David Rosen,

I am going to try to respond to your 13 questions.  I believe the discussions have been great and I've pickup many Ideas from the group.  

I'll preface my answers with a quick reference to a few principles:

        1. Unfortunately all inmates will not respond successfully to our efforts no matter how well intentioned.  We may have to adjust or goals and measures of success.  Providing      opportunities to inmates may be the best we can do.  Remember the old saw  ..."there is no rehabilitation except self rehabilitation"

        2.  The best place to place our efforts may be in training inmates that they are ultimately responsible for their own success.  We might spend more time teaching the soft skills and personal responsibilities -- We may think the GED is of critical importance but many successful people have gotten there by hard work and without the benefits we attribute to traditional education.

        3.  As nice as it may be to have funds, staff, and political support, we may have to live within our means and the structures in which we work.  We may have to change or priorities, and accept less than perfect solutions.

        4.  Many inmates will not follow through with any organized educational involvement after release.  We may have to teach them how to learn on their own.  With current technology , "Lifelong learning" has never been easier.  Can we motivate inmates to learn, and teach them how to learn on their own?

        5.  The best place to concentrate on linkage between correctional education and community education may be at the local jail levels where the educators can best communicate and work together.  At least the inmates will be going back to a smaller local area with which jail staff can become familiar.  Given the lack of resources of many jails and the rapid turnover,  Community education might profit from actually recruiting students from the jail populations.  

*********  Now for response to 13 questions::
1. When an inmate who has been in an education program inside a state corrections institution or county jail is released, what needs to happen for him or her to connect to and stick with a community-based education program?

Response:  We need to know what is available in the community, and convince the inmate that the resources are worth pursuing.  Because of the many problems they may be faced with immediately upon release it may be necessary for them to drop in and (possibly) out of programs several times before they complete.  Can we help them find "Distance education" opportunities that they can manage on their own schedule and budget. 
  2. Are you aware of any exemplary models of connections between inside education and community based education programs? Can you tell us about them?

  Response:  Possibly seven steps types of programs that can be begun in the institution and continues on the street.  Think AA.  Some would argue that most dysfunctional behavior is a result of addictive personalities and caused by fears of pain, failure, and change.  The many seven step programs understand addictive behaviors

  3. What can community-based education programs do to partner with corrections education programs that release inmates back to their communities?

  Response:  Try to extend their programs into local correctional facilities.  Provide information, attend job fairs, take part in the prisons pre release activities.  Operate programs within the prison as possible within their resources and the prisons receptiveness. 

  4. What do you see as the main differences between career educational programs through public or private post-secondary institutions and community education programs?  How do these differences account for the success or failure of students in these programs?


  Response:  In my experience I see community education programs referring students to the public or private schools for any long term programs.  Where typical Adult Ed, ESL, and GED programs are considered community education.  Most such programs are operated by community colleges.  I would hope that community education programs not affiliated with public or private schools, their best effort might be at family literacy, family support, and supporting LifeLong learning values.



  5.  What spectrum of crimes have these students committed?  What are the most common?  How does the severity of the crime relate to their outcomes in community educational programs and subsequent attempts to find employment...or does it?



  Response:  I belive that the statistic will support that a clear majority of inmates have some type of drug, alcohol, and even abusive behavior involved in their incarceration.  Employers - especially small employers cannot afford to have undependable employees.  In my experience the best chance for these inmates for employment (unfortunately) are with larger companies and traditional day labor with no benefits.  Again we are skirting the issues of self defeating personalities and addictive behaviors.  How do we get inmates to recognize and improve these limitations



  6. What are the significant research findings on the topic of successful transitions from prison education to community education programs?  What are best practices that might have been discovered from the research.


