Prisoner Access to Education and Rehabilitation

The increase in the state's prison population also impacts inmate access to education and rehabilitation programs.

Reducing inmate idleness by requiring participation in education (academic and vocational) and rehabilitation improves public safety in the state's prisons and jails by structuring the time of prisoners through productive activities.

Studies show that incarcerated individuals are disproportionately undereducated with low levels of achievement in basic reading, math, writing, and oral communication. Participants in correctional education programs have substantially lower rates of re-arrest, reconviction, and re-incarceration than individuals who reenter the free community without educational intervention.

The majority of the 18,874 students enrolled were under age 35 and within 5 years of projected release.

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