CRIME WAVES

Cons study yachting...and goats

PRISONERS can escape their humdrum confinement by studying yachting, Latin... and raising goats.

Dog grooming, sheep farming, pig keeping, poultry management, birds of prey and yoga are other classbased courses on offer.

Would-be seafarers can learn to use navigation tools like the sextant on three courses covering the basics of yachting, powerboat cruising and ocean sailing. But lags inside for drug smuggling or people trafficking are barred from the courses, which cost from £475 to £990.

Inmates unable to pay can apply for a Prisoners’ Education Trust grant.

A source said: “There has been a lot of debate about purposeful activity for prisoners. Everyone is all for them bettering themselves but some of these courses seem fanciful at best.”

The goat husbandry course involves 100 hours over nine months and hails the beasts as producers of milk and cheese and “a great source of manure”. PET, set up in 1989, provides funding to 3,000 prisoners a year. To qualify, lags write a 200 to 300 word submission about how a course will help “future plans”.

PET’s website states: “If you are able to make a contribution we ask you to do so. Courses cost about £300 on average. You apply for funding and we will help you if we are able to.”

PET Chief Executive Rod Clark added: “The work we do cuts crime. Even the more unusual-sounding courses can lead directly to work.”

JAIL SAIL Yachting training