highwaystar101 on 10 April 2010
Actually, here's another extract from that report I posted in my rebuttal for Kowenecki that's interesting...
"Many prisoners’ basic skills are very poor. 80 per cent have the writing skills, 65 per cent the
numeracy skills and 50 per cent the reading skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old child.
60 to 70 per cent of prisoners were using drugs before imprisonment. Over 70 per cent
suffer from at least two mental disorders. And 20 per cent of male and 37 per cent of female
sentenced prisoners have attempted suicide in the past. The position is often even worse for
18–20-year-olds, whose basic skills, unemployment rate and school exclusion background are
all over a third worse than those of older prisoners."
