Educating Prisoners in MI
More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, largely because half, or more, of them return to prison after they get out. Educating prisoners, preparing them for re-entry into society, is one of the best ways to reduce the prison population and the enormous economic and social costs associated with it. Opinions offered by Shannon Ladel Keys, 38, and Everett Rocklin Jackson, 44, are serving life sentences at Ryan Correctional Facility in Detroit (in the Detroit Free Press).
In Michigan, prisons consume $2 billion of the state’s annual general fund. Each prisoner costs $35,000 a year to incarcerate. There’s that much less money for health care, schools and the building and maintenance of our infrastructure. Recidivism also creates more crime victims at the hands of non-rehabilitated repeat offenders.
More than 95% of the state’s nearly 50,000 inmates will eventually get out. Too many — if not taught skills and new ways of thinking — will continue to find a way out through the blur of a crack sack or down the barrel of a gun.
Currently, state and federal efforts to educate prisoners are inadequate. Before 1994, prisoners could use federal Pell grants to pay for college classes. But Congress and the Clinton administration prohibited inmates from receiving the grants, even though prisoners received less than 1% of them.
In Michigan, prisoners are allowed to earn a GED and a certificate in one trade class. These classes create a thirst for higher learning and give many prisoners their first real sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, their progress wanes when they find the doors to higher learning slammed in their faces.
A few of us have been fortunate to attend a college sociology class at Ryan Correctional Facility through the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The Department of Corrections prohibits the use of state money to pay for post-secondary education, but Inside-Out doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Comerica and other private donors cover the costs of textbooks and materials. College programs like this not only provide information, but also foster new ways of thinking and promote personal development. The state should provide them as part of its investment in prisoner re-entry.
As Malcolm X said, education is a passport to the future. National studies show that college classes cut recidivism by 30% or more. That would make a pretty good investment for state taxpayers. Are we a nation that rehabilitates and rebuilds those who make mistakes, or are we a nation that believes in revenge above redemption?
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