Higher Education in Prison: A Contradiction in Terms? (AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION/ORYX PRESS SERIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION)

"National University Continuing Education Association." Despite the current push toward tougher laws and stricter prison sentences, most inmates eventually will leave prison and re-enter society. But the question remains: to what sort of life will a former inmate return? Education is key to improving a person's status. Higher Education in Prison: A Contradiction in Terms? fills a growing need for essential and current information on an increasingly important form of education which now involves the continuing education departments of more than 300 colleges and universities offering courses to more than 50,000 prisoners each year. Higher Education in Prison collects, in one volume, essays about fundamental issues in prison education. The contributors to this volume contend that education for prisoners should focus on seeking personal improvement, accomplishing personal goals, learning and growing, and acquiring credentials and skills required for full participation in society. To this end, some of the essays examine divergent views of corrections and education of prisoners, particular prison education programs, and the problems and promise of prison teaching. Other essays explore the special difficulties in providing higher education to women prisoners and how the most basic assessment and evaluation tools can focus and improve efforts to deliver educational opportunities to those in confinement. This book contains individual essays and series of essays about fundamental issues in prison education. The following individual essays are included: "The Paradox of Higher Education in Prisons" (Jones, d'Errico); "A Brief History of Prison Higher Education in the United States" (Silva); "The Scope and Diversity of Prison Higher Education" (Lawrence); "Evaluating Prison Higher Education: A Beginning" (Campbell); and "Women Offenders: A Population Overlooked" (Wilson). The following essays describe three programs for human renewal: "California's Arts-in-Corrections: Discipline, Imagination, and Opportunity" (Cleveland); "Concrete Garden" (Johnson); and "A Prison Library" (Stevens). Also included are two views of conflict and accommodation in essays titled, "A View from Corrections" (Coffey) and "A View from Higher Education" (Carey). Three perspectives on the problems and promise of teaching in prison are presented as follows: "Teaching within the Contradictions of Prison Education" (Heberle, Rose); "An Experiment in Liberal Studies" (Licence); and "Technology and Progress: A Questionable Experience" (Richards-Allerton). Two prisoners' views of prison higher education are given in essays titled, "Cogito, Ergo Sum" (Taylor) and "A Prisoner's View" (Mason). Appended are information on the federal Pell Grant program and Pell Grants for prisoners. A subject index is included. Contains 216 references. (MN) Collects articles and essays on aspects of continuing higher education in prison. The authors of these items contend that prisoners' education should focus on personal improvement, achieving personal goals, learning and growing, and acquiring credentials and skills for participation in society.