Prison is the one place where philosophy is of practical use

Prisons have often, for obvious reasons, been places for philosophical reflection – Boethius wrote his Consolation of Philosophy while he was in prison (before getting beaten to death in his cell) – but we don’t often hear of it being taught there.

Grendon Prison in Buckinghamshire and Full Sutton, a maximum security institution in Yorkshire, have been running philosophy courses for inmates. Both places, according to a prison chaplain who knows them, incarcerate many men of quite high intelligence whose minds are “wasting away”. The Socratic method is reportedly encouraging tolerance and empathy, and could ease problems of violence, overcrowding and re-offending.

Dr Kirstine Szifris of Manchester Metropolitan University, who has been leading the 12-week courses, says the behaviour of the tough, category A inmates was initially characterised by “bravado, one-upmanship and competition”. But after they’d discussed Plato, Hume and Kantian morality, they “began to gain a level of respect for each other”. Philosophers don’t often get to brag about their utility; Dr Szifris can.

There’s an awful lot to like about the initiative. And indeed, about the choice of philosophers. The ancient Greeks are always good on what makes for human flourishing. And Kant and his Universal Imperative is a great starting point for discussing ethics – imagine, he says, if everyone acted as you did – but I’d say Boethius and his take on the transitory character of fortune would be pretty good, too. The Stoics’ take on the question might have a bleak appeal in a setting defined by the deprivation of personal liberty.

Nietzsche would no doubt be tricky, though for pragmatists, John Stuart Mill and his dispiriting doctrine of utilitarianism may be a useful tool for life outside prison.

Enabling prisoners in long-term institutions to hold civilised conversations has to be a good thing in itself. Many prison workers find that discussion groups for inmates are useful, in that they listen to each other. If your normal take on disagreement is to fight first, rational conversation is a good way to go.

Prisons already have courses on anger management to help offenders think through the consequences of their actions, but philosophy is, I’d say, preferable: it gets to the heart of human impulses. It isn’t exactly functional, like literacy and numeracy courses, but it addresses questions such as how individuals and societies flourish, which are painfully practical in a prison context.

Prisoners probably have rather interesting insights into ethics and questions such as the utility of laws. Angie Hobbes, public ambassador for philosophy, doesn’t think that there’s any simple trade off between studying philosophy and better morals. “Philosophy isn’t a quick fix,” she says. “Some philosophers were very bad people.”

Jon Scott, a former prison governor, is impressed by the concept of the course, but adds: “It’d be interesting to know how effective it is, and what metrics are used to measure its effectiveness.” You could say the same about philosophy generally, for anyone who studies it.

I wonder what the Home Office makes of the programme – the bean counters usually see the costs of rehabilitation programmes without calculating the benefits to society from cuts in re-offending. Let’s hope they take a philosophical view; even a utilitarian one.