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Educational Opportunities in Prisons and Jails (redirected from Prisoner Education)

Page history last edited by Robert Hackett 3 years, 4 months ago

Front Page / Issue Briefs / Justice, Crime and Public Safety & Education / Educational Opportunities in Prisons and Jails / Overview

 

Issue Brief

 

Educational Opportunities in Prisons and Jails - Overview


 

 

Goal Statement   one sentence that further defines the topic


  • To be able to provide educational programs in prisons and jails to benefit the reentry of those individuals who are incarcerated and reduce recidivism.

 

Local/State/National Information    additional information on this topic at the local, state, national, global level


 

Policy Options / Model Programs   link to profiles of specific policies or program models, grouped by type 


 

  • Expand Educational Funding for Prisoners

    • Expand Pell Grant eligibility for "in-prison" education programs
      • That incarcerated individuals can receive an education to be better prepared for the work world and to be more competitive in the overall hiring process.[1]
      • A report released for the 112th Congress and the Obama administration addressing problems in the state and federal criminal justice systems and recommendations of ways to address said problems"Part Three" of the report includes a section devoted to re-entry, which addresses several recommendations in regards to the relationship between criminal records and employment.[2]
    • Expand funding for GED Programs for Prisoner Education (?) 

 

  • In-Prison Education Programs Taught by Students and Faculty 

    • Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program
      • The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an educational program with an innovative pedagogical approach tailored to effectively facilitate dialogue across difference.
      • It originated as a means of bringing together campus-based college students with students who are incarcerated for a semester-long course held in a prison, jail or other correctional setting.
      • While those core Inside-Out Prison Exchange courses have been replicated across the United States and in multiple countries since its inception over 20 years ago, the program has expanded into a variety of other forms of educational and community-based programming.
      • It also has grown into an international network of trained faculty, students, alumni, think tanks, higher education and correctional administrators, and other stakeholders actively engaged with, and deeply committed to social justice issues.[3] 

 

    • Cornell Prison Education Program
      • The mission of the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) is to provide high quality higher education in New York State prisons; to help CPEP students build meaningful lives inside prison as well as prepare for successful re-entry into civic life; and to inform thought and action on social justice issues among past and present CPEP students, volunteers, and the wider public. 
      • They believe in equitable access to higher education and the transformative power of intellectual development. Our engagement in the state correctional system manifests Ezra Cornell’s commitment to founding an institution where “any person can find instruction in any study.”[4] 

 

    • Northwestern Prison Education Program
      • The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is an initiative of Northwestern University to provide a high-quality liberal arts education to students who are incarcerated in Illinois in partnership with Oakton Community College and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).
      • NPEP fills a vital need in Illinois by being the only degree-granting program in the state providing a full liberal arts curriculum—humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and STEM courses—to students who are incarcerated.
      • NPEP is also the only postsecondary prison education program in Illinois that accepts applications from facilities throughout the state, including from medium- and maximum-security prisons.
      • This enables NPEP to have statewide impact and to reach students at various stages of their incarceration, allowing the liberal arts degrees that are conferred to prepare students for success across a broad range of future pursuits.[5] 

 

Glossary of Terms   key words or phrases that the layperson needs to know to understand this issue 


  • Associates Degree: An academic program taken at the undergraduate level (the first stage after secondary school). It aims to give students the basic technical and academic knowledge and transferable skills they need to go on to employment or further study in their chosen field. An associate’s degree provides preparation for a bachelor’s degree, while for others it’s a qualification in its own right, helping to improve employment prospects compared to only having completed a secondary-level education.[6]

 

  • General Educational Development Test (GED): An equivalency to a high school diploma awarded by the state once the individual has completed and passed it. 

 

  • In-Prison Education Programs: Refers to prison education programs that are implemented on site and that inmates have access to while serving time at any participating correctional facility.

 

  • Mass Incarceration: refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.[7]

 

  • Master's Degree: A master’s degree is the first level of graduate study. To apply for a master degree you usually must already hold an undergraduate degree (a bachelor’s degree).[8]

 

  • Offender: An individual who violates a public law.[9] This title is usually acquired by someone who in violating the law enters into the criminal justice system.

 

  • Prison Education: Refers to a broad number of in-prison educational programs.[10] 

 

  • Recidivism: Refers to a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime.[11]

     

  • Reentry (or "Re-Entry"): Refers to the transition of offenders from correctional facilities (i.e. prisons and jails) back into the community.[12] 

 

 

Contributor(s): Jocelyne Guzmán, The College of New Jersey

 

Footnotes

  1. https://archive.constitutionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SmartOnCrime_Complete.pdf
  2. https://archive.constitutionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SmartOnCrime_Complete.pdf
  3. https://www.insideoutcenter.org/about-inside-out.html
  4. https://cpep.cornell.edu/
  5. https://sites.northwestern.edu/npep/about/
  6. https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/what-associates-degree
  7. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0033.xml
  8. https://www.geteducated.com/career-center/detail/what-is-a-masters-degree/
  9. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/offender
  10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_education
  11. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/corrections/recidivism
  12. http://www.indy.gov/eGov/Council/Committees/Documents/RE-ENTRY/Re-entry%20Policy%20Study%20Commission%20-%20Definition%20of%20Re-entry.pdf

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