College Education for Inmates Research Paper

Providing of the educational opportunities for inmates have become one of the controversial topics in modern societies. The system of prisons was transformed in comparison to their initial forms. Along with this the forms of organization of the presence of the inmates there were also changed. Nowadays there are a lot of prisons, which are ready to offer secondary education, college courses and vocational training for their inmates. All these programs aim at providing the specific skills for these people to be applied, when the term of their sentence is over. Currently up to 90% of all federal and state prisons are ready to offer various forms of educational programs for their inmates. This seems to be correct approach, as a lot of representatives of the prison population would not be in prisons, if they were provided with adequate support at certain early stages of their lives. At least 50% of prison inmates reveal poor reading and writing skills, which are approximately at the level of an eleven year old child. Under the condition of securing proper education to the inmates, a great part of them would not return there again. Mandating of correctional education has a serious potential for recidivism reduction and increase of overall level of safety in the society.

Simple definition of the concept of “education” is obtaining of knowledge through learning. Education in prisons could be provided in various forms, including academic, vocational, self-help and support groups, mental, physical health classes, college courses, employment training, drug and alcohol treatment and so on. All these opportunities are perfect for the individuals, who have the aim to change their lives, to take their second chance and do their best to avoid such unfortunate experiences of being in prison in the future. “The Department of Corrections (DOC) did a study from 1992-2002 that confirms an average of 50% of all inmates who enter the prison system do not have a high school diploma or G.E.D. and about 75% have no vocational or collegiate education.” (Taylor, 2015). Statistically around 70% of the inmates, who do not get their education in prison, return there. Such high recidivism rates underline the meaning of education programs for inmates and for the whole society. This is not to state that if an individual lacks appropriate education, he will become a prisoner, but to underline the fact that education or any kind of special training could serve a good restraining factor for individuals and could motivate them focus more upon their success, instead of making criminal choices in their lives. The variety of educational programs, which could be provided to inmates, includes barber school, plumbing, electrical, carpentry training, drug and alcohol treatment, computers and printing and so on. All these courses could be beneficial for inmates, for their understanding of their real needs and opportunities in life, for preserving of their sense of self-identity and self-realization. With the help of these programs they are able to learn more about themselves, about their talents and skills, and all these factors could prevent them from turning back to prisons and ruining their lives and the lives of their victims. Development of positive morals and values, along with sense of responsibility and accountability for the actions would also contribute to reduction of recidivism rates. “Misconduct is also effectively reduced by these programs because emphasis on personal responsibility, respect and tolerance of others are being taught. The Inmate Education enables inmates to acquire pro-social values and life skills.” (Martin, 2017).

Some opponents of providing of education for inmates state that they have everything there – free food, free religious services, free exercise equipment, free college education and they do not deserve such privileges due to the fact that they are criminals and other people are to work hard in order to obtain all the mentioned things, whereas criminals are able to obtain all these things for free. However, they forget that all these “privileges” are vital for keeping the inmates sane and the role of education here is unique. As Stephen Steurer, executive director of the Correctional Education Association stated: “Education does change minds, teaches people how to think better, [and] how to find alternatives to the way they used to do things” (Bender, 2018). It is difficult not to agree with him. When inmates arrive to prisons, they hardly tend to develop their expectations about their education. They are focused upon different things and they need support and counseling to distract them from the chaos and destruction they were used to before and change the list of their priorities. This is true that all people are to bear responsibility for their choices and actions, in most cases criminals commit the crimes consciously, knowing well that they do harm to their society and that they risk to be put to prisons afterwards. In most cases this is really their conscious choice to risk their freedom and opportunities for the sake of getting easy money or whatever. If education is provided for free to prison inmates, this means that the money of the tax payers goes to these programs. There seems to be no logic in making innocent people pay for the education of the criminals, especially taking into consideration that in most situations they had made their conscious choice and conducted the crimes. There is a need to engage a lot of professors and instructors to work at prisons and this means that their time will be devoted not to usual citizens, but to criminals. In addition there are certain dangers for educational stuff, as these are not usual students, these are criminals. The opponents of education for inmates state that it is dangerous to provide additional knowledge and skills to those individuals, who were already once involved into criminal activities, as they would get chances to use this knowledge and skills for planning and performing of new criminal acts. Death row inmates do not need any kind of education, according to the opponents of this practice, as they have already received their life sentence and there is no use for the society to educate them any more. One more controversial category of inmates is repeated prisoners, who continue to make the same mistakes and commit crimes. All these questions and arguments could be answered just with one point – education is needed for inmates in order to keep them alive and sane. “On March 14, 2006, a group of educators began their work at a local prison in Worcester, Mass. The experience they gained not only gave them a great sense of self accomplishment, but allowed them to learn along with their students. They know how to translate educere, which in this context means “enlightenment” or “to enlighten,” into a meaningful practice and thus transform education into practical knowledge, the kind that leads not only to a better job but also to a more meaningful and creative life.” (Taylor, 2015). In fact there are a lot of other examples of schooling in prisons, which reveal that education for inmates still has positive impact upon them. From legal and ethical point of view these people have committed crimes and they should be punished for those crimes. This is the reason, why they were sent to spend some time in prisons. Depriving them of their opportunity to obtain education and to get their second chances in lives should not be seen as a part of this punishment.

