More than 2 million adults are incarcerated in U.S. prisons, and each
year more than 700,000 leave federal and state prisons and return to
communities. Unfortunately, within three years, 40 percent will be
reincarcerated. One reason for this is that ex-offenders lack the
knowledge, training, and skills to support a successful return to
communities. Trying to reduce such high recidivism rates is partly why
states devote resources to educating and training individuals in prison.
This raises the question of how effective — and cost-effective —
correctional education is — an even more salient question given the
funding environment states face from the 2008 recession and its
continuing aftermath. With funding from the Second Chance Act of 2007,
the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, asked RAND
to help answer this question as part of a comprehensive examination of
the current state of correctional education for incarcerated adults and
juveniles. The RAND team conducted a systematic review of correctional
education programs for incarcerated adults and juveniles. This included a
meta-analysis on correctional education's effects on recidivism and
postrelease employment outcomes for incarcerated adults, as well as a
synthesis of evidence on programs for juveniles. The study also included
a nationwide survey of state correctional education directors to
understand how correctional education is provided today and the
recession's impact. The authors also compared the direct costs of
correctional education with those of reincarceration to put the
recidivism findings into a broader context.
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