L’éducation en prison à la périphérie de l’éducation pour tous

Abstract

Prison education on the margins of education for all – Prison education is an issue which would benefit from a more active role of initiative on the part of UNESCO. In Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, advocacy groups and networks are emerging; the same is true at university level, where research conducted on prison education is gaining greater visibility. This article is based on the author’s visits to prisons and meeting with officials, actors and prisoners in many prisons in more than 70 countries in the context of his work as a Senior Research Specialist for the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning. At times contradictory, the objectives policy makers and prison educators set themselves include intelligently occupying inmates; informing and entertaining them; reducing recidivism; offering professional training; and calming them down. As a tool to both prevent recidivism and alleviate the effects of their disadvantaged background, prison education thus concentrates all the ambiguities of an education aiming to liberate in an environment that does not allow freedom. Inmates are destabilised by the confined space and daily schedule of the prison environment, which do not correspond in any way to the distances and rhythms of the outside world. Although they do have access to a few sports activities, to the prison library, to work, to training, all of these activities take place in an artificially constructed space-time. Education is a right and, as such, it should not be justified economically or in terms of security and order. This article examines some good and bad motivations for further education in prison. It concludes with suggestions for prison education for all throughout life, whatever that life may look like.