Head of the UWI Five Islands Lifelong Learning Unit Paula Lee says education cannot be denied to incarcerated people, despite public outrage over prisoners graduating from the programme.

Debate erupted on social media after it was revealed that inmates were among the 432 students who recently completed short courses at the campus. Some commenters argued that certain offenders should be barred from classes, but Lee said the issue must be viewed through legal, emotional and academic lenses.

“There’s the legal, the emotional, and the academic,” she said, noting that imprisonment itself is the punishment. “We must never forget that families grieve, but these residents of the prison… their freedom has been restricted. That’s the punishment.”

She acknowledged the pain of victims’ families. “My baby daddy died tragically when you stabbed him… Somebody was raped… we must never, ever forget that what happened to them will impact them for the rest of their lives,” she said. “But then, there’s also the education.”

Lee warned that excluding inmates would violate the principle of access. “The United Nations speaks about education being a right… If we do otherwise, we’re discriminating and that’s a flaw in the realm of universities,” she said.

The Lifelong Learning Unit has accepted incarcerated students for years. Registration for its 2026 short courses is now open on the UWI website, with classes meeting twice weekly at the Five Islands Campus.