Languages Behind Bars in Iceland!

The European Prison Education Association (EPEA) held its bi-annual conference in Hverogaði, Iceland, in connection with a training course ‘Better Out! How to prepare inmates for taking place in the labour market?’ from the 5th-9th of June. 

Delegates enjoyed presentations from key note speakers from all corners of the European community, discussing the importance of rehabilitation and education in prison, and the challenges of supporting ex-prisoners in finding – and keeping – a job.   We provided formal and informal presentations on the Languages Behind Bars project through workshops and informal networking throughout the conference and the training programme.

Cost-benefit analysis of prison education
A cost-benefit analysis of prison education in Iceland revealed a very interesting statistic – for every Icelandic Crown invested in providing education in prison, the economy benefited by 17 Crowns.  That is, greater economic productivity, along with increased taxation revenue from ex-prisoners fully integrated into the labour market, in addition to the reduced economic costs of re-offending and recidivism, and the social benefits of reduced victimisation and enhanced social cohesion outweigh by far the economic costs of providing education in prison.

Every reason to invest
Studies conducted across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland indicated another fascinating phenomenon in our understanding of prison education.  Helgi Gunnlaugsson, professor at the University of Iceland sought in his research to evaluate the common social perception that ‘prisons are too lenient’.  In fact, he found that given a series of ‘mock’ cases involving a range of serious offences, members of the public were more lenient in suggesting appropriate punishments than experienced judges and legal advisors. 

What this tells us is that there is absolutely no reason not to invest in education in prison.  It has a clear social and economic benefit, and true, informed public opinion tends to favour the rehabilitative agenda over the punitive one – despite what might be reported in the media.

die Berater® at the EPEA Conference
We were very proud to present our project Languages Behind Bars (www.lbb-project.eu) at the conference.  Language competences are a significant pre-requisite to successful labour market integration for ex-prisoners.  However, conducting a series of workshops at the conference, our LBB project coordinator, Paul Talbot went beyond looking at the role of education for prisoners, highlighting the role of enhanced training and education opportunities for prison staff.  The LBB project is working with both target groups, to enhance communication between foreign-national prison inmates and the staff who work with them.  Paul’s workshops engaged conference delegates in a detailed analysis of the problems that prison staff face in supporting ex-prisoners into the labour market, and helped delegates to identify a number of creative, innovative solutions to help them address the pressing training and educational needs of prison staff.  This led to an interesting project generation session, where delegates tried to match their ideas to current and previous European funding priorities.

We are now working on new ideas for projects to meet the Council of Europe recommendations in the new funding period, and will be excited to hear from others in the field of prison education who want to be part of this vision.