INTRODUCTION

Prisoners in Canada are actively engaged in education. The Canadian public, prison officials, prison teachers, and students generally agree that education makes a difference for prisoners when they are released from prison. Toward this end, school has become an integrated program of most prisons in Canada. This study was an attempt to ascertain educational opportunities available to prisoners, literacy-related goals of prisoners upon release from prison, and factors which influence the attainment of those goals. The data is based upon the research conducted in five prisons in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in spring of 1997.

Education programs in prisons are not new. The first North American prison, built in the late 1700's in Pennsylvania by the Quakers, was intended as a quiet place for study and reflection. Prisoners were to reflect on their wrongdoing, change their values, and become reformed.

The first Canadian prison to open its doors was Kingston Penitentiary in 1835. The penal philosophy of the time included a strict regime of sanitation, inspection, separate confinement, sobriety, coarse diet, hard labour, and a rough and uniform apparel. Retribution, not rehabilitation, was strictly enforced. During the 19th century, a teacher provided individual instruction in cells during the evening hours. The emphasis of this instruction was on basic literacy for a few prisoners (MacGuigan, 1977, p. 21).

According to Cohen (1985), "The founders of the penitentiary system in America and Europe were confident that they could devise a solution to the crime problem, a solution that would result in a better society."(p.195). Today, Canadians generally agree that prison is not a solution to the crime problem.

The predominant aims of prisons are punishment and rehabilitation. Literacy and education programs are intended to provide a rehabilitative function. Timmins (1989) indicates that, historically, prison education has sought to fulfil five functions:

1. Uplifting morals through Bible study, hard work and discipline. ... 2. Training in skills. ... 3. Developing intellectuality and human understanding. ...4. Changing personality or behavior modes. ... 5. Increasing opportunity structures (p.62).