Educational, Vocational, Substance Abuse and Sex Offender Programs

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As a group, we chose Education, Vocational, Substance Abuse, and Sex Offender Programs for our programs of discussion.

Education & Vocational Programs: Educational Programs in many systems inmates who have not completed eighth grade, one in seven prisoners are put into a full time prison school. Prisons offer academic courses to those who haven’t graduated high school, so they can earn their GED. There is a waiting list for inmates who want to take classes. Some prisons offer; basic reading, english, math, and GED courses (Clear, Cole, Reisig, 2013).

Prison educational programs face several problems; the ability of prisoners to learn (it’s often hampered by a lack of reading and computational skills), learning disabilities and delinquency in prisoners, disciplinary and academic failure, prison education must cope with inmates who have neither academic skills nor attitude conductive to learning, inmates are well beyond their age associated with their current educational level. Ex: a 30 year old that is performing at a ninth grade level, inappropriateness of material available to the inmates according to age and interests of inmate’s drives many of them away from remedial schooling (Clear, Cole, Reisig, 2013).

Not many studies have been conducted on the success of education as a rehabilitative service. But they did do a survey in the states of Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio and found that; three years after release, 22% of the prisoners who had taken classes returned to prison compared with the 31% of the released prisoners who had not attended school while in prison. Some prisoners who obtained their GED while incarcerated saw an increase in their wages upon release, but dissipate after three years. The recidivism rate for...

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... offered to state prison inmates. Their recidivism rate is low, because knowing that they have college degrees helps them get jobs when they get out; and they stay off the street and are put back into the community (Jersey Journal, 2014).

Works Cited

Clear, Cole, & Reisig (2013). American Corrections. (10th ed., pp.348-373). Mason, Ohio:

Cengage Learning.

Jersey Journal (2014). New Jersey On-Line LLC. NJ-STEP program offers college credit

classes to state prison inmates. Retrieved from

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/12/youthful_bordentown_inmates_get_a_taste_of_the_college_of_new_jersey_while_serving_time.html.

Lawrence, George (2014) EHow. Demand Media, Inc. Substance Abuse Treatment Programs in

the Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/way_5505864_substance-treatment-programs-bureau-prisons.html#ixzz2vJMApOI7.

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