A new scheme for hundreds of prisoners to teach their fellow inmates literacy skills is being introduced across jails in an attempt to boost rock-bottom reading levels.
Six in ten adult male prisoners have reading skills lower than those expected of an 11-year-old, which holds them back from securing a job or training and staying away from a life of crime.
Two charities have been awarded £1.8 million to pilot new reading and writing programmes over the next two years in 15 prisons across England and Wales. The programmes will be targeted at about 750 prisoners with the aim of bringing more offenders into classrooms.
The Shannon Trust will use the funding to recruit full-time staff to introduce prisoner-to-prisoner reading programmes across nine jails.
