Law in Action

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Law Show

Documentaries

Factual: Crime & Justice

Factual: Politics

Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life.

The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.

Weekly conversation that will give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it's unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.

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The Law Show: Prison Education

Prison Education

BBC Radio 4 - The Law Show, Prison Education

Prison education is 'chaotic', often 'inadequate'. How could it cut reoffending better?

Prison education is 'chaotic' and often 'inadequate'. Joshua Rozenberg finds out where it is failing and how it can better help prisoners gain the skills needed to cut reoffending.

Prison education is “chaotic”, says the House of Commons Education Select Committee, and often “inadequate” says Ofsted. Yet, if done right, it can help reduce offending, and the number of victims, by giving prisoners the skills they need to get a job upon release. It’s no small task. Over half of prisoners have reading ages below 11. A large proportion have special educational needs. Many were expelled from school and have no qualifications.  Yet education doesn’t seem to have been a priority. Now the government has promised a "step-change" for an improved Prisoners Education Service for England and Wales in its White Paper. Can it deliver? 
In a special edition of Law in Action Joshua Rozenberg speaks to people whose expertise and experience spans the spectrum of prison education: 

•	Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor 
•	Chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon MP
•	Governor Steven Johnson, Head of Reducing Reoffending at HMP Leeds, who speaks on education for the Prison Governors Association
•	Open University criminology lecturer, manager for students in secure environments, PhD candidate and former prisoner Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski
•	David Breakspear, former prisoner and prison education campaigner 
•	Joe Tarbert, Employment Support and Partnerships Manager at Redemption Roasters 
•	Neah, former prisoner and trainee barista at Redemption Roasters

Joshua puts some of their concerns to the Prisons Minister Victoria Atkins MP, and hears about the government's plans to improve prison education. 

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg 
Producer: Arlene Gregorius 
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Production coordinator: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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