“Education Beats Crime” is the theme for the next Blue Mountains Union Council's Politics in the Pub at Katoomba's Family Hotel on September 3.
"This event has been triggered by the Baird Government’s announcement that 138 of the 158 teachers working in jails are to be made redundant and replaced by clerical staff, and for educational program content to be outsourced", said BMUC president Kerry Cooke.
"By outsourcing prison education away from specialist teachers to privatised trainers the government is dumbing down the system at a time when the jail population is running at record levels.
"Rather than encouraging rehabilitation, this move is more likely to lead to increased recidivism."
Speakers include Brett Collins, who was once in prison for 10 years and is now co-ordinator of Justice Action and a spokesperson for the Prisoners Action Group, and Stewart Burkitt, a teacher at Long Bay Jail who is also President of the Corrective Services Teachers Association.
Blue Mountains Unions Council has approached the offices of Corrective Services Minister David Elliott to invite him to participate, but has so far received no response.
Politics in the Pub will be held at Blackburn's Family Hotel in Katoomba on Saturday, September 3 from 2.30-4.30pm. Admission is free.