This interview features Coracle founder James Tweed reflecting on how a personal encounter inside a high-security prison helped shape his mission to expand digital learning for inmates. It traces his journey from maritime business into prison education, explaining how his company now operates across most UK prisons to provide secure laptops and learning tools that support rehabilitation and reduce digital exclusion. The piece explores his belief that prisoners will inevitably return to society and therefore need education and hope to reduce reoffending, alongside data suggesting significant financial and social benefits from prison-based learning. It also highlights how simple tools—such as chess and structured digital learning—can help restore autonomy and engagement for people in highly controlled environments, forming the basis of his wider work in prison reform and rehabilitation.
In conversation with James Tweed: providing prisoners with digital learning
