Ms Claire O'Connell:

The IPEA is very grateful to the committee for the invitation to join the session this morning. The IPEA was founded in 2004. It is a voluntary organisation which has consisted of people from various backgrounds, including prison teachers and researchers and others. Membership is open to all who are interested in prison education. We receive financial and practical support for our activities from the Irish Prison Service and the education and training boards.

The IPEA promotes the view that education in prison is a moral right that meets a basic human need. Within this perspective, personal development is considered to be an aim, a process and a result of prison education. Education in prison has the power to transform prisoners' lives by enabling them to understand, critique and question their previously unquestioned perceptions, assumptions and world view. Prison education can facilitate the prisoners successful re-entry into society by cultivating the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation necessary for active citizenship.

The aims of the association are: to act as a recognised branch of the European Prison Education Association, EPEA; to promote education in prison according to the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to the member states of the Council of Europe; to promote education in Irish prisons as set out in the joint Irish Prison Service-Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, Prison Education Strategy 2019-2022; to support and assist the professional development of persons involved in education in prison; to act as an advocate on behalf of education in Irish prisons; and to support penal reform.

The activities of the IPEA include annual conferences, memorial lectures, newsletters and networking events, both online and in person when possible. We promote the work of support agencies outside the prison such as the Bedford Row Family Project in Limerick, the Childhood Development Initiative in Tallaght and the Dillon’s Cross Project in Cork. As the Irish branch of the EPEA, we have hosted its biannual conference on several occasions, most recently in the Technical University, TU, Dublin in 2019. The IPEA supports the work of teachers working in prison education centres across the county. Prison education teachers are innovative, constantly flexible and always client-centred, reflecting the ethos of their centres.

In terms of future developments in prison education, the IPEA would like to see more work and discussion around the area of digital literacy. There is a significant potential to develop and grow online learning in prisons if learners are given access to personal learning devices, with restricted access, in their cells. Thus, the promotion of digital literacy is fundamental to our efforts in the coming years. The recently issued Adult Literacy for Life strategy outlined a vision in which we have “An Ireland where every adult has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital literacy to fully engage in society and realise their potential.” The Council of Europe prison education rules state "the education of prisoners must, in its philosophy, methods and content, be brought as close as possible to the best adult education in society outside", as our learners in prison are entitled to the same educational opportunities as adults returning to education in the community. Thus, it is a basic right that our learners should be provided with the opportunities to learn about and to develop their digital literacy skills, notwithstanding appreciated Irish Prison Service IT security concerns. During the Covid-19 lockdown, several blended learning courses were developed by City of Dublin Education and Training Board, CDETB, prison education teachers and teachers in centres across the country. Ideally these courses could be made available to students not just via a prison TV channel, as is currently planned, but also on in-cell devices. We look forward to evolving technologies and prison education practices which will open the door to developing further innovative study programmes for prisoners in Ireland.

The development of progression pathways for our students upon release is another area that the IPEA believes is of great importance. We welcome the work of initiatives such as the Mountjoy Prison Maynooth University partnership, MJMU. The recently launched Kickstart scholarship scheme, which will provide funding opportunities for people with prison experience to attend university, is a particularly welcome development. The Unlocking Potential project will not only provide support to students progressing to university studies, but will also guide third level institutions in the development of fair admissions policies, which are vital in ensuring that applicants with prison experience will be treated fairly.