This morning (3/17/08) the Louisville Courier-Journal reported the following
front-page story:
 
"Rising prison numbers worry Ky.
 Officials will meet today to consider solutions
 
Alarmed by Kentucky's exploding prison population -- and fast-rising costs --
state Justice Secretary J. Michael Brown has called a meeting today of the state
Criminal Justice Council to take up the issue and find some solutions. 
 
..."I think it is extremely urgent," said state Senate Majority leader Dan
Kelly, R-Springfield.
 
He said the state needs to find more humane ways to deal with minor offenders
who aren't dangerous and may need treatment for mental illness or drug
addiction.
 
"Fortunately, the cost is attracting some attention to the humanity," Kelly
said.
 
Kentucky's prison population is rising at the fastest rate in the nation,
according to a report last month by the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan
Washington research and policy group. Kentucky currently has about 22,600 felony
offenders in jail or prison, and this year's state corrections budget is about
$431 million -- compared with about 3,700 inmates in 1980 and a budget of $30
million. "
 
To our panel of guests:
 
Given this rare opportunity for change in the Kentucky penal system, what
information might I offer the Criminal Justice Council, which would bring new
light to the role of education -- especially adult education?
 
David Collings
 


  _____  

From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 8:59 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 848] Corrections to Community Education


Colleagues,

This week our special topic is Transition from Corrections Education to
Community Education. I would like to welcome our guests Dr. Carolyn Buser, Steve
Schwalb,  John Gordon and Dr. Stephen J. Steurer. You will find background
information on them below as well as some readings they have suggested.

I will be posting some questions, but I hope you will also post your questions.
To begin, I would like to refer to some recent remarks by Jeremy Travis, the
President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, to a gathering of U.S. mayors
in New York City on February 28th, 2008. I would also like to invite our guests
to react to these remarks and to add other information that provides the
background for this transition issue, that helps us to understand why education,
and transition from corrections education to community education is such an
important issue.


".over the past generation we have quadrupled the per capita rate of 
incarceration in this country.  Every year since 1972 - in times of war and
times of peace; 
in good economic times, in bad economic times; when crime was going up and crime
was 
going down - we have put more people in prison.  We also tend to forget that,
with the 
exception of those few who die in prison, they will all come back.   
 
This year, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, approximately 700,000 
individuals will leave our nation's prisons, well over four times the number who
made a 
similar journey thirty years ago.  Ninety percent of them are men; a majority
are men of 
color; in every state, they typically go back to a small number of urban
neighborhoods, 
neighborhoods that are struggling with poor schools, weak labor markets,
substandard 
housing, and inadequate health care.  As a nation, we have in essence asked
these hard- 
pressed communities to take on the enormous additional responsibility of
reintegrating 
record numbers of their family members who have been sent off to prison and
return 
home, typically with significant service needs, often without supportive social
networks."  
( http://tinyurl.com/2glxlj )

Background on Discussion Guests

Carolyn (Cay) Buser
Cay Buser joined the United States Department of Education in May of 2006 as an
adult education program specialist with duties as the Adult Education and Family
Literacy Act (AEFLA) liaison with correctional education.  Dr. Buser works with
the Western States to assist them in the administration of adult education
grants.  She also is the national resource for coordination with correctional
education programs and adult education grants.
 
Prior to her federal appointment, Dr. Buser was director of correctional
education for the Maryland State Department of Education.  Her responsibilities
entailed management of the education and library programs in Maryland's adult
and juvenile correctional systems.  She provided direct support to Maryland's
Educational Coordinating Council for Correctional Institutions, the "school
board" for correctional education headed by the State Superintendent of Schools
with the State Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services as a member.
 
Dr. Buser has been an active member of the Correctional Education Association
serving as a regional director and is currently on the editorial board of the
Journal of Correctional Education.  Her academic background includes a master's
degree in special education and a doctorate in educational policy and
administration.  Dr. Buser taught English in public middle and high schools in
the Midwest, and in community colleges in Maryland.  She taught for seven years
in Maryland's correctional education program and served as a principal in three
correctional settings before her appointment as director of the State program.

