News

College Program for Women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

Jul 8, 2013 No Comments

Established in 1997, the Image courtesy highered.com offers women who are inmates at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility coursework that leads to an Associate of Arts degree and beyond. In the wake of 1994’s discontinuance of public funds supporting prison education programming, various colleges in the region met to design a new Bedford Hills program supported by private funding. Operated by Marymount Manhattan College, the program features faculty from other nearby colleges as well such as Mercy College, Sarah Lawrence, Barnard College, and others. Currently, each semester regularly sees more than 175 students working toward their degrees and earning college credits.

The Program

Marymount Manhattan College offers Bedford Hills program participants the opportunity to take college preparatory classes, earn an Associate of Arts degree, and earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. To apply to the program, inmates of Bedford Hills must have either a high school diploma or a GED. Moreover, upon taking placement tests, participants may initially have to take college preparatory classes to prepare for the degree programs themselves. All degree-seeking candidates must take general education courses just as any other college-level students.

An Approach to Restorative Justice: Pennsylvania Prison Society

Jul 3, 2013 No Comments

Dianne Frazee-Walker

A common opinion in American society is that prisoners don’t deserve help. They are the ones that put themselves in prison to begin with.

Most citizens are not aware that when prisoners are released into society it is our responsibility to care. The outside population is affected by offenders that are released from prison without essential life skills. Community members and tax-payers are impacted by prisoners that are unable to survive in the outside world because the only way these individuals know how to earn a living is to commit crimes. Image courtesy prisonsociety.org

The Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS) has been educating former offenders to become productive citizens and advocating for safe communities since 1787. The organization continues to add new programs that make it possible for former offenders to successfully reintegrate back into society.

Most inmates are accustomed to a family environment filled with stress and trauma. Enduring prison life is no different.

PPS reduces the recidivism tipping point by offering new workshops for former inmates that promote coping skills and innovative approaches to living a fulfilling life in the real world.

Own Your Future: New Colorado Program to Reintegrate Ex-Offenders

Jun 27, 2013 No Comments

By Chase Squires College In Colorado has developed an online program to guide felons back into work, and life. College In Colorado – a Colorado Department of Higher Education initiative that helps students and families explore careers and plan, apply, and pay for college – launches a free online program on July 2 – aimed

South Carolina’s Prison Initiative Program: An Overview

Jun 24, 2013 No Comments

By Christopher Zoukis

Academics and something more—that’s what this initiative is about; yet that something is the defining feature of this program that is working to endow prisoners with more than just academic skills when they leave prison behind them and return to South Carolina’s streets. The South Carolina Prison Initiative Program is a partnership between the state’s prison system and Columbia International University. The something that defines this initiative is its faith-based component that provides inmates with spiritual tools they need to make a genuine life change. Image courtesy ciu.edu

Columbia International University Prison Initiative

According to the university’s website, “The mission of the initiative is to train inmates to live in accordance with biblical principles and to equip them for the unique ministry opportunities available to them because of their incarceration.” Along with general academic subject matter, prisoners are instructed in general ministry skills. Essentially, the program seeks to empower participants so that they may positively empower others upon their release. Inmates who participate in the initiative’s accredited Associate of Arts program designed particularly for them are equipped to embrace the ministering opportunities that may be open to them upon their eventual release from prison. According to CIU, 95 percent of all the inmates in the South Carolina prison system will be released at some point.

Inmate Eligibility

Not all inmates are interested or eligible to participate in this program. According to CIU, “The program will be offered only to inmates who meet and maintain high standards of personal conduct” and the school’s “standards for academic achievement.” That said, this program provides an alternative for qualifying inmates; rather than do nothing to improve their skills while incarcerated, they can work toward a brighter future by learning viable skills that can effectively help them change their lives and reduce the risk of returning to the lifestyle or behaviors that caused them to go to prison in the first place.

FedCURE: Taking a Focused Approach on Criminal Justice Reform

Jun 5, 2013 No Comments

Critics of the criminal justice system have no shortage of issues to examine. Whether an academic analyzes inequalities in death sentencing or a social activist protests drug laws, it seems the entire spectrum of criminal justice is in need of reform. From who and why police are arresting particular individuals and how courts administer justice

Correctional Education Association: Connecting Prison Educators for More Than 80 Years

Jun 3, 2013 No Comments

By Christopher Zoukis

Teachers often receive credit for taking part in a profession that ensures a more prosperous future for young people. Educating children is seen as an investment for tomorrow, even if modest teachers often laugh at the idealized perception of their chosen career.

