Prison Education Overhaul In Utah
Lawmakers took a major step Monday toward overhauling the way prisoners in Utah learn while locked up. This report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
The State House, in a 68-3 vote, passed HB100 — a bill that would force inmates to pay for their own schooling, even if it means taking out loans. The bill also would give the Department of Corrections more control over programs offered to state prisoners. The measure is based on the belief that educated prisoners are less likely to land back behind bars after they’re released.
Utah’s higher education system has been directing prison education, using about $900,000 generated annually by a fee prisoners and their families pay for using phones in the lock-up facilities … Corrections officials argue they are better in touch with prisoners’ needs and should control inmates’ educations rather than be notified of what changes will come each year. And they want to refocus prison education on vocational programs rather than degrees. That, officials say, would better prepare inmates to land jobs when they are released from prison and enable them to pay back their loans while helping to fund future inmates’ educations.