Businessman hopes laptops will aid life after prison

James Tweed, chief executive of the digital literacy firm Coracle, hopes giving laptops to prisoners will help prepare them for life outside of prison

The chief executive of a technology firm says he hopes giving prisoners laptops will make them better prepared for life after release.

When inspectors visited HMP Peterborough in January they found understaffing, drug problems and a third of prisoners ending up homeless on release.

James Tweed, of Cambridge-based Coracle, said he wanted to help prisoners upon release with digital literacy.

He said: "If you come out of prison set up to fail, the chances of reoffending are really really high."

The 10-day prison inspection found that a housing adviser failed to attend the prison for more than a year which meant 333 inmates were made homeless upon release.

Mr Tweed said his company worked with prisoners in the final three months of their sentences.

He warned that inmates released early often struggled.

"People are coming out more unprepared than ever before," said Mr Tweed. "It's not solving the problem, it’s a poor band aid over a bigger problem."

• Listen: Prisoners being released homeless

'Out of frustration'

Coracle works with 90 prisons including HMP Whitemoor near March.

It is poised to begin work with HMP Peterborough where offline laptops will be provided to be used in prisoners' cells or in workshops.

He said inmates often left prison "totally unprepared" for life outside. The laptops, he said, could be used to find support with housing or for gaining qualifications and skills via online courses.

"The reality is those people will revert back to a lifestyle they’ve come from," he said, "or they’re almost forced into crime because they have no other options.

"They are coming out of prison and they might be your neighbour or my neighbour and I want them back in society contributing… we have to prepare them."