Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage today pushed the Government to cut reoffending and improve rehabilitation by helping inmates improve their reading skills. The move came following a report by the Business, Innovation, and Skills Committee which emphasised how the ability to read is critical to the rehabilitation of inmates, and the local MP called on the Government to ensure that all prison libraries are open at weekends.
Speaking in the chamber, Caroline said, "Can I ask the Sec of State to carefully consider the report from the Business, Innovation, and Skills select committee that was published this week that shows that improved literacy really supports rehabilitation and recommends that prison libraries should be open at weekends?"
The Secretary of State for Justice replied that he would "read this very carefully indeed", commenting that this was "a very helpful contribution to how we address the literacy problem."
He also took the opportunity to "pay tribute to all of the volunteers in the Toe by Toe programme, and also to all the prisoners who can themselves read, who devote time to helping those who cannot, to do so."
Speaking outside the chamber Caroline said,
"There is a clear link between those people who leave prison without any real skills and those who instantly slip back into a life of crime. If we don't equip people with the right skills then we can't hope to properly rehabilitate them. The ability to read is so fundamental that we have to do everything we can to make sure that everyone leaving prison can read and write well – only then can they get on in life and make a real, positive contribution to society."