California's prison inmates are getting bachelor's degrees

California's prison inmates are getting bachelor's degrees No girls, parties, cellphones




Eduaction News
A plan that allows incarcerated people to take classes from state colleges helps lower recidivism–and the prison classes often have higher GPAs than the students on the outside.


Arrowood is one of the beneficiaries of California’s policy to provide face-to-face higher education classes in almost all of its prisons.
Prisoners were restricted to correspondence courses until a law passed in 2014 allowing in-person classes. That year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports, the number of successfully completed college classes jumped to 13,301 from the previous year’s 5,725.

By 2017, about 4,500 prisoners were enrolled in community college and universities with tuition paid for by taxpayers through a state financial aid program, up from zero prisoners in 2014.
 While other states have some prisons that offer in-person education, California is the only state offering classes in nearly every prison, taught by educators from nearby colleges, for credits that can transfer and count toward degrees.

Some prisoners -- and their families -- pay tuition out of pocket, and others receive funding through state correctional departments. For example, Sinclair is reimbursed by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections an average $1,950 for every student the college educates.
But the 1994 ban led the college to stop offering associate-degree programs to inmates to keep costs down.

In recent years, a growing number of universities and community colleges have been seeking awareness of their prison education programs and calling for more funding to help inmates earn degrees. And those efforts appear to be working as bipartisan support emerges in Washington for such programs.


Currently, nearly 800 inmates are enrolled in courses offered by Bakersfield, with many of them taking more than one class, said Chelsea Esquibias, Inmate Scholars program director.

Because of its large enrollment, Bakersfield College is one of the largest providers of face-to-face college in prisons in the country, according to the report.

This is really important to all of us. We need to serve these students,” Esquibias said. “We need to remember that 95 percent of the prison population goes home. Higher education is a proven way to reduce recidivism.”

Through the program, students can earn their associate’s degree and then continue their education once they are released.

 Most of the prisoners wanted to work toward a business degree, Cal State LA’s Taffany Lim says their lack of math knowledge made it impractical.
The communications major has wider application, since talking to and relating to people are critical in most careers the men might pursue if they’re released.