Posts Tagged ‘reducing recidivism’
Pennsylvania stands alone as DOC recipient of federal grant
By Christopher Zoukis This week the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections was awarded one of nine “Improved Reentry Education (IRE)” awards of $1 million each from the US Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education. The program itself is mandated to support “demonstration projects in prisoner re-entry education that develop evidence of reentry…
Read MoreFCC inserts itself into prison-industrial complex debate with new ruling
October 22nd the FCC finally stepped into a debate that could have wide-reaching effects on this nation’s criminal justice system. After many years of reticence, they finally issued a ruling clamping down on the exploitive practices of private companies providing telecommunications services to America’s prisons. The new FCC rules seek to cap fees for phone…
Read MoreTowards a sustainable model of prison education funding
Cornell University has been one of the most important players in prison education of late, stepping up to fill the major gaps created by stripping access to Pell Grants for prisoners back in 1994 and providing accessible degree and diploma programs to inmate across the state. The Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) has received a…
Read MorePrison Phone Battles Wage On
By Christopher Zoukis There’s a storm brewing in the prison-industrial complex. It’s been simmering for decades, but a lawsuit was recently launched by inmates and families in Virginia against Global Tel*Link (GTL) sees it set to boil over, as inmates and their families have grown tired of paying the price for the wages of a…
Read MoreCollege for Convicts: New Study Proposes $60BN Annual Budget Cut – By Providing Higher Education in Nation’s Prisons
The study, conducted by legal commentator Christopher Zoukis, concludes that offering post-secondary and academic education to prisoners can cut $60 billion from the national budget every year – without scrapping existing programs. Zoukis has compiled his research and findings into College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons, a game-changing new…
Read MoreWork Programs Bridging Prisons To the Community: A Recipe for Reduced Recidivism
By Christopher Zoukis Finding a job and somewhere to live are probably the two most critical factors determining whether a released offender will do well, or end up back in prison. In the United States, up to 90% of those who are sent back to prison are unemployed. In the U.K., the one year recidivism…
Read MoreHow Prison Education Can Save Taxpayers Money
By Chloe Della Costa U.S. college programs for incarcerated students were largely defunded in the ’90s. At the time, this was seemingly great news for “tough on crime” advocates, but this year, a new debate has erupted out of New York state. In February, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed an initiative to both educate New York’s…
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