Education-Based Incarceration and Recidivism


Book Description

Education-Based Incarceration and Recidivism: The Ultimate Social Justice Crime Fighting Tool takes a penetrating look at the needs and challenges of society's disenfranchised jail populations. It is incumbent to encourage public awareness of the causes that underlie the destructive cycles plaguing these populations, including the abuse and neglect that cycle through generations. When effectively addressed through education the economic burden on society is lightened and an advocacy to increase understanding engenders a humane response. When connecting education-based incarceration to leadership and social justice, several issues come to mind, beginning with the universal understanding that definitions of social justice are based on a variety of factors, like political orientation, religious background, and political and social philosophy. An increased body of researchers in educational leadership, ethics, law, sociology, corrections, law enforcement, criminal justice, and public health agree that social justice is concerned with equal justice, not just in the courts, but in all aspects of society. Social justice demands that people promote a just society where people have equal rights and opportunities; everyone, from the poorest person on the margins of society to the wealthiest deserves an even playing field. The intended audience for this book includes academics, national and international law enforcement agencies, and correctional institutions interested in establishing and assessing the effectiveness of an education-based incarceration program. This book can be used by educators and students interested in studying organizational leadership, correctional theory, recidivism, social and restorative justice, and education-based incarceration.




Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education


Book Description

After conducting a comprehensive literature search, the authors undertook a meta-analysis to examine the association between correctional education and reductions in recidivism, improvements in employment after release from prison, and other outcomes. The study finds that receiving correctional education while incarcerated reduces inmates' risk of recidivating and may improve their odds of obtaining employment after release from prison.




How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here? The Results of a Comprehensive Evaluation


Book Description

Assesses the effectiveness of correctional education for both incarcerated adults and juveniles, presents the results of a survey of U.S. state correctional education directors, and offers recommendations for improving correctional education.




College for Convicts


Book Description

The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world's population, yet incarcerates about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Examining a wealth of studies by researchers and correctional professionals, and the experience of educators, this book shows recidivism rates drop in direct correlation with the amount of education prisoners receive, and the rate drops dramatically with each additional level of education attained. Presenting a workable solution to America's mass incarceration and recidivism problems, this book demonstrates that great fiscal benefits arise when modest sums are spent educating prisoners. Educating prisoners brings a reduction in crime and social disruption, reduced domestic spending and a rise in quality of life. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.




American Prison Systems


Book Description







Liberating Minds


Book Description

An authoritative and thought-provoking argument for offering free college in prisons—from the former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Anthony Cardenales was a stickup artist in the Bronx before spending seventeen years in prison. Today he is a senior manager at a recycling plant in Westchester, New York. He attributes his ability to turn his life around to the college degree he earned in prison. Many college-in-prison graduates achieve similar success and the positive ripple effects for their families and communities, and for the country as a whole, are dramatic. College-in-prison programs have been shown to greatly reduce recidivism. They increase post-prison employment, allowing the formerly incarcerated to better support their families and to reintegrate successfully into their communities. College programs also decrease violence within prisons, improving conditions for both correction officers and the incarcerated. Liberating Minds eloquently makes the case for these benefits and also illustrates them through the stories of formerly incarcerated college students. As the country confronts its legacy of over-incarceration, college-in-prison provides a corrective on the path back to a more democratic and humane society. “Lagemann includes intensive research, but her most powerful supporting evidence comes from the anecdotes of former prisoners who have become published poets, social workers, and nonprofit leaders.”—Publishers Weekly




Doing Time, Writing Lives


Book Description

Doing Time, Writing Lives offers a much-needed analysis of the teaching of college writing in U.S. prisons, a racialized space that - despite housing more than 2.2 million people -remains nearly invisible to the general public. Through the examination of a college-in-prison program that promotes the belief that higher education in prison can reduce recidivism and improve life prospects for the incarcerated and their families, author Patrick W. Berry exposes not only incarcerated students' hopes and dreams for their futures but also their anxieties about whether education will help them. Beginning by exploring the need to move beyond narratives of hope when discussing literacy initiatives within prisons, Berry then illustrates how teachers and students frequently hold on to different beliefs about literacy and its power in the world. After discussing the possibilities and limitations of professional writing courses in prisons, the author argues that we need to pay greater attention to teachers and their motivations in prison education initiatives. Finally, he offers a case study of one formerly imprisoned student who uses writing in his current life and how this does (and does not) connect with what he learned in his prison education program. Combining case studies and interviews with the author's own personal experiences teaching writing in prison, Doing Time, Writing Lives chronicles how incarcerated students attempt to write themselves back into a society that has erased their lived histories. It challenges polarizing rhetoric often used to describe what literacy can and cannot deliver, suggesting more nuanced and ethical ways of understanding literacy and possibility in an age of mass incarceration.




College in Prison


Book Description

Over the years, American colleges and universities have made various efforts to provide prisoners with access to education. However, few of these outreach programs presume that incarcerated men and women can rise to the challenge of a truly rigorous college curriculum. The Bard Prison Initiative is different. College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities. Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI’s development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions—the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary—College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.




Beyond Recidivism


Book Description

Understanding reentry experiences after incarceration Prison in the United States often has a revolving door, with droves of formerly incarcerated people ultimately finding themselves behind bars again. In Beyond Recidivism, Andrea Leverentz, Elsa Y. Chen, and Johnna Christian bring together a leading group of interdisciplinary scholars to examine this phenomenon using several approaches to research on recently released prisoners returning to their lives. They focus on the social context of reentry and look at the stories returning prisoners tell, including such key issues as when they choose to reveal (or not) their criminal histories. Drawing on contemporary studies, contributors examine the best ideas that have emerged over the last decade to understanding the challenges prisoners face upon reentering society. Together, they present a complete picture of prisoner reentry, including real-world recommendations for policies to ensure the well-being of returning prisoners, regardless of their past mistakes.