Editorial in favor of prisoner rehabilitation

 Approximately 9,100 individuals are released from state and federal prisons on any given day, with over 600,000 released every year. Of those 600,000, two thirds are likely to be reincarcerated. Over 50,000 of those released have nowhere to go and end up homeless. Forty percent of the people that have been released from prison have some sort of mental health issues as well upon incarceration and can have even more issues upon release. We as a society make it easy for prisoners to go back to jail as little support is offered to those who get released. Prisoners need the support and empathy of the community through fair employment opportunities, fair housing opportunities, education and mental health coverage.

By providing jobs for the released prisoners we would be providing more equity among the community, lowering the crime rate and ensuring safety. If education can be earned inside the prison walls, jobs would be easier to find and there would be less people returning to the prison system. Education pays off because it makes reintegration into society easier for the prisoners that are released. In fact, the RAND corporation discovered that with every dollar the government spent on education, four to five dollars were saved by taxpayers on reincarceration costs. Therefore, by advocating for this specific group of people we are benefitting society as a result in multiple ways.

In general, we as a society need to be more supportive of those getting out of the prison system. Businesses need to discriminate less against those that have been in the system. In fact, for businesses that hire felons and other people facing barriers to employment, the government will often offer financial incentives through the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Landlords need to be more accepting of felons as tenants because as of now it is so hard for them to find someplace to live, especially if they are unable to find a job. Property values will go up if there are not as many people on the streets. Education for felons pays itself back and saves taxpayers money in the long run. By providing mental health, we are ensuring that the recidivism rates stay low and that the felons are better able to handle stressful situations. Therefore, these programs benefit the whole of society, not just a specific population.

Education Programs in U.S Prisons

 The current United States’ prison system has led to mass incarceration and a very high recidivism rate. Mass incarceration refers to the U.S having the highest incarceration rate in the world, and has led to a prison population growth of five hundred percent over thirty years. Including those in local jails, there are more than 1.9 million Americans incarcerated today. The United States also has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world. In a ten-year study done to measure re-arrest recidivism for persons released from state prisons, over eighty percent of people who had been incarcerated were arrested again before the end of the study. There is a saying often heard when talking about prisons that refers to prisons as schools for crime. With all of this in mind, the question of how to end mass incarceration and the high recidivism rate in the U.S must be answered, or at least we must be blaringly loud in asking this question of our elected officials. I believe that providing education and vocational training programs within prisons is an important and necessary (but not sufficient) good first step. 

Not only do I believe that educational programs in prisons would be beneficial from my own morals and worldview, but the statistics support this idea as well. Researchers have found that inmates who participate in educational programs while in prison have forty-three percent lower odds of being reincarcerated than those who did not participate in the education programs (Davis, et. al. 2013). The RAND study also found that education and vocational programs helped with employment for inmates after their release. Employment after release for those who participated in said programs was thirteen percent higher than those who did not. Inmates who participated in vocational training programs were twenty eight percent more likely to gain employment after release than those who did not have the vocational training (Davis, et. al. 2013).

 Not only has the research shown that education and vocational programs within prisons help to lower recidivism rates, but they’re also cost effective. Results from the largest meta-analysis of education programs in prisons showed that with “a one-dollar investment in prison education reduces incarceration costs by four to five dollars the first three years post-release” (Davis, et. al. 2013). Findings from this same study have also shown that the cost per inmate for education programs is about one thousand and six hundred dollars. Re-incarceration costs are about nine thousand dollars per inmate, showing another reason as to why education programs in prisons are cost effective. 

Education is something that everyone should have access to. Without proper education, the options for someone to make a successful living become smaller and narrower. Now add the burden of having a prison record on top of that and your options are depressingly limited. Without the opportunity for education, you have no opportunity for growth. As it has been said many times before, knowledge is power, and knowledge has the power to change someone’s life. I ask my readers to take the information given about how beneficial education and vocational programs in prisons can be and reflect on how this could improve both individual lives and society as a whole. Education and vocational training programs within prisons can help save money, reduce U.S recidivism rates and tackle mass incarceration, and open the doors to a new life for many people. The next time you are given the opportunity to vote on policies and laws relating to the criminal justice system, keep these things in mind. 

Reference 

Davis, L. (2013, August 22). Education and vocational training in prisons reduces recidivism, improves job outlook | Rand. https://www.rand.org/news/press/2013/08/22.html 

Reducing the cost of phone calls for Illinois' incarcerated population.

A student reaction paper

Rauner Signs Bill Limiting Prison Phone Call Costs  

Imagine being a parent and being sent to jail.  The only means of communication with your family is by phone.  Each time you pick up that phone the cost is $4.08 for the first 30 minutes.  This fee is paid by you, the prisoner, or the prisoners' family.  Illinois collects $12 million a year in revenue from these calls.  According to the Illinois Campaign for Prison Justice, Illinois collects the largest amount of commissions in the country off of these phone calls.  

The new policy that Rauner signed August 19, 2016, puts caps on what contractor's can charge inmates and their families for phone calls.  Under the new law, the rate cannot go above 7 cents per minute, or .21 cents per half hour.   That's a savings of $3.87.  The article said without regular contact with family members and support while incarcerated, the recidivism rate is much higher.  The projected cost to Illinois taxpayers over the next 5 years is said to be 16.7 billion.    So why wouldn't we do anything in our power to make sure people do not reoffend?  I think this is something we should not even have to think about, the more interaction they have with their families the better.  So not only is this helping the families with their costs, it helps the prisoners with rehabilitation, and hopefully it helps taxpayers with their costs.

Professor responds:

When it comes to laws about how we treat people incarcerated in prisons, there are usually mixed motivations.  The desire to punish is usually a strong motivation, rooted in feelings of lust for revenge, but also rooted in a rational desire to uphold the law and deter others from committing crimes. There is also a motive to remove harmful persons from the general population, to reduce harm for everyone else and protect us.  But, aside from these motivations around punishment, your reaction essay focuses on the other motive, which is to rehabilitate and help incarcerated persons turn their lives around so that when they are released back into the general population, they will not commit crimes again.  There is a similar motivation to help keep prisoners happy and content, so that they will be easy to guard, will not rise up in revolt, and will not cause greater expense through health and behavioral problems associated with miserable conditions.  There is also a humanitarian desire to keep the punishment merely what the law demands (confinement), and not add misery upon the already difficult situation.

The motive to help prisoners turn their lives around has a mix of altruistic and self-interested motives behind it.  It is much less expensive for everyone if fewer people commit crimes and fewer people must stay in prisons, so we want to reduce recidivism.  Also, we want the prisoners to have better lives, and we want their potential victims (if they are not rehabilitated) to avoid the suffering they would experience if the prisoners were not rehabilitated and committed crimes again.

In your essay, you are focusing on how making phone calls more affordable may help the prisoners and may reduce recidivism.  That's good.

A cost of $4.08 for 30 minutes seems high, but not so outrageously high, until you consider how little income a prisoner has, and also consider that at minimum wage, this is about what a worker could earn in 30 minutes.  As I understand the law you have explained, a prisoner could be charged 7¢ per minute for the first three minutes, but then the cost hits the 21¢ per half hour price cap, and the next 27 minutes would be free.   This is far more reasonable.