Reentry - Education
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of Programs That Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults
“In this report, we [the authors] examine the evidence about the effectiveness of correctional education for incarcerated adults in the United States. By correctional education, we mean the following: adult basic education (ABE): basic skills instruction in arithmetic, reading, writing, and, if needed, English as a second language (ESL); adult secondary education (ASE): instruction to complete high school or prepare for a certificate of high school equivalency, such as the General Education Development (GED); vocational education or career and technical...
How Effective is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here? The Results of a Comprehensive Evaluation
This study examines the effectiveness of correctional education for adults and for juveniles, and the challenges associated with this programming. Five chapters are contained in this report: introduction; whether correctional education for incarcerated adults is effective; a systematic review of correctional education programs for incarcerated juveniles-results for corrective reading, computer-assisted instruction, personalized and intensive instruction, other remedial instruction programs, vocational/career technical education, and GED completion; RAND Correctional Education Survey-results for correctional education programs today, funding and the impact of the...
Supporting Second Chances: Education and Employment Strategies for People Returning from Correctional Facilities
"This brief highlights strategies for strengthening education and employment pathways for youth and adults returning from correctional facilities and notes key questions that new research should answer. It also explores barriers to employment for people with criminal records-whether or not they have been incarcerated-and potential policy solutions" (p. 1). Sections cover: barriers to finding work; whether prison education works; adults need education and training to find jobs after prison-reentry education must begin behind bars, after release, reentry specialists help ex-offenders...
Building Brighter Futures: Tools for Improving Academic and Career/Technical Education in the Juvenile Justice System: A Pennsylvania Example
"Across the country, students in the juvenile justice system are struggling in school. Research suggests that many enter the juvenile justice system well behind grade-level. In the absence of thoughtful programming, once they enter the juvenile justice system, they may fall further behind. Too many end up dropping out of school upon return to their communities. This publication examines one particular initiative that has shown great success in combating this problem-the Pennsylvania Academic and Career/Technical Training Alliance (PACTT)-and provides suggestions...
Reconnecting Justice: Pathways to Effective Reentry though Education and Training
"Incarcerated individuals are disproportionately people of color as well as adults with low educational attainment. More than 650,000 ex-offenders are released from prison each year and recent research shows that two-thirds of those prisoners will be rearrested within three years of release. However, research also shows that access to correctional education can significantly reduce recidivism ... it’s essential to invest in robust education and training opportunities for incarcerated people and to connect them to continued education and employment opportunities once...
Education and Reentry: The Gifts They Bring (2013)
Sarah K. Hogarth, editor. Prisoner Reentry Institute, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (New York, NY)
This report explores the lived experiences of previously incarcerated students when they come to college. It documents what these students report as the factors that encouraged and supported them, and the factors that discouraged and, in some cases, blocked their transitions to college and their achievements there. Utilizing participatory research methods, this report highlights the voices of these students and draws on their knowledge to offer invaluable insight into the collateral consequences—economic, structural, racial, familial, and personal—of mass incarceration.
Just Learning: The Imperative to Transform the Juvenile Justice System: A Study of Juvenile Justice Schools in the South and the Nation (2014)
Suitts, Steve, Katherine Dunn, Nasheed Sabree. Southern Education Foundation (SEF) (Atlanta, GE).
According to the report, juvenile justice programs that help prevent young people from becoming re-offenders could save society about $3.9 million per youth. This report highlights several programs showing that education in juvenile justice programs can be successful.
Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training: Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (2014)
Rampey. Bobby D., Shelley Keiper, Leyla Mohadjer, Tom Krenzke, Jianzhu Li, Nina Thornton, and Jacquie Hogan. National Center for Education Statistics (Washington, DC).
"The U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults was designed to provide information to policymakers, administrators, educators, and researchers who are developing education and training policies and programs for incarcerated adults. This report highlights data from the survey’s extensive background questionnaire and direct assessments of cognitive skills. It examines the skills of incarcerated adults in relationship to their work experiences and to their education and training in prison" (p. 1).
Reentry Education Model Implementation Study Promoting Reentry Success Through Continuity of Educational Opportunities (2015)
Erismnan, Wendy. RTI International (Washington, DC)
This report uses observations from the first full year of the Promoting Reentry Success Through Continuity of Educational Opportunities (PRSCEO) demonstration projects to tell the story of each site’s implementation of the Reentry Education Model and to look across the three sites to identify the model’s strengths and limitations.
Nondegree Credentials in Correctional Education: Status, Challenges, and Benefits (2016)
Tolbert, Michelle, Laura Rasmussen Foster, Matthew DeMichele, and Stacey Cataylo. National Center for Innovation in Career and Technical Education (NCiCTE) (Research Triangle Park, NC).
"This report is designed to document information currently available on programs that prepare individuals for nondegree credentials in adult corrections facilities" (p. 1).
Making the Grade: Developing Quality Postsecondary Education Programs in Prison (2016)
Delaney, Ruth, Ram Subramanian, and Fred Patrick. Vera Institute of Justice. Center on Sentencing and Corrections (New York, NY).
"To support the implementation of new partnerships and strengthen existing ones, this report compiles lessons from the field, offering implementation guidance to programs seeking to develop, expand, or enhance postsecondary educational programming in corrections settings" (p. 6).
Reducing Inmate Misconduct and Prison Returns with Facility Education Programs (2017)
Amanda Pompoco, John Wooldredge, Melissa Lugo, Carrie Sullivan, and Edward J. Latessa
The provision of GED programs and college classes to prison inmates may help to reduce levels of violence during incarceration, thus, providing safer facility environments for both inmates and staff. GED programs, college classes, and vocational training/apprenticeship programs may also help offenders to refrain from returning to prison, perhaps by providing knowledge and skills that enhance their employability in desirable jobs after release. The absence of comparable findings for inmates who started but did not complete these activities, however, underscores the importance of completion, providing incentive for state...
Why Prison Education Matters (2017)
In collaboration with the Michelson 20MM Foundation, RAND invites you to listen to our panel of experts discuss the costs and benefits of using education to stop the prison revolving door, and the effectiveness of programs like The Last Mile, which prepares inmates for reentry by providing them with marketable skills.
Prison Education: Maximizing the Potential for Employment and Successful Community Reintegration (2017)
This report examines correctional education with an emphasis on opportunities and challenges for prison education throughout Maryland. In state prisons, the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR) operates most education programs. Several colleges offer postsecondary education courses.
Expanding Access to Postsecondary Education in Prison (2017)
Starting in 1994 with the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, students in state and federal prisons were barred from accessing Pell Grants, which provide financial aid for postsecondary education. In July 2016, the Second Chance Pell Experiment reinstated Pell Grant eligibility for some incarcerated students.
Vera is currently working with correctional institutions and their partnering colleges and universities selected for the experiment to provide quality postsecondary education in a corrections setting. This fact sheet is to inform corrections leaders of the benefits of postsecondary education and to explain how the Second Chance Pell Experiment works.
Your Money, Your Goals: A Financial Empowerment Toolkit (2020)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a U.S. government agency that makes sure banks, lenders, and other financial companies treat consumers (you and your clients) fairly. Two of the tools that – as a cooperative agreement awardee/partner with the National Institute of Corrections – you may find valuable is the CFPB’s “Your Money, Your Goals” toolkit and reentry companion guide. Both of these resources are financial empowerment materials designed for organizations that help people to meet their financial goals by increasing their knowledge, skills, and resources. The reentry companion guide is specifically designed to help financially...