Students from the University of Durham¡¯s School of Applied Social Sciences will join an equal number of offenders serving time at HMP Durham and HMP Frankland for a 10-week course in criminal justice, covering topics such as whether prison works, the causes of crime, and drugs law.

The initiative is based on the US Inside-Out programme, originally developed in 1997 at Temple University in Philadelphia, which has involved more than 20,000 learners. Durham¡¯s criminology lecturers have completed Inside-Out training inside maximum security prisons in the US.

Durham said that the programme would encourage inmates to ¡°recognise their capacity to make changes in their own lives as well as in the broader society¡±, and to be ¡°challenged intellectually¡±, potentially enhancing their education and employment prospects on release.

At the same time, the project enables students to get a new perspective from behind bars on the issues that they are studying.

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In the US, Inside-Out has led to the creation of thinktanks within prisons supported by academics, and Fiona Measham, Durham¡¯s professor of criminology, said she hoped that the UK initiative would prove equally successful.

¡°This is a very powerful programme which will challenge both the ¡®inside¡¯ and ¡®outside¡¯ students and encourage them to open up about their preconceptions of each other,¡± said Professor Measham.

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¡°We will discuss the labels we attach to people and the feelings and emotions associated with them.¡±

The first class at HMP Durham is scheduled for 29 October, with classes at Frankland set to follow in January.

Angie Petit, the deputy governor of HMP Durham, added: ¡°This partnership with Durham University will provide a new opportunity for prisoners to study alongside university students to discuss key issues in the criminal justice system.

¡°This will not only help them build new skills, it will also encourage them to re-examine the impact of their own actions on wider society.¡±

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chris.havergal@tesglobal.com