NCJ Number
75463
Date Published
1980
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This report describes the establishment and operation of a basic education project in England for short-term offenders through the collaboration of the National Association for the Care Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO), the Wiltshire Probation and After-Care Service, and the Wiltshire Education Authority.
Abstract
The Basic Education Project set up in Swindon in Wiltshire County during October 1977, originated in the 'Wiltshire Scheme.' The project was concerned when a survey, undertaken by Wiltshire probation officers as part of a collaborative effort with NACRO to marshal social services for short-term offenders' needs, determined that a large number of offenders had serious reading difficulties. After initial attempts to impart basic education skills to offenders through unsupervised voluntary tutorial efforts had failed, an education day center specifically for offenders was set up in the probation offices in Swindon. Supported by a Home Office grant and staffed by volunteers and a permanent part-time teaching staff, the primary goal of the project was to provide a facility on a daily basis whereby offenders could pursue education goals within the areas of literacy, numeracy, communication, language, and social skills through tutoring and group work. The important role played by volunteer tutors is indicated by their greater length of stay with the project and by the crucial role of the one-on-one relationship between the tutor and the offender in successfully educating and counseling the offender in successfully educating and counseling the offender. Although the basic education program uses a structured approach, instruction is oriented toward work-related skills and toward building self-confidence. Also, probation officers are trained by the project to recognize educational disabilities in a short-term offender and to make a recommendation to the court for an offender's attendance at the education project classes as part of a noncustodial sentence. Preliminary findings on those students show that reconviction rates among recent student groups are low and that as many as 60 percent of the students leave to take up full-time employment. Brief biographies are provided on three of the project's recent students.