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In the US, there are around 2 to 3 million incarcerated population every single year, and this in turn proves that almost 23.5% of people in the whole world are imprisoned. These prisons dime a dozen from us and we seldom take it in account. Do you know the US taxpayers need to pay $52 to $70 billion annually in an average? Have you ever given it a thought that an individual prisoner’s average cost is $31,238 annually? Do you know that besides healthcare, retirement solutions, etc. the US taxpayers also need to pay for the incarcerated population as well?
Another startling fact about the US imprisonment is that, there are around 500,000 youths who are incarcerated every year and it is the biggest number as compared to any other country. Among these youths, high school dropouts are 3.5 times more than the high school graduate prisoners. Hence, the fact becomes quite clear that the prisoners are scarcely educated and they need education for the betterment of their future.
Ex-inmates find it difficult to live a life at comfort being out of the cell
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It is quite shocking to know that only 15% of the youths who come out of the prison can go to complete their higher school further. This in turn results in various other issues which stop them from living a normal life. For instance, due to the fact that they are not educated adequately, they miss out on getting employed. Also, law itself prohibits them from getting certain jobs and thus they have inappropriate work experience. They are not able to socialise properly because of the guilt and shame of being a past prisoner. These in turn results in poor mental growth and often they fall trap of substance abuse.
When inquired, the former inmates have made it quite clear that after coming out of the cell, they are earning much lesser than what they would have earned if they had never been to a jail. This clearly shows the fact that a person of 48 years is earning around $179,000 less than what he would have earned if he were never incarcerated.
Investing in prison education is fruitful
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Research have shown that 62% recidivism rate is reduced among the ex prison inmates who have completed their degrees in the prison. On the other hand, 29.9% prisoners were re-incarcerated within just three years who didn’t attend the classes in prison.
When researched in some of the prisons in the US, the fact became quite evident that it is actually a lot cheaper to educate the prisoners than to incarcerate them. It is now proven information that education in prisons reduce the rate of recidivism, it increases the savings of the taxpayers and also increases in the safety of the communities where the prisoners return from the cell.
UCLA, made a studyon the merits of prison education and it found out that if the prisons can invest around $1 million dollar in incarceration, it will in turn prevent more than 350 crimes. On the other hand, if it can invest the same amount in prison education, it will prevent more than 600 crimes.
How to make education available in a prison?
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Now, the question arises that how to make education a success in the prisons. There are a number of challenges which the prisoners face during their learning sessions. All are different individuals and therefore they have different strengths and weaknesses. Many of them cannot pay proper attention to their class sessions and hence they move in and out of the rooms.
However, there is a solution by which these prisoners can get the most out of their prison education. The solution is blended learning. If the prison authorities can make the prisoners avail with a few desktops or laptops, with an internet connection, they can be better learners by availing the digital platform. By earning an online degree, the inmates can get the most updated knowledge as well as a degree to support their skills and expertise.
Online education is acting as a boon for a number of individuals around the globe. If it can help us to attain knowledge without having to visit any brick and mortar institution, what can be better than that? Likewise, the prison inmates as well can get acquainted with this facility by the help of the prison authorities.
Moreover, research has made it quite clear that the prison education programmes offer a way to demolish the inter-generational cycle of discrimination. When the children of the ex-prisoners take up education much more seriously after getting inspired by their parents, they begin to see the result of dropping high school and hence, they keep off from doing crimes, thereby breaking the continual succession of inter-generational incarceration.
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