The study had two aims. The first aim was to develop and present an understanding of the lived experience of selected individual prisoners relating to their formal education and vocational training. The second aim was to identify points of potential heuristic interest relating to ostensible needs for social action to reduce the incidence of juvenile and continuing engagement by individuals in criminal activities, and to address education and vocational training issues relating to the integration or reintegration of incarcerated offenders into the wider Australian society after their release from custody. A constructivist conceptual framework was adopted to guide the selection of the methodology of the study and the interpretation of the data obtained through implementation of the methodology. The methodology involved analysis of written transcripts of audio-recorded self-narratives of selected prisoners to generate the data used in the study. Prisoners from three Queensland correctional centres for adult males were selected for participation in the study primarily on the basis of their personal history of juvenile and continuing engagement in criminal offending principally associated with obtaining financial income, and their willingness to voluntarily participate. Participants’ self-narratives, relating principally to their lived experience of formal education and vocational training, were audio-recorded in individual, relatively unstructured interview sessions with the researcher. Written transcripts of the audio-recordings of interview sessions with a total of 15 participants were selected for analysis on the basis of their apparent relevance to the aims of the study. Two general types of narrative analysis methods were used to analyse the transcripts. The first of these was simple inspection of each transcript, which was used to identify categories of background information about the participants, including selected inferred general characteristics of such prisoners, and to identify instances of the content of these categories in individual cases. Inferred characteristics of prisoners were constructed from a review of literature relating to prisoners in Australia, and were selected for inclusion in the study on the basis of claimed relationships between people’s experience of disadvantage during their juvenile years and their engagement in a criminal career which they began in their juvenile years...

The Department of Correctional Services sees the need for intensive preparation of inmates for reintegration into the community after release. Presently the Department of Correctional Services conducts pre-release preparation programmes in larger institutions. The inmates are, however, detained in institutions where the influence from other inmates is not conducive to the effective preparation of inmates for adjustment in free society after release or placement on parole. The use of halfway houses can combat the latter problems and play an important role in providing educational and training programmes. Specialised services such as social work; religious work, counselling, psychological treatment and psychiatry receive attention. Inmates who are merely released from prison without effective preparation are likely to resort to recidivism / Penology / M.A. (Penology)

The Department of Correctional Services sees the need for intensive preparation of inmates for reintegration into the community after release. Presently the Department of Correctional Services conducts pre-release preparation programmes in larger institutions. The inmates are, however, detained in institutions where the influence from other inmates is not conducive to the effective preparation of inmates for adjustment in free society after release or placement on parole. The use of halfway houses can combat the latter problems and play an important role in providing educational and training programmes. Specialised services such as social work; religious work, counselling, psychological treatment and psychiatry receive attention. Inmates who are merely released from prison without effective preparation are likely to resort to recidivism / Penology / M.A. (Penology)