Why Education Researchers Ought to Care About and Study Correctional Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Bearing Witness, Blurring Boundaries

Abstract

One of the most educationally impoverished populations in the United States is maintained in the nation's prisons and jails. This group of roughly 2.3 million people--disproportionately poor people of color--has among the lowest academic skill levels and highest disability and illiteracy rates of any segment of our society. Education programs for students inside correctional settings have proliferated as a pathway to improved quality of life, community reentry, and increased employability post-release. Yet correctional education remains considerably hidden behind prison and jail walls. Education scholars ought to consider this unknown terrain, which can shape the social and academic worlds of incarcerated adults and their school-aged children, inform teaching, administration, policy, and speak to issues of social justice in education.

Authors

• Crystal T. Laura, Chicago State University

• Monique Rise Redeaux, University of Illinois at Chicago