Recent Posts by
2 posts found
|
May 08, 2007
ohma
2 posts
|
I have been reading and researching the correctional education programs in Oregon. It appears that your state is doing more than many in the area of reentry programs and working to reduce recividism. You are correct that there are too many correctional institutions in all states. A major issue that we are missing in this whole process is seriously addressing family literacy in order to provide a stronger support system for children in the elementary school levels who are falling through the cracks. Children whose parents are literate and educated can make up the difference and support the classroom learning process at home to insure that their children do not fall behind. Illiterate, uneducated parents can not. We also need to address the generational incarceration cycle present in many families. Foster care and child welfare also contribute to the high recividism rate. A high percentage of children from foster care end up in the correctional setting, without an education and total lack of life skills needed to be successful in society as adults. The problem is huge and in that we have not gotten serious about attacking all of the factors it continues to escalate out of control. However, I saw some promising light in Oregon's programs. |
|
May 08, 2007
ohma
2 posts
|
I see a lot of good things in the government proposal for the reentry act and also in the Illinois prison that was highlighted. I am not sure the state I teach in is really ready to seriously engage in this process. There is a lot of talk about rehabilitation, it sounds good, looks good on paper but I do not see the reconstruction that would be required to overhaul the system within the prisons as well as post release programs to address the federal proposals. Drugs is definitely a major contributor to the recividism rate. Lack of education both in the academic area and the vocational preparation are also a major issue in recividism. Another major area that needs to be addressed is life skills required to cope on a daily basis with the normal everyday stresses in society. I am an academic teacher, working on my doctorate in Correctional Education, and I feel that in this area we are not addressing the issues for successful reentry if all we are doing is covering the academic skills needed for the GED. Many of us are still using the pedagogical strategies for teaching when we are teaching adults and should be paying more attention to the research on adult learners and the theory of andragogy. I have done a lot of thinking about this area after seeing a statistic on the recividism rate of inmates who had completed their GED. I realized that we were missing something. I have interviewed inmates who left prison with good job skills and ended back in prison. One of the things that I have learned is that we are not providing these inmates, who often have been in the correctional setting since childhood, who come from families with generational incarceration and who do not possess the basic life skills to function successfully in society. We are addressing this somewhat in anger management and other areas. However, I have come to see that we as academic teachers need to be using curriculum materials that teach academic skills within the context of life skills. We can teach reading, writing and math |
