The bittersweet experience of starting teaching with the Crito Project

Caged by Dave Nakayama (licensed under Creative Commons)

I have been a tutor with the Crito project for little under a year now, and I can only describe the experience as ‘bittersweet’. Whilst it is difficult to overstate just how rewarding working with The Crito Project is and how much of a positive impact it clearly has on our students’ lives, the sad truth is that it has really highlighted for me just how much wasted potential there is among the prison population in the United Kingdom. The classes I have taught, despite many of the students having previously had little to no access to higher education, consistently outperformed the equivalent first year undergraduate classes I teach at university. The students really take to the content and format of the classes we teach, which try to re-create the university academic experience as closely as possible. More often than not our students finish our courses having had some kind of significant perspective shift, which I believe to be crucial to the overall rehabilitative process that prisons should be trying to emphasize.

    Whilst there certainly are many great educational resources and services for prisoners, the majority of these focus on addressing the most fundamental problems in getting prisoners to engage with education by providing an educational experience that begins ‘at the beginning’ with literacy and numeracy skills. The unfortunate consequence of this model is that there is a significant number of prisoners that are left out, being that bit too advanced in their education to really benefit from the services that the prison provides. Combined with the general experience of prison life, the result is a severe lack of mental engagement and stimulation that is proven to be a significant factor for poor mental health and wellness in adults. Our students often tell us that their Crito Project sessions are the highlight of their week, and that their mood has significantly boosted since starting their course. With the prison industry in the U.K. currently being in the grip of a severe mental health crisis, The Crito Project can truly be said to provide an invaluable and essential service by providing free access to accredited, university level education.