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

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

In partnership with The Urban Institute, PRI sponsored a national roundtable on education and reentry in Spring 2008. The meeting, made possible by funding support from the United States Departments of Education and Justice, The Achelis and Bodman Foundations, and other private funders, focused on the intersection among education, incarceration, and reentry. The two days of discussion explored the need for and current state of correctional education and identified promising programmatic and policy directions. Participants examined the broad continuum of education programs – including ABE, GED, vocational, and post-secondary – serving individuals with criminal records in prisons and jails and after release.

Read the full report here.

In preparation for the Roundtable, PRI commissioned seven academic papers on related topics. Read the papers here:

·       The Current State of Correctional Education by Anna Crayton and Suzanne Neusteter

·       The Impact of Prison Education Programs on Post-Release Outcomes by Gerald G. Gaes

·       Structure and Components of Successful Education Programs by Doris Layton Mackenzie

·       Understanding and Responding to the Education Needs of Special Populations in Adult Corrections by Peter E. Leone, Michael Wilson, and Michael P. Krezmien

·       The Effective Use of Technology in Correctional Education by Cindy Borden and Penny Richardson

·       Prison-Based Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Post-Release Labor Market Outcomes by Rosa Cho and John J. Tyler

·       Prison Postsecondary Education: Bridging Learning from Incarceration to the Community by Jeanne Contardo and Michelle Tolbert