Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine Norwegian prisoners' educational motives, and how previous incarceration, sentence length, and sentence served influence such motives. Three motive categories emerged: future planning (Factor 1), social reasons and escapism (Factor 2), and competence building (Factor 3). Among prisoners who participated in education, longer sentence predicted high score on both Factor 1 and Factor 3. Also, with the greater proportion of sentence served, participants scored higher on Factor 3. Among non-participants, longer sentence predicted high score on Factor 3. Previous incarceration was not significantly related to the educational motives for either of the two groups.
Highlights
Training and education for prisoners constitutes an important but often neglected aspect of adult learning.At the European level, the European Prison Rules (Council of Europe, 2006) state that it is a duty for prison services, politicians, and policy makers to guarantee that prisoners’ rights to education are met
In order to establish a sound knowledge base that can inform both policy and practice, and help give priority to the allocation of resources for prisoners’ education and training, the current study was carried out to determine the educational motives of Norwegian prisoners.This article outlines the importance that prisoners give to various motives for starting an educational programme in prison and highlights whether previous incarceration, sentence length, and sentence served have influence on the motives
According to the guidelines for identifying significant factor loadings based on sample size (Hair et al, 1995), seven items, five items, and three items, respectively, were considered in the interpretation of the first, second, and third factor (Table 1).The factors were labelled ‘future planning’ (Factor 1), ‘social reasons and escapism’ (Factor 2), and ‘competence building’ (Factor 3)
Summary
Training and education for prisoners constitutes an important but often neglected aspect of adult learning.At the European level, the European Prison Rules (Council of Europe, 2006) state that it is a duty for prison services, politicians, and policy makers to guarantee that prisoners’ rights to education are met. In Norway, access to education is a fundamental civil right, for prisoners. This is determined by Norwegian law as well as international conventions and recommendations. In order to establish a sound knowledge base that can inform both policy and practice, and help give priority to the allocation of resources for prisoners’ education and training, the current study was carried out to determine the educational motives of Norwegian prisoners.This article outlines the importance that prisoners give to various motives for starting an educational programme in prison and highlights whether previous incarceration, sentence length, and sentence served have influence on the motives
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