Reading ability among the prison population in the UK

Many approaches to prison reform have highlighted the need for a comprehensive education programme as part of a push towards rehabilitation.

The UK prison population as of August 26, 2005 stood at 77,025 (72,413 of whom are male).1 Some 84 per cent are of white ethnic origin and 11 per cent black. Among them trends have been identified relating to many factors. Socio-economic deprivation, drug use and urban location are among many factors found to increase the likelihood of imprisonment. The interrelationship between these factors, as with much social research, makes specific identification of any one predisposing factor difficult. For this reason, some of the more startling claims about poor educational performance being linked to criminal tendency need to be looked at more closely.

A good example might be the assumption that poor educational performance leads to an increased predisposition to prison. The direct cause and effect implied by this statement fails, however, to include that poor educational performance may be linked to a myriad of factors, such as unstable home life (possibly involving abuse of some sort), absenteeism from school, peer pressure, drug use and so on. 

A number of studies2,3 have highlighted the increased prevalence of refractive error or visual impairment within the prison population. The factors listed previously are likely to also be contributory to the individuals involved not having had access to or having approached normal health and vision health services.

To assume that the reduced vision had led to the criminality is one assumption too many without much further study, greater sampling and longer-term monitoring. However, a link between poor vision and poor learning performance is likely and therefore contributory.
Some key facts of interest have been published by the Department of Health: