Jails are a 'university of crime', a charity says

Bobby Cummines, chief executive of Unlock, the association of ex-offenders, said this was making jails a "university of crime", not learning.

Older guards in particular maintained this "macho" culture, he told the Commons education and skills committee.

The prison population is 74,000, of whom 48% are thought to be illiterate.

'Not sissy'

Mr Cummines said: "There's some prison officers who see education as a threat because there are more prisoners who can write complaints."

Some newer prison officers were helpful and saw training offenders as a good thing, he added.

Mr Cummines said: "You can't teach prisoners unless they want to be taught. It's about showing that it's not a sissy thing to do."

The Shannon Trust, which runs literacy programmes for inmates, told the committee that more than 30,000 prisoners could not read.

It said in written evidence: "Many prisoners will not admit their ignorance and are allergic to teachers and classes."

The charity's director, Christopher Morgan, described the number of prisoners who could not read as "frighteningly large".