The Impacts of Adult Education on Inmates - Research Paper Example

The Impacts of Adult Education on Inmates Introduction Adult education is another important aspect in the society for there is corresponding implied positive impacts of it. Learning must be viewed as a never ending process and by this it means that adults must be able to continue understanding things around them. Looking at it from the perspective of inmates, adult education in this case is not entirely different because it substantially involves knowledge as the basic component of every learning process. Inmates must achieve knowledge in order to improve their perspective about life and that the bottom line is to prepare a good future for them and forgetting their past is as just important as the new chapter of their lives. There is an associated learning process involved in here and in order to critically understand this aspect, there is a need to analyze the impact of education on inmates and the benefits of teaching techniques for adults. The proponent therefore tries to analyze how instructions within the prison system can educate inmates through best practices. Furthermore, the proponent considers the manner in which adult teaching techniques contribute to the impact of education of inmates. The impact of education on inmates The impact of education on inmates is remarkably an important consideration knowing that it relates with the decrease of recidivism in the United States and the associated cost of holding inmates in prison over time. Thus, understanding the impact of education on inmate is significant and one of the ways to find it out is to know if there is corresponding decrease of recidivism or returning of inmates in prison for whatever corresponding crimes they do. There is therefore an important analysis that has to be done prior to understanding the reason why there are repeat offenders. This lead to the idea of understanding the importance to educate inmates to understand further some meaningful impacts of education on their lives in the long run (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). Such impact can be measurable by the change in number of repeat offenders who will be confined once again in the row of inmates. The positive impact of education on inmates is viewed to be a life with other developed skills in order to focus attention and learning to more meaningful and productive things instead of making out crimes. The reduction of crimes in the United States is said to result to decrease of population in prison and associated costs and such can be achieved by giving prison industry job, prison job and education programs for inmates (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). The real story behind this result was the point in which programs for inmates such as education can substantially delay repeat offending or reduce recidivism. By this, there is a significant consideration that education indeed can reduce the number of repeat offenders and eventually decrease recidivism. If it has to be analyzed closely in detail, the prison industry job, prison job and education programs for inmates are all encompassing the adult education process. They all include development of skills and education in general. These two are important aspects in education for inmates knowing that those prisoners must not be only confined in jail but they have to produce productive output among themselves. Thus, it was pointed out that recidivism among inmates despite of an education program for them is said to be the impact of lack of job skills and education among prisoners (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). By this level of understanding, it is important to consider that in order to decrease the level of recidivism in the United States; there is a need to integrate adult education with the prevailing inmate management system. The United States is said to spend more on inmate management due to increasing recidivism. This is the reason why there is a need to focus on how to effectively integrate adult education technique to substantially decrease the number of repeating crime offenders. Education is said to substantially make one knowledgeable on certain things. It opens up possibility to learn to appreciate things around and it will substantially open up a new perspective about life. To decrease recidivism among inmates, it is necessary to change their outlook about life. Thus, there are current non-educational and educational program for them. However, it is hard to quantify the impact of this due to insufficient number of study dealing on this area (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). The benefits of teaching techniques for adults Education of inmates is in line with adult education (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). This only implies that in order to come up with effective education for inmates, it is necessary to fully understand adult education programs or techniques. Thus, it is necessary to understand the benefits of teaching techniques for adults. At this point, it must be important to justify that the benefits of teaching techniques for adults can be better understood by simply trying to understand further adult teaching in the first place. In adult teaching, human relationship is necessary to be taken into consideration so as to ensure success for teaching adults (Peers, 2003).Thus one of the most important techniques that needs to be emphasized in an adult education program is the inclusion of the wide aspect of human relationship. Inmates for instance are humans that aside from having the capacity to think on their own, they also have different emotions that have to be dealt with. Dealing these emotions is the beginning of understanding the relationship that is involved in the first place. Dealing with human relationship therefore is a specific technique in adult education that substantially considers the nature of humans. Teaching for adults requires substantial care for knowledge which leads to keeping in touch with the real event occurring in the real world which is confined in the one’s experiential and social context (Nash, 2003; Wadhawa, 2000; Loughran, 2010). It is without question that the experience itself of inmates always remind them of their worth as a person and their mere confinement in jail is further justification of their level of thinking. They are always exposed to being reminded about the paying of the consequences of their actions and such event in their lives is the mere act of learning that will teach them not to commit crime again. Punishment is said to decrease the probability that a previous behavior will occur again (Feldman, 2003). This learning is evident among inmates that for long time being confined in jail to pay the prize of their violent and unlawful acts. This is an experience for them and such can be a substantial aspect of their learning. Therefore it makes sense that exposing them further in jail jobs experiences is another remarkable and important consideration for it was found that they substantially decrease the rate of recidivism or even delay it (Sedgley, Scott, Williams, & Derrrick, 2008). Assessing the prevailing adult thinking and way of living is crucial to giving the right education for adult (Wadhawa, 2000). This is a clear point stating that there is a need to include behavioral aspects and as well as different adult learning styles in a social context. Humans are said to be social beings and the only way to impose learning on them is to substantially consider their level of experience in the social context. Learning is a continuous process and this substantially putting into consideration the required behavior in order to understand the affectivity of the involved teaching process. Conclusion In general, the teaching techniques for adults can address the need to remarkably educate inmates for the better. After all, these teaching techniques are designed to consider the human nature. Therefore, implementing any education program that desires to educate humans are all in line with the consideration of human capacity based on the very nature of what it takes to be human. These techniques seek to understand human in the first place and such brings forward to the opportunity to develop more substantial learning based on experience and in the social context. References Feldman, R. (2003). Essentials of Understanding Psychology. Loughran, J. (2010). A Pedagogy of Teacher Education. International Encyclopedia of Education, 587-591. Nash, R. (2003). Progress at school: pedagogy and the care for knowledge. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19(7), 755-767. Peers, Robert (2003). Adult education: a comparative study. Great Britain: Routledge. Sedgley, N. H., Scott, C. E., Williams, N. A. & Derrrick, F. W. (2008). Prison’s Dilemma: Do Education and Jobs Programmes Affect Recidivism? Economica, 77, 497-517. Wadhawa, S. (2000). Modern Methods of Teaching Adult Education. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. Read More