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.
This shows why we should have less technology in school because we easily get distracted causing us not to pay attention to school. If we cut technology in class more students would be able to learn better. People that have been in prison actually learns to read and write more because they are secure in a jail cell, we could use a similar system for schools to improve education. In the story, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov is about a banker that bets 2 million dollars to a lawyer to stay imprisonment for fifteen years. As the time past the lawyer began to learn many things, for example, he read books, play piano, and interested in music. After, the fifteen years the lawyer did not care about the money and felt that the knowledge he learned was more important. Chekhov’s states, “During the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read and extraordinary amount, quite haphazard. Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would Bryon or Shakespeare” (330). Chekhov’s shows that when the lawyer was imprisonment he learned a lot by reading an extraordinary amount of books and studying history and natural
Correctional program writing nowadays is at a level of efficiency that surpasses earlier outlooks. In territories all over the United States, there are several curriculums that use research-based curriculums to teach, instruct, and inspire inmates. Disappeared are the days of hit-or-miss execution of curriculums that seemed good, but over and over again just occupied time for the inmates. The previous evolution happened for several reasons (Corrections Today, 2010). The largest wake-up demands was the claim composed around thirty years ago. The statement made was not anything works in corrections systems, mainly rehabilitation. Even though this commonly revealed report was taken from its context, it did in detail carry some notice to the mystery that several penitentiaries were not operational as change
In-prison and post-release vocational training and work programs evaluations have shown that they are considered to be most effective, as they greatly reduce the rate of recidivism. Steady employment and educational services are some of the main factors in delaying or preventing an individual from re-offending in the first three years following release. More reentry programs are using the comprehensive strategy in response to what research and evaluations have found. Comprehensive strategies are applied in the state and local levels of government, mainly relying on community-based groups to coordinate and provide services for those re-entering society. These programs usually start before a prisoners release and provide assistance in receiving employment, housing, substance abuse, and mental health
Education has been proven to reduce recidivism rates and increase the success of an offender’s re-integration into society. In a study conducted in 1994 by the American Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly half of the 302,309 released offenders surveyed in fifteen different states were convicted of a new crime within three years of their release. This data shows that prison fails to properly rehabilitate offenders, since after prison ex-convicts continue to live in a way th...
A large number of children that are in school at the time of the incarceration, reveal various complications in their school work. Research showed that fifty percent of the children display substandard educational production. Dropout scale for these individuals has shown a great increase (Ross). Some of these obstacles become a frequent concept for many of the people involved. For women that are exp...
Ryan, T. A., and McCabe, K. A. "The Relationship between Mandatory vs. Voluntary Participation in a Prison Literacy Program and Academic Achievement." Journal of Correctional Education44, no. 3 (September 1993): 134-138. (EJ 472 104)
Vacca, James S. "Educated Prisoners Are Less Likely To Return To Prison." Journal Of Correctional Education 55.4 (2004): 297-305. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 3 Feb. 2014
In conclusion,some people want to change their life around, it can change people when they come out of prison, and it will increase that amount of crimes. is very important to, should prison inmates be able to take college courses. Many people in the world think that this is a good idea because it could change so much in this world. A famous author, Mark Twain, who wrote, The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain, once stated ,”Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” It is amazing that they have thought about having a classes in prison for
Dodd, Vikram. "Why Prison Education?." . Prison Studies Project, Teaching Research Outreach, 16 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .
That explains the positive correlation between the amount of education a person receives while in prison and the chance they have of securing a fulltime job following their release. A study published by a prison in Minnesota supports this idea by showing that prisoners who had obtained a secondary degree while in prison increased their chances of securing a job within two years of being released by 59%. These odds were increased even further for younger offenders, which shows that educational programs in prisons are even more pertinent for the younger
Imagine having 10 students fail an exam in a class of 15 people. If over half of the students don’t grasp the content than the root of the issue must be on the way they are being taught. If this was the case the teacher will probably have to take a different approach on the way he/she is teaching in order to ensure the success of all students and not just a few of them. If the educational system fails students, then hope of a better future is very unlikely. Likewise, when the system fails to guide prisoners on the right path, they are not only failing inmates individually, but they are also failing society.
Tulman, J. B. (2008). Time to Reverse the School-to-Prison Pipeline. (Cover story). Policy & Practice (19426828), 66(1), 22-27.
Studies have shown that in-prison education curriculums decrease recidivism while refining the eminence of life. However, majority of extra-curricular classes in prison have been eradicated, additional customs of job preparation have reduced, and access to exercise equipment and educational resources such as books is progressively limited. In the past five years the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has increased the federal budget by 40 per cent to $2.6 billion, majority bei...
Why should we care about education in prison? In today’s world people become more egocentric, so that no one’s longer care or even attempt to think about others problems and how to fix them. As a society, we have to begin to focus on the bigger picture, why so many people get behind bars in United States. All human beings should have an opportunity of better life even after committing mistakes before. Education is the key to success. By providing prisoners with opportunity to get education, our society will benefit everyone. Prison education should be provided to inmates for three significant reasons: reduces crime recidivism, gives job perspectives and helps prisoners to rehabilitate and commit themselves to a law-abiding life outside the prison.
This paper explores the benefits provided by educational programs in jails and prisons. Included are the reasons inmates need education in order to successfully reenter society once they are released and use the knowledge and skills they have learned to obtain a job in order to support themselves and their families. Also examined in the paper are the financial benefits of incorporating educational programs instead of cutting them, as well as the effect these programs play on the recidivism rate. Lastly is a focus on understanding the importance of education and job training, even though the recipients are criminals.