From the Classroom to the Community: Exploring the Role of Education during Incarceration and Reentry

Diana BrazzellAnna CraytonDebbie A. MukamalAmy L. SolomonNicole LindahlExploring the Role of Educationduring Incarceration and ReentryJustice Policy CenterFrom theClassroom tothe Community Copyright © 2009. The Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this document,with attribution to the Urban Institute.The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization thatexamines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. The viewsexpressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, itstrustees, or its funders.This project was supported by Grant No. 2008-MU-MU-K002 awarded by the Bureau of JusticeAssistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs,which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Officeof Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points ofview or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not represent the official posi-tion of the United States Department of Justice. iiiContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTSVINTRODUCTION: EDUCATION, INCARCERATION,ANDREENTRY1THECURRENTLANDSCAPE OFEDUCATION DURINGINCARCERATION ANDREENTRY6RESEARCH ON THEEFFECTIVENESS OFCORRECTIONALEDUCATION16EDUCATION BEHIND THEWALLS: CHALLENGES ANDOPPORTUNITIES24FROMCLASSROOM TOCOMMUNITY: EDUCATION ANDREENTRY36CONCLUSION41REFERENCES44ABOUT THEAUTHORS49 vAcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank the many individualsand organizations that made this report possible.First, we would like to thank Jeremy Travis, the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, forserving as the facilitator of the Reentry Roundtable on Education, which serves as the basis for thisreport. We would also like to thank the Roundtable participants whose thoughtful discussion over thecourse of the meeting shaped the content of the report. We owe a special thanks to the following indi-viduals who prepared discussion papers and presentations that framed the meeting and greatly influ-enced this monograph: Christopher Mumola, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics;Theodore M. Shaw, Columbia University School of Law; Bruce Western, Harvard University; Gerry Gaes,Florida State University; Aik Boon Ng, Singapore Prison Service; Doris MacKenzie, University ofMaryland; Cindy Borden and Penny Richardson, Northstar Correctional Education Services; PeterLeone and Michael Wilson, University of Maryland; Michael P. Krezmien, University of Texas; Rosa Choand John Tyler, Brown University; Jeanne Contardo, Business-Higher Education Forum; MichelleTolbert, MPR Associates; and Suzanne Neusteter, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.We would also like to thank Gwynne Cunningham, Virginia Department of Correctional Education; JodyLewen, Prison University Project; and Anne Charles, Transforming Lives Network, Correctional EducationAssociation, for facilitating access to incarcerated students. These students’ input on the Roundtablepapers was extremely valuable and offered a critical perspective to the Roundtable discussion, and wethank them for their contributions.We are also grateful to GerryGaes; John Linton, U.S. Department of Education; Stefan LoBuglio,Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation; and Doris MacKenzie, who provided ACKNOWLEDGMENTSvicritical feedback on various drafts of the report. Finally, we thank our funders and proj-ect partners, the Achelis and Bodman Foundations; the Bureau of Justice Assistanceand the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; the Office ofVocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education; the late Louis Reese IIIand his wife Susan Reese; and Jim Grenon. Without their support, this document wouldnot have been possible. Lou Reese’s vision, commitment to correctional education, andenergy inspired us to undertake this project. We are indebted to him and hope that thisreport appropriately honors his memory. The United States now has both the highest incarcer-ation rate and the largest total number of peoplebehind bars of any country in the world: 2.3 million. For the first time in U.S. history,more than one in every 100 adults is currently incarcerated in jail or prison (The PewCharitable Trusts 2008). The impact of this level of incarceration is acutely concen-trated within particular communities, classes, and racial groups. In 2005, the nationalincarceration rate for whites was 412 per 100,000, compared with 2,290 per 100,000for blacks and 742 per 100,000 for Hispanics (Mauer and King 2007). Recent studiesdemonstrate that young black men, particularly those without college educations, arethe population most affected by incarceration (The Pew Charitable Trusts 2008;Western 2006).1IntroductionEducation, Incarceration, and ReentryNearly 95 per