Research Brief: Evaluating literacy and numeracy progressions in custody and desistance from crime: Evidence from Western Australia
This research was funded by a grant awarded under the Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research (WACSAR) Criminal Justice Research Grant Program, administered by the WA Department of Justice (the Department).
This study investigates the impact of prisoners’ participation in literacy and numeracy courses while in custody on desistance from crime using administrative data on custodial stays in Western Australian (WA) adult prisons from 2000 to 2024.
Participation in literacy and numeracy courses is found to be associated with a nine-percentage point reduction, from 49 to 40 percent, in the probability of a typical prisoner returning to prison within two years of release, relative to prisoners who did not participate in any courses. Participation in other types of courses is estimated to have a similar effect.
Key results are robust to alternative specifications of time to recidivism, and the modelling provides evidence on how other prisoner characteristics affect recidivism. Separate estimates for key subgroups show the effect of course participation to be larger for more educated prisoners and more serious offenders, but much smaller for Aboriginal female prisoners.
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre team acknowledges the Wadjuk Nyungar people as the traditional owners of the land on which the Centre is situated.