What’s my interest in this topic?
Prisons are historically meant to be a place of punishment for those that have committed one or more crimes, but it was not a proper rehabilitation for prisoners that are to be released back into society. The benefit of having an education program can enrich the inmates of their learning experiences and improve their knowledge and ability as an individual to return to society with a chance for future success. This spark of interest for this topic has given me a reason to believe that if prisoners were given an education, there are certain aspects of a person that can be improved and also benefit them to fit back into society which can be a step forward than a step backwards to what they are trying to achieve.
How does this benefit the prisoners?
Most would argue that giving education for prisoners would just be a waste of time and money due to the prisoners being criminals. So why should they have the benefit of free education? In the article, “A College Education for Prisoners,” Doug Brandt explains how the prisoners are “…human beings who have made mistakes, just like the rest of us [and] taking away any possibility of learning, growing, and perhaps changing is a blemish on us as a nation.” Brandt makes it clear that they are criminals, yet they are people that have made mistakes and should be given the opportunity to which they can have an education therefore gaining a learning experience. That was his response to John J. Lennon’s New York Times article, “Let Prisoners Take College Courses,” that aims to transform
Issues that involve prisoners that were brought into prison and are released usually end up returning, but provided with the education then they have an advantage to gaining a job or doing more once they are out of prison (Lennon). This also reduces recidivism, a relapse of criminal behavior that involves a criminal to come out of prison only to end up back in prison again, especially since it would give “positive effects… and on making more ex-prisoners more productive members of our society” (“A College Education for Prisoners”) as mentioned from Brandt. Prison education can be of use for recidivism prevention that gives prisoners the convenience of being a productive member of society and preventing prisons from overcrowding especially with prisoners that end up returning after being released for a certain amount of time. Another man named Stanley Richards, a former prisoner, was given the opportunity to enroll into classes that changed his life drastically and with that he became a tax payer (“A College Education for Prisoners”). This shows that given the education that the inmates in prison that are willing to take up the offer can help improve and change for the better therefore when released, it will give the former prisoners the convenience of a successful future and contributing to society with the education that they’ve gained during the time in
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
table had the cure for HIV, AIDS or cancer lodged in his brain, to be lost instead of used for the good of humanity. Lost, when all it would have taken was some support and possibly some teaching, although a fair amount are educated to a good level, approximately a third. Why shouldn't prisons be centers of learning as well as places of incarceration? It could also help with the problem of re-offence, as education is attributed as being the number one cause for crime.
It is to no surprise that America has a large amount of its people incarcerated for a variety of reasons. One must ask themselves how we can help these individuals get back on track. The answer is America’s most powerful weapon known to man; an education. This is an annotated bibliography for research on the effects of education in the prison system and if these effects are worth taxpayer’s money.
This paper will argue that post-secondary education is the most effective method of rehabilitation in American prisons. Education is not only cost-effective; it also has proven long-lasting effects on recidivism, employment, and personal growth. The majority of offenders in the American prison system are non-violent perpetrators, many of whom lack the resources for post-secondary education. By providing easily accessible education, offenders will have greater job prospects upon release and an improved sense of morality in connection to social values. Such a system must be slowly integrated into both federal and state prisons nation-wide. Implementation will be assisted by the use of electronic surveillance to monitor inmates, providing them a safer environment and access to the internet for research. In addition to this, online university programs will be used by the inmates to enable studying at recognized institutions. Grants, government-funded loans and public sponsorship are all necessary to provide the monetary funds needed to offer low-income offenders the opportunity to improve their quality of life through education. Access to post-secondary education is essential to improve the lives of non-violent offenders in the American justice system.
The amount th of money that has been spend on prisons is about 49 billion dollars the reason for this is because people are being sent to prison and some re offend and come back. The main purpose of going to jail is to never come back , but in some cases others don 't seem to learn from their mistakes. This is the reason why prison education would come in handy. In the article “Education and Vocational Training in Prisons Reduces Recidivism, Improves Job Outlook” its states that “Researchers found that inmates who participate in correctional education programs have 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than those who do not”This quote is pretty much saying that the percentage of inmates that has education is less likely to come back. This is good because the amount of money that we would be saving would probably help us with debt that we face a lot in american. Education is the most important form of rehabilitation for
"It costs the government half a million bucks to keep me in jail and $450 to teach me to read and write" (ex-con cited in Porporino and Robinson 1992, p. 92). The literacy demands of the workplace and society in general are growing in complexity, and recurring linked cycles of poverty and low literacy levels put some people at increasing disadvantage. The prison population includes disproportionate numbers of the poor; those released from prisons are often unable to find employment, partly due to a lack of job and/or literacy skills, and are often reincarcerated (Paul 1991). Add to that the high cost of imprisonment and the huge increase in the prison population and it seems clear that mastery of literacy skills may be a preventive and proactive way to address the problem. However, correctional educators contend with multiple problems in delivering literacy programs to inmates. This Digest sets the context of prison literacy programs, outlines some of the constraints, and describes what factors work.
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 the argument “Let Prisoners Take College Courses,” by John J. Lennon he argues that when incarcerated, if the college programs are not made readily available for more than the select few inmates, they will see more returns than they would otherwise. To support his thesis Lennon uses a variety of researched facts. For example: “In Sing Sing, for example, one forward-thinking educational program, launched in 1998, has a recidivism rate of less than 2 percent”(Lennon, 1). This shows that Lennon did some research on the subject. In addition to the factual evidence presented in the argument, Lennon uses two different human experiences. One experience was of himself. He spoke of what put him in jail and how being able to take college courses helped him discover who he was and feel remorse for his bad decisions of his past.
This reform idea was first introduced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As an argument for his claim, Woodman shares statistics that show that having a college degree over a high school degree increases a person’s chances of getting hired by 50%. He asserts that if college education were offered to prison inmates, they would gain an edge in the job market, especially since top colleges and universities are not producing graduates for in-demand fields. “[T]hey’re not going to care that your degree is from University of Sing Sing, not University of Phoenix,” he states in relation to North Dakota’s need for engineers. Offering more job opportunities to ex-convicts would give them what Woodman calls an anchor in
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
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.
...be greatly life changing for the better for some people. Roger Dean Kiser Sr. and Jeri Becker from the previous articles used prison for repenting and thinking about themselves, about their actions and from this becoming great people with Becker becoming a known author and teacher, a famous example of how prison can change people.
According to experts and inmates, education is a key to successful reentry into society that most inmates are lacking. Over the past twenty years, the need for education within jails and prisons has risen to an all-time high...