David and others

Yesterday the Senate Committee Judiciary Committee, Sub-committee on Crime
and Drugs, held a hearing on Prisoner Rehabilitation and Re-entry.  I was
sick not to be able to go, even though it was within walking distance of my
office. (I was "chained to my desk" with some end of fiscal year deadlines.)


The testimony presented is available on the Judiciary Committee's web site:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2072  One witness was Diane
Williams from the Safer Foundation in Chicago.  She includes a description
of her organizations integrated efforts to provide education to offenders,
both during confinement and post release.  Her testimony concludes with a
success story of an individual who moved from homeless drop out to high
school graduate and college student.  

Diane is a "jobs program" person, so I was surprised by see the emphasis on
education in her testimony.  She even included a pitch for getting Pell
grants restored to inmates.  Obviously, getting to work is critical for
offenders leaving institutions -- so integrating education with efforts to
support success with employment is smart.  I also found the Department of
Labor testimony at yesterday's Senate hearings quite interesting.     

I'm pleased that I'll be working on a little project this coming year to
develop a resource guide for inmates focused on how they can access
educational programming once released.  David makes reference to the model
of having local providers -- typically adult education programs and
community colleges -- actually be the institutional education provider in
order to encourage continuity upon release.  I know that this model is
common in jail settings in New York State.  But too often inmates are held
in State facilities distant from their home neighborhoods -- and continuity
between service providers inside and outside is hardly an option.  We plan
to work with States to get this information in the hands of individuals who
have been "turned on" to education during incarceration -- to help them
understand their options to link up with appropriate program opportunities
post release.     

John Linton

-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:53 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are
released


Hello Colleagues,

I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other  
challenging questions:

1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education  
program (Gerber and Fritsch,  and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with  
inmates after release.  Can you describe some models that do this  
well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education  
in the community?

2.  Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community  
education programs to provide basic education inside so that when  
inmates are released there is continuity with the community education  
program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works?

3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered  
to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use  
outside in a library, community technology center or at a community  
education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer  
Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web  
site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering  
(nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet  
access to the web site?

I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments.   
Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion  
continues through Tuesday.

Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this  
discussion are archived at

http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html

If you would like to know more about other National Institute for  
Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at

http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html


David J. Rosen
Special Topics discussion Moderator
djrosen at comcast.net





-------------------------------
National Institute for Literacy
Special Topics mailing list
SpecialTopics at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics