Last modified on Mon 17 May 2021 07.13 EDT
The number of accredited rehabilitation programmes started and completed by prisoners in England and Wales has significantly decreased, the Guardian can reveal, making the route to release more difficult for thousands of inmates.
Between 2009 and 2019, the number of rehabilitative courses to tackle general offending that were started and completed fell 62%, despite the prison population increasing significantly in this time, data released under freedom of information laws reveals.
The figures were uncovered by Donna Mooney, whose brother Tommy Nicol killed himself after being repeatedly refused access to courses he needed to gain his release while serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence.