Management of Education Services in Prisons: A Case Study

Abstract

In this paper we assess the management of education services in Uganda prisons, taking a case study of Luzira Upper Prison. Specifically, this study established the kind of education services provided to inmates in Luzira Upper prison, as well as sought to establish the relationship between jail term and the type of education services offered to inmates in Luzira Upper prison. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gather the necessary data. With a single case study design. A questionnaire and an interview guide were used to collect data from inmates accessing education services, teachers, Prison Warders and senior prison staff purposively selected who composed the sample. (n=104) The study findings pointed to Vocational trainings, basic education in form of general subjects; creative art teaching lessons to the inmates among others. To establish whether jail term had a relationship with type of education service in Luzira Upper Prisons a correlation was computed, examined and interpreted using the Chi-Square Test. The results also pointed to a positive relationship between jail term and type of education program undertaken at Luzira Upper Prison by the inmates as indicated by (p = 0.565). This relationship is significant since the significance of 0.565 is discovered to be greater than 0.05. The study concluded that management of prison education services has a well-established curriculum with both vocational and academic courses being offered, the policy of voluntary participation to education is a major shortcoming leading to recidivism. We concluded that government needs to effectively increase finances to mitigate shortages arising from the education provision to inmates, strategically plan an expansion of the curricula to include skills targeting psycho social aspect in a restricted environment to allow complete rehabilitation after the inmate tenure. The study recommended that ministry of education and sports should not only make inmate education compulsory to all inmates but also take the leading role in adopting prison schools in on the list of community public schools in Uganda.