Are Prison Education Programs Worth It?

[Jazzy]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new initiative last month to bring college courses to 10 prisons throughout the state. The program will offer associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, which inmates can complete in about two to three years. New York’s program will cost the state an estimated $5,000 per year per student, a comparatively small price to pay for the returns. “New York State currently spends $60,000 per year on every prisoner in our system, and those who leave have a 40 percent chance of ending up back behind bars,” Cuomo said. “Existing programs show that providing a college education in our prisons is much cheaper for the state and delivers far better results.”

Expressed this way, the equation is simple: Education behind bars means a greater likelihood of post-release employment; post-release employment means stability and independence and a lower chance of re-arrest. Study after study has shown that prison education “works,” which means that it prevents recidivism, and thereby saves taxpayers money.

New York Times editorial adds, “People who go to prison are already among the least educated members of society”; 40 percent of inmates do not have a high school diploma. (By contrast, 20 percent of the general population of the U.S. lacks a diploma.) A study by the Bard Prison Initiative cites the U.S. Department of Education statistics that 60 percent of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and 19 percent are fully illiterate. (In the general population, the corresponding illiteracy rates are 23 and four.)

Source

Questions:

Is a prison sentence meant to punish a criminal, or to pay for education for that criminal, or both?

In your opinion, are prison education programs worth it? Why/Why not?

 

[DrLeftover]

Point one:

Most convicts WILL get out of prison at some point in the future.

Point two:

If they have no other skills to fall back on, including at least a basic level of education, they are more likely to go back to their old habits.


Point three:

If you give a man a fish, he eats today. If you teach a man to fish, he eats tomorrow....

IF YOU TEACH THE MAN TO COOK THE FISH, HE'S GOT A CAREER.

 

[Jazzy]

So, I go to prison and I get a free college education.

Now, even when I do get out of prison, what are the odds of an employer hiring an ex-convict?

 

[Bluezone777]

Depends on what you want prison to do for society? If it is simply to satisfy a desire to inflict harm as payment for them inflicting harm on others then no you likely wouldn't want any good to come out of prison but somehow are left to ponder how what leaves prison is the same thing that gets sent back into it after a while? Could leaving the prisoner as he is when you let him out ensure he does more crime and gets sent back in? How is that helpful for anyone including society as a whole?

Now if you actually want the system to input a criminal, turn that criminal into someone who is going to be law abiding, let them out and keep them that way then yes education is good as it provides a venue for the criminal to escape the cycle of imprisonment and release.

It seems our current system is more interested in how much pain they can inflict on those who inflict pain which might make you feel all good as an innocent person but in the end it just does more harm then good both to the person in the prison as it does the innocent. Not all criminals specifically choose the life that led them to prison as it gets pushed upon them by the life they lived and the situation in which they were born into. They may in fact truly want something else but feel there are no options besides starve or crime.

The life you live that makes crime seem undesirable to you can be so quickly swept away out of no fault of your own and replaced with a life that deems crime the only way to escape death.

 

[DrLeftover]

So, I go to prison and I get a free college education.

Now, even when I do get out of prison, what are the odds of an employer hiring an ex-convict?

Getting better all the time.

January 29, 2014
Former gang member hired at Ill. DOC?
Xandrian McCraven, a former Chicago gang member with more than 24 arrests and falsified job qualifications spanning multiple state agencies, has been hired by the Illinois Department of Corrections

http://www.correctionsone.com/corrections-jobs/articles/6777027-Former-gang-member-hired-at-Ill-DOC/

 

[Evil Eye]

So, I go to prison and I get a free college education.

It'd hardly be free.

Suppose one follows a four-year course in prison. 4*52 = 108 weeks. At 40h per week, that's 4320 hours. Assuming US Federal minimum wage ($7.25/h), that's $31 320 that were essentially sacrificed by the prisoner to get some sort of education. Good value, if they're investing almost twice that per year, but all things considered I wouldn't call it worthwhile since you're also sacrificing your freedom.

Actually, let's turn it around
You get an education worth $60k/year. So you're getting $60000/52/40 = $28.85/h. That's pretty decent...

 

[Jazzy]

A study by the Bard Prison Initiative cites the U.S. Department of Education statistics that 60 percent of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and 19 percent are fully illiterate.

Guess we all missed this one, eh? They need primary school education NOT a college degree.

 

[DrLeftover]

My statement included the phrase "at least a basic level of education".

We can discuss exactly what that entails, but I would begin with a GED.

 

[Jazzy]

My statement included the phrase "at least a basic level of education".

Yes it did and my apologies. These inmates cannot even read or write. This is why I find it a huge waste of money for them to be studying for associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. I am in agreement with you, Doc, a GED would be more appropriate and way less money for the taxpayers.

 

[DrLeftover]

True story time.

Back when I worked at the prison, there was an inmate whose nickname was Rafi who one of the skilled workers on the job site where I was a C/O. He was well spoken, of good personal habits, and was one of those who obviously had a fairly good education. He had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and got caught up in somebody else's mess, and ended up in prison for his trouble.

One day he came in late to work because he had had an appointment with one of the classification boards, in prison, there is a classification board for damned near everything, including keeping an inmate IN his current cell and on his current job assignment.

Rafi was upset after his meeting and I asked him why.

He said, in no uncertain terms, that the classification boards were a waste of time and money and the counselors and others that sat on them should be fired.

His explanation went along the lines of:
"They don't know me, they didn't even look at my file. They just brought me in there and jerked me off and sent me out."

They had recommended that Rafi continue his employment, stay in his housing unit, and pursue GED classes. Which, I knew, was their standard answer to just about everybody.

Rafi did not need GED classes. In all probability he should have been teaching the GED classes.

I read the copy of his file that he had with him.

Rafi not only had a high school diploma, there was a copy of the transcript in his file...

He also had a Master's in Business Administration from Goldey-Beacom college. That transcript was also in his file.

Later that day I wrote a letter to the senior counselor that oversaw the classification boards, whom I happened to know, told him the story, and said he may want to have a chat session with the members of that particular board.

The next time Rafi came up before the board, they spent some time talking to him, and he was transferred to Minimum security and soon made his way to one of the outside work crews.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I have no problem with inmates getting a education in jail but............................ I want chain gangs brought back and have them do hard 8 hour work days. Remove all t.v.s and cable from jails. And whatever else we can remove that gives pleasure to a inmate to offset the costs for this education If we are going to give it to them.