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| Reading and Righting a Wrong |
| By San Francisco Chronicle |
| Published: 08/21/2000 |
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When 120,000 inmates are released one year and 80,000 of them are back in prison the following year -- as was the case in California in 1999 --it says something damning about the effectiveness of a state's correctional system. Considering that 50 percent of state inmates cannot read while the other 50 percent read on average at a seventh-grade level, it's easy to see a possible tie between criminality and literacy. So, not surprisingly, a host of research confirms it: Education is the best way to curb the state's alarmingly high recidivism rate. That's why SB 1845, creating a school system for inmates, makes a lot of sense. The bill by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, would establish a superintendent of correctional education -- a recognized educator with policy-making power -- and a ``school board'' with the same authority as local school agencies to oversee curriculum. In effect, the bill, which was heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 10th, mandates a uniform school district to replace the prison-by-prison instruction that varies with whichever warden is in charge. Under the current Prison Literacy Act, prisons have been getting money to bring inmates up to at least a ninth-grade reading level. But that money does not come with strings attached, and too often wardens have used it for purposes other than reading materials or teachers. ``The system is in total disarray,'' said Art Pearl, emeritus professor of education at UC Santa Cruz. ``Wardens are interested in custody, not education.``Polanco's bill takes wardens out of the mix, adding California to the list of 20 other states including Illinois, Florida, New York and Alabama that have adopted such programs for prisoners. Research by those states found that not only did academic-minded inmates create fewer problems within the prison, they also had less recidivism and higher employment rates after they got out. |
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