Adult Education

A. Educational Programs I have helped plan

In the last two or three years, I have contributed some ideas to plan for an inmate educational program at a state prison in Pennsylvania. The ideas I contributed were based on a study by Howard Gordon and Bracie Weldon (2003), which demonstrated how prisoners receiving educations in prison reduces the recidivism rate. This study provides valuable information as to the effectiveness of educational programs in prison and how they affect prisoner’s lives once they are out of prison. I believe that this study is very important because we can then gauge the effectiveness, if any, that these prison education programs have and better judge whether they are useful to have in the prison system. The argument that prisoners who participate in educational programs are less likely to recidivate is a sound argument for the reason that these educational programs teach them basic skills to help them adapt to life and find employment once they are released.

Gordon & Weldon’s idea is supported by another article by James Vacca (2004). Vacca cites many examples of the types of educational courses the inmates should have to help them deal with their emotions and problems. The educational programs help the inmates deal with their social skills, encourage artistic development, and teach techniques on how to deal with their emotions (Vacca, 2004). These programs would help inmates deal with the issues that put them in prison in the first place and knowing these skills can then help keep them out of prison in the future. I find these arguments to be sound because Vacca shows the research from other people all over that concurs with his own claims of how these programs can keep recidivism at bay (2004). He cites many examples, which I applied in planning myself, and goes into depth about why inmates may be in prison and what these programs will do to correct their problems and turn them into a real member of society.

In my own point of...