I was sitting with a young bloke the old day as he told me his war story of cars and crime and bad behaviour starting in juvie and progressing over 30 years and 10 laggings.
We talked of his kids, his woman, his Holden and the myriad of minutiae that creates a life. The bits that go together to make one of us.
We talked about filling out a form, which was why the conversation started, when he asked me to fill it out for him.
We talked about how he left school at 13, unable to read & write. He had learned to write his birthdate and name, but needed help with a simple form which needed an address as well as his personal details. He was stumped at WA and the postcode.
We discussed whether education might be a way for him to develop a few more basic skills like simple arithmetic which are important on the outside.
He wanted to work because he had nobody outside to send him money. We looked at possibilities for both work and education. He could work mornings and do education four afternoons per week.
We filled out an education referral form and submitted it that day.
The next Tuesday evening he called me over. He had done his ‘ACER’ test that morning and was told by the inmate supervising the test that he would get a result within a week. The ACER test allows education staff to put the student into an appropriate level for English and maths. The test takes less than 2 hours and in our facility in Queensland, is run every Tuesday morning. Any inmates who can move around can apply to take the test.
Yesterday, I got a new cell-mate. 50 years old, in and out of jail a dozen times and can't do his own forms! Why?
Why are jails so populated by people who are uneducated? What is being missed by the courts and cops and the community that the process of jailing people is formed around the process of not educating people or not identifying the problems in school?
As a community, we really are stupid when it comes to managing this.
We deserve what politicians do to us as a nation in the law and order auction we call elections.
Jack
