Inmates should be given greater incentives to enrol in education programmes while in prison, Lord Archer has said.

In a speech to a conference organised by the Howard League for Penal Reform the peer, who served a two-year prison sentence for perjury, argued that there are insufficient incentives for inmates to take up the offer of education.

"As a gardener, a wing cleaner or a potato peeler, you can earn as much as £12 a week, whereas if you take up education, you are likely to receive somewhere between £4 and £5 a week," he said.

But the idea was dismissed by experts, who said it would be unworkable in practice.

As part of his plan to reform the current system, Lord Archer recommended that full-time education in prison pay the same wage as any other prison job.

In addition, a 12-week intensive reading and writing course would be introduced for all prisoners who need it, at the end of which would be a test which participants would have to pass to be considered for a prison job, or even early release.

"This could result in thousands of prisoners returning to society with their minds, rather than just their muscles, expanded, as well as the burden and stigma of total illiteracy lifted from them," Archer said.

"Governors complain that they simply don't have the resources to cover the extra cost.

"I would suggest that this would not only be a sound investment for anyone who wanted to deal with the causes of crime but would, in the long term, also prove cost effective."

Addressing delegates, the former Conservative MP called for the categorisation of new prisoners to take place during their trial so once sentenced they could "go straight to an open prison where they would be far less likely to come into contact with hardened career criminals".

The disgraced peer also recommended that the more relaxed policy on cannabis recently adopted by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the home secretary be extended to inmates.

But the director of the Basic Skills Agency, Alan Wells, said making literacy classes compulsory just wouldn't work.

"Compulsory literacy classes for most 'functionally illiterate' inmates in our prisons when they were at school didn't work so I doubt whether they would work now," he said.

"Too many inmates would see compulsory literacy classes as a punishment not an opportunity.

"I favour a more positive approach that would reward inmates who tried to improve their literacy skills with privileges during their time in prison and early parole. This would give a real incentive to improve."

Also addressing the conference, Howard League director Frances Cook highlighted the work being done by her organisation.

"The successful reintegration of people who have committed a crime is one of the most challenging problems facing society," she said.

"The Howard League for Penal Reform believes that offenders must make amends for what they have done and change their lives if we are to create a safer society with fewer victims of crime.

"Yet indiscriminate incarceration is often feeding the crime problem, as over-crowded prisons breed inertia, anger and violence."

In a recent interview with ePolitix.com, she explained why the campaign group had decided to invite Lord Archer to speak at the conference.

"I hope that because of his high profile that when he talks about drugs in prison, about the lack of work in prison and how futile much of the prison experience is for many people that it will get to a wider audience and the public will sit up and listen," she said.

"He is a way of getting a wider public debate about the serious issues we want to raise."