Prison Needs Extensive Reform And Truly Educate Inmates To Reduce Recidivism

Submitted By Demetrius-Greene
Words: 474
Pages: 2

Prison Needs Extensive Reform And Truly Educate Inmates To Reduce Recidivism
Demetrius Greene
Stevens-Henager College

Author Note
Demetrius Greene, Student of Stevens-Henager College.
Demetrius Greene is Studying Computer Science at Stevens-Henager College.
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Demetrius Greene, Stevens-Henager College Murray, Utah 84123
Contact: dsgreene801@outlook.com

I am an advocate of educating prison inmates and preparing them for eventual release from prison. I have been personally affected by poor education within the penal system. Because of this failure, I have been in and out of prison for the last 20 years. My ignorance has led me to reoffend and get sent back to prison. While I am not making any excuses for my decisions for they were based on what I knew and what I didn’t know. The prison in 2010 only spent $80,000 towards inmate education according to The Price of Prisons/Utah. (Price of Prisons/Utah, 2012). Which if you take the number of incarcerated inmates in Utah (6,338 ) is an extremely low amount per student. Education is the most important tool that should be utilized if the state truly is concerned about recidivism. I have been out of prison for only a few months and I have found it very hard to find employment that allows me to take care of myself and my family because I don’t have the skills necessary to compete in the workforce. If the State of Utah would take this problem seriously and spend more on the cost of education the recidivism rate would dramatically be reduced and the state tax revenue would increase because there would be more people working and paying taxes instead of relaxing in prison thinking about what crimes that they can commit once released because they don’t have any marketable skills. I know inmates that have been in