David Rosen,  

Regarding your question below --

I was involved with Federal Correctional Education for some 25 years.  I believe we did a relatively good job of preparing inmates for release with GED, Vocational. counseling and Pre Release programs.  But, we did not do a particularly good job of "handing inmates off"  to the appropriate community education resources.  Many years ago we had release furloughs for lesser security inmates to allow them to connect with release plans in their release community.  Given increasing security concerns and the increase of Half Way Houses or Community Treatment Centers I believe we lost a step.  We began turning people over to halfway houses with no direct contact and probably very poor procedures for delivery of institutional education records to the half way houses. 

The half way houses were often just an interim step between prison and final relief destination.  They helped in getting jobs, clothing tools , and rent money; but they ultimatley had to also "hand off" many ot their clients to a final release area many miles away. 

We can take some solace in the fact that, as a federal instituion,  we were releasing inmates all over the country and a personal handoff to local resources was particularly difficult.  State Prisons should have it a little easier and county jails should be able to actually maintain personal contacts with community resources.  But I think a real key is to be able to provide personal connections to community resources.  In a county jail situation it would seem that it might be possible for direct relationships among prison staff and county educational resources .  I'm sure the issue of privacy concerns might be raised but it would seem inmates would have the right to waive such concerns.

I also believe that there are a number of availabe education resources that qualify as  "Lifelong Learning" resources.   That is,  we can provide resources in the prison that can be continued on the streets.  If we train the inmates to use a system such as the Public Broadcasting, Educational TV, and Literacy Link materials for GED and Workplace Skills;  the inmates can continue to use the same resources on their own after release and possibly get help from community Adult Education programs where necessary.  I know the computer security issues in higher security prisons but, we are really at the point where we need to find ways to give inmates the skills to use internet resources.   Can we hook inmates up with more internet resources that can go with them where ever they go and whenever their schedule permits?  Use of this type of resources can also help improve "Family Literacy".  I suspect we all know that many inmate families could use educational help also.  


Bill Anthony
SYNSOL at cableone.net

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For all our guests:

When an inmate who has been in an education program inside a state  
corrections institution or county jail and is released, what needs to  
happen for him or her to connect to and stick with a community-based  
education program? Do these events need to happen immediately mon  
release or can they be phased in over time after housing, shelter,  
counseling and job needs are met? Are you aware of any exemplary  
models of connections between inside education and community based  
education programs? Can you tell us about them? What can community- 
based education programs do to partner with corrections education  
programs that release inmates back to their communities?

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

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