5. Dr CAM CALDER (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Corrections
Has she received any progress reports on the Government’s commitment to boost the literacy and numeracy skills of prisoners?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Corrections) Link to this
It is simply not good enough that up to 90 percent of prisoners cannot read and write well, and 80 percent have difficulty with basic maths. Our Government is committed to improving the educational skills of prisoners. We know that those who find jobs when they released are less likely to reoffend. I am pleased to advise significant progress on this commitment. Over the past financial year 23,000 hours of literacy and numeracy tuition have been provided to prisoners, and that is an impressive increase of 10,000 hours over the same period in the previous year.
Hon JUDITH COLLINS Link to this
The Department of Corrections has run a pilot project to train its own prison industry instructors to deliver literacy and numeracy instruction to prisoners while they are on the job. The pilot has been extremely successful. Since December 2009, 99 prisoners have been supported in this way. A further 56 prison industry instructors will now be trained to deliver on-the-job instruction over the next 2 years. New contracts are also being negotiated with external providers to further expand numeracy and literacy education in our prisons over the next 3 years. It is such a shame that Labour never did a thing.