A LEARNING centre for prison officers, their families and the Princetown community was opened at Dartmoor Prison last week.

The Don Wood Centre, named after the prison officer who pioneered the idea, is a partnership between the Prison Officers' Association (POA) and the jail, providing an opportunity for learning and development in languages, IT, skills for life, health and safety and general management.

Prison governor Tony Corcoran said the centre would allow officers to upgrade their skills, particularly in things like foreign languages as Dartmoor Jail was a foreign language centre.

'As a prison we cannot afford to fund officers to get this additional training so having an on-site facility funded by the POA is great,' he said. 'It will also bring us closer to the community and local people have already signed up.

'Several thousands of pounds have been invested into this place and one of my senior officers is being paid for a year to run the facility.'

National chairman of the POA Colin Moses said 12 centres of this kind had opened across the UK: 'We want prisons to be part of the community — they are places where people work and visit.

'Despite all the bad publicity we get, I consider prisons to work as long as they are invested in, and the best investment is in education and training. I am proud of the part the union takes in this.'

Centre manager Andy Harding said there were ten PCs in the learning centre which were all linked to Broadband.

He said the idea of a learning centre had been on the cards since 2003 but getting the governor on board was the key factor.

'We now have 76 of the 335 members of staff who have expressed an interest in signing up for some sort of learning. The alternative for them would be travelling to Tavistock or Plymouth or further afield for training. With Princetown being so isolated it makes sense to have a centre here.'

Maildrops have gone out to all households in Princetown and the surrounding villages informing them of this new facility.

Prison officer of 36 years and ex vice-chairman of the POA Don Wood, who retires in September, said he had been fighting for a learning centre for the last ten years.

'The nearest one to here is London or Birmingham,' he said.