Initiative supports literacy learning of formerly incarcerated students

Dr. Christina White Prosser is leading an initiative to provide students in the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre (FSCC) with Scanning Pens upon their release from custody. 

For the past two and a half years, White Prosser, PhD, an adjunct assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar with the Werklund School of Education, has been studying how this assistive educational technology is enhancing literacy learning within Canadian correctional facilities and has witnessed the successes the students have experienced first-hand. 

“Adult literacy rates are the lowest they've been in 100 years and over 40 per cent of the individuals in classrooms in corrections are neurodiverse,” she says. “Students have indicated that they feel the Scanning Pen will assist them in reaching personal life goals, which before seemed unreachable due to literacy challenges.”

Reducing recidivism 

The pen works by providing an auditory reading when the user slides the unit over a word, sentence or paragraph. Definitions and pronunciations are also displayed on the digital screen. Students can adjust the volume and speed and choose between English, French and Spanish, which makes the device valuable for English language learners.

In addition to building their literacy skills, White Prosser says the tool has increased the agency and self-confidence of the students. 

“The point of learning is to create meaning. We know that with meaning comes retention, which means integration, and doing this, especially as adults, helps their self-concept,” she explains. “These professional and personal attributes provide foundational building blocks that support rebuilding relationships, and support employment retention and career aspirations. Once students are stable in their lives outside the correctional environment the potential for recidivism, or reoffence, decreases.”

White Prosser recognized that losing access to the pen at the end of the program threatened the strides the students had made, so she decided to take action with the Bring-A-Pen Home project.

"The Bring-A-Pen Home project is designed to ensure students who have been working on their literacy learning with the Scanning Pen at Fort Saskatchewan can continue their progress in reading, writing and communicating once released. Access to their own Reader Pen will enable the student to continue to have independence and freedom to read and increase their literacy learning beyond their time in corrections.”

Community partnerships

White Prosser secured funds from a donor to obtain 100 pens and is partnering with Willow Winds Support Network and NorQuest College to distribute them to students upon their discharge. 

Willow Winds is a charitable organization with a primary focus on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, that also works in correctional centres across Canada. They purchased the pens from Scanning Pens Organization.

“We wanted to take part in this project as it assists our clients in facility, where education, disability and the justice sector intersect. We believe the pens will improve outcomes for incarcerated individuals, reduce recidivism while increasing client success upon release, and create safer communities,” says Willow Winds executive director Angela Kemble.

Students interested in receiving a pen must have been trained to operate the device, spent considerable time using it and have completed literacy, adult upgrading or personal development courses offered by NorQuest College, the learning instruction provider at FSCC, during their incarceration to earn a recommendation. 

White Prosser hopes the public use of the pens will serve to normalize neurodiversity and be viewed as no different from someone using a calculator when learning math.

“If somebody pulls one of these out in a meeting and everybody knows that that's a tool like a calculator, and it's normalized, then, all of a sudden, there's no stigma that goes along with that person.”

White Prosser is currently expanding her research study to include federal correctional institutions in Canada.