Prisoners Should Not Receive an Education - Assignment Example

 Prisoners should not Receive an Education INTRODUCTION In today’s American society, people have differing views on what our prison system should look like and how inmates should be reformed. Rehabilitators in society believe that through educational provision to inmates, their likelihood to re-offend is diminished. However, there is not enough concrete data available to support these claims sufficiently. In counter-argument, prisoners should not receive a free education on the backs of law-abiding taxpayers of this nation. Offering in-house education to prisoners lessens the impact of their sentencing, rewards prisoners rather than remaining true to punishment, and even endangers the well-being of educators who must provide this in-house education. Why Education Should Be Denied Statistics illustrate that there are over two million inmates currently within the U.S. prison system (Schorn, 1). In an effort to rehabilitate violent offenders, many structured educational programs are being developed that teach philosophy, English, sociology and many other courses. However, this does not appear to be helping in restoring a sense of humanity and responsibility to inmates as 50 percent of those who have been incarcerated eventually end up back in the penitentiary (Schorn, 1). Law-abiding citizens currently have a difficult time paying for their own youths’ education and the high cost of providing these in-house courses only serves to deplete state or federal-level capital that was provided by taxpayers. Further, teaching sociology to inmates, as one example, only provides them with theoretical social knowledge, but does not teach them how to restructure their aggressions or think properly about what is considered acceptable behavior. The high costs of providing education to prisoners takes away from other more important community programs that could be launched with taxpayer funds. Coupled with the fact that education rewards inmates with abundant time outside of their cells, prisoner education should be abolished. The UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research provides statistics that illustrate a cost of approximately $1400 that is applied toward prisoner education, per individual participating in education programs (Bazos & Hausman, 9). This might not seem like a significant amount, however if this total were multiplied to include the entire prison population of two million, the entire cost of these programs would exceed 2.8 billion dollars annually. Thus, the UCLA argument is that providing short-term correctional education saves money over time despite the short-run expenditures of providing it. However, there is definitely some misconstrued beliefs related to this long-run cost argument. The yearly cost to incarcerate a single prisoner is $25,000 (Bazos & Hausman, 9). These annual costs of incarceration then provide a taxpayer burden of over a trillion dollars, regardless of the long-run value of providing education as a means to prevent prison over-capacity. UCLA provides statistics that suggest prisoners are less likely to re-offend if they have been provided an education, however keeping society safe should not come with a price tag especially if the short-term expenses of housing and education strain local and federal budgets. This is especially important during a time of economic hardship where these taxpayer funds could be provided to better infrastructure projects or the provision of low cost education to law-abiding individuals in society that deserve these benefits. To attain an undergraduate degree, society pays between $12,000 and $32,000 for enrollment in private and public colleges and universities (U.S. Dept. of Education, 5). These prices rise annually based on inflation and between 2009 and 2010, inflation provided a whopping 37 percent increase in total costs (U.S. Dept. of Education, 5). Law-abiding families are spending more than ever before to send their children to school that continues to put significant burden on the family budget. When inmates are provided education, they are essentially being paid to receive knowledge, though at a much lower cost than the annual fees that law-abiding citizens pay. Is this fair justice for law-abiding members of society who must pay 700 percent more to receive the same quality educational materials? Absolutely not. The cost differential is a grave injustice and another reason why prison education should be abolished as it continuously rewards offenders for their misdeeds and obliterates any sense of social integrity and justice. Statistics illustrate that the longer an inmate spends in prison, the less likely they are to be re-arrested in the future. For those serving sentences of over 61 months, 54.2 percent had a lower frequency of return to prison (Wikipedia, 5). Thus, extending the prison stay, rather than providing education, is the most effective methodology to prevent re-arrest for violent behaviors. Under the current correctional method of providing education, nearly half of all offenders eventually return to burden the prison system. Education should be abolished and extension of sentencing periods the most effective answer to ensure the safety of society. Finally, education in prison should be ended as it provides security and well-being risks to the educators. At the Lorain Correctional Facility in Ohio, a teacher was assaulted when providing educational materials. Though the educator suffered minor injuries, another inmate had to intervene to protect their safety (Hebert, 1). Prisons, especially with growth in population of younger, more gang-oriented inmates (Hebert), provide a security risk for teachers who must brave the environment in order to provide education. Budgets have also reduced the volume of guards overseeing such security factors (Hebert) which further puts the lives of educators at risk in many different correctional facilities. CONCLUSION People in society might argue that education to prisoners is the most effective method of ensuring rehabilitation and reducing long-term costs of re-incarceration, however it is a social injustice to the taxpaying citizen. It has been identified that providing education rewards inmates when they should be punished, creates economic burden to society and governmental budgets, diminishes in-house educator safety and security, and takes away from potential programs that could provide benefit to better adjusted members of society. Despite those who favor its continued operations, the evidence provided suggests that inmate education provision should be eliminated immediately and replaced with more effective rehabilitation efforts that cost less to society. Works Cited Bazos, Audrey, and Jessica Hausman. “Correctional Education as a Crime Control Program.” UCLA School of Public Affairs. Department of Public Policy, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. Hebert, Melissa. “Inmate Intervention Saves Teacher Being Assaulted at Prison.” The Chronicle-Telegram Chronicle Online. Chronicle Online, 21 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. “Incarceration in the United States.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. Schorn, Daniel. “Maximum Security Education.” 60 Minutes. CBS News, Feb. 11, 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. United States. Dept. of Education. “Digest of Education Statistics, 2010.” NCES.ed.gov. US Dept. of Education, n.d. Web 14 Oct. 2011 Read More