The Scottish Government has handed the Iona Community youth department a £20,000 grant to pilot the programme for adults at the West Lothian jail.

The Christian charity is hoping to challenge prisoners' prejudices, beliefs and attitudes to help them learn to accept diversity and promote citizenship before they are released.

The 700-capacity prison had the second highest rate of violent attacks last year for assaults by prisoners on each other and on staff, despite only being opened in December 2008 amid criticism over the "luxury" facilities for inmates.

Polmont Young Offenders Institution – where the Iona Community has run the programme since 2003 – was the worst.

The charity says the project has been successful in Polmont and will now adopt it in an adult prison.

Livingston MSP Angela Constance, who was a social worker in Scottish prisons, believes Addiewell is the ideal place to start the project.

She said: "I consider this a very positive move as the sad reality is that sectarianism continues to be a blight in our society.

"In my experience, it is even more accentuated in prison, like all other problems in society, so if you're going to have this type of project, having it in a prison makes sense.

"There are now sectarian-type offences and there will be people in jail where this has been an underlying factor in their offences, as well as race and gender issues being a big part of them being there."

Scottish minister for community safety Fergus Ewing, who has backed the project, added: "Sectarianism has blighted Scotland for too long, but working together we are committed to building a Scotland where sectarianism is consigned to the dustbin of history."

Sectarianism is closely linked to Glasgow football clubs Celtic and Rangers and police figures from the Old Firm meeting at New Year showed domestic violence soared following the match - a trend which has occurred year on year.

West Lothian also has a high number of Glaswegian households following an exodus during the 'Glasgow overspill', when thousands of the city's residents moved to new towns like Livingston due to a housing shortage.

The pilot runs for two six-week courses in HMP Addiewell starting next month and will focus on prisoners' experiences of sectarianism and historical events such as the Irish potato famine.

Helen Wass-O'Donnell from the charity said: "Fergus Ewing was impressed with the programme in Polmont because of the positive impact it had on changing attitudes.

"We wanted to make it more applicable to adults and it will be externally evaluated to see what impact it will have on a prisoner when he is released.

"We look at a wide range of issues including why Celtic and Rangers sing Irish songs, the nature, route and history of sectarianism and the impact of the extreme behaviour it causes."