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The European Prison
Education Association
Is an ambassador for
The Pipeline Project
www.epea.org
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Vridsloselille State Prison |
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Vridsløselille State Prison, Denmark, will join the Pipeline Project
Vridsløselille State Prison was taken into use in 1859as a cell prison (so called Philadelphia prison) where the inmates were isolated both during work and leisure.
 The prison is star shaped built which means that four wings each with three floors extent from the midsection of the building called the 'central area'. Originally there were a clear view of the wings of the prison from the central area but the wings now have horizontal divisions and walls closing off the view to the central area. Through the years there have been substantial extensions of workshops, the school etc. and some of the cell capacity has been changed into joint facilities in the individual units.
Capacity
There is room for 244 inmates. In 2003 a temporary unit was set up to accommodate 13 Bandidos bikers because of problems in the state prison in Nyborg. The unit in Nyborg had increased too much.
 There are several special units in Vridsløselille: the infirmary, an isolation unit, a unit for treatment of drug abuse and a unit for inmates who choose to be in solitary confinement. The prison receives men who are over 23 of age from Greater Copenhagen and Sealand who are to be placed in a closed prison.
Clientele
A lot of the inmates are convicted of robbery and drug related crime and some serve a sentence for homicide or other sorts of serious crime of violence. Accordingly this prison houses many criminals with long sentences according to Danish standards. Half of the inmates are marked by many years of alcohol or drug abuse. About one third of the abusers are alcohol abusers and about two thirds are drug abuser.
Textile workplace Education and employment
About 20% of the inmates are employed with education during the day such as FVU-courses (Preparatory adult education), AVU-courses (general adult education) and Higher Preparatory Examination. Furthermore, there are teachings in Danish for foreigners and dyslexic courses. (The education in Vridsløselille will be described in more details later on.) Inmates may work with maintenance (carpentry, painting, bricklaying, electricity work and plumbing), cleaning, textile work, factory work and packaging. It was possible for inmates earlier to be temporary released to go to institutes of education in the area of Copenhagen, but due to political restrictions this possibility no longer exists. Treatment programmes The unit for inmates who are voluntarily in solitary confinement is a protection unit for inmates who because of the nature of their crime, debt or the like cannot be in association with other inmates. Here the inmates have a limited community with each other and if possible they are accommodated to other institutions. In 1997 a project with drug treatment was introduced with the treatment facility Kongens Ø as an experiment. In order to reduce the negative effects of a large prison the ordinary joint units are divided into smaller units with regular staff attached to it. The prison also offers Cognitive Skills programmes and courses in Anger Management.
Education in the Prison
The inmates have no access to the Internet. They only have access to a computer without constant supervision at the school premises. There are a few units that have computers and these are placed in a locked room used for teaching. The rooms are only unlocked when a teacher is present.
The school has access over 30 computers distributed all around the prison. In the main school area there are 5 computers in the classroom for independent students, 13 in the computer room and two in the library. The rest is distributed out on seven other localities.
The computers are installed with Windows XP and the Office package and several programmes for Danish, Math and English.
Danish, Math and English are the subjects primarily being taught at the school. The teaching is both teacher and project orientated and mostly differentiated.
The inmates can also study or participate in classes such as art, music, computer science, sports, Spanish, business economics and baking.
It is possible for the inmates to complete a Higher Preparatory Examination over a number of years. The teachers for this type of education are external and so are the teachers for business economy and Spanish. There are seven teachers employed to teach the rest of the classes both at the school and out in the different units. The teaching mostly takes place in various classrooms.
Demand and risk analysis
Technically the school lacks a connection to the Internet for use in the education.
There is a great need for such a connection. Many of the new teaching materials have a web side attached. Usually on the web sides are more information, exercises and so on that can be downloaded.
Many of the inmates need to get familiar with browsing on the Internet and learning how to use an e-mail programme. Outside the walls there are a very few people who don't have access to the Internet. Today it is not only necessary to have a bank account (otherwise you cannot have your wages paid), but also access to the Internet if you want to see your pay check.
The risk of the inmates abusing the access to the Internet exists therefore it is crucial that the system being offered is safe. That means that the inmates should not be able to chat, mail or visit pages unless they have been approved of.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 March 2006 )
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Newsflash |
End Notes
Anne Costelloe
Chair of the EPEA
I worry that the lack of digital competency among prisoners is just one more manifestation of the type of systematic exclusion, mentioned by Mr. Berrefjord, with which our students are faced on a daily basis. I do worry that the denial of access to ICT is another tool of exclusion and formidable barrier that they must strive to overcome. I even worry about using the expression ‘digital competency’ as I feel it is overly focused on the acquisition of skills and designed to negate the more hidden aspects of ITC learning, such as the development of higher order cognitive skills, as explained by Brian Holmes. Here I am referring to hidden aspects that arise from the notion of ICT learning as social practice and which can encourage prison students become ‘agents’ of change and tie in to notions of transformative learning. PRESS READ MORE |
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