|
By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY
Students in the Palmetto Unified School District in South Carolina have no Internet access, no PTA and no Friday night football.
That's because their school is in a prison.
Still,
they have performed well enough behind bars to earn their school
district an "Excellent" rating on the South Carolina Annual School
Report Card each of the past five years.
The
Palmetto program is one of many across the USA increasingly turning to
education to reduce the rate of recidivism and to give inmates hope for
their future.
Some of the spark
for the growth in prison education programs comes from the passage of
federal Second Chance Act, signed by President Bush this year, which
provides $165 million a year for programs ranging from employment
services to substance-abuse treatment.
Programs' growth
Several states have broadened their programs in the past year:
In
California, a law passed last year put $7.7 billion in programs such as
"Secure Re-Entry Facilities" that provide education, job training and
counseling for inmates a few months before their release, Department of
Corrections spokeswoman Michele Kane said.
Although
the total number of inmates in California decreased by more than 4,700
from March 2007 to August 2008, the number of inmates enrolled in
academic programs there grew from 11,925 to 14,050, according to Jan
Blaylock, superintendent of the state's Office of Correctional
Education.
Figures
released last week show that three times as many inmates in
California's Juvenile Justice system enrolled in college courses over
the past three years, and there was a 50% increase in the number of
inmates passing the general equivalency diploma (GED) test, Kane said.
•In
Arkansas, the statewide prison school system had the largest graduating
class in the state this year: 872 inmates earned high school
equivalency diplomas, according to William Byers, superintendent of the
Arkansas Correctional School.
•In
Tennessee, inmates at the State Prison for Women earn college credit
alongside students from Lipscomb University, said Lipscomb professor
Richard Goode, who began the program in January 2007.
•In
Pennsylvania, inmates have Individual Plans of Instruction developed to
meet their educational needs and are required to take a victims
awareness class to teach them the consequences of their crimes on
victims, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton
said.
The
educational emphasis represents a shift away from warehousing prisoners
and toward preparing them for life after prison, said Eric Schultz,
director of government affairs for the American Correctional
Association.
"You have to start preparing offenders for re-entry from Day One," he said.
"It's
a motivation factor, it's a morale factor, it's a behavior factor,"
said Linda Caldwell, associate warden for programs at the Tyger River
Correctional Institution School near Enoree, S.C. "Everything that
these folks do in education helps my institution run so much better."
Out
of a class of 217 students in GED classes at Tyger River in the 2007-08
school year, 186 earned the GEDs — an 86% completion rate. "At least
we're giving them a fighting chance when they get out," Principal Kevin
Morrow said.
Tim
Terry says the Palmetto GED program played a big part in his life when
he got out of prison after serving more than 15 years on a voluntary
manslaughter charge.
After
earning his diploma and participating in Kairos, a Christian prison
ministry, he said he was motivated to help other inmates when he got
out in 2002.
Since
then, he has organized four different programs across South Carolina
that have helped at least 600 recently released inmates get a new
start, he said.
"I've actually enrolled in college since I've been out, working toward my degree in counseling," he said.
Aiming to 'humanize'
Some
argue that spending money to educate prisoners is neither effective nor
appropriate. Ted Deeds, chief operating officer of the Law Enforcement
Alliance of America — a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of law
enforcement professionals, crime victims and concerned citizens — said
he's "extremely leery" that educating prisoners does much to
rehabilitate most criminals.
"We
should not be spending more money for touchy-feely programs when we
don't have enough money right now for actual brick and mortar prisons
and bed space," he said.
The
Arkansas Department of Corrections did a study that showed that GED
programs in jails there have cut the recidivism rate there by 8
percentage points, according to Byers.
Education helps "humanize" inmates who have become disconnected from society, Lipscomb's Goode said.
Barnett reports for The GreenvilleNews in South Carolina. |
Newsflash 
