News FeedPrison Reform Should Include Pell Grants for Prisoners
In today’s punitive prison system, fewer prisoners have access to higher education. I read an article that Matthew Ryno published at Wiscnews.com, for example, that described how the federal prison in Oxford was about to substitute a program through which inmates could earn degrees from the University of Wisconsin in order for the prison to make room for programs that allow inmates to earn certificates in custodial services.
We need prison reforms that will bring new leadership to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Recidivism rates are high because prisons fail to prepare offenders for the challenges they will encounter upon release. In Ryno’s article, he quotes a high-level administrator at FCI Oxford who said that programs that teach occupational skills like janitorial services would benefit inmates more than university degrees. I disagree.
When I began serving my federal prison sentence, in 1987, prisoners were entitled to receive educational funding through the Pell grant. Those funds made it possible for me to change my life in significant ways. As a consequence of the PelI grant, I was able to begin and complete my undergraduate studies. In 1992, Mercer University awarded my baccalaureate degree. That credential enabled me to advance to graduate studies. In 1995, Hofstra University awarded me a master’s degree.
Some shortsighted people may object to taxpayer funds being used to subsidize educational programs for people in prison. Yet I would submit that taxpayers have an interest in helping prisoners develop skills and credentials that translate into successful lives upon release. Statistics show that prisoners who leave confinement with academic credentials have significantly lower recidivism rates than those who leave prison with minimal skills.
Prisoners who return to society face significant hurdles. They struggle to gain traction after years or decades of confinement. Yet those who have committed the discipline necessary to earn high-level academic credentials stand much more prepared to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Those contributions lead to higher earnings and more tax revenues for society. Offering high-level academic programs to those in prison represent a wise investment of public funds. Only the foolish would choose to invest in more prison cells.
As a consequence of the academic program to which I committed during my first decade of confinement, I built relationships with many mentors. Professor Norval Morris, who was with the University of Chicago and one of the most distinguished penologists in the world, was a friend and teacher of mine. In his book The Future of Imprisonment, Professor Morris wrote that society had an interest in helping those in prison advance and earn academic credentials to the highest level possible. Education, he was convinced, was the single most effective vehicle to break the cycle of crime.
In my article titled One Man’s Walk Through Atlanta’s Jungle, which I wrote in the early 1990s, I described what it felt like to begin serving a lengthy sentence in a high-security penitentiary when I was in my early 20s. I wrote more on the subject in Facing Long-Term Incarceration. When I published those articles, I could not envision the full manner in which a 45-year prison term could suck the life out of me. Yet through my commitment to education, I was able to offset the disaster of my lengthy term.
Now I have more than 21 years of prison behind me. I am nearly 45 years old, and I expect to serve a few more years before release will come. Yet as a consequence of my educational credentials, I will leave prison unscathed, ready to begin my life as a contributing citizen. In fact, my academic credentials have opened opportunities to contribute to society from within prison boundaries. I have published several books and articles, and I have employment offers that await my release. The investment taxpayers have made in my education will ensure that I live the rest of my life as a productive citizen. Society ought to support prison reforms that will allow more prisoners to emerge from these boundaries with skills and resources that will help them overcome the challenges and hurdles certain to follow confinement.
With President Obama’s leadership, and a strong Congress, I hope for legislation in 2009 that will help more offenders prepare for release in meaningful ways. In our enlightened society, we ought to encourage and support those who are striving to reconcile and redeem the bad decisions of their past. Through my work and my example, I hope to offer compelling reasons for positive change to our nation’s prison system.
Hi:
What do you know about the second chance act of 2007,and how effective it has been to date in educating prisoners, reducing recidivism rates, post release programs…or has it been affected bu budget cuts due to the recession? It appears there is a provision in there for grants..here is the summary:
Section 114 -
Authorizes the Attorney General to carry out a grant program to evaluate methods to improve academic and vocational education for offenders in prison, jails, and juvenile facilities.
Section 115 -
Directs the Attorney General to make grants for providing technology career training to prisoners.
Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2010.
Section 213 -
Requires the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to: (1) adopt and implement a policy allowing the continuation of mentoring services to offenders after their release from prison; and (2) report to Congress by September 30, 2009, on the implementation of such policy. DATE WAS LAST WEEK.
Chapter 1 – Improving Federal Offender Reentry
Section 231 -
Requires the Attorney General, in coordination with the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, to establish a federal prisoner reentry initiative to prepare prisoners for release and successful reintegration into the community.
Requires the Director to assist prisoners in obtaining identification documents (e.g., birth certificates and social security cards) prior to release from prison.
Directs the Attorney General to modify the policies and procedures of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for transition of offenders into the community.
Expands the duties of the Director to include reentry planning procedures to provide federal prisoners with information on health and nutrition, employment, literacy and education, and other matters to assist in reentry into the community. Requires the Director to report to the Judiciary Committees of Congress annually on: (1) the progress of the Bureau of Prisons in responding to the reentry needs and deficits of inmates; and (2) recidivism reduction. Requires the adoption of performance measures and goals for reentry and recidivism reduction programs of the Bureau of Prisons.
Requires the Attorney General to: (1) take steps to educate employers on initiatives for hiring former federal, state, or local prisoners; and (2) conduct a pilot program for removing nonviolent elderly offenders (not less than age 65) from prison and placing them on home detention. Requires the Bureau of Prisons to ensure prisoners in community confinement facilities continued access to medical care.
Authorizes the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, in consultation with the Attorney General, to establish the Federal Remote Satellite Tracking and Reentry Training (ReStart) program to promote the effective reentry into the community of high risk individuals (i.e., individuals who violated terms of release or are at a high risk of recidivism). Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2010.
Section 232 -
LOTS OF GOOD STUFF THERE…IS ANY ORGANIZATION MONITORING AND AT LEAST TRYING TO HOLD THOSE IN AUTHORITY RESPONSIBLE TO THIS ACT? ON PAPER, IT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD…PLEASE ADVISE IF IT’S WORKING, OR WILL WORK, OR IS INEFFECTIVE.
THANKS..I AM A MINISTER, MEMBER OF KAIROS PRISON MINISTRIES, AND MYSELF AND MINISTER BROTHERS PREACH IN THE PRISONS EVERY MONTH…WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP TRULY MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN?
[...] Santos, a federal prisoner who blogs regularly in this space, wrote last fall at his Prison News Blog that Pell Grants helped him obtain a bachelor’s and master’s degree and prepared him to [...]