In 2003, officials at the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) noticed that Arizona prisons were plagued by two problems – overcrowding and inmate idleness.

Working with a tight budget, Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro started the Accelerated General Equivalency Diploma Program, which helped inmates to work towards their diplomas faster from behind bars – but required no additional funds, no new instructors, or classrooms.

“I saw the overcrowding. I saw the idleness. I looked around and I saw half-empty classrooms,” Schriro says. “I had two central ideas. First, make the best of scarce resources. Second, educate the population.”

Schriro says that one of the most important aspects of the revised GED program is that it stops inmate “idle-time”, which gives each prisoner less time to get into trouble or cause problems. While drawing up her plans, she also realized that the education ADC offered to inmates had to do two things: address the problem of illiteracy among prisoners and encourage all inmates to become educated.

And the results of her creation are raising numbers; the number of GEDs awarded to inmates has been doubling every year since the program's inception. In 2003, 790 inmates graduated from the ADC diploma program; in 2004, 1,439 inmates graduated; and in July 2005, an estimated 3,125 inmates had graduated with their degrees – a 295% increase in two years.

For Programs Division Director Steven Ickes, the program is one of the most necessary components of helping inmates re-enter society.

“A basic education is a prerequisite to a productive life, and helps reduce relapse, revocation and recidivism rates,” Ickes said in a statement.

Positive Prison Culture is Contagious

Schriro recalls a moment when she realized just how crucial the GED program was to the overall environment of the prisons in Arizona.

”A young man came into my office and said ‘I want to join the GED program' – and I couldn't believe it. This young man had been incarcerated for quite sometime,” Schriro says, “So I asked him, ‘Why now?' and he told me that all of the inmates in his cellblock had received their GEDs and were pressuring him to get his. That's a great example of peer pressure. Those are the kinds of results that we want.”

Schriro thinks that having a GED gives many prisoners a sense of self-worth and creates a positive culture within the facilities that begins to take hold. But the numbers really speak for themselves; the ADC has seen more than a 20% decrease in prison violence and has also lowered negative reports from parole officers, who work with GED graduates.

“Experience shows that inmates benefit from this program,” says Schriro. “We can tell from the numbers that education is crucial within prisons.”

After each inmate has taken the state mandatory literacy test, their performance guides the type of GED education that they receive in prison.

Any inmate who does not pass the state-mandated literacy test is enrolled in a classroom study where they have access to what officials call the Three T's – teaching, tutoring, and time in class. Inmates who pass the literacy test, but do not score in the 11th grade range, are given materials to study for the GED on their own, with some access to tutors. Meanwhile, inmates who perform well on the test are given study materials and can study for the GED on their own. 

Back-To-Basics

Schriro believes there is another reason that the program is so effective.

“This is a back-to-basics program. We aren't just providing education, we're teaching them real-life skills. In the real world, you need a degree to succeed. We want to give them the tools to succeed,” Schriro said.

Schriro hopes that inmates leave prison with their GEDs and return to society as accountable, productive citizens. Schriro adds that one of the most important factors that helped the program was that educators and corrections officers worked together as a team to identify inmates who needed instructional services.

Schriro says that it really comes down to the notion that life inside the prison should resemble life outside of the prison.

“It's the idea that inmates can acquire values, habits, and skills that will help them become productive, law-abiding citizens,” Schriro says.

The program also teaches offenders to take responsibility for themselves and the crimes they have committed in the past – preventing them from repeating the same mistakes. By leaving prison with a diploma, many inmates are better prepared to enter the workforce and feel they have accomplished something worthwhile during their incarceration.

A modified prison management style can promote positive inmate behavior and a goal-oriented population. According to Schriro, many conventional prison systems use control as the central tool of prison management, but that control eliminates any chance for prisoners to make choices and be responsible for those choices. 

However, by involving offenders in activities similar to those on the outside, they must make choices – and therefore, must be responsible for themselves. This helps to ease the transition between prison life and life on the outside, and equip each inmate for the real world.

For Schriro, however, the gratification is not just in educating the inmates and preparing them for the real world – it's also for the rest of society, where she hopes inmates will become productive rather than regress into their old patterns of deviant behavior and crime.

“It's critical that every able inmate earns a GED certification before he is released – it's a prerequisite, a basic credential for finding and keeping a job in the community,” Schriro says. “Our staff has done a phenomenal job – and we have achieved remarkable results with these inmates.”