Prison Education Project

Prison Education Project

• Prisoneducationproject.org
• Reingetrationacademy.org
• timetoast.com
• Wikipedia.com
• American Corrections Textbook
• Various websites
• Youtube.com

Reintegration Academy

• By week 10 a graduation banquet is given and parolees receive a certificate of completion.

• 25-30 parolees are invited to a college campus for 10 weeks.
• They are screened by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Southern Region.
• Participants are immersed in academic, life skills, and career development modules during the 10 week period.
• In the first week they are given a gift card to purchase business attire clothes.
• In the 5th week they are given a laptop computer.
• In the 8th week they are enrolled at Mt. San Antonio Community College and are assisted in completing financial aid forms.
• In the 9th week parolees attend a job fair for meet and greets with many employers in the area

Cont...

• The ultimate goal is to create a prison - to - school pipeline and provide inmate-students with the cognitive tools necessary to function as productive citizens
• There is a college within a 15-20 mile radius of the majority of California's prisons.
• With the education being provided recidivism rates will decrease by at least 40%

Prison Education Project

Drawbacks

• On Nov. 1st 2011 the office of correctional education and California Institution for Men teamed up with Prof. Renof Reese of Cal Poly Pomona sought to fix our recidivism rate.

• Some argue those inmates who are educated in prisons are just becoming smarter criminals.
• Many argue that educating a prisoner is not the right thing to do for someone who is supposed to be punished for a crime committed.
• Many against education programs for prisoners state that fact that everything else they get for free as well. This makes prison seem like an ideal situation to be in.
• Turns our criminal justice system into a joke when potential criminals believe serving time to be easy.
• Unfair to hardworking law abiding citizens

Benefits

The History

• Inmates who participate in prison educational programs are 43% less likely to return to prison after release.
• The costs of educating an inmate(GED or College) is between 2,000 to 4,000 dollars per inmate, per year compared to 32,000 to 40,000 a year to incarcerate them.
• Improves a released inmate's job outlook when returning to regular society.
• With an education prisoners can overcome the stigma of their criminal record. 75% are actually able to overcome this stigma and get jobs.
• Education helps speed up the aging out process.

• In 1790 Walnut Street Jail, the nations first penitentiary offered education programs to inmates.
• Prison education loses support in 1820's because of societies shift from rehabilitation to hard lined crime control.
• In the late 1800's reformatory model caused a shift from hard lined crime control to rehabilitation and education.
• Prisoners became eligible to participate in educational programs in 1965 under the higher education act signed by Lyndon Johnson.
• This act allowed inmates to apply for Pell grants to pay for the education.
• By 1982 post secondary education programs existed in 45 states.