Why the new Justice Secretary needs to care about prison education

This week the Rt Hon David Lidington MP took up responsibility for for the tens of thousands of men and women in our prisons. The aftershocks from the General Election will leave MPs and Ministers wrestling with major political decisions facing the country, but the new Justice Secretary cannot afford to be distracted. The issues he faces are urgent and hugely important. The reports of individual inspectors as well as his own department’s statistics chronicling dismal increases in violence, self-harm and deaths can have left him in no doubt of the precarious state of the country’s prisons.

One of the most acute examples of this lies in his own constituency. Aylesbury young offender institution (YOI) holds some of the country’s youngest prisoners serving the longest sentences. Branded the UK’s “toughest youth prison” by The Mirror, it was one of several institutions to suffer riots at the end of last year. Its situation has caused repeated concern among inspectors - who in 2015 reported alarming rates of violence and self-harm, under a “punitive and restrictive” regime that offered little opportunity for prisoners to leave their cells, let alone spend their time purposefully.

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