Amir Yartubashev
Argument / Persuasive essay
ENG 100A, Academic Writing, ESL (Professor A.Miller)
10/01/2015
Should prison education be provided to inmates or not?
Why should we care about education in prison? In today’s world people become more egocentric, so that no one’s longer care or even attempt to think about others problems and how to fix them. As a society, we have to begin to focus on the bigger picture, why so many people get behind bars in United States. All human beings should have an opportunity of better life even after committing mistakes before. Education is the key to success. By providing prisoners with opportunity to get education, our society will benefit everyone. Prison education should be provided to inmates for three significant reasons: reduces crime recidivism, gives job perspectives and helps prisoners to rehabilitate and commit themselves to a law-abiding life outside the prison.
How many of us care about the safety of ourselves, our children and community we live in? Spending money on people who committed serious crimes might not feel as the greatest idea at first, but as the researches show, it would most likely benefit in the future. RAND’s Corporation research proves that
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educating inmates is a cost effective way of lowering crime recidivism in our society. The only opportunity an inmate has in correctional facility is education. Inmates can choose from adult basic education, vocational training, and post-secondary education. The research showed that prisoners who had ever attended any education programs, had a 43% lower chance of being put in jail again. Education programs cost varies from 2.07$ million and 2.28$ million per year. However, recidivism of a crime cost between 2.94$ million and 3.25$ million, which is much larger amount of money. Why the government should jeopardize citizens? Getting a diploma or market ready skills will lead released prisoners to a better and enjoyable life with a stable income, what will eventually make them forget about crime world. Having a job is important in today's world, but even law abiding citizens are having hard times in finding a job. Criminal record and less than a high school education makes them especially unattractive for employers. However, researchers found that education programs participants have a 28% higher chance of gaining employment after their release. These programs not only teach them but also connect with potential employers. Being able to earn money legally will put prisoners on the right way. Finally, everyone deserve 2nd chance in life. Every human being committed mistakes before. Some people just did worse than others. People have different backgrounds and different stories happening to them in life, but by helping each other to stay hard on the feet and get through these mistakes, is what makes human being special in this universe. Allowing prisoners to rehabilitate, sends them hope of better life and helps to occupy their minds while they are in prison. Education motivates them to start over again with the new strength. It also lowers the violence inside of the correctional facilities. Through this deep mind cleaning process, prisoners understand their mistakes and get new hobbies and interests in life. There are many examples of people who by reading books and studying found their purpose of life such as religion. To conclude, education during incarceration is the best thing that can be done for inmates.
As long as government keeps people busy with something productive in life, there'll be an understanding that a life of a crime is not the right path. Starting an education programs in prisons won’t hit U.S budget since it’s so tiny compared to other national spending’s. As Education Secretary Arne Duncan stated: “investing in these education programs helps released prisoners get back on their feet and stay on their feet when they return to communities across the country.” Government of this country together with citizens should start supporting the idea of prison education to help inmates get back on their feet and stay on their feet, because education is the key to
success.
That explains the positive correlation between the amount of education a person receives while in prison and the chance they have of securing a fulltime job following their release. A study published by a prison in Minnesota supports this idea by showing that prisoners who had obtained a secondary degree while in prison increased their chances of securing a job within two years of being released by 59%. These odds were increased even further for younger offenders, which shows that educational programs in prisons are even more pertinent for the younger
We imprison seven-hundred-fifty prisoners per one hundred-thousand citizens, almost five times the earth average. Around one in every thirty-one grown-ups in the United States is in the penitentiary, in prison or on supervised release. District, state, and national disbursements on corrections expenses total to around seventy billion dollars per year and has raised to forty percent more over the past twenty years. http://www.newsweek.com/ The current corrections specialists have started to support that notion. Even though we comprehend that criminals must take accountability for their actions, we also realize that we can no longer just turn out heads at their disappointments. The individuals that derive out of our penitentiaries, prisons, municipal programs and out from beneath our direction are our creation, and we have to take some responsibility. Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition) Hankoff, Leon D. "Current trends in correctional education: theory and practice." International Journal of Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology Apr. 1985: 91-93. Criminal Justice Collection. Web. 12 June 2016.
...ecause they had to pay for their education and receive a high SAT score and other qualifications to be accepted at a college, I think it is important not to let these lives slip away. It would not be of any use to lock them up for many years and then release them into the world with nothing on their hands. It is more expensive for a state to pay for a second imprisonment than to pay for a college education and everyone should have a right to learn. This right is infringed by the college system in itself as it does not give everyone a chance to earn a degree, not by Prison Education. And secondly, the “pains of imprisonment” are hard enough and I think any inmate would trade places with us. Education does not reduce this pain; it should be a matter of course to help these people have a chance at a successful life. It should after all be a rehabilitative punishment.
