It's education, stupid

This from the lead story of yesterday's Irish Times.

Just over half of prisoners dropped out of school before the Junior Certificate, according to an unpublished survey by the Irish Prison Service. 

The study, based on more than 800 inmates at Midlands and Limerick Prisons and Wheatfield Place of Detention, in west Dublin, between 2015 and 2017, provides a stark insight into the link between poor education and the prison population.

Overall, four out of five prisoners (80 per cent) left school before their Leaving Cert, more than half (52 per cent) left before their Junior Cert, and just over a quarter (26 per cent) never attended secondary school. 

These rates are multiples of those in the wider population, where, for example, 90 per of students now complete their Leaving Certificate.