23/06/2022
Cachella Smith
DWRM ‘Doing What Really Matters’ is a social enterprise working to improve prisoners’ access to further and higher education, as well as supporting people to continue studying when they are released.
Following a successful pilot across 2021/22 which involved 50 students across 12 prisons on four different courses, the organisation is now preparing for their next academic year of study – with a target of 100 students.
By encouraging links between prisons and universities, DWRM looks to enable prisoners to study for degrees and other courses while they are still serving a sentence but also continue that course once they leave. With a focus on Higher Education, they also support with further education and apprenticeships. They currently partner with a number of universities including the University of Westminster, SOAS and the London College of Creative Media.
Co-director Ruth McFarlane told Work with Offenders: “People don't always want to study criminology or sociology, sometimes people want to do creative writing or maths.
“Partly, it's about self change, a belief that I can have a new identity – I'm not always going to be tarnished with this particular stigma and label. But also, it's about how you fill your time.”
Co-director with Ruth is Dan Whyte who has served a long prison sentence himself. During his time in prison, he completed GCSEs all the way through to Masters. He is now currently working on his PhD which he began while he was on day release.
Currently, education within the prison system is mainly focused on level one and level two qualifications as well as some apprenticeship/vocational work. Ruth has said prisoners should have more choice in their courses, as well as more chance to progress with studies.
Prior to Covid, some universities engaged in Prison University Partnerships which offered an introduction to Higher Education via unaccredited short term courses. The Open University is a further option for prisoners wanting to study at this level.
For those who are newly released, Ruth explained how DWRM provides support: “It involves some digital skills training and study skills support, but also just some practical help with their admissions process, some advocacy about talking to the university about their conviction, and making sure that the appropriate risk assessments are done. It's also getting them to a stage where that is then done, and they don't have to keep telling that story.”
The organisation will receive referrals from the DWP restart advisors and probation officers.
To help those in prison who are finding managing deadlines stressful, the organisation uses 'Email a Prisoner' has a free phone number which students can add to their PIN and also schedule drop-in times for phone calls with university tutors.
With regards to seminars, DWRM works to find alternative solutions including dedicated tutor time as well as having access to discussion questions.
Like mainstream students, prisoners are able to apply for student loans, although the law currently mandates that only those within six years of release are able to apply for a loan. A range of organisations are lobbying for this to change.
Ruth explained that DWRM was an idea made easier through Covid.
“Universities were having to think about how they support students who can't attend campus, but also, because of the falling student numbers, universities were looking for ways that they could reach different audiences,” she said.
“Because they've been having to do recorded lectures and phone tutorials and other things – it just means that their mindset is different as a result of COVID, and they're more open to how they can offer that support on a remote basis.
“The other thing that's happened is it's helped to develop some of the technology solutions. Prisons are really risk averse when it comes to technology.
“What we've seen is a really rapid adoption of digital visits, like video visits for family and friends. We've also seen much increased use of devices, such as secure Chromebooks provided by a couple of different organisations for use in cell.”
She explained this has enabled the possibility of prisoners accessing offline devices which contain pre-recorded lectures and study materials – which can be synced every couple of weeks to update them.
Ruth said that where there are barriers from universities, they tend to centre around three areas; concern over being able to offer the right support and teaching remotely, concern over whether prisoners would be at the right level education wise, and some reputational concern. However, many universities have been keen to address this and to reach target groups of students who might not previously have considered university study.
You can find out more about DWRM here.