INCARCERATED GETTING EDUCATED

Programs Aim to Prepare Inmates for Life Outside and Keep Them From Coming Back

Students in the Palmetto Unified School District in South Carolina
have no Internet access, no PTA and no Friday night football.

That's because their school is in a prison.

Still, they have performed well enough behind bars to earn their
school district an "Excellent" rating on the South Carolina Annual
School Report Card each of the past five years.

The Palmetto program is one of many across the USA increasingly
turning to education to reduce the rate of recidivism and to give
inmates hope for their future.

Some of the spark for the growth in prison education programs comes
from the passage of federal Second Chance Act, signed by President
Bush this year, which provides $165 million a year for programs
ranging from employment services to substance-abuse treatment.

Several states have broadened their programs in the past year:

In California, a law passed last year put $7.7 billion in programs
such as "Secure Re-Entry Facilities" that provide education, job
training and counseling for inmates a few months before their
release, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Michele Kane said.

Although the total number of inmates in California decreased by more
than 4,700 from March 2007 to August 2008, the number of inmates
enrolled in academic programs there grew from 11,925 to 14,050,
according to Jan Blaylock, superintendent of the state's Office of
Correctional Education.

Figures released last week show that three times as many inmates in
California's Juvenile Justice system enrolled in college courses over
the past three years, and there was a 50% increase in the number of
inmates passing the general equivalency diploma (GED) test, Kane said.

In Arkansas, the statewide prison school system had the largest
graduating class in the state this year: 872 inmates earned high
school equivalency diplomas, according to William Byers,
superintendent of the Arkansas Correctional School.

In Tennessee, inmates at the State Prison for Women earn college
credit alongside students from Lipscomb University, said Lipscomb
professor Richard Goode, who began the program in January 2007.

In Pennsylvania, inmates have Individual Plans of Instruction
developed to meet their educational needs and are required to take a
victims awareness class to teach them the consequences of their
crimes on victims, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan
McNaughton said.

The educational emphasis represents a shift away from warehousing
prisoners and toward preparing them for life after prison, said Eric
Schultz, director of government affairs for the American Correctional
Association.

"You have to start preparing offenders for re-entry from Day One," he said.

"It's a motivation factor, it's a morale factor, it's a behavior
factor," said Linda Caldwell, associate warden for programs at the
Tyger River Correctional Institution School near Enoree, S.C.
"Everything that these folks do in education helps my institution run
so much better."

Out of a class of 217 students in GED classes at Tyger River in the
2007-08 school year, 186 earned the GEDs -- an 86% completion rate.
"At least we're giving them a fighting chance when they get out,"
Principal Kevin Morrow said.

Tim Terry says the Palmetto GED program played a big part in his life
when he got out of prison after serving more than 15 years on a
voluntary manslaughter charge.

After earning his diploma and participating in Kairos, a Christian
prison ministry, he said he was motivated to help other inmates when
he got out in 2002.

Since then, he has organized four different programs across South
Carolina that have helped at least 600 recently released inmates get
a new start, he said.

"I've actually enrolled in college since I've been out, working
toward my degree in counseling," he said.

Some argue that spending money to educate prisoners is neither
effective nor appropriate. Ted Deeds, chief operating officer of the
Law Enforcement Alliance of America -- a non-profit, non-partisan
coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and
concerned citizens -- said he's "extremely leery" that educating
prisoners does much to rehabilitate most criminals.

"We should not be spending more money for touchy-feely programs when
we don't have enough money right now for actual brick and mortar
prisons and bed space," he said.

The Arkansas Department of Corrections did a study that showed that
GED programs in jails there have cut the recidivism rate there by 8
percentage points, according to Byers.

Education helps "humanize" inmates who have become disconnected from
society, Lipscomb's Goode said.