Shannon Trust transforms lives by supporting prisoners and ex-offenders to learn to read.

Shannon Trust exists to address the high levels of illiteracy amongst people in UK prisons. Of the current prison population of around 80,000, 57% arriving in custody have a reading age of 11 or less, with many much lower. Alongside an inability to read, many people in prison also have very poor experiences of education as young people, significantly reducing their interest in learning.

The Shannon Trust addresses these issues by delivering its reading programme in over 120 prisons. Our Turning Pages programme is successful in enabling many people in prison to learn to read, building confidence to go onto further education. pre-pandemic, 90% of our learners went on to access further education in prison.

In 2022/2023, the Shannon Trust also launched a maths programme, to address low numeracy levels amongst the prison population.

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