Financial aspects of providing free education to prison inmates also belong to the overall controversy. The opponents often underline the fact that usual people have the chance to get education only when they work hard and pay their money for education, whereas individuals, who had committed crimes, have the chance to get such privileges for free. They state that it is not correct and logical to use the money of the tax payers for providing education and chances to inmates. According to the Hamilton Project “the United States spent more than $80 billion on corrections in 2010, with the majority of the burden put on states. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education released an analysis which showed that over the course of three decades—from 1979 to 2013—state and local spending on prisons and jails increased at three times the rate of funding for pre-K-12 public education over the same years. To put that into perspective, the state of Maryland currently spends around $12,000 per pre-K-12 public school student per year compared with around $37,000 per incarcerated person per year.” (Martin, 2017). Instead of spending additional money for growing number of prison population and incarceration, federal and state governments could invest into the programs of rehabilitation, contributing to reduction of recidivism. As it is stated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), almost one half of all persons, who were released from federal prisons, are arrested again within the period of approximately eight years upon their release. Especially these figures are high by younger individuals. Those persons, who did not complete high school, were arrested for the second time at the highest rate. In addition the statistical data states that young people and school-aged children are more likely to be rearrested in comparison to adult people. This fact supports the need of the organization of free educational opportunities for them while in prisons.

The answer to financial concerns and wasting of the money of tax payers is the argument that free education for inmates is the best cost-effective option for crime reduction and has significant long-term benefits for the whole population of the country. The RAND Corporation conducted a research in 2016, which proved that those individuals, who took part in various types of educational programs during their imprisonment, were 43% less likely to return there again. Reduction of recidivism is one of the strongest outcomes of education for inmates. Speaking about long-term positive effects of college education for inmates, it is necessary to note that this type of education has the potential to contribute to better results from one generation to the other. Also the research indicated that the children, whose parents had college degrees, have higher tendency towards completing colleges themselves. In the prisons, where college education is offered, the degree of violence between incarcerated persons is seriously reduced. Such conditions are beneficial for the inmates as well as for the prison staff. Apart of general benefits, there are also individual benefits, including better employment opportunities, political involvement, volunteerism, better health state condition and higher personal income.

Higher recidivism is closely related to educational attainment; it is evident that formerly incarcerated individuals, who did not have the chance to obtain college education, are in difficult situations, when they go out of prisons. They do not have financial support and they do not see any legal option for earning money. Social support systems fail to help them to integrate into the society, thus most of them face a lot of personal, financial and health problems, which would most luckily motivate them for continuing of their criminal activities, as these are the only options of securing their survival, which they knew till that moment. These facts make these former prisoners utterly vulnerable towards repeating of their criminal acts and correspondingly to getting into prisons again. This vicious circle is really hard to break without changing of the community policies. So, the money, which is usually spent upon various preventative measures and programs, would most probably be just wasted, as these people are forced to make the repeated choices by a variety of circumstances. “Numerous studies highlight the negative social, psychological, and developmental effects of incarceration on the approximately 2.7 million children under age 18 who have at least one parent in prison. These negative effects can include unstable family environments, economic troubles, increased delinquency, poor school performance, and even trauma and stress-induced mental illness.” (Taylor, 2015). Considering this statistical and research data, it is possible to conclude that that it is much more rational to make investments into prison education, than into increased incarceration.

Any person, who does not have high school diploma, has no chance to obtain higher education, any kind of professional training and correspondingly scarce chances for good employment opportunities. If to imagine that formerly incarcerated individuals are to face additional disadvantages, as nobody wants to employ individuals with such “experience”. Lack of any diploma and fact of having spent some time in prison are the two factors, which close almost all doors for such individuals. Formerly incarcerated individuals earn on average 11% less in comparison to the rest other people, in case they perform the same job functions. In addition they are 30% less likely to find job quickly enough. Provision of education for inmates demands upfront funding, however it is important to consider long –term economic benefits for the community and the whole country. Each dollar, which is spent on prison education, saves around four dollars of taxpayers, which would have been spent upon incarceration. Such calculations prove that the argument against college education for inmates, based on wasting of taxpayers’ money, is in fact groundless. Providing financial support for free college education for inmates is beneficial for both sides, as the money is put back to the pockets of the consumers and the incarcerated individual get access to the needed tools for them to become competitive in the job market and make their contribution into the development of economic activity of their community. Along with this previously incarcerated individuals have the chance to be stronger players in the general market due to the increase of their purchasing power. Turning into more self-sufficient citizens, they are of greater use for their society. “Missouri, for example, saved an average of $25,000 per year for every incarcerated individual who left prison and did not return. Nationally, the U.S. economy is estimated to lose around $60 billion per year from loss of labor from the high numbers of incarcerated individuals.” (Martin, 2017).

