
The prison population in America keeps increasing, but the money that we put into the prison system has stayed the same over centuries. The United States is only 5% of the whole worlds population, but we house 25% of the worlds prisoners. We have 2.3 million people incarcerated as of 2015. Most of the inmates are poor, and come from communities of color (CPE). Since funding is poor in prisons and jails, many have cut out the education systems. The government should focus on improving the education systems in prisons to decrease the rate of recidivism. Education allows inmates to have an easier time finding a job once released, saves the government money, and allows them to be a better person to their families and to society. 

A man named Paul Butler once wrote that "released felons are just as dangerous if not more so than before they were sentenced because prisoners do not get reformed, and it's not because they can't be rehabilitated, but rather because prison is a correctional facility in name only, a long term storage locker would be a more accurate description" (Esperian). This shows that inmates while in prison don't have any way to change their ways of life because they are with other criminals everyday. What we need to do with prisoners is get them to see that their behavior is wrong and make them see that they can have a better life in the future. The current term for prisons now a day is "warehousing," which means that prisons are made to hold inmates for a certain amount of time and then release them once that time is over (Esperian). They do not help inmates into not coming back to prison. This is why an education while behind bars can lead to positive effects on inmates once released. A study in 2002 that researched in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia, resulted that educational programs is prisons cut recidivism from 49% to 20% (Esperian). This shows that prison education is an important factor for lowering the rate recidivism. 

Many ex inmates have a hard time going back into their communities and trying to find a job once released. This results in the inmates going back to their normal lives, and half of all inmates return to jail within three years (Nuttall). This is called recidivism, which is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced a consequence like jail. Those who get an education while in prison are 45% less likely to return to prison then those who did not (Bidwell). A large population of adult offenders lack a GED or a high school diploma and 60% of prison inmates cannot read above the sixth grade level, which can be a major factor for their criminal activity (Esperian). Because incarceration affects the poorly educated, many released offenders lack the education and basic job skills its takes to go back into society (Duwe & Clark). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is highest for individuals who have less then a high school diploma, and lowest for individuals who hold a bachelor's degree or higher (Duwe & Clark). 

An experiment that showed the effect of prison education and employment was the Minnesota Prison experiment. It wanted to determine whether prison education had an impact on post- release employment on prisons in Minnesota between the years 2007 and 2008. The results showed that obtaining a secondary degree in prison increased the chances of securing employment within the first 2 years after release by 59% (Duwe & Clark). The odds of finding a job were also significantly greater with those inmates that had earned a bachelor's degree while in prison (Duwe & Clark). Prisoners that obtain employment right when they get released from prison is important for them going back to jail again once released.  

Not only can education allow inmates to secure a job after getting released but it can also lead to saving the government money on the inmates. States are spending less money then ever on prison education systems now then in 1982, even though that the number of inmates keeps increasing. In 1982, education is prison was 33% of the states expenses, and as of 2010, it dropped to 29%, which is the lowest it has been in the last 30 years, and is still decreasing (Bidwell). About 32 out of 50 states offer college or post- secondary education to adult inmates (Bidwell). However, these programs are not used often because it is up to the inmate and their families to pay for the programs. Since many inmates come from poor backgrounds, they cannot find a way to pay for their education. Those inmates that do not have the money to pay for the education programs are normally the ones that take prison work to pay for food, clothes, and other things inside the prison. The Obama administration was trying to take a step to fix this problem (Westervelt). They expanded prisoners access to federal Pell Grants, which would help pay for college and education for those inmates that do not have the money to afford it because they would not have to pay the grant back. However, these grants are banned to inmates that have felony convictions like murder or assault (Westervelt). The average cost of one inmate is $31,238. With an average of two to three million inmates a year, this equals about 6.2 billion dollars a year for inmates (Westervelt). The Correctional Association estimated that every dollar put into prison education can return two dollars back to the taxpayer. Education programs cost about $1,400 to $1,744 per inmate a year (Bidwell). This can save prisons between $8,700 and $9,700 per inmate with the costs that are spent with having to incarcerate them again after being released (Bidwell). This can allow our tax money to go to better use rather then paying for the same inmate to go back to prison for the second or third time. If the government spent money on education systems in prisons, it could lead to a lower rate of recidivism which would save money for the taxpayers and the government down the road. 

A case that proved education in prison allows the inmates to get a job once released, is Xavier McElrath- Bay, who was incarcerated with a felony charge for gang murder before his 14th birthday. He served 13 years at the Illinois Department of Corrections for his crime from 1989 to 2002 (Goode). He continued his high school education behind bars and graduated with a GED. Bay said that getting his GED was just the beginning of his education. He began to take college classes that were offered at the prison and finished with a Bachelors in Social Sciences, and graduated with a 4.0. He now works as a field researcher at Northwestern University and studies inner city violence in Chicago (Goode). As of 2015, Congress banned inmates that have felony charges from getting the Pell Grants, which allowed Xavier McElrath- Bay to get his education while behind bars and to turn his life around once he got released in 2002.  This shows that even if inmates are charged with a felony, they should be allowed the opportunity to have access to the Pell Grants and education while incarcerated.

