The Calypsos partnership project aims to propose European regional and national institutions responsible for education in prisons an educational intervention strategy, which comprises innovative learning situations which enable inmates’ increased rates of school success. At the same time, it seeks to engage stakeholders involved in education in prisons in EU countries through high-impact activities and visibility that generate sensitivity, in order to increase inmates’ rate of school success.Calypsos is also set as a strategic innovation development partnership for the call for Erasmus Plus K204 for adults. Its partners are in three countries: Portugal, Spain and Italy. In each country there is a minimum of two partners: a university and an formal, non-formal or informal education institution, that serves inmates in prisons or youth centers with internment measures. It also has two exceptional partners: the two prison ad-ministrations of Spain and Portugal. This will guarantee the impact and sustainability of the partnership re-sults in both countries and will be a strong support for its diffusion and dissemination in other EU countries.The AD priority is education, training and inclusive youth, as Calypsos focuses its work in prisons consider-ing education as a facet of education in diversity and against discrimination and segregation of inmates. A considerable part of prison population can be classified as “specific educational needs”. The mentioned spe-cific needs are mainly related to deficiencies in executive functions, principally cognitive deficits, working memory deficits, difficulty to pay attention, difficulty to structure thinking, difficulty to solve problems, low self-control, etc.The efficiency and effectiveness of educational strategies developed both by education authorities in formal education and by NGOs working in informal and non-formal education in European prisons are helping the-se people to face these lifelong learning challenges, providing them with the skills that labour market and economy require and allowing them, at the same time, play an active role in society and achieve integration and fulfillment of their personal development. Therefore, the EU states make a great effort in providing edu-cation to inmates both adults and youth.However success and graduation rates are very low. Calypsos argues that one of the main reasons has to do with the difficulties outlined above and are linked to these students’ specific needs. This program will have a significant impact on educational policies developed in prisons in the EU, so that in the last phase of the program at least one meetings in Brussels will be held in order to engaging stakeholders to know the studies and conclusions which this CALYPSOS partnership will reach and to establish strategies for improving edu-cational activities in prisons.Calypsos is an investment in knowledge, skills and competencies of inmates of the participating partners (Portugal, Spain and Italy) and will directly benefit people who are training in educational centers of Euro-pean prisons and, thus, the whole of European society, as it will contribute to employability, possible entre-preneurship of inmates in the EU and to support equality and social inclusion of these people who, mostly, are socially disadvantaged. In short, Calypsos aims to provide an important innovation in the field of educa-tional intervention in this background and its products and guidelines will serve to improve and modernize education systems and adult education in European prisons.Calypsos is structured to hand European institutions and educational organizations responsible for education in prisons in the Member States recommendations in order to provide Penitentiaries and Educational Administrations working in prisons in the EU countries with appropriate and effective tools to improve the diagnosis of inmate students’ specific needs and with guidance to establish learning situations which can be innovative and adapted to the specific characteristics of these students, that allow to increase significantly the number of male and female inmates getting out of prisons with their Secondary Education degree and that teachers that may be part of prison education can have a training model.
Calypsos is a strategic partnership under Key Action 2 (KA 204) of the European Union's Erasmus+ programme, with reference number 2016-1-ES01-KA204-025656, entitled "Support for Social Inclusion, Specific Needs for Educational Support and Improvement of Basic Skills for Prisoners in Europe", which took place between September 2016 and November 2018. The objective of the project was to provide European regional and national institutions responsible for education in prisons with strategies for socio-educational innovation, as well as related personnel, in which innovative learning situations are contemplated that, through strengthening their inclusive character, achieve the ultimate goal of increasing school success rates among prisoners, as well as raising awareness and engaging stakeholders linked to education in prisons in EU countries through impact and visibility activities. It was attended by 9 different institutions, each of which offered professionalism in a specific field that was compatible and enriching for all others. -Santa Cruz de Tenerife Adult Education Centre, a public educational institution dependent on the Government of the Canary Islands, which coordinated the project. -Four public universities: La Laguna (Canary Islands-Spain), Almeria (Andalusia-Spain), Sapienza (Rome-Italy) and Do Minho (Braga-Portugal). -General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions of the Government of Spain, through the Penitentiary Centre of Tenerife, with the greatest experience in the treatment of prisoners. Instituto degli Innocenti, a public body located in Florence (Italy), which promotes the active rights of children and adolescents and everything related to juvenile justice. -ADIS Meridianos, from Seville, and Plena Inclusión Canarias, two Spanish NGOs that work to support groups of inmates, ADIS also manages youth internment centres. Considering that an important part of the prison population can be classified as having specific needs for educational support (NEAE), the relationship of these NEAE with academic performance was addressed from the detection of deficiencies in executive functions (FE), mainly cognitive deficits, difficulty in paying attention, in structuring thinking, deficits in working memory, scarce self-control, difficulty in solving problems, etc. The study also examined the relationship of these NEAE with academic performance from the detection of deficiencies in executive functions (FE), mainly cognitive deficits, difficulty in paying attention, in structuring thinking, deficits in working memory, scarce self-control, difficulty in solving problems, etc. It was suggested that the improvement in these FE could increase the current low success and degree rates. To cover the objectives of the project, 8 intellectual products were developed, from a meta-analysis containing a quantitative review of the relationship between the antisocial behaviour of delinquents and the neuropsychological measures of executive functions, a study and an evaluation report from the neuropsychological point of view of the NEAE-related functions of adult inmate students to various reports, aimed at decision-makers in the educational and penitentiary spheres, as well as professionals related to the aforementioned spheres. The meta-analysis included 58 independent studies, 30 with standardized comparison group and 28 with comparison group among prisoners in which a total of 3210 participants have been evaluated. For products 2 and 3, data were obtained from a total of 415 participants (301 prisoners and 114 standardised) from 5 European prisons, 19% of whom had a juvenile justice background. The rest of the study is devoted to establishing an overall intervention strategy and provides a series of guidelines and strategies for intervention and socio-educational innovation to enable the establishment of appropriate policies and for prison technical, guidance and teaching staff, the ultimate aim of which is to increase school success rates among prisoners in EU countries. Visibility and transferability to other European countries to achieve the greatest impact and dissemination of their results and products is guaranteed, based on the solidity of the products created and, so far, with the whole series of dissemination activities that have been carried out, including the constant contact of the partner institutions with their respective stakeholders, the three multiplier events organised, the advocacy letter sent, the website www.calypsos.eu and, from now on, also the project results platform. All this will allow the material and the recommendations to be available to any person or institution related to the subject of the project. The impact will not stop with the completion of the project; rather, on the contrary, it will become larger. Educational changes are always slow and need a lot of time to become effective and generalized. But when the improvements come, they always remain.