Call for degree-educated prison officers

All prison officers should be educated to degree level to help give them the necessary skills for the "challenging" job, a penal reform charity has said.

Prison officers in England and Wales currently have eight weeks' training and do not need formal qualifications.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said currently staff were "turnkeys... barely skilled or literate".



The Prison Officers Association said personal qualities not qualifications helped make a good prison officer. It added the idea was "naive and narrow-minded".

The Howard League argued the job should be a profession, as with teachers and nurses. It said officers focus on prison security rather than helping prisoners with mental health or drug problems and believes that having higher-qualified staff could help cut reoffending rates.

In future, said the Howard League, only graduates in subjects such as criminology, prison law or sociology should be accepted for the role.