Why do inmates participate in educational activities? Is it for the main reasons that individuals belonging to general population do, or do the reasons differ significantly? The present study sought to determine the motives that drive adult prisoners to take part in educational programmes offered in prison. The study took part in Korydallos prison, Greece, with a sample of 72 male prisoners. The results, in alignment with previous research, indicated that escapism from the prison environment and doing something useful that may also contribute to sentence reduction are among the primary factors that guide inmates’ participation in educational programmes. Yet, ‘learning for the sake of learning’ was also identified as a strong motivator (second factor). It also appeared that motivation is largely informed by personal and situational factors, based on identifying differences according to offenders’ educational and professional background. Our findings bear significant implications for the future design and implementation of prison education programmes. However, there are substantial limitations to the present study, calling for further investigation to avoid linear simplifications.

中文翻译：

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激励囚犯参加监狱教育需要什么？在希腊监狱中进行的探索性研究

为什么犯人参加教育活动？是属于一般人群的个人这样做的主要原因，还是原因明显不同？本研究试图确定促使成年囚犯参加监狱中提供的教育计划的动机。这项研究参加了希腊的Korydallos监狱，其中包括72名男囚。结果与先前的研究一致，表明监狱环境中的逃避现实和做一些有用的事情也可能有助于减少刑罚，这是指导囚犯参加教育计划的主要因素之一。然而，“为了学习而学习”也被认为是强烈的动机（第二个因素）。动机似乎主要取决于个人和情况因素，根据罪犯的教育和专业背景识别差异。我们的发现对监狱教育计划的未来设计和实施具有重大意义。但是，目前的研究存在很大的局限性，需要进一步研究以避免线性简化。