News

Sitting Pretty: Vocational Prison Education Preps for Life After Prison

Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California, has a beauty salon. It started as a vocational prison education program in 1996 when the facility was for women only. Although it’s a men’s prison now, the salon, and the esthetician program, remain in place. It’s a unique way of learning job skills in the prison system, and

Read More »
Two young adults working on an electronics project in a lab setting, focusing on circuit design.

Nearly Half of Prisoners Lack Access to Vocational Training

In the ongoing discussion of prison reform, mass incarceration, and reducing recidivism, vocational programs are often overlooked in favor of formal educational courses and other activities and programming. Maybe it is assumed that most incarcerated individuals have access to, and participate in, vocational training and prison jobs. At least, that’s what popular TV shows and

Read More »

Changes to Pennsylvania DOC Improves Life for Prisoners, Staff

Educational and vocational training initiatives in the Pennsylvania prison system have improved conditions for both inmates and staff. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spent 2016 making laudable strides toward helping improve the state of mass incarceration in this country. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel made a statement in December outlining improvements the Department of Corrections (DOC)

Read More »

The “buzz” on New Zealand prison vocational training

Well this is one for the books, apiary books, to be specific. Inmates at several New Zealand prisons are being given training in a surprising area: beekeeping. Apiculture is now being taught to youths at Hawkes’ Bay Regional Prison through a correspondence course at Lincoln University as well as Auckland South Corrections Facility. Honey is

Read More »

Australian program seeks to break the recidivism cycle through education

Prisoners in the state of Victoria, Australia, will be part of new plans designed to try and meet prisoners’ educational needs immediately upon entry into the system. The $78 million (AUD) program aims to dramatically improve prisoner access to instruction from a variety of universities, colleges, and institutes across the region. Of particular note is the

Read More »

How prison vocational training can help keep America’s productive sector afloat

A shortage of skilled laborers in the craft of welding is poised to seriously hinder America’s production capacity in the coming years. With education policies emphasizing that all students should pursue “traditional” college upon high school graduation, there’s been a serious drop in the number of individuals pursuing vocational training in the last decade or

Read More »

Fort Bend to Offer Vocational Education to Some Inmates

By Rebecca Elliott / Houston Chronicle Bags of chips, pairs of tennis shoes, packages of Ramen noodles. Over the years, revenue from purchases made by inmates at the Fort Bend County jail’s commissary has added up. Now, the proceeds are financing an expanded correctional education program, complete with a new vocational training facility. Come January,

Read More »

Alabama Will Spend $5.4 Million For Inmate College Courses

In 2015, Alabama will spend $5.4 million on its prisoner postsecondary education program, including Calhoun Community College’s courses at Limestone Correctional Facility. Five schools across the state provide college-level certifications.  The Community College courses are separate from adult GED programs in the state’s prisons.  According to the Alabama Community College System, in Fall 2013, 1,000

Read More »

UNICOR: Prison Sweatshop or Under-Exploited Tool for Rehabilitation?

Each weekday morning at the Leavenworth minimum security federal prison camp in Kansas, more than 130 of the camp’s inmates troop off to work at the institution’s Electronic Recycling Factory. For many, this is the first real job that they have ever held. The Leavenworth Electronics Recycling Factory is a part of Federal Prison Industries,

Read More »
Search
Categories
Categories
Archives
X