Money is the reason for  a lot of the debates for allowing education in prisons because citizens thinks that it cost too much, and taxpayers don't want to pay money for criminals to get an education. But in the long run, it is the only way for prisoners to have a lower rate of recidivism. In Nevada, they created a two year "intermediate sanction" program for inmates that have crimes that are linked to alcohol and drugs (Esperian). It is offered to a certain amount of participants per year, but it shows the inmates life skills and has rehabilitative programs. This saved Nevada more then $34 million from 2010 to 2015 because the inmates did not come back to jail once released (Esperian) . This shows that just a little help to the inmates can allow them to get released and understand the consequences of their actions.  

Many people say that prisoners deserve to be treated like animals because they "hurt us" and so we should "hurt them" (Esperian). Many politicians say that they promise to take away TV and weight rooms in prisons, or anything that would allow the inmate to have free time while in prison (Esperian). If inmates have a lot of free time it leads to them having more and more time to grow angrier and angrier while behind bars, and once released are more likely to break the law and end up back in prison. Kara Henson, who is Round Table's editor and chief, argues that there are too many privileges offered in prisons and it defeats the purpose of an inmate's sentence (Henson). She says that education is a privilege that is taken too lightly by the inmates that are receiving it.  College in the United States is not cheap, and hard working students work to get into a good college their whole life. Henson states that inmates in jail have caused families harm, and they do not deserve to be given a free education (Henson). However, providing inmates with an education, even if it is a free education, will allow them to get released and not go back to their old way of life like selling drugs to make money, or hanging out with the same people that they did before going to jail. 

Another argument that people have is that they do not believe that death row inmates or felons should receive an education (Henson). While this is a valid argument, allowing these inmates to get an education is keeping them busy from doing things inside the prison walls that they should not be doing. Rather then getting into arguments and fights with other prisoners, they could be writing a paper or in class being preoccupied. These inmates could also act as tutors to the other inmates that don't have such serious charges that are able to get released soon. 

Educating prisoners can allow inmates to make themselves into a better person then what they were then they were first incarcerated. It can allow them to have new opportunities and to serve as a positive role model for their communities and families. It can also allow them to be a better role model to the other inmates and to let them see that having an education has a positive influence on your life. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "the need to become smarter on crime by expanding proven strategies for keeping our communities safe, and ensuring that those who have paid their debts to society have the chance to be productive citizens (Bidwell)." Allowing prisoners to have an education can lead to safer communities in the long run because they are more likely to get released and get a job. 

An ex inmate named Ismael Nazario was in jail at Rykers Island when he was 15 years old. During his TED Talk, he stated that he spent 300 out of his 400 first days in jail in solitary confinement, and when he was there he would read anything he could get his hands on. While he was in prison he noticed that although prisoners might not be book smart, they were so talented in other areas of life. He saw that one prisoners could take a simple bag of potato chips and turn it into a beautiful picture frame and a bar of soap into the the prettiest sculpture he has ever seen. When he was about to get released he told a story of a conversation that he had with a man that was in prison for life. Nazario asked the man why he was staring up at a plane in the sky. The man told him that that plane was life passing them by, and that they are both just stuck behind the prison walls. This was what Nazario said was the turning point in his life. He wanted to change they way that he lived life and wanted to make a difference to other inmates and help them not go back to jail once they got released. Now, Nazario helps other inmates once they are released to not go back to jail, and talks to them helps for the next couple years after they are released. This leads to a safer community in the future in the area that he helps these inmates because he is a positive influence on the ex inmates. This is just one example of an inmate that got released from jail and wanted to make a difference in his life and other peoples lives. Nazario turned is life around for the better and realized when he was in jail that he didn't want to be that person anymore. 

Nearly three million children in the United States has a parent that is in jail (Westervelt). If a parent is in jail, you most likely are not looked upon as being a good guardian to your children. This is why many prisons have started teaching the Financial Literacy Curriculum. Many inmates lack basic financial knowledge that you need to be successful in life. The goal of this class is to better prepare inmates once released to have a successful life one released (Koenig). In the class, inmates learn how to go about opening a bank account, how to plan for the future; like retirement and owning a car, how to rent a house or take out a mortgage, and also teaches them that in order to support themselves they have to have a job. This class allows not only to help the inmate support themselves, but also to support their families once released. Knowing this basic information is important in everyday life and is a stepping stone for a more positive life for them and their families in the future. 

Half of all inmates that are released from jail get sentenced for the same crime that they committed the first time they were sentenced (Bidwell). Educating inmates while in prison allows them to get a degree that will be helpful to them when they get released from prison. Many people disagree with allowing inmates to have an education because it defeats the purpose of an inmate being in jail, and it is too big of a privilege to have while behind bars. Even if you educate felons and death row inmates, this can lead to a safer and positive prison environment because inmates will be kept busy, and it can allow them to help the other inmates that will be getting released soon with their school work and finish their degree or GED before they get released so it helps them get a job once released. The government should focus on improving the education system in prisons because it allows the inmate an easier time getting a job once released, saves the government money in the long run, and leads to the inmate to be a better person once they get released and leads to a safer society. Education in prison decreases the rate of recidivism dramatically. 

 
