Unequal Perceptions, Unequal Access: Learning Disability Diagnosis and Prison Education Programs

• In Event: Incarceration, Institutionalization, and Disability (Co-sponsored by Crime, Law, and Deviance Section)

Abstract

Individuals with learning disabilities are overrepresented in United States prisons, yet little is known about how learning disabilities shape access to and perceptions about prison education programs. Drawing on nationally representative data from the Survey of Prison Inmates, the current study builds upon existing scholarship to explore how learning disability diagnosis shapes experiences with prison education programs. Matched pairs were created to compare incarcerated individuals with learning disability diagnoses (hereafter ILDs) and observationally similar non-diagnosed counterparts, isolating the role of diagnosis — a socially patterned phenomenon that is not synonymous with actually having a learning disability. Results suggest that ILDs are more likely to enroll in prison education programs but less likely to complete them. Further, learning disability diagnosis does not appear to significantly hinder ILDs’ knowledge of and interest in prison education programs. In fact, the evidence suggests that ILDs are perhaps more knowledgeable about and interested in such programs compared to their non-diagnosed counterparts. Be that as it may, the experience of being diagnosed with a learning disability appears to operate as an institutional marker that structures access to educational resources in prisons, triggering institutional barriers against enrolling in prison education programs that may be (un)knowingly erected by prison and program staff alike. These findings underscore the need for future research on how individuals with learning disabilities and learning differences can be more adequately supported in carceral settings.

Author

• Morgan McMains-Nurisio, Rutgers University-Newark