A look at university education in metropolitan prisons

Abstract

The expansion of educational activities within Uruguayan prisons is a recent event, taking place in a context of institutional and legislative changes. The University of the Republic (Udelar), the main public university in the country, begins to develop undergraduate courses in the prison system at the beginning of the last five-year period. This work presents the results of the census carried out in 2019 to university students deprived of liberty in the Montevideo metropolitan area. The information gathered from this census includes aspects related to the student’s socio-demographic characteristics, their educational trajectories prior to the University, their study conditions as well as their perceptions and beliefs regarding the changes they could have generated from studying at the University. The census shows that university incarcerated students have a different sociodemographic profile, both from that of the prison population and from university students in general. Also, it reveals a greater presence in undergrad programs provided by the Social and Artistic Area of the University and a bond with the institution mainly generated by peer tutors. Finally, the application of this technique revealed the need to improve the records that the Udelar and the National Rehabilitation Institute have for monitoring this population.