Prisoners barely able to write name and address

MORE than half of the country’s prisoners have difficulty reading and are barely able to write their name and address, a study has found.

Illiteracy levels in our prisons stands at 52.8%, over twice the level among the general population. Most prisoners left school between the ages of nine and 14 and only a handful ever sat their Junior Certificate exam, the Prison Education in Ireland report, launched yesterday, shows.

Given the stigma often attached to literacy problems, there is often an acute reluctance to come forward within the prison system, the report, compiled by those working within the prison education system over the past 20 years, found.