By Dianne Frazee-Walker Kevin McCauley is a medical doctor and recovering alcoholic/drug addict. He has spent the last ten-years studying addiction and the theories behind the causes of addiction. He imaginatively uses the backdrop of some of Utah’s most beautiful state park scenery to illustrate his analogy of how the brain of an addicted person
By Aaron Schrank Wyoming’s prison system boasts the second-best recidivism rate in the country. Twenty-five percent of offenders in the state will return to prison for a parole violation or new crime—compared to 40 percent nationally. The Wyoming Department of Corrections credits its education programs—including a mandatory G.E.D course for all inmates without a high
Like most municipalities, Cumberland County in southern New Jersey needs to raise its revenues. Last year it found a very effective way to do just that: fill up its jail. Jails as For-Profit Businesses While most of the developed world sees institutions like hospitals, universities, and prisons as essential public services, the reality is that
By Christopher Zoukis Image courtesy www.prisoneducationproject.org-
A National Network of Prison Education Programs
The 1980s were a period of expansion for prison education programs. Through the vehicle of federal financial assistance, inmates were able to enroll in vocational and college courses in their prisons, programs offered through community colleges and state universities alike. For a period, prisoners had a meaningful chance at learning a quality trade or even earning an associate’s or bachelor’s college degree during their term of imprisonment. Over 350 in-prison college programs flourished, with professors teaching classes “live,” in the prisons.
The Collapse: Congress Slams the Door on Education in Prison
All of this came to a screeching halt with the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The Act, a component of the anti-prison education agenda pushed in Congress and the Senate, imposed a ban on inmates receiving any form of federal financial aid to assist them in the pursuit of an education. With the slashed funding, nearly every externally supported prison education program in the nation shut down, and the result was an increase in prisoner unrest, violence, and recidivism. Colleges, prisoners, and prison administrators alike objected, and loudly so, but their pleas fell upon deaf ears.
Advocates for eliminating Pell Grants and other need-based financial assistance for prisoners claimed that those incarcerated shouldn’t be given government funding to pursue education. They advanced an agenda asserting that prisoners were taking funding away from traditional college students — a patently false assertion — and that offering college to inmates was a reward for crime. Some even had the gall to suggest that people were committing crimes in order to go to prison, where they could obtain a college education. It was a political firestorm like no other, and one based on emotion, not fact, logic, or empirical research.
In February, the State of California secured yet another extension to the date by which it must comply with the U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce overcrowding in its state prisons. Prior to the February 10, 2014 ruling, the deadline for reductions in prison overcrowding was set for April, but in the latest decision, three
Prison education is a controversial subject due to strong emotions on both sides of the issue. But it’s also an issue that has been the subject of a significant amount of published research — all of which supports the education of prisoners. According to the research, prison education has a marked effect on reducing recidivism,
American Prisons: A Failure of the Greatest Magnitude The state and federal prison systems of America are in tatters. Inmates are being transformed into hardened convicts. Recidivism rates continue to rise. And all the while, the concept of prison rehabilitating offenders has become a running joke, ongoing dialogue on prison reform aside. It’s pathetic, plain
by Elizabeth English and Ryann Roberts / @FortuneMagazine The mounds of taxpayer dollars spend putting people behind bars take away from America’s investment in education. It’s a fact that seems almost too mind-boggling to be true: The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population. In 2011, 716 out
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
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