How I came to be teaching in a prison

This article is not about education technology, but I hope you find it interesting anyway.

There is only one way to respond to a stranger phoning at eight in the evening to ask if you’d like to teach in the local prison. 

“OK. So which one of my friends put you up to this practical joke?” 

“No, seriously. I’m the head of education at the local prison.” 

“Of course you are!”, I answered. “And I’m the Queen of Sheba. Nice to make your acquaintance.” 

“No, you’ve been recommended to me by Bob Johnson.” 

“Ah. Um, well, erm sorry, I, er….” 

Bob Johnson (not his real name) was the principal of the local adult education institute, where I was teaching a course called Understanding The Economy. I’d written to him proposing the course, which I wrote myself. He invited me in for an interview, which turned out to be more of a chat, and he hired me. The course, now in its second innings, was doing well. 

What was it like?

Teaching in prison was quite an eyeopener. For a start, I had to sign the Official Secrets Act. I was given to understand that I was not to divulge any routines, times that things happen, procedures.   

Was it scary?

My job was to teach a group of prisoners an examination course in Economics. The class consisted solely of murderers, which sounds a lot more disconcerting than it was. These were not hardened criminals or terrorists, but people who had apparently lost their temper and then lashed out, with horrendous consequences. Also, unlike the tough school I was teaching in at the time, the classrooms had an alarm button. 

“Whatever you do”, said one teacher who clearly had been there a while, “Don’t press that button thinking it’s the light switch. I did that once and the place was swarming with guards in seconds!” 

There was only one occasion when I was somewhat worried. A prisoner I didn’t teach, and who I therefore didn’t know, came into my classroom to tell me his thoughts about the economy. He was rather animated, and so it flashed across my mind that I might need to make a hasty exit. It was then that I realised that I was behind the teacher’s desk and in front of the wall, while he was in front of the desk some way ahead of the door – and the alarm button.

Nothing untoward happened, but after that I was always careful about where I positioned myself in the room. In short, I made sure I could reach the alarm button without difficulty or delay.

The most interesting aspect of that episode, I think, is that it shows that not all teaching of classes of adults is equal. At the time I had had plenty of experience of teaching adults, but it had never occurred to me that there was a possibility I could be physically harmed by the people I was teaching. However, it should stand to reason that if you’re teaching people who have been incarcerated for a violent crime, you need to be more aware, and consciously think about where you walk and where you position yourself. You have to adopt a mindset of “what if…”.

Not that “my” students seemed to be threatening in any way. I didn’t spend my lessons with them furtively glancing at the alarm button! 

Why economics?

Why had my students chosen to study Economics? A yearning need to learn about the workings of the economy? A feeling that the qualification could help them once they got out?

Unfortunately, neither. There was a choice between football (“Too energetic.”), computing (“Boring.”), Art (“I’m useless at drawing.”) and Economics (“sounds like a good opportunity to take it easy…”). 

One episode made me smile. I got chatting to a prisoner from another class, as people were filing out of lessons. He was a very genial person, and was doing a course in computing. I asked a colleague what that person was in for, and answered “fraud”. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing a course in computing so as to reduce the chances of his being caught next time!

Teaching methods

I knew a fair amount about how to teach adults, and indeed went on a few years later to do an MA in the subject. It’s a fascinating area, which I covered to some extent in the article Converting An Offline Course To An Online One. However, none of that had any currency at all, because my students wanted to spend each lesson chatting. All my attempts to teach Economics lasted for perhaps half the lesson, during which I had the impression they were either humouring me or protecting me from the education management. The rest of the time they wanted to discuss current affairs and books they’d read. All of which is useful when studying economics, but not necessarily guaranteed to help students learn concepts such as opportunity cost or diminishing marginal returns. I was dreading results day. 

They all passed the exam with flying colours.  

It’s sobering to reflect that, all these years later, my prison students are almost certainly holding down ordinary jobs, enjoying family life, living normal lives.  

At least, I like to think so. 

Evaluation

Did I enjoy teaching in a prison? Absolutely. I’m glad to have had the experience, and I like to think that my lessons provided enjoyment, food for thought, and useful concepts from the world of economics. 

Acknowledgement

I should like to thank Michael Crossland for his comments on drafts of this article.