Increasing Correctional Education Participation: A Case Study of Formerly Incarcerated Men in Northern Virgini

Across the United States the number of incarcerated persons has risen dramatically since the 1970's. The number of incarcerated has increased from 250,000 to an average of nearly 3 million across the country. Five areas of an individual's life that have been shown to impact the likelihood of being incarcerated are: age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and educational attainment. While age, race, and gender are impossible to change or manipulate, and socioeconomic status can often come as a secondary characteristic of educational attainment, most offenders have chosen not to complete high school, or continue forward with education. Increasing the educational levels of just 1% of those currently incarcerated could have a positive impact on current recidivism rates, resulting in a savings to tax payers of nearly 350 million dollars. The problem that arises from this is how to increase educational participation rates of those incarcerated? In prisons nationwide, the average participation rates of educational programs have traditionally been approximately 10%. In order to understand the outlook and prospects available to formerly incarcerated offenders, the researcher interviewed 5% of the participants involved in a post release program in Richmond Virginia. The findings from the interviews indicate that increasing participation rates among offenders may be difficult, without the introduction of new or adapted programs specific to the needs of the offender. After interviewing ex-offenders, much of what they conveyed shows that offenders currently incarcerated would benefit upon release from programs that focused on trade skills, or manual labor.