Educated Prisoners Are Less Likely to Return to Prison

Journal of Correctional Education, Dec 2004 by Vacca, James S

Effective Education Programs

Ripley (1993) believed that recidivism rates drop when the education programs are designed to help prisoners with their social skills, artistic development and techniques and strategies to help them deal with their emotions. Ripley further stressed the importance of teaching moral education as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills. The work of Harold Herber and Benjamin Bloom has fostered the importance of teaching critical thinking and reasoning skills to all learners, especially those that are considered to be at risk.

Gerber and Fritsch (1993) evaluated the outcomes of the adult education programs in prison. They distinguished among academic, vocational and social education and concluded that prison education programs lead to a reduction of criminal behavior, continued education after release from prison and fewer disciplinary problems in the prison setting. In addition, inmates who choose to participate in these programs have lower recidivism rates than those who do not participate.

In 1994, this educational research project examined more that sixty studies on prison education. The project focused on the relationship between prison education and offender behavior, the effects of prison control strategies on prison education programs and the effects of academic and vocational program participation on inmate misconduct and reincarceration.

The findings of the project present outcomes about what effective prison education programs do and why they are successful at reducing recidivism. For example, inmates exposed to education programs have lower recidivism rates than those who do not participate. In particular, most vocational programs in prison reported lower recidivism rates, lower parole revocation rates, better release employment patterns and better institutional disciplinary records for participants than for non-participants. Why the vocational programs are successful is because the programs are kept separate from traditional prison routines, and they provide follow-up services for inmates when they are released, attracting a target population of potential learners and providing marketable training skills.

The Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control conducted a study to determine the uses and usefulness of prison literacy and vocational programs of 65,000 inmates in the Federal Prison System. The data were first collected from a survey of the prison staff and review of selected inmate case files and other data to determine if the Federal Bureau of Prisons had reliable information on inmate participation in these programs. secondly, data were collected from a survey of federal prisoners and prison staff on incentives for encouraging inmate participation and on the usefulness of the prisons' vocational training and industry work assignments in providing marketable employment skills.

The results of this study showed that inmates reported that they were more inclined to participate in programs when they saw clear opportunities to improve their capabilities for success after being released. In addition, ex-prisoners who participated in employment and vocational education programs in prison had a better chance of maintaining employment and earning slightly more money than similar ex-prisoners who had not participated in the programs.