BBC: England prisons aren't a fan of your memoir writing skills.

According to the BBC, Arts Council England has had its budget slashed. This isn't good news for the writers-in-residence program, a program where a writer gets to make a nominal salary (£20,000 a year) while teaching prisoners how to write and speak properly--in essence, to communicate.

Considering that most have a difficult time communicating, this program helps prisoners develop social skills for whenever they're inevitably released back into the public. One former prisoner, now a writer for the Guardian, told the BBC as much.

"They can communicate with a pool ball in a sock or a razor on the end of a toothbrush or by shouting and bawling," said Erwin James.

Did I mention Erwin James, the writer for the Guardian, is a convicted murderer who used the writing skills taught in this program to reform his life?


Detractors, of course, suggest this is a waste of money. But the BBC reports that housing a prisoner costs £47,000 per year. And, as writers-in-residence program director Clive Hopwood suggests, "If one of my writers--at the cost of £20,000--can have influence on one person to stay out of prison for one year, £27,000 is saved by the taxpayer."

Pssh. Now you're just talking common sense.