Inmate education increase urged by report: Legislative Analyst’s Office says boosting classes saves money/ April Johnson

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report this week stating that California would save a lot of money if more prisoners were enrolled in educational programs. Numerous studies are showing that when education increases, recidivism decreases and that the state could essentially save $14,000 per inmate if they returned to their community as a productive citizen.

The state is trying to turn things around, however, by making “new commitments” when it comes to prison educational programs. In 2006-07, the state spent $202 million on these programs but have since discovered that this funding needs to become more efficient. One problem is that these programs are vastly underutilized with only 40% of enrolled inmates attending class on a given day. What’s now being proposed is an incentive for departments to get more inmates enrolled in these programs by allocating a bigger share of the pie to those departments who get their enrollments up. Also being proposed is an increase in visitor hours for inmates enrolled in educational programs as well as getting these inmates into class even when their unit is in lockdown. The good news is that the Department of Corrections agrees with the findings of the LAO, with corrections spokesperson Oscar Hidalgo stating that his rehabilitation “strike team” is pushing to enroll 75% of its inmates into these programs.

Link: http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/708274.html