Good education is the best premise for successful reintegration into society

At the JVA Ravensburg penal institution, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Education and Culture of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg presented new guidelines for secondary and vocational education within the penal system.

A good education and vocational training that matches the requirements of the job market constitute the best premise for a life without crime. This is why the secondary and vocational education provision for inmates of penal institutions is already given great significance within the federal state.

In order to further optimise this provision, Justice Minister Rainer Stickelberger and Education Minister Andreas Stoch now presented guidelines for education within the penal system. "We want to provide all inmates with a needs-oriented and appropriate range of educational measures", said both federal state ministers during a visit at the JVA Ravensburg penal institution. "Through education, the inmates are provided with a realistic chance for their social integration and thereby with a perspective for their future life."

Since spring, an inter-ministry working group of the federal state ministries for justice and for education and culture has developed guidelines for secondary and vocational education within the penal system. The aim is to provide all inmates – irrespective of the duration of their sentence, their language competences and their nationality – with suitable programmes for their secondary and vocational continuing education.

"Experience shows that many young people imprisoned in penal institutions have only a very low level of education", said Justice Minister Stickelberger. It is therefore necessary to first introduce them to the education programmes on offer and to motivate them towards participation. "Yet the results reveal that this is quite successful already." In the school year 2012/13, for instance, a total of 422 inmates successfully graduated with a secondary or vocational education qualification. Currently, 497 inmates are apprenticed in a vocational education and training course.

One of the main objectives of the federal state ministers is to intensify the contact between schools within and outside the penal system and to thereby improve their mutual profiting from their respective competences. "The teachers working within the penal system command a great degree of competences in the individual support of young people with special education histories", said Education Minister Stoch. Therefore, the two federal state ministries intend to further develop joint continuing education programmes for teachers, to name one measure. Teaching post students are to be given improved opportunities for looking into the world of education behind prison walls by way of work experience placements. "We provide good conditions for teachers working within the penal system and for allowing teachers to change posts from penal institutions to regular schools", added Stoch. In addition, this ensures the even greater integration of agreed educational goals and standards within the penal institutions.

Much stronger emphasis is to be placed also on integration into educational and professional life after inmates have served their prison sentence. One of the aims is to enable young people to seamlessly continue their vocational education and training outside the penal institution. In addition to new concepts, this requires intensified awareness training and public relations efforts as well as joint strategies with the chambers and industrial associations.