How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here? via Rand

How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here?

How Effective Is

Correctional Education

The Results of a Comprehensive Evaluation

Rand: 2014

by Lois M. Davis, Jennifer L. Steele, Robert Bozick, Malcolm V. Williams, Susan Turner, Jeremy N. V. Miles, Jessica Saunders, Paul S. Steinberg

More than 2 million adults are incarcerated in U.S. prisons, and each year more than 700,000 leave federal and state prisons and return to communities. Unfortunately, within three years, 40 percent will be reincarcerated. One reason for this is that ex-offenders lack the knowledge, training, and skills to support a successful return to communities. Trying to reduce such high recidivism rates is partly why states devote resources to educating and training individuals in prison. This raises the question of how effective — and cost-effective — correctional education is — an even more salient question given the funding environment states face from the 2008 recession and its continuing aftermath. With funding from the Second Chance Act of 2007, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, asked RAND to help answer this question as part of a comprehensive examination of the current state of correctional education for incarcerated adults and juveniles. The RAND team conducted a systematic review of correctional education programs for incarcerated adults and juveniles. This included a meta-analysis on correctional education's effects on recidivism and postrelease employment outcomes for incarcerated adults, as well as a synthesis of evidence on programs for juveniles. The study also included a nationwide survey of state correctional education directors to understand how correctional education is provided today and the recession's impact. The authors also compared the direct costs of correctional education with those of reincarceration to put the recidivism findings into a broader context.

Key Findings

Adult Correctional Education Improves Postrelease Outcomes

➤Inmates who participate in correctional education programs had a 43 percent lower chance of recidivating than those who did not — a reduction in the risk of recidivating of 13 percentage points.

➤Providing correctional education can be cost-effective when it comes to reducing recidivism.

➤The odds of obtaining employment postrelease among inmates who participated in correctional education was 13 percent higher than for those who did not, but only one study had a high-quality research design.  READ MORE >>

Literacy Reports & Statistics

Prison

2016: Highlights-US PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training, NCES Number: 2016040

2013: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education, Rand

2011: Correctional Education, OVAE

2010: Prison Count, PEW

2009: One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, PEW

2006: Locked Up Locked Out: Educational Perspective on US Prison Population, ETS

2003: Literacy Behind Bars, NAAL 2003

2003: Education And Correctional Populations, BJS

1994: Literacy Behind Prison Walls, NCES