The Benefits Of Prison Education

What’s my interest in this topic?

Prisons are historically meant to be a place of punishment for those that have committed one or more crimes, but it was not a proper rehabilitation for prisoners that are to be released back into society. The benefit of having an education program can enrich the inmates of their learning experiences and improve their knowledge and ability as an individual to return to society with a chance for future success. This spark of interest for this topic has given me a reason to believe that if prisoners were given an education, there are certain aspects of a person that can be improved and also benefit them to fit back into society which can be a step forward than a step backwards to what they are trying to achieve.

How does this benefit the prisoners?

Most would argue that giving education for prisoners would just be a waste of time and money due to the prisoners being criminals. So why should they have the benefit of free education? In the article, “A College Education for Prisoners,” Doug Brandt explains how the prisoners are “…human beings who have made mistakes, just like the rest of us [and] taking away any possibility of learning, growing, and perhaps changing is a blemish on us as a nation.” Brandt makes it clear that they are criminals, yet they are people that have made mistakes and should be given the opportunity to which they can have an education therefore gaining a learning experience. That was his response to John J. Lennon’s New York Times article, “Let Prisoners Take College Courses,” that aims to transform

Issues that involve prisoners that were brought into prison and are released usually end up returning, but provided with the education then they have an advantage to gaining a job or doing more once they are out of prison (Lennon). This also reduces recidivism, a relapse of criminal behavior that involves a criminal to come out of prison only to end up back in prison again, especially since it would give “positive effects… and on making more ex-prisoners more productive members of our society” (“A College Education for Prisoners”) as mentioned from Brandt. Prison education can be of use for recidivism prevention that gives prisoners the convenience of being a productive member of society and preventing prisons from overcrowding especially with prisoners that end up returning after being released for a certain amount of time. Another man named Stanley Richards, a former prisoner, was given the opportunity to enroll into classes that changed his life drastically and with that he became a tax payer (“A College Education for Prisoners”). This shows that given the education that the inmates in prison that are willing to take up the offer can help improve and change for the better therefore when released, it will give the former prisoners the convenience of a successful future and contributing to society with the education that they’ve gained during the time in