The Correctional Education Administrators - Essay Example

Traditionally, incarcerated population has among the lowest levels of educational attainment and literacy in any society. There is an argument in correctional literature that correctional education programmes can break the cycle of reincarceration by providing prisoners with an opportunity to gain skills that are practical in the workplace and the community. From the critical perspective, correctional education programmes act as agents of social change. If they are effective, the programmes can greatly assist inmates with overcoming social pathologies often found in many of the communities in which they come from. There are many barriers that prevent adequate expansion of corrections education programmes. Budget cuts, high staffing costs, programme staff cuts, and poor accountability are just a few (Coley and Barton, 85). A major barrier also rests in ideological views of the role of the criminal justice system. This has resulted in a great divide in ideology: those who favor prison rehabilitation and those who favor punitive measures. Skeptics of rehabilitation often claim that research thus far fails to portray a strong link between educational programmes and post release outcomes. On the other hand, proponents of educational programmes claim that there is an inherent value in educating prisoners, and that the benefits of an education will be realized by inmates upon release and obtainment of work (Coley and Barton, 89). Education in prisons provides many unique advantages to both inmates and prisons. For example, prison education programmes provide an opportunity for the facility to keep inmates occupied and engaged. These programmes also foster improving individual skills by socializing inmates with other inmates and teachers (Mentor, 115). All of these factors can contribute to better levels of order and security within the facility. On the outside, prison education programmes are empirically linked to reduced recidivism rates, and enhanced opportunities to acquire work upon release. Given thousands of inmates are released from prison annually, the role of prison education programmes in reducing recidivism rates and improving social conditions is a vital component of the reentry process (Mentor, 112). From the contemporary perspective, although the number of inmates participating in educational programmes has increased, there has been a steady decrease in the percentage of inmates involved in educational programmes primarily because budgets are not keeping pace with the growing correctional population. Even though expanding prison programming can eradicate issues with reentry and reconviction by addressing gaps in inmates’ education and poor health, there exists a decline in prison programmes. Correctional education advocates are seeking ways to show policymakers that education reduces recidivism, and thus is more cost-effective than increasing the prison population. One of the ways to demonstrate the effectiveness of prison educational programmes is through qualitative research, measuring perception and attitudes of prison administrators and prison staff toward effectiveness and usefulness of these programmes. From the qualitative research perspective, combination of interviews and surveys constitutes a useful approach for the researcher because from one side it limits the amount of influence a researcher may have on the responses provided by respondents, while on the other side it allows to gather more individual description and assessment of the programmes. Simultaneously, given that data on correctional education programmes are sparse and inconsistent, interviews will allow for more reliability, despite variations in prisons by district. The population of such a study is superintendents/administrators of prison education departments. Interviewing education superintendents is important to understanding the link between management and programme effectiveness. In order to be effective, such a study should rely on effective sampling strategy, particularly, random probability sampling, which serves the purpose of reducing or eliminating bias (Babbie, 137). From the procedural perspective, each district director of correction education in the sample is to be contacted via phone and/or email and discussion of the research purpose, design and other technical issues are discussed. The main purpose of this contact should be an approval for interview and consent to fill in the survey. Upon receiving the information, the district directors that approve the research provide the contact information for the correctional education administrators, or principals, for each prison in their respective district. Once this information is received, data collection and interviews can begin. 2B. TRANSGENDER PHENOMENON AND PRISON POLICIES The prison has historically developed along gender lines and continues to be guided along those lines today. As Britton points out “ideas about gender have shaped prisons, literally and figuratively, from their very first appearance as institutions of social control” (Britton, 3). Separation by sex was and still is justified through safety concerns and allowed for gender-specific rehabilitation opportunities and more focused attention for women in general. As Louis Theroux interview articulates (along with subjects not interviewed but appeared on the background), gendered policies in prison continue to reinforce traditional expectations with regard to a gender binary and thus remain stunted when one moves beyond narrow understandings of what it means to be male/female, especially for those who transgress traditional assumptions about gender. In doing so, they may render invisible those whose gender divergent identities fall outside those categories generating inequalities in alternative ways. Claims related to pain and suffering and human rights violations as they relate to correctional operations have led the way in the initiation of policy change (when it has occurred). As a result, today when corrections policy takes transgender inmates into consideration, usually only the most egregious forms of victimization and deprivations (i.e., sexual assault and medical services) are addressed. From this perspective, it is important to understand what transgender phenomenon means and organisational context in which the transgender inmate culture exists, takes shape, and is enacted. What transgender means and who it includes vary greatly outside of prison. Broad definitions consider "transgender" an umbrella term for many variations of gender nonconformity. Historian Susan Stryker uses the term transgender "to refer to people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that gender…it is the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen starting place - rather than any particular destination or mode of transition" (Stryker, 1). Furthermore, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), state where Louis Theroux’s interviews have been conducted, indicates that “male inmates who are preoperative transsexuals, or active effeminate homosexuals whose appearance and personality make them incompatible with general population housing shall be presented…for placement in Category ‘B’” (CDCR, 522). Interestingly, the group identified here is described, in part, as “active effeminate homosexuals” even as the policy includes an instruction not to place inmates in this category based on “sexual preference or feminine traits.” More generally, these policies suggest that, where medical treatment is implicated, the CDCR considers the group distinct from homosexuals but where it is not, this group is part of the larger population of inmates oriented to as vulnerable, effeminate homosexuals, and thus managed in comparable ways. From the perspective of social science, any phenomenon should be investigated in order to determine its causes and long term consequences. The case of transgender inmates corresponds to the purpose of social science and qualitative research can assist in determining what prison policies should be implemented in order to address the problems and concerns of transgender inmates. Series interviews can be conducted based on random probability sampling in order to decrease bias (Babbie, 137). REFERENCES Babbie, E. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont, CA, Thomson Wadsworth, 2007 Britton, D.M. At work in the iron cage: The prison as gendered organization. New York: New York University Press, 2003 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Department Operations Manual, 2006 Coley, R. a. Barton, P. Locked Up and Locked Out: An Educational Perspective on the U.S. Prison Population. Princeton, NJ, Educational Testing Service, 2006 Mentor, K. College Courses in Prison. Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities. M. Bosworth. Oxford, Sage Publications, 2005 Read More