ICT and the education of prison inmates

Abstract

This study seeks to look at a number of ICT prison education initiatives through a Foucauldian lens. Prison is a site where issues of power (and, consequently, knowledge) are more visible than in other contexts, and therefore ideally suited to being examined through critical reflection, the methodology on which this study is based. All prisons offer some kind of educational provision, with a number of countries being more developed than others in this area. ICT and e-learning can be effective tools in education, with uses in academic, vocational and life skills education. The effectivity of e-learning in prisons is adversely affected, however, by a number of barriers which are sustained through a discourse of security. Apart from this, it was found that many ICT initiatives in prisons are mostly concerned with academic education, with vocational education trailing somewhat behind and life skills instruction a distant third. Critical reflection enabled this researcher to look at how power/knowledge manifested itself in the various projects investigated in this study, to better understand how such dynamics may be challenged in the future. The projects investigated fell into two types: large-scale EU projects which were investigated through an examination of the various reports written about their functioning, and a small-scale project carried out at the San Blas Drug Rehabilitation Centre limits of Rabat, Malta by this researcher. The final part of the study is an analysis of these projects through a Foucauldian perspective in an effort to identify possible areas of future growth.