The role of the federal government, states and local facilities for organization and funding of educational programs for incarcerated individuals could not be underestimated. Certainly, there are a lot of challenges and problems, related to providing of this form of education to people in prison. For example most of modern educational facilities organize their work with wide involvement of innovative technologies, Internet and communication means. Only 14% of students in prison are allowed to have restricted access to Internet for their educational purposes. One more concern is related to the quality of the provided education and the ways of transferring of credits to correctional institution and to the college or university, which these students could potentially attend later. Still adequate and correct organization and implementation of these programs proved to be really beneficial. “In 2017, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) took a step in the right direction by awarding more than $7 million to colleges—including Cornell University and New York University—to offer classes in prison. Another example of educational success, The Last Mile at San Quentin State Prison is a nonprofit that partnered with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide incarcerated individuals with coding experience.” (Martin, 2017).

Education in general is one of the most important things in life of any individual, this is his or her only chance to have a voice, to open the doors and increase of self-esteem along with reaching high level of social competence. Even if the situation with incarcerated students is to some extent different from the general case, still provision of education for them is better alternative for reduction of recidivism and for investing of taxpayers’ money. Horace Mann said that education could be a great equalizer, but only under the condition that the most vulnerable categories of community have access to it. (Taylor, 2015) Initiatives, as the Harvard Organization for Prison education and Reform and the Peter Greene Program, have shown that not only government policies and actions are of great importance for changing the situation for better, but also individuals could make their contributions into the process. “From both a moral and logical perspective, cutting prison costs by investing in education provides the greatest benefit to society as a whole, and ensures that all people—regardless of their past—are given an opportunity to thrive in the future.” (Bender, 2018).

Reducing recidivism and not the punishment itself, is the final aim of law enforcement systems. Education proved to have better impact upon recidivism in comparison to boot camps or shock incarceration. The National Institute of Justice found out that on the basis of the “Three State Recidivism Study”, which demonstrated that correctional education contributed to lowering of long-term recidivism by 29%. “A 2005 IHEP report cites yet higher numbers, reporting that recidivism rates for incarcerated people who had participated in prison education programs were on average 46 percent lower than the rates of incarcerated people who had not taken college classes. The same report examined 15 different studies conducted during the 1990s and found that 14 of these showed reduced long-term recidivism rates among people who had participated in postsecondary correctional education.” (Erisman & Contardo, 2005). Most of the individuals in American prisons do not have a high school diploma. There is a strong connection between the level of education and his or her recidivism rate. Also there is a connection between degree level and recidivism rate. As it is stated in the report of the Correctional Association of New York, college education belongs to the list of the most valuable assets in America and the worthiness of a bachelor’s degree could be measured as $1 million in lifetime earnings. This means that the fact of having or not having a degree has important implications for the further employment opportunities, which could be available for individuals, who leave prisons and are to integrate themselves into their community. The transition from prison life to normal life goes much smoother, if there is college education diploma.

College education for inmates also has impact upon violence reduction. According to the reports of directors of the prisons, where education programs were introduced, there are significant improvements in general prison discipline and inmates’ conduct. One of the directors of New York state prison informed that disciplinary infractions declined among the prisoners, who were students during the semester, and that prisoners did their best to control the situation in order not to lose their education program. “Changes in behavior can be attributed to improved cognitive capacity as well as to the incarcerated person having the opportunity to feel human again by engaging in an activity as commonplace as going to classes.” (Bender, 2018). Incarcerated people, who are enrolled into college classes, tend to commit much fewer infractions in comparison to the incarcerated individuals, who were not enrolled. Correctional education programs revealed the potential to overcome the racial barriers, which often become the causes of disciplinary problems in prisons. In general college education programs in prisons lays the basis for good behavior, for production of leaders, able to have calming impact upon other prisoners, for making the process of communication between inmates and inmates and correction officers better balanced.

One more positive effect of college education for inmates, which is often overlooked, but is not less meaningful than financial and discipline issues, is related to the impact upon children, whose parents are incarcerated. Education could show the difference between a life of crime and normal and productive life and an individual with college education is able to give much more to his children, than a former prisoner. Statistically more than one half of all prisoners have their children and they are expected to be reunited with their parents, when the prison term is over. A college education could serve a positive example to these children.

Overall, college education programs have a significant impact upon inmates and on the basis of the currently available statistical and research data it is possible to conclude that college education is beneficial for both inmates and their communities, as it provides the chance for better employment opportunities for former inmates, increases the level of discipline while in prisons, saves money of the tax payer and supports families and children of the incarcerated individuals.

References:

Bender, Kathleen. (2018). Education Opportunities in Prison Are Key to Reducing Crime.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1994).  Reentry Trends in the U.S.. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Dennis J. Stevens, Ward, Charles S. (1997). College Education and Recidivism: Educating Criminals Is Meritorious. Journal of Correctional Education (1974-) Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 106-111

Erisman, Wendy, Contardo, Jeanne, Bayer. (2005). Learning to Reduce Recidivism: A 50-State Analysis of Postsecondary Correctional Education Policy. Institute for Higher Education Policy

James J. Stephen. (2001). State Prison Expenditures 2001. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Martin, Glenne, E. (2016). For Inmates, a Step Up With College. New York

Taylor, Loretta. (2015). Prison education is a smart investment, reduces crime. The Times

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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