Steve Schwalb
Steve Schwalb has served as President and CEO of Pioneer Human Services since
April, 2007. Prior to that, Steve had a 33-year career in the field of
corrections.  

After receiving his B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University
of Washington, he began his corrections career as a Personnel Management
Specialist trainee with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  He subsequently held
various positions of additional responsibility, including Personnel Director,
Chief of Internal Affairs, Warden, Deputy Regional Director and Assistant
Director. 
 
In the latter position, Steve was responsible for nationwide oversight of the
education, vocational training, recreation, parenting, transition preparation,
citizen volunteers and industrial work programs.  Serving in the role of Chief
Operating Officer of Federal Prison Industries, Inc., he oversaw over 100
factories that employ 21,000 inmates and 1,400 staff, and that generated $800
million in annual sales.
 
In the mid-1980's, Steve served as Associate Superintendent and Program Manager
with the Washington State Department of Corrections, and as Director of the King
County Jail in Seattle. 
 
During his federal career, Steve was appointed by the President to the Committee
for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, and served as
chairman for four of his twelve years on the committee.
 
John Gordon
John has worked at the Fortune Society since 2001, first as Director of its
Education program and more recently as an Associate President of Programs. The
Fortune Society works with people after they've come home from prison or jail.
Their Education program serves 200-300 students per year; they offer classes in
Adult Basic Education, ESOL, and computer skills. Many students are on probation
or parole; others are mandated by the courts to one of Fortune's Alternatives to
Incarceration programs; some are no longer under any criminal justice
supervision.
Before coming to the Fortune Society, John worked for 16 years as
Teacher-Director of the Open Book, a community based literacy program in
Brooklyn, NY. At the Open Book, some of his central concerns revolved around
developing student leadership and student participation in program
decision-making; publishing student writing and oral histories, and welfare and
literacy issues. He published several articles on these topics as well as More
Than a Job:  A Curriculum on Work and Society (New Readers Press). He is an
active participant in the New York City Coalition for Adult Literacy.
The Fortune Society was founded in 1967 with two main goals: (1) to educate the
public about prisons, criminal justice issues, and the root causes of crime and
(2) to provide support for people as they come home from prison. Fortune serves
over 3,000 former prisoners a year, offering education, career development,
counseling, substance abuse treatment, housing, health services, and
alternatives to incarceration. It continues to play a strong role in advocating
for criminal justice and prison reform.

Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D.
Steve is the  Executive Director of the Correctional Education Association, a
professional organization of educators who work in prisons, jails and juvenile
settings.


Our guests have suggested the following readings:

The Urban Institute's web site at
http://www.urban.org/justice/index.cfm
has a complete list of its publications, most of which are online. Of particular
interest may be those that highlight individual state reports in the multi-state
Returning Home project.
http://tinyurl.com/2cm7jp
These are all accessible online.

Taylor Stoehr's articles. There are a number on the Changing Lives Through
Literature web site:
http://cltl.umassd.edu/IssuesClassroom3.cfm
"Enforcing the Rules" is especially recommended.

The topic of prison location/release location will also be useful to the
discussion. There are several articles listed on the Urban Institute's re-entry
mapping pages, several from 2004.
http://tinyurl.com/2687ma

These two books have a lot to offer: Joan Petersilia's "When
Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry" Oxford University
Press 2003, and Jeremy Travis' "But They All Come Back: Facing the
Challenges of Prisoner Reentry" Urban Institute Press 2005.

Also, see http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181413.pdf for a paper by Jeremy
Travis on this topic.

As mentioned earlier, here's the link to the Correctional Education, Family
Literacy and Transitions discussion that were hosted here in September 2006:
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Corrections_Education#2._Correctional_Ed.
2C_Family_Literacy_.26_Transition--On-Line_Discussion.2C_September_2006 or, for
short,
http://tinyurl.com/yrzwlk

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





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