Part Four: What are the challenges of prison education?
By Anna Kezar
The opportunities for the expansion of prison education are great, and so are the challenges. Prison directors, teachers and students face obstacles associated with the setting and skill levels of students and problems that stem from without and within the facilities.
Pell Implementation Problems
A challenge of implementing Pell-eligible courses is the limited access to technology within the facilities needed to complete the required forms. Even if the technology is available, accessing all the personal information the student needs to complete their FAFSA while incarcerated can be difficult.
If the application is completed, there is no guarantee that the applicant will receive funding. Some incarcerated individuals may have already used their allotted federal aid, so they may not be able to apply for more once incarcerated. Still other students may not be Pell-eligible.
Other Issues
In many cases, there are not enough teachers to adequately support all the students. This is because there is such a large range of skill levels amongst students that it is difficult to accommodate every student’s needs.
In any given classroom there could be 20 individuals whose skills range from first grade to 12th grade level. The number of teachers and their hours have been cut, according to Landis Reynolds, who is incarcerated in Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton, Ind., and works as a peer educator.
“They don’t have enough resources to really provide the services they’re supposed to be providing,” Reynolds said.
In this diverse group of learners there are also those who are English Language Learners. Hispanic people represent 29.1% of incarcerated individuals in the U.S., according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. To help them, the Language Education Enhancement Program provides Spanish-speaking individuals with Spanish dictionaries and bilingual worksheets to help them learn literacy skills.
Out of the 1,068 individuals incarcerated at Correctional Industrial, 40 individuals graduated in the past year, 22 of which completed their high school equivalency diploma within a year period – a graduation rate of 2%. The state of Indiana’s high school graduation rate is 89%.
“There is a complete lack of meaningful investment in education,” Reynolds said.
Over 700 individuals at Correctional Industrial are functionally illiterate, meaning they lack the reading skills for basic life activities. Low-literacy individuals have difficulty participating in or benefitting from any recovery or rehabilitation programs.
Correctional Industrial offers literacy, high school equivalency and certificates in business technology and logistics. When incarcerated individuals are not provided with adequate opportunities to be productive, it’s easier for them to engage in self-destructive behaviors.
“I think there’s a direct correlation between the lack of education opportunities and education investment and the violence in prisons,” Reynolds said. “It’s making prisons more dangerous and it’s really undermining what the mission of the Department of Correction is supposed to be.”
Many incarcerated students have had adverse experiences with education and consequently did not complete their high school education. They bring their educational apathy into their education while incarcerated.
“They see when an administration is not invested in their success and the message that that sends to them is that they have no value,” Reynolds said. “‘If these people don’t want to invest in my success, why should I?’”
Finding Solutions: Peer Education Model
To increase the quality and completion of education, Reynolds advocates for a peer education model called Offenders Teaching Offenders. In this program, an incarcerated peer tutor works with students to improve skills and comprehension.
Peer education works because of multiple factors, according to Reynolds.
First, the program is designed to be side-by-side and non-hierarchical, which fosters trust and vulnerability. Having someone guide the learner who has recently gone through the same process provides guidance and instills confidence in the learner.
“When you give them the confidence that they haven’t received in any other educational environment, it completely transforms the process for them,” Reynolds said.
Second, it breaks down educational apathy caused by negative experiences with education. By encouraging the student to take ownership of their education, it reduces the likelihood of the student stopping their education. The instructor not only shows investment in the individual student, but gives them an example to follow. Educational apathy decreases, as exhibited by their change in behavior inside and outside of the classroom.
“They were able to see that they weren’t broken – the process that was supposed to guide their education was broken,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds also sees it as an effective way to increase overall literacy rates and language skills for English Language Learners who often struggle to complete their education.
Learners at Correctional Industrial who participated in peer education completed the literacy program in 60 days after having been in the program for a year or more. Students completed their high school equivalency in 90 days.
“Peer education is a cost-effective, holistic approach to prison education,” Reynolds said.
