Mr. Stephen O'Connor:

Our knowledge of desistance theory tells us that maturation is often one of the key points at which people decide they do not want their current lifestyle and want something else. The job of education is to provide the opportunities for people to realise that opportunity of making changes in their lives but we cannot do that as educationalists only. There are a myriad of other supports that are required to help people adjust when they get out of prison. That is why the Pathways Centre in Dublin has played an enormous role in helping students realise their potential post release as they attend further education colleges, third level colleges and other places of learning.

It is remarkable and wondrous to see somebody who one knew in the early part of a sentence and maybe an officer has come forward to say this person could do well on one of these courses and he or she just needs a little guidance. They come up to us and after a very short period of time, they get imbued with the enthusiasm that is always part of the adult learning experience. They achieve wonderful things.

At our presentations each term, it is incredible to see the amount of affirmation given by the rest of the prison population to the students who have achieved something academically. I feel as happy and as joyous about somebody achieving a level 2 in QQI as I do about somebody getting an Open University degree. The level 2 qualification is the bread and butter of the adult educator in that sense because those people have come from a place where they were not part of the adult education story and now they are part of it. For those students who do not take any examinations, success is sometimes measured in the fact that they get out of bed, are not depressed and take part in an educational class. They interact with other prisoners and talk about the kinds of things people outside can take for granted, such as the arts, culture and a range of other subjects they would never be introduced to otherwise.

On one occasion, the Abbey Theatre gave a performance of The Risen Peoplein Wheatfield Prison. I think it was ten years ago. One of the prisoners in the audience was interviewed after the performance and appeared on "Morning Ireland". The prisoner was asked how he responded to the play and whether he enjoyed it. He said it was the first time he had ever been to a play and that he found it engrossing. It was fantastic. If we are talking about measuring the success of education, we have to take more into account than examination success. Getting people imbued with an enthusiasm for learning is probably the biggest achievement in a prison environment.