From: https://www.ccdaily.com
Providing postsecondary education to incarcerated individuals can ensure former inmates will have an opportunity to a successful life when they are released. But setting up an education system inside prison walls – where there are major security considerations – calls for a whole new set of policies and procedures, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.
“Because postsecondary education in prison combines two very different worlds, bureaucracies and sets of policies and practices, colleges and corrections agencies new to this field will find that melding these two systems takes time, patience, creativity and tenacity,” says a new report by the Vera Institute that offers step-by-step guidance for starting a postsecondary education program for prisoners.
“Any college should be aware it does take an effort” to launch a prison education program, says Sheila Meiman, director of Returning and Incarcerated Student Education (RISE) at Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) in New Jersey. RVCC had to add staff to handle the increased administrative requirements to participate in the federal Second Chance Pell program.
The college educates about 500 inmates a semester at seven state prisons. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, participation has dropped by about half, as some inmates aren’t comfortable with distance learning or are in quarantine.