By Nyankuir de Mabior
City council taxpayers will soon be paying for creative writing classes that are being given to Saughton Prison inmates.
The £100 an hour workshops are aimed at improving the literacy and writing skills of the inmates while increasing the prospect of future employability. The workshops will be held in the prison library which was opened just last December after an £18,000 refurbishment.
The first of these classes was attended by over 40 inmates and hosted by Morningside writer and storyteller Jack Martin. Martin, 76, read various comic stories about Edinburgh and said that after talking to the inmates many of them felt that “reminiscing about the city brought back memories”.
The next class is scheduled for 7th November and will feature Leith based children’s writer Lari Don. This session will involve young children and their families joining the inmates for an hour long reading of children’s fiction.
City Labour Culture spokesman, Paul Godzik, said that “I appreciate what these classes are trying to do but I hope that if they continue the Scottish service prison will foot the bill”.
