The Open University | HMP Oakwood | HMP Stafford | HMP Wandsworth | HMP Wormwood Scrubs |
The Open University HMP Wandsworth, HMP Wormwood Scrubs, HMP Oakwood, HMP Stafford
Model: Various, including Learning Together and a seminar series
The Open University has been supporting Students in Secure Environments since the 1970s. It ran a variety of prison-based public legal education pilot projects with St Giles Trust, HMP Wandsworth and HMP Wormwoood Scrubs over 2017/18 academic year. Small groups of OU law students worked with St. Giles peer advisors to identify areas of legal need within their client community and develop suitable public legal education projects to help address that need.
OU students also contribute to the research, design and delivery of a law seminar series in HMP Wormwood Scrubs, incorporating current academic debates on topical legal issues.
Currently in HMP Stafford and HMP Oakwood the OU runs a research seminar. Each month, an academic delivers a short lecture to prisoners, who are then invited to ask questions and discuss the issues raised. Topics have ranged from the rise of Donald Trump to, to the atmosphere of the moon.