In Brazil in 2012, the government offered prisoners the chance to read for their lives.

Their novel approach saw prisoners granted four days of remission for each book they read and reviewed. Prisoners had the opportunity to submit up to 12 reviews per year, which equates to a maximum of 48 days of remission in total.

There was some evidence that claimed Brazilian prisoners read nine times more than the national average of five books per year. 

There is no easy fix to the challenge faced by prisoners, or any person young or old who struggles with literacy, but being a strong and successful reader is unequivocally valuable in countless ways for education, careers, well being, and for life.

Reading can offer early opportunities in education, as well as restoring hope and offer a change at real rehabilitation.

In short, reading every day, in school or even in prison, really matters.

Reading every day before school matters

Before children ever get to school, reading every day matters.

Early book talk - with the brain building to-and-fro of reading picture books and similar - is vital for language development. Children being exposed to the unique vocabulary of early reading gives an early vocabulary advantage.

Researchers from the USA calculated that children who were read to daily (around five children’s books) would hear well over a million more words (an estimated 1.4 million more) than their peers who were not read to daily by the age of five.

A million word gap can emerge if children aren't reading every day. This matters.

Reading everyday in school matters

Remember school closures during the pandemic?

Research shows that across a range of European countries found a significant association between the duration of COVID-19-related school closures and the adjusted decline in reading literacy.

While remote learning did prevent complete learning loss, it was substantially worse than regular in-school learning. Students in England, who on average spent fewer days away from school than peers in countries like the USA, appear to have maintained reading standards, and therefore rocketed ahead of Europeans and anglophone countries. A focus on reading appears to have mattered.

In most cases, missing more school meant a decline in reading standards. The decline in reading in the home, along with adult reading habits, is a vital social issue. For children in England, during the pandemic at least, a battle for reading standards may have been won, but the war is far from over.

For students to access the wider academic curriculum, fluent and skilled reading is simply essential. Students sitting around 30 hours of exams for their GCSEs in reading have to tackle lots and lots of tricky academic reading.

The reading age of students, unsurprisingly, correlates with their GCSE outcomes. In subjects like English and history, this is obvious, but the link is just as strong in subjects like science and mathematics.

For those students who missed more days of school during the pandemic, or whose attendance has been patchy ever since, there are lots of challenges, but reading every day and reading successfully is one of the critical ones.

Reading in adult life matters

Week after week, depressing articles chart the slow death of deep reading. Perhaps we won't realise just how important it is to thinking, learning, happiness and mental health until it is gone?

For those in prison, whose lives have mostly been taking away from them, the opportunity to read, and improving their literacy, may just be a lifesaver.

In England, around 57% of prisoners read below that of an 11-year-old. This correlation isn't just an interesting fact. Their ability to read will limit their ability to get a job and rehabilitate.

Adults may get life saving advice from reading, find enduring emotional sustenance from reading about characters in their favourite tales. They'll also be able to read an application and apply for an dream job to live a better life.

Prisoners in Brazil were given a chance to read for their life because the powerful value of reading each day was understood. Now, over a decade later, reading is in decline in England. We need to rediscover why reading really matters: before school, during school, and in all corners of adult life.