  Response:  I believe most research must be read with care.  What is the definition of a successfull transition.  One year? two year? three Years or more?  The federal Bureau of prisons did a longitudinal study of post release success and over a period of at least three years.  They found that GED, Vocational training, and successfull work experience (in prison) were significant in reducing recidivism.  A possible weakness in the study was the possibility that through "self selection"  the inmates who took part in those programs were most likely to suceed anyway.  I beleive you can review this extensive study through the US Bureau of Prisons web site.  www.bop.org look under news/information and then research reports.

  7. Are the "soft skills" being taught (in corrections and community-based education programs), such things as attitude, attendance, punctuality, honesty, dependability, teamwork, listening skills......?

  Response:  I certainly hope so but these issues tend to be more personality based than knowledge based.  There are valid computerized assessments of personality tendancies.  given the advances in computer power many of these assessments are self interpreting and don't need trained Psycholgists to interpret and use the information like the older test such as the MMPI.  Unfortunately all of the above personality type issues may be best developed by long term observations and intervention.  Thats why we all really know that prerelease activities should begin on day one of incarceration and not addressed only when inmates are nearing release.

  8. Could you give examples of state or county corrections institutions and community-based institutions where personal relationships have been built and sustained over time so that a referral phone call or an email about an inmate who is being released results in a warm welcome to the community-based education program, perhaps as part of a number of community services (housing, employment, health  care, counseling) provided on release. If so, what enables these relationships? What sustains them? What undermines them?

  Response: Well meaning and politically correct "Privacy Issues" raise their ugly heads.  It makes it almost impossible for a prison to provide follow up services to inmates or any official contacts with them.  Possibly if community educatioagencies are already working with inmates in the prison they may be in the best position to follow up upon release.

  9. The House and Senate have passed the Second Chance Act. Could you describe what provisions this important bill includes.

  response: this issue was addressed by Steve Stuerer in topic #884 -  i'm sure his "Correctional Education Association"  Web site has a link to the information.  I'm also sure his organization has a great deal of information about best practices -- he is being too modest in our discussion group.  

  10. Are there good examples of collaborations or partnerships between corrections and community education programs where they both use the same online learning, videos, or software. If so, could you describe these programs?

  Response:  Some of the same video series that are shown on the CEA TLN network are also available on most state public broadcasting stations and many Adult Education programs.  I can't  specifically name any direct collaborations or partnerships.  But there certainly should be more of this.  Limitations on internet access by inmates in most prisons is makes the on-line collaborations very limited.  I beleive Hawaii and Wisconsin are doing experiments in very secure and limited access to specific internet sites.  As Prisons begin to have faith in the possibility of secure internet connection maybe more on-line collaboration will be possible.

  11. In a previous discussion here on corrections education we learned that there is at least one corrections program where inmates can -- under careful supervision by teachers -- use the Internet.  Are there others? Is this a trend?

  Response: see 10 above.  the whole US Department of Labor's O*Net system and links to Americas Jobs should be made avaialble to inmates.  It is possible to get this O*NET data  and place it on regular stand alone computers or LANs.  User training and user friendliness of the data is somewhat problematic.  Too often staff need to be toinvolve in findng and printing out the information.

  12. Are there examples where corrections education programs have taken online options (online software or education web sites for example) and brought them inside as stand-alone (not Internet connected) options?

  Responded to previously.  

  13. What happens in the prisons and jail when the inmate cannot read?  Do you  have programs to address this issue?

  Response: I would suspect that very few prisons, with any education programs, aren't trying their best to improve reading skills.  Unfortunately this can be a slow long term process.  We can't wait until they learn to read to begin the process of teaching/developing other transition skills. 

  Are there other unanswered questions?

  YES:  Where institutions and inmates are developing good education and reintegration plans -- are inmates able to bring the plans and progress reports with them when they are released?  If every inmate had a portfolio of assessments and work record and Shool work to carry with them it might save community education programs from having to cox the information out of released inmates or start them on "step one" in their programs.  I suspect that always having to start over in any new educational opportunity is a prime reason (excuse?) for dropping out.

  Thanks for the opportunity to comment.  Sorry the comments are so long! 

  Bill Anthony
  synsol at cableone.net
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