Education in prison

Florida Bill Seeks To Educate Prisoners to Reduce Recidivism





By Christopher Zoukis
In Florida, one in four released prisoners is re-incarcerated—and it's a lack of education that's largely to blame.
With the average Florida inmate having just a sixth-grade education, the chances of finding steady work at a living wage are slim. Add a criminal record that turns off most viable employers, and many former inmates feel like they have little choice but to return to crime to support themselves. It’s a vicious cycle, and it's one that a proposed bill aims to break.
The bill is aimed at inmates not facing life sentences in Florida, and its details include that if those inmates complete their high school education while behind bars, they'll become eligible to be released two months early.
Barney Bishop, president and CEO of the lobby group Florida Smart Justice Alliance, has stated, "Part 1A is getting them [the inmates] the education. Part 1B is then getting them that job and if we can do those two things, then the chance of them recidivating (sic) is diminished. "It makes them proud of themselves, more importantly, it makes them understand that if they work hard, they're diligent, that they have the opportunity to succeed, " Bishop said.
Corrections Secretary Julie Jones agreed, saying, "Present programming to inmates, encourage them to do the program and get the education, get the additional skills, [and] reward them for that, so we put out a better citizen when they leave prison."
Providing educational services that give inmates a high school education, combined with mental health and addiction treatment, has proven to be a successful formula in other states.
Lola Davis is a senior policy researcher and professor at the University of California. One of Davis’ recent projects was Assessing the Effectiveness of Correctional Education. She and her team looked at three decades of research to measure the effect that education had on inmates, and they concluded that any type of program, from adult education to GED classes, and  post-secondary education or vocational training, reduced the risk of recidivism by 13 percent, and increased to 16 percent for those that took post-secondary courses.
In addition to gaining marketable skills, inmates benefit from the mental and physical effects of higher education, which, in turn, also helps to reduce recidivism rates. A University of London-based research paper titled What are the Effects of Education on Health concluded the following based on international evidence:
·       Education is strongly linked to health and healthy behaviours
·       Education reduces the need to use preventative services
·       Education reduces dependence on the health care system
·       Education promotes and sustains positive choices
·       Education nurtures personal and interpersonal relationships and development
·       Education supports the well-being of communities
Education is a key component to reforming inmates and keeping them from returning to prison. In addition to learning self-supporting skills, education positively affects the behavior and social and mental wellness of the learner. A mandate to actually reform—rather than merely punish—prisoners is an effective way to help boost the general health, happiness, wealth and safety of the country. 
Christopher Zoukis, a young writer currently incarcerated at FCC Petersburg (Medium), is an impassioned and active prison education advocate, a legal commentator, and prolific writer of books, book reviews, and prison law articles. While living in federal prison at various security levels, retaliations for his activism have earned him long stretches in solitary, or "the hole." He is the author of Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Co., 2014) and Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016). He can be found online at ChristopherZoukis.com, PrisonEducation.com and PrisonLawBlog.com.


Source: http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-education-news//florida-bill-seeks-to-educate-prisoners-to-reduce-recidivism

http://www.christopherzoukis.com/about/who-is-christopher-zoukis/
Estudiante: Tatiana Díaz 

Comentarios

  1. Gabriela21 de octubre de 2017 a las 9:45

    Actions like this should be imitated, it's a very interesting text. Thank you very much Tatiana!

    ResponderEliminar

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

Bibliography: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón

Imagen
Camila Cruz Perdomo Ed. Social Biography: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón   Artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico's greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was  severely injured in a bus accident.                                                              Around the age of 6, she contracted po...
Leer más

Motivation in Sport – Discovering Your “Reason”

Imagen
Motivation in Sport – Discovering Your “Reason” June 5, 2011 By  Simon Hartley MSc      by Simon Hartley Be World Class Why does a swimmer get out of bed at 4am on a cold, wet Tuesday in December. Why do they drive all the way to the pool and swim up and down for two hours? Why do they then have a bite of breakfast before doing a tough strength & conditioning session, followed by an hour of physiotherapy, a bite of lunch, a meeting with the performance analyst, a meeting with the coach and back in the pool for another 2 hours? What’s it all in aid of? Why do they do all this six or seven days a week for years on end? The answer is perfectly simple for many; it’s all in pursuit of an Olympic Gold Medal. That’s what motivates them. That’s their reason. The foundation of motivation is  the reason . We have to have a reason to do something, or a reason not to. Often we forget the importance of this and we do things out of habit. After a whil...
Leer más

Todas somos Malala

Imagen
    Joana Pedraja- 4to Educador Social                                                                                  A gosto 28, 2017                             Malala Yousafzai - Biographical Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. She is the daughter of Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai and has two younger brothers. At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge. For years her father, a passionate education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city, and school was a big part of Malala's family. She later wrote that her father told her s...
Leer más