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Studies have shown that education and employment help reduce the return to prison
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL decades, education of inmates is sometimes viewed by the public and, perhaps also by political leaders, as an extravagance. The recession of 2008 further cut educational offerings that were available to offenders. Although today most state prison facilities offer some form of education, participation rates vary and, in fact, have declined somewhat over time, according to a RAND study conducted in 2013.
Sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics with funding from the Second Chance Act of 2007, the RAND Correctional Education Project offers the most comprehensive research in evaluating education methods carried out to date. RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan public policy think tank, in cooperation with the Correctional Education Association, a nonprofit professional organization, reported that lack of rehabilitation, that is, a lack of knowledge, skills and training, has led to a revolving door of recidivism for our nation's 2 million adults that are incarcerated in U.S. prisons each year. Of those, more than 700,000 annually are released from federal and state prisons and are returned to communities. Regrettably, within three years, 40 percent will be reincarcerated.
RAND Corporation was asked to comprehensively examine the current state of correctional education for incarcerated adults and juveniles and where it is headed, which correctional education programs are effective, and how effective programs can be implemented across different settings. One key task in that effort was to comprehensively review the scientific literature and conduct a meta-analysis to synthesize the findings from multiple studies about the effectiveness of correctional education programs in helping to reduce recidivism and improve employment outcomes.
The RAND project, which consists of a body of research and a series of articles, found that correctional education (CE) programs improved by a significant percentage the number of inmates that did not return to prison. In one study, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education, authors undertook a meta-analysis to examine the association between correctional education and reductions in recidivism, improvements in employment after release from prison, and learning in math and in reading.
The study found that 84 percent of state correctional institutions offer some type of correctional education programming. Data from the BJS 2005 Census of State...