Westgate Correctional Facility has teamed up with Elliot Primary School to achieve freedom through literacy amongst students and inmates, The Royal Gazette has learned.

"We supply books and cassette tapes," explained Valerie Williams, Upper School Reading Teacher at Elliot. "The inmates read stories onto the tapes. Then they are brought back to school and given to struggling readers who use them to help with their reading."

The programme, named "Freedom Through Literacy", is funded by Renaissance Limited, and was implemented at the beginning of June.

"It is both encouraging inmates to improve their literacy skills as well as the students," said Ms Williams.

"Response (from the inmates) has been tremendous," agreed Prisons Educational Coordinator Sharon Wilkinson. "To tell the truth, I was surprised at how they reacted to the request," she said. "But once they got into it, they did a really good job."

"The inmates are anonymous, there is no direct contact (between them and the students)," Ms Williams added.

Ms Williams added: "They do seem to enjoy it," she said. "We should have the programme up in full swing by the next school year."

Ms Wilkinson agreed, saying: "We have done 20 books so far. We will continue during the summer. The goal is to have all the books read for September. We are off to a good start."