Most justice systems deal with crime after it happens, by locking offenders up. The claim here is that it would work better to educate people so they never offend in the first place, and I largely agree. Because education treats the causes of crime rather than its symptoms, it is a more cost-effective response than prison over time – though it works best supporting the justice system, not replacing it.
The core reason is economic. Most crime, especially the property and drug offences that fill prisons, is committed by people with few lawful options, and education widens those options. Someone who leaves school with real qualifications can earn a decent legal wage, so the income they forfeit by risking prison rises sharply, and offending becomes a much worse bet. Economists since Gary Becker have called this the economics of crime: an offender weighs what they gain against what they stand to lose, and schooling raises the second. The prison population bears this out, as a large share of inmates left school early or can barely read. Raise attainment at the bottom, and that pool shrinks.
This does not mean education can replace prisons. Its effect is slow, and it does nothing about crimes that hardship does not drive, such as fraud by educated professionals or violence committed on impulse. But that limits the role of education rather than defeating it. Prison and schooling are complements, not rivals: one deters and contains the offenders who already exist, the other reduces how many ever appear. A system leaning only on prison treats the symptom and keeps paying, as high reoffending sends the same people back through the gates. Every pound spent on a cell is one not spent on a school that might have prevented the crime. Norway shows the alternative. It pairs its courts with heavy investment in education, and reoffends at a fraction of the rate in more punitive countries.
On balance, the claim holds. Education is one of the few tools that cuts crime at its source instead of cleaning up afterwards, which over time makes it the smarter investment. Prisons will not disappear, and should not. But a country serious about less crime should be building schools at least as fast as it builds cells.