Education, Arts and Sports in PrisonEducation, Arts and Sports in Prison
Facilities for education and the arts in prison are provided by the Prison Education Service, which consists of a partnership between the Irish Prison Service and a range of educational agencies from the community.
A number of programmes are co-funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, including the Writers in Prison scheme and the Visual artists in prisons scheme.
The Prison Education Service website offers a comprehensive overview of programmes, with useful information about the work of artists in prisons along with galleries of art work by the prisoners themselves.
Further information on prisoner education and associated news and events is available from Prison Education News, a website run by the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee's (CDVEC) Educational Service to Prisons.
News and media items on arts (music, drama, visual art) and sports in prison are included below.
Image taken from a gallery of art work by prisoners. See: www.pesireland.org
Guardian: Creative and sporting activities in prison can have an impact on reoffending 18th January 2012
Writing in the 'Guardian', Erwin James makes the case for arts and sports in prisons as a means to help, motivate and encourage offenders to believe that they can live a better way. Read more
Storybook Dads: maintaining family bonds 10th August 2011 
Storybook Dads is a project run in prisons which helps maintain the vital emotional bond between prisoners and their children by helping offenders to record bedtime stories on CDs and DVDs: "Keeping families together helps to reduce re-offending by up to six times." Read more
Irish Times: Prisoners take time out to sit Junior and Leaving Cert exams 9th June 2011
Nearly 280 prisoners will take this year's State examinations in hopes to better themselves and their futures. Read more
Update: Transformed Through Dance Event 21st April 2011
On 15 April 2011, Create, in partnership with Dance Ireland and Dublin Dance Festival, hosted 'Transformed Through Dance', an in conversation event with Nikki Crane, Advisor to Dance United, an organisation that pro-actively works with young people at risk of (re)offending. Read more
Arts and Prisons: Transformed Through Dance 15th April 2011
Create, in partnership with Dance Ireland and Dublin Dance Festival, host 'Transformed Through Dance', an in conversation event with Nikki Crane, Advisor to Dance United, an organisation that pro-actively works with young people at risk of (re)offending. Read more
Exhibition in London Explores Female Offenders' Experiences of Justice 10th March 2011
Artwork displayed in the exhibition 'Girls Behind Bars: Female Experiences of Justice' captures the lives of female prisoners and their experiences with the criminal justice system. Read more
Scotland: 'Inspiring Change' through arts in prisons 2nd March 2011
'Inspiring Change' is a co-ordinated programme of arts interventions that ran in five Scottish prisons throughout 2010. Read more
(UK) Big Garden Birdwatch: More than 60 prisoners to take part this year 23rd January 2011
(UK) More than 60 prisoners will take part in the world’s biggest national bird watch as part of a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) scheme to get more inmates interested in nature. Read more
Shakespeare in HMP Maghaberry 14th September 2010
The Educational Shakespeare Company, which worked with prisoners at Belfast's Maghaberry prison, has released the DVD 'Mickey B', a powerful adaptation of Shakespeare's play Macbeth which could prove an important resource for use with young people. Read more
Guardian: Life in America's toughest jail 1st September 2010
Shaun Attwood's blog about the appalling conditions that he experienced in an American prison has earned him a major book deal. Erwin James compares his experience of the British prison system. Read more