Rod Clark, CEO of Prisoners Education Trust, discussed the importance of education in prisons at an open forum conference on prison reform. Education supports over 35,000 prisoners through distance learning courses, advice, and arts/hobby materials. Imprisonment damages employment prospects, housing, family contacts, mental health, and sense of identity/agency. Education is shown to reduce reoffending by 13-15% and change lives based on case studies and research on desistance theory. There is high demand for education among prisoners as 47% have no qualifications and learning is not viewed as for them by many. Progress is being made implementing recommendations to make education central to rehabilitation, but fragility in many prison regimes and need for continued political