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Post Secondary Education in Prisons

In: Social Issues

Submitted By sl2payton
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Post Secondary Education In Prisons:

Today many Americans are facing economic and government uncertainty. With the growing prison population and increased recidivism rate, it is time for a change in correctional policies. To spark the change in correctional policies recent studies have indicated that post secondary education programs have a significant correlation to reducing recidivism rates, prison costs, and prison population issues (Chappell, Cathryn A. 2004). Currently America makes up 5% of the world’s population, but accounts for more than 25% of prisoners incarcerated across other nations (Carson, A. & Sabol, W. 2012). This is a result of the political stance “get tough on crime”, a campaign that was started in the 1980’s that focused law enforcement agencies on combating drug crime (Spangenberg, 2004). This political stance is still prevalent today and has caused several problems for correctional facilities across the country. Prison facilities are unable to accommodate prisoners because of the lack of space for prisoners and lack of funding for beneficial programming” ( Erisman & Contrado 2005). Furthermore, prisoners are released from jail with no formal education or qualified job skills which typically leads them to resort back to criminal activities for economic gain; which causes high recidivism rates (Institute for Higher Education Policy 1994). Despite these issues Maryland and its neighboring states have began to implement cost effective Post Secondary Education programs. Post Secondary Education Programs seek to educate inmates through higher education courses to assist inmates ability to return back to society successfully as a law abiding citizens ( Erisman & Contrado 2005). In 2005, it was estimated that a returning prisoner in the state of Maryland cost 24,000 a year (Ehrlich Robert, 2005.) Research studies have suggested

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