national prisoners, with the aim of finding creative solutions to allow them to access education in their own languages.

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    Prisons Stretch to iPads Inside

    All | Learner voice

    Prison arts charity Stretch Digital has been awarded a contract to bring its digital storytelling workshops into more prisons, allowing inmates to use iPads to produce autobiographical films.

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    “Every Young Person Should Have a Plan” – A Learner Responds to Charlie Taylor

    Learner voice

    On 25th January Prisoners’ Education Trust held their annual academic symposium on the theme of education for young people and young adults in custody. At the event Charlie Taylor, who is leading the Government review into the Youth Justice System, said it was time for "radical and fundamental change". At the symposium Steve (not his real name) described his experience, showing just why such radical change is needed.