“FREEZE! Get on the ground”! All the words someone running from the police hears. He fears their presence because he knows that if he is caught he will be sent to one of the many overpopulated prisons in America. There he will struggle with doing everyday tasks due to the enormous numbers located within the prison walls. Prison overpopulation should be an utmost priority on every individuals concerns due to the fact that with this massive increase it negatively affects our legal, social, and economic environment.
“Six million people are under correctional supervision in the U.S.—more than were in Stalin’s gulags.”
Over the past several decades, the number of prison inmates has grown exponentially. In 1980, prison population had numbers around half a million inmates. A graph of statistics gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Justice shows that between 1980 and 2010, the prison population grew almost five times, topping out at nearly 2.5 million. According to an article in The New York Times, the average time spent in jail by prisoners released in 2009 increased by 36% compared to prisoners released in 1990. Many people, such as those at Human Rights Watch, believe that the increase of these numbers has been because of tough-on-crime laws, causing prisons to be filled with non-violent offenders. This rise in crime rates, prison population, and recidivism, has led politicians as well as ordinary citizens to call for prison reform.
Today, half of state prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes. Over half of federal prisoners are serving time for drug crimes. Mass incarceration seems to be extremely expensive and a waste of money. It is believed to be a massive failure. Increased punishments and jailing have been declining in effectiveness for more than thirty years. Violent crime rates fell by more than fifty percent between 1991 and 2013, while property crime declined by forty-six percent, according to FBI statistics. Yet between 1990 and 2009, the prison population in the U.S. more than doubled, jumping from 771,243 to over 1.6 million (Nadia Prupis, 2015). While jailing may have at first had a positive result on the crime rate, it has reached a point of being less and less worth all the effort. Income growth and an aging population each had a greater effect on the decline in national crime rates than jailing. Mass incarceration and tough-on-crime policies have had huge social and money-related consequences--from its eighty billion dollars per-year price tag to its many societal costs, including an increased risk of recidivism due to barbarous conditions in prison and a lack of after-release reintegration opportunities. The government needs to rethink their strategy and their policies that are bad
Prisons have been around for decades. Keeping housed, those of our society who have been convicted
There are millions of adults in federal prison, but The United States is the only country in the world that condemns children to die in prison (Pequeneza, 2014). It’s sad to think about children being sentenced to life in prison, and frankly it is a disturbing and a scary fact to face. However, in recent years the U.S Supreme Court has made it illegal to charge juveniles with life sentencing for anything less than murder (Pequeneza, 2014). This new law gives children a second chance at life when they are finally released from prison. Many children are forced to be in a household that is not suitable for a developing child. Children are mistreated, neglected, abused, and other factors. These unfit situations that children are in make them more likely to become violent, and maybe end up in juvenile
Studies have shown that in-prison education curriculums decrease recidivism while refining the eminence of life. However, majority of extra-curricular classes in prison have been eradicated, additional customs of job preparation have reduced, and access to exercise equipment and educational resources such as books is progressively limited. In the past five years the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has increased the federal budget by 40 per cent to $2.6 billion, majority bei...
The basic concept of educating prisoners while they are in prison is logical and simple. It makes sense to make convicts' time in prison productive. This leads to a person that, when he leaves prison, knows a better way of life than committing crimes which would inevitably send him back to prison. While making perfect sense, this solution drastically changes the concept of prison. The effects of social programs integrated with prisons start with helping direct the taxpayers money to more prolific uses, and expand to making people in America smarter, more educated, less dangerous.
Dodd, Vikram. "Why Prison Education?." . Prison Studies Project, Teaching Research Outreach, 16 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
The amount th of money that has been spend on prisons is about 49 billion dollars the reason for this is because people are being sent to prison and some re offend and come back. The main purpose of going to jail is to never come back , but in some cases others don 't seem to learn from their mistakes. This is the reason why prison education would come in handy. In the article “Education and Vocational Training in Prisons Reduces Recidivism, Improves Job Outlook” its states that “Researchers found that inmates who participate in correctional education programs have 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than those who do not”This quote is pretty much saying that the percentage of inmates that has education is less likely to come back. This is good because the amount of money that we would be saving would probably help us with debt that we face a lot in american. Education is the most important form of rehabilitation for
A controversial issue in the criminal justice field is whether or not educational programs should be offered to inmates in jail while they are incarcerated. While some might argue that taxpayers should not be forced to fund these types of programs, others agree that it is extremely beneficial to not only the inmates but also the taxpayers. Not only are the inmates the people in society who need education the most, but studies have shown a significant decrease in the recidivism rate of inmates who participated in educational programs while incarcerated. Jails and prisons should increase educational programs to inmates because inmates need education more than ever, it is more financially efficient to provide educational programs and it significantly reduces the recidivism rate.