April 16, 2004
News Flash: Literacy is Good
Posted by nerdling | April 16, 2004 10:28 AM
In an attempt to cut the recidivism rate among convicted felons in California, the state government is considering re-instating the prison education programs that were cut during the crime legislation wave of the '90s. Unsurprisingly, 50% of convicts are illiterate; sadly, only 10% of that half of the inmate population are literate at a ninth grade level when they leave.
Call me thick but I still don't understand how it makes sense that educating prisoners is "soft on crime." That makes it sound as though education is a particularly enjoyable experience; going to public school isn't even fun on a good day (like graduation), so I can't imagine that going to school in prison is better than that. Aside from that, if prisoners are coming out of jail with no skills besides tattooing with guitar strings and Walkman motors, the prison system is just begging to be filled with repeat visitors. Shockingly, it took the California government ten years to realize this. Perhaps it would help if the people running the prisons were literate, too.
