Bringing together prison staff, civil servants, a world best-selling author, and national leaders in the prison sector, this roundtable meeting marked a distinct moment in the Prisons Literacy Project.

Hearing directly from the participants of the project, this was the perfect chance to come together, appreciate the work that we have done so far, and set our targets for the future.

This has been made even more possible thanks to Lee Child announcing the formation of the Never Go Back Foundation – a crucial step for this life changing project to be achievable and scalable.
 
Learning from the experiences of the Minister for Prisons, Lord Timpson, when he founded the Employment Advisory Board network, and inspired by his encouragement, the meeting has spurred our motivation and galvanised our resolve to increase the number of prisons involved from five to twenty-five in England and Wales for 2026.

This project is about offering a refreshingly pragmatic method to reducing reoffending rates. By improving literacy, this project seeks to give inmates the confidence and skills upon release to make a better life for themselves rather than simply re-entering the prison system.

It costs £55,000 a year to keep someone in prison. If our project can cut reoffending by even 10%, the savings to taxpayers and human benefit of fewer victims and more rehabilitated lives would be enormous.

As world famous author, Lee Child, puts it, this isn’t about being “soft on crime”, “just look at my Jack Reacher books.” This is about evidence-based solutions that work.

Every prisoner we involve is another person, another life, that has the means to choose a better path upon release. This means reintegration, not reoffending; a step forward, not two steps back.