Should We Educate Prisoners?

                   PRISON EDUCATION 

QUESTION: Why should we give prisoners "free education?"

ANSWER:
   It's useful to distinguish between:

   *K-12 (kindergarden through 12th grade) education (which, in prisons,
      tends to be GED programs)
   *College courses
   * Vocatational courses

   Here, I'm speaking of college courses:

   In Illinois (and most states of which I'm aware), college courses
   are a privilege, and prisoners must be qualified to enter the
   program.  There is no stipulation that restricts access on the
   basis of sentence length or nature of crime, although these and
   similar criteria may influence where a prisoner is sent. Prisoners
   can, however, be denied access to programs (including college
   programs) or removed from them for failure to comply with prison
   rules, for failing the courses (ie, flunking out), or for security
   reasons (among others).

   > If someone is on death row--with no possibility of
   > ever getting out or having their sentence changed to life
   > imprisonment-- do you believe state resources should be used
   > to ensure they have a highschool and college education?

   If we believe that education betters people, a long-standing
   principle of our culture, then why shouldn't prisoners be eligible
   for post-secondary education? Here are a few reasons why I would
   support college eligibility for those doing natural life for many
   reasons, including the following, many of which pertain to *all*
   prisoners:

   1) Educated inmates are more manageable

   2) Education is, in itself, an intrinsic value

   3) It gives prisoners a long-range goal

   4) It keeps prisoners busy with a constructive activity (so they
   won't lie around their cell being bored)

   5) Educated lifers can (and often do) use their education to help
   other prisoners in the k12 education program

   6) Educated lifers serve as role models for younger inmates coming
   in who are at high risk as disciplinary problems because of
   "hopelessness and dispair"

   7) Educated lifers are better able to fill long-term prison jobs
   requiring specialized skills

   8) Education is a control mechanism in that failure to comply with
   institutional rules may result in revocation of the privilege of
   education

Return to JT's homepage

Page maintained by: Jim Thomas - jthomas@sun.soci.niu.edu