Prisoners in most Australian jurisdictions are not permitted access to online learning technologies due to procedural restrictions prohibiting prisoner access to the internet. Formal education and training delivery to prisoners is usually provided in non-digital forms, generally in the form of blocks of printed text. Although this method enables access to course materials, it does not foster digital literacies in incarcerated students, and these skills are becoming more essential to pursue formal learning upon release from custody. Currently, there are few programs offered to incarcerated students that adequately prepare them for entry into higher education especially providing them with the opportunity to use modern ICTs.

This paper reports on an Australian government-funded project, Making the Connection, which is taking digital technologies, that don’t require internet access, into correctional centres to enable prisoners to enroll in a suite of pre-tertiary and undergraduate programs. A version of the University of Southern Queensland’s learning management system has been installed onto the education server of participating correctional centres. The second stage of the project will see notebook computers preloaded with course materials, allocated to participating prisoners. At the time of writing, the project has been deployed at eight correctional centres in Queensland and Western Australia, with negotiations underway for further rollout across Australia.