Education and training in a Scottish prison for young offenders: a desk review of inspection reports

In recent years, education and training as mechanisms for enabling criminal desistence or rehabilitation have gained prominence. The growth of human rights discourse has undoubtedly contributed to this situation whereby prisoners must be provided with opportunities to flourish and develop skills. Basing itself upon official documents (HMIPS, 2016, 2018a, 2018b, 2021) written by the Scottish Prison Inspectorate (SPS), this paper contributes, through a discourse analysis of these official public documents, insights into the education and training available in a Scottish young offenders’ prison. The four official sources cited illustrate a wider policy literature analysis of this field by the author of the reports published by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). The official sources are contextualised through an academic literature about this penal field of rehabilitative effort. In particular, Gresham Sykes’ “pains of imprisonment” concept and Ervine Goffman’s critical perspective about asylums draw our attention to the challenges impacting education and training in the prison setting.