Educators engaged in nontraditional forms of teaching, however, can sometimes be forgotten. Since 1930, the Correctional Education Association has sought to change that. This U.S.-based nonprofit organization is an indispensable resource for prison educators both domestically and abroad. It’s a group made up of educators on the front lines in making for a better tomorrow, but who often face even greater challenges than their K-12 counterparts. Image courtesy ceanational.org

Providing prisoners with an education, according to most analysts, is a way to positively change both a prisoner’s character and abilities. Prison educators are a critical component in the rehabilitative process and in the criminal justice system overall. The problem is that many of these educators don’t receive the same level of pay or benefits as traditional teachers, and it’s very difficult for them to network, collaborate and advocate their own positions.

The Correctional Education Association is a membership-based organization with the initial purpose of uniting prison educators. Once educators join, however, they quickly discover that uniting prison educators is only a small component of the services offered by this organization.

The Correctional Education Association advocates legislatively for increasing the prevalence of education in prisons and jails. One of the stated goals of the organization is “representing juvenile justice and adult correctional education to broader educational, political and social agencies.” In addition to this work, the organization also attempts to inform broader audiences of its goals through a number of different avenues.

Methods to Approach Reforming the American Prison System

Jun 1, 2013 No Comments

There’s little doubt that the criminal justice system in the United States is in need of reform. Much greater than population or crime rate growth are the number of people behind bars and the costs associated with keeping them locked up. Even small and inexpensive programs can have profound results in terms of lowering the

Prison Education and the Benefits to Taxpayers

May 30, 2013 No Comments

By Christopher Zoukis

As prisons across the United States continue to experience overpopulation, there has been increasing concern among taxpayers regarding the ultimate costs of incarcerating so many individuals. Critics point to unsustainable incarceration numbers, huge costs and static crime rates as reasons why the criminal justice system needs to be seriously reformed. Image courtesy prisonstudiesproject.org

A vocal minority of experts and media analysts, who see prison education as the best route to reform the system, is seeking to increase public awareness and challenge the status quo.

Critics of the criminal justice system can usually agree on several things: costs are way too high, too many people are crowded into jails and prisons, and far too many felons who are released end up committing crimes and reentering the criminal justice system. Developing ways to reform the system typically focus on one of these areas, such as lowering the overhead costs of running prisons, the privatization of prisons, changing laws to reduce the number of incarcerated persons or focusing on reduced rates of recidivism. Gaining public support for any of these initiatives can be difficult, however, as there are always concerns of both costs and the impact on public safety.

The challenges of reducing recidivism

Proponents of prison education have focused their attention on lowering recidivism rates. Doing so, they argue, will alleviate prison crowding and save taxpayers considerable amounts of money. To adequately reduce recidivism, however, the focus must be on why a majority of felons end up returning to jail.

The Barber Amendment: FedCURE’s Method of Reducing Costs and Overcrowding in the Federal Bureau of Prisons

May 28, 2013 No Comments

In 1980 the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had a budget of about $330 million and housed around 25,000 federal inmates. The number certainly wasn’t small, but it was manageable. In the last 30 years, this population has exploded: federal prisoners now number in excess of 219,000, which accounts for the 39% average overcrowding of

Passive Resistance: An Alternative to Aggression

May 23, 2013 No Comments

Avoiding aggression in prison is not easy sometimes. In prison, there are two sets of informal social rules which inmates must follow. One set of informal rules is utilized when dealing with fellow inmates, and the other more formal set is used when dealing with the guards. At times — when the guards are being

News

College Program for Women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

An Approach to Restorative Justice: Pennsylvania Prison Society

Own Your Future: New Colorado Program to Reintegrate Ex-Offenders

South Carolina’s Prison Initiative Program: An Overview

FedCURE: Taking a Focused Approach on Criminal Justice Reform

Correctional Education Association: Connecting Prison Educators for More Than 80 Years

Methods to Approach Reforming the American Prison System

Prison Education and the Benefits to Taxpayers

The Barber Amendment: FedCURE’s Method of Reducing Costs and Overcrowding in the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Passive Resistance: An Alternative to Aggression

Categories

Categories

Archives

Our Prison Books

Federal Prison Information

About Us

Consulting Services

Early Release Options

Our Prison Books

Primary Office