Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Educational Funding in Prisons

Funding for educational programs in prisons has almost been completely demolished. According to an article by Gillian Granoff, “In 1994 the government issued a federal crime bill, which made inmates ineligible to receive Pell Grants that had provided scholarships for prisoners to earn a bachelors degree while incarcerated.” Furthermore, in terms of spending, “Funding for prison college programs were eliminated, leading to the closing of some 350 such programs nationwide. Many states, including New York, barred inmates from taking college extension courses. Even secondary education programs suffered.” My question is then, why are we cutting funding and making it nearly impossible for inmates to get an education when our justice system is supposed to be (at least somewhat) about rehabilitation? It does not seem as though these new policies are in correlation with the values that the judicial system was based upon.

Researchers have even found that keeping a prisoner in jail for one year instead of sending that person to college is ten times more costly. So, if it is not about the money then why not implement educational programs in prisons? My theory is that the judicial system is no longer concerned with rehabilitation or even with the rights or well being of inmates.

Because the judicial system is terrified of this image being spread, some people in defense of the system have come up with five ways in which universities and prisons will be linked to “improve the education of inmates.” These include book drives for inmates, GED tutoring program, and some actual college level courses. Although Gillian Granoff views these programs in an extremely positive light and as a huge accomplishment I would beg to differ. Yes these programs are probably great however; there are only five of them! We have over 1,200 prisons in the United States and Gillian Granoff can only come up with five higher learning programs for these approximately two million people? Something is wrong, this cannot be a good thing and I would highly suggest that she and the readers of this article think critically about the right to education.



Ahma Daeus said...









These new slave plantations are not the answer!

For more information please call 415.420.3891 or visit: or email:
To sign the petition please visit:


William Thomas
National Community Outreach Facilitator
The National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons
P.O. Box 156423
San Francisco, California 94115

Samantha Loen said...

This post is pretty relevant to the blog on prison and slavery. Quite honestly, it is yet another way to oppress the black community of our country. The judicial system in this country is so corrupt. They are not interested in rehabilitating anyone, they want to lock them up and throw away the key. They would rather pretend they dont exist. The interesting thing about all of this is that people argue that many of the prisoners are no good and as soon as they are let out they will just committ more crime!! Well of course they committ more crime!! What choice do we give them?!?! By throwing them in prison and tagging them with a felony we take away their ability to get a high paying respectable job when they get out and we refuse to educate them so as not to give them an advantage that way either!! So let me get this straight.... we dont want to educate them, we dont really want them to work with our companies, and we are angry that they turn to crime for survival. What does the government expect?!?! Seriously!!

ledholm said...

There has to be a better way to implement educational programs in prisons, but I understand where people are coming from who don't want tax dollars going to felons to get an education when there are people outside of prisons who can't afford to get a college education either. Perhaps finding a way to use the money it costs to incarcerate prisoners to send them to college, and with the surplus use that for more pell grants, etc.?

Rachel said...

I think education in prisons is extremely important. If people in prisons get an education while incarcerated, it is less likely that they will offend again once they get out. So it does not make sense to me not to fund education in prisons. Isn't rehabilitaiton better? It is better than someone getting out, and then going right back in. If you want to look at it from a monetary perspective, it costs more to keep incarcerating someone than to educate them, so it just makes sense to fund education.


Its worth all possible effort to fund education programs in prisons. In fact here at YWCA-Uganda we are urgently looking for funders for our prisons education and training program.

Nalubaale Rosgegrace
YWCA - Uganda