Is Education A Mandatory Requirement?

Although several educational programs are widely available, many inmates are unable to take advantage of them, do not complete them, or lack follow up in the form of ongoing support services once released from the correctional system. The following table displays this concern: Table 2. national and state data on inmate participation and completion . Approximate Numbers 1993-2007: Institution Type Total Number of Inmates System 165,000 167,717 Number of Inmates Enrolled in Education Programs 54,000 87,624 Rate of Attendance, At Completion of Course 50% 60% Rate of Completion

Many offenders will be released from prison and yet approximately 60% will return for violating the law (Beard, Johnson, & Kemp, 2003). An inmate that has an education equivalent to a

The correctional educational programs plays a role in reducing recidivism. Recidivism remains high nationally, with four in 10 inmates returning to prison within three years of release. Most inmate that goes to prison had less education than the general population. I feel that it's

The article "Educated Prisoners Are Less Likely to Return to Prison" by James Vacca (2004), deals with the subject of if prisoners receive the right type of educational programs in prison their risk of recidivism goes down immensely. Vacca states that "Since 1990, the literature has shown that prisoners who attend educational programs while they are incarcerated are less likely to return to prison following their release (2004)." Vacca cites many examples of the types of educational courses the inmates should have to help them deal with their emotions and problems. The educational programs help the inmates deal with their social skills, encourage artistic development, and teach techniques on how to deal with their emotions (Vacca, 2004). These programs would help inmates deal with the issues that put them in prison in the first place and knowing these skills can then help keep them out of prison in the future. I find these arguments to be sound because Vacca shows the research from other people all over that concurs with his own claims of how these programs can keep recidivism at bay (2004). He cites many examples and goes into depth about why inmates may be in prison and what these programs will do to correct their problems and turn them into a real

Inmates need to be educated and rehabilitated in order to be released back into society. If prisoners receive a good education they are less likely to commit misconduct in the future. The Three State Recidivism Study

Moreover, the studies had also been conducted to evaluate correctional programs’ effects on recidivism. All studies point to one conclusion; offenders who participate in correctional education programs are less likely to return to prison after being released. For example, researchers at the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) evaluated correctional education’s effect on inmates who participated in the programs offered in IDOC and compared their results with a group that had not

There is a great debate throughout our country, and in individual states, over how long criminals should be incarcerated for various crimes. The relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism is one of the central points of the debate in sentencing and corrections policy. Many people assert that longer prison terms are more effective at deterring future crimes because they set higher price for criminal behavior and because they hold offenders until they are more likely to “age out” of a criminal life style. However, others argue just the opposite and that is more time behind bars increases the chances that inmates will reoffend later because it breaks their supportive bonds in the community and hardens their associations with other criminals. According to Oliver (2011), both of these arguments are accurate because the strongest research finds that these two theories cancel each other out. Several studies, looking at different populations and using varied methodologies, have attempted to find a relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism but have failed to find a consistent impact, either positive or negative. There is one thing for sure and that is incarceration and recidivism is a very active cycle which affects the lives of many

Currently the United States holds the leading position for having the largest prison population in the world. Considering this, the cost of re-incarcerating offenders after their release remains notably high to U.S Americans and our society. Recidivism is known as the reimprisonment of an individual that is released from prison but then later returns for being convicted of a new crime. However, there is essential data that proves the drastic reduction in recidivism through academic and vocational studies. Each year, it cost twice as much to provide a room and food for inmates than it would just to educate these prisoners.

Prison inmates should be allowed to take college courses because an education offers a positive change for their release back into society. The education they receive will offer life skills and provide them with positive reinforcement to change their lives for the better; while restructuring the way some think and continue through life and society through making proper choices and better role models.

Vivian Nixon’s article “During and After Incarceration, Education Changes Lives” argues higher education should be made available to current and formerly imprisoned individuals. Her main point is that, “Lawmakers should remove the obstacles that prevent convicted individuals from earning degrees during and after their sentences” (Nixon). Throughout the article, she discusses the value of education and how it reduces recidivism. While appealing to legislators who implement the law, the article is relevant to all readers.

Experts examined the effect of prison college education programs on the recidivism’s rate. the sample population are offenders who completed a post-secondary education while incarcerated and those held a high school diploma/GED or did not take any education programs. The sampling frame were all inmates released from North Carolina prisons through 2014. Under the direction of NC Court of Appeals Judge John B. Lewis, Jr., committee chair person for the North Carolina Bar Association’s Alternative to present systems of Punishment office, the researchers could mail letters to every Chief Adult Correctional Education Administrator in North Carolina. Also, experts mailed letters to North Carolina public Administer, who might have some information

The same study discovered that out of another sample of 272,111 prisoners released in 1994, 25.4% were resentenced to prison for a new crime, 46.9% were simply reconvicted and 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within the next 3 years. According to data released by the Bureau of Justice, in 2007, an approximate number of 1,180,500 ex-prisoners on parole were suspected to be at risk for re-incarceration. Contrary to the previous study, ten years later, only 16% actually returned to incarceration by 2009 (Langan and Levin 13-14). That’s still approximately 188,880 people who burn themselves once again and ending up back behind bars. With that in mind, in order to understand their motives now, we must understand where these prisoners came from. Generally speaking, a majority of these citizens have poor education and come from unstable homes. Education is the only way to strive in this day and age. “Prison education is a means of rehabilitating and re-directing. If you release someone with the same skills with which she came in, she’s going to get involved in the same activities as she did before (Stern and Western).” This researcher evaluated a woman’s prison in south Florida only to find that the inmates that had high school diplomas were a mere 19%. These women have no way of continuing, or starting, their education and worse yet they have no motivation to do so. Prison systems should use more of their funds to redirect the inmate’s

Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased

Many inmates are incarcerated in prison for years and sometimes decades, then released back into society with little education or training. Studies have found that 19 percent of inmates are entirely illiterate, and 75 percent are functionally illiterate and read at a 4th-grade level. Therefore, without education, vocational training, or the ability to secure employment, many formerly incarcerated people maladapt to society and return to crime and prison. Thus, a vicious cycle of re-incarceration called inmate recidivism is created.

The United States justice system can be described as a cycle, where people enter the prison system, are released, and upon failure to integrate into society soon find themselves back behind bars. Although the means in which the cycle is perpetuated can be argued, the rate of re-offenders is constantly trying to be reduced. One term used to define this type of convict is recidivism, which is the repeat criminal action of a convicted inmate. Recidivism is fastly becoming a issue in the United States as it has been shown that 70% of convicted offenders have been reconvicted within three years of release (Esperian, 2010, p. 322). As crime of any background can be detrimental to society, this high rate of reentry into the justice system has stimulated