When inmates at Michigan's Macomb Correctional Facility are done serving their sentences, some of them will re-enter the community with college courses under their belts, an education they received without ever having to leave the prison premises.

Last year, a distance learning pilot program began at the all-male correctional facility enabling prisoners with high school diplomas or GEDs to take continuing education courses at nearby Macomb Community College.

Through videoconferencing technology, prisoners at Macomb are offered life skills classes, focusing on issues such as re-establishing family ties and preparing for employment as well as vocational courses in auto and computer repair.

"The focus is really on trying to develop courses or classes that will help people get jobs immediately upon [their] release," said Donald Amboyer, Dean of Continuing and Professional Education at Macomb Community College.

A former Macomb County jail administrator, Amboyer was no stranger to the world of corrections when he became involved in the distance learning project, which was initiated by U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens and funded through a three-year grant from the Detroit-based Hudson-Webber Foundation.

Macomb Correctional Facility's program is unique in that it allows inmates to take college-level courses, an opportunity few corrections agencies have been able to offer prisoners since former President Bill Clinton passed the Crime Bill in 1994, making felons ineligible for Pell tuition assistance grants.

"Michigan really doesn't have any higher education programs [for prisoners]," Amboyer said. 

Bringing College Courses to the Prison Population

To fulfill this need, preliminary research was done to determine the best means for providing this level of education to the inmate population, including online distance learning.

Despite the vast possibilities, online education courses were ruled out because of concerns about prisoner access to the Internet, Amboyer said.  "Collectively, we decided to pursue another vehicle."

After seeing demonstrations of videoconferencing used for sick calls and parole hearings at another Michigan prison, Amboyer and others who were charged with creating the distance learning initiative decided the technology would be an effective means of bringing higher education to prisoners at Macomb Correctional Facility.

"If you can use videoconferencing technology for [sick calls and parole hearings], you can use it for education," Amboyer said.

The pilot program began with about 100 inmate-students from Macomb Correctional Facility who were within 12 months of release and had no any incidents of misconduct in the previous six months.

"If it worked with them, then we would expand the program," Amboyer said.

The program was indeed successful and, in July 2003, distance learning became available to women offenders at the Camp Brighton facility in Pinckney.

Women are offered slightly different courses than the men, such as an introduction to health careers, a nurse's assistant program and classes in Microsoft Word and Excel.

"There's more of an interest among the women to take Word and Excel," said Amboyer. 

Inmates who participate in the distance learning program are given "interest surveys" to determine what types of classes they would like to attend.  For example, courses about starting a business and horticulture and landscaping were added to the inmate programming because of the survey responses.

"Some of these prisoners have some ideas that [starting a business is] what they want to do," Amboyer said.

Class is in Session

In total the program has seven different distance learning classes in session, including four where males and females are taught separately and three that are for both.

"They're both in the same classroom, co-educationally," Amboyer said about the courses that are offered to both sexes.  "They can hear one another, [but they can't see each other]," he said.  "The students can [all] see the instructor and hear the instructor, [though]."

Eight adjunct faculty members from the college teach the distance learning courses and work from a fairly small office area on campus, Amboyer said.

"[Instructors and students] can see one another [via television screens]," Amboyer said.   "It's like instant communication back and forth."

Because of the number of instructors and the nature of the educational environment, inmate classes are generally small.

"We purposely limit it to 15 [students] because of the room size and [a desire to have a low] instructor-to-student ratio," Amboyer said.

Life After Incarceration

Although inmates do not receive college credits for the classes they complete in the distance learning program, they do receive continuing education credits that they can use to build their resumes or portfolios.

"They are enrolled and registered as Macomb Community College students," Amboyer said.  "In the future, if they want proof, they can get a transcript," he added.  "We encourage them to continue their education."

To determine whether program participants are continuing their educations, getting jobs or reoffending after they leave Macomb Correctional Facility, Wayne State University became involved with the project.

"People get released and they go in all different kinds of directions," Amboyer said.

Wayne State was contracted to check in with ex-offenders every few months to document whether or not the program has been effective in reducing recidivism.

"I feel confident that it is working, [that it is] going to make a significant reduction [in recidivism]," Amboyer said.  "[But] we're realistic enough to know it doesn't work for everyone."

Resources:

To learn more about the distance learning program, email Don Amboyer at amboyerd@macomb.edu

To learn more about Macomb Community College, go to www.macomb.edu