Global Accessibility Awareness Day might not be on your radar if the biggest problem you’ve ever had online was a shaky wifi connection or no 4G on the tube.
But what if you were completely without access to the internet, a phone, or a laptop?
The majority of convicts are in that scenario; when they are freed, they will enter a new digital environment and risk falling behind in terms of technology.
Coracle Inside’s CEO, James Tweed, is putting a lot of effort towards fixing it. The business, which originally provided technology to the marine sector, is one of a select few collaborating with the Ministry of Justice and HM Prisons and Probation Service to give prisoners internet-free laptops for educational purposes.
‘Everyone needs basic digital skills just to get by in the world today,’ he says. ‘We need to be able to use a computer or touch screen to make appointments, buy things or access services. This wasn’t the case not very long ago, so prisoners emerging into this digital world without these skills may quickly find themselves in problems.
‘If we want people to reintegrate into society and not reoffend, we need to ensure they have the skills to do so.’
The company, which this year won the King’s Award for promoting opportunity, now works with 86 prisons, and has distributed some 2,500 laptops on which inmates can access educational content, books – and even apprenticeships.
‘We’re not a college or a school,’ says Mr Tweed. ‘We’re enabling access to digital content ranging from reading schemes to the Open University. There are guys inside who’ve never used a laptop, so we’re teaching them the very basics, from how to use a trackpad and how to touch type to how to fill in a form.
‘All the basic skills that they just don’t otherwise have access to, but I think we take for granted.’
It is not only for life after prison that Mr Tweed set up the company. Access to education while in the system can prove a vital step in getting out of it.
‘If you’re in prison, everything is controlled for you,’ he says. ‘The lights get switched on and off, your door is obviously locked, you don’t have any control over anything – and that’s perfectly legitimate in prison.
‘But if you have access to a laptop, it gives you something you’ve got control over, just whether you do a bit of creative writing or watch a video that’s related to a course on something you’re interested in. You see that with people, where their whole attitude changes, because they’ve got something they can control and know they’re being given an opportunity.
‘And that sense of control gives hope.’
That feeling of hope is particularly important for prisoners on indeterminate IPP sentences says Mr Tweed. Although outlawed in 2012, in December there were still 2,892 prisoners in custody with no release date.
‘There’s a cycle of people who are completely stuck in prison with no hope, no sense of optimism, because they have no date to work towards,’ he says. ‘And one of the things they have to do is prove they’re safe to be released.
‘We worked with a guy in exactly that situation. Because of the lack of hope, he was a massive self-harmer, which meant he was kept on a particular wing and wasn’t allowed access to the workshops or education or any of the normal functions. That meant he couldn’t then prove he would engage and be ready for release, so you see the vicious cycle.’
The inmate was given a laptop by Coracle, and restarted his education.
‘He got access to one of our laptops and was able to demonstrate that he did 20 courses, and got the certificates,’ says Mr Tweed. ‘That enabled him to say “look if you give me an opportunity, I really want to learn, really want to turn my life around – but you need to let me get into the main part of the prison, need to let me engage.”
‘He has since been released.’
Education, Mr Tweed says, is essential – but many inmates have had a tumultuous relationship with the system before being sentenced.
‘Many have struggled with education in their past, with a majority of prisoners having been excluded from school – over 60% in fact, compared to less than 1% of the population of the whole.
‘So there’s a mix of poor education, learning difficulties and lack of awareness to deal with.
‘However, we’ve found that many have taken great strides through educational courses and have ended up with a far more positive view of how education works.’
Through the Coracle programme, Mr Tweed aims to give prisoners a more positive view of their own prospects – part of which is the confidence to engage in a digital world.
In doing so, he hopes to raise awareness of the life-changing power of digital literacy.