Educating Incarcerated Individuals: An Easy Choice

During the last two years, we have been part of a group of incarcerated individuals at Colorado Correctional Facilities who have completed college courses thanks to Federal Pell Grants and private donations. While taxpayers might wonder why incarcerated individuals receive access to educational funding, the answer is in the results: lower recidivism, increased prison safety, higher post-incarceration employment rates, and actual rehabilitation. As students, we have embraced the educational experience while learning how to alter our future.

Rehabilitation is not just a feel-good theory. It is part of the college program’s real-world design. The University of Colorado Denver employs formerly incarcerated Dr. Ben Boyce as one of its instructors. As he explains, “College programs in prison provide students with the tools to change them from incarcerated people into tax-paying citizens. It is fiscally, ethically and logically superior to the way we currently do things. And most importantly, it reduces recidivism.” Dr. Boyce’s teaching style, experience and understanding resonate deeply with our class. Right in front of us is living proof that college education provides a possible route to redemption.

“I think college education for this group of people is important, because I have witnessed the growth and confidence it builds in the individual. It also provides opportunity,” says Emily Bell-Lujan, CDOC Teacher II. Such opportunities can prepare students for a different life that does not include returning to prison. Widely available statistics show prisoners with a college degree return to prison less than 6 percent of the time, compared to far more than 50 percent of those with some high school education.

Given the depressing restrictions of prison, why would anyone return? As criminal defense attorney and author of College for Convicts Christopher Zoukis explains, “The reason is simple. Most prisoners are released with job skills and educational levels that are so low they can only qualify for poverty-level incomes.” Lacking the ability to provide a sustainable income, many of us revert to criminal behaviors and perpetuate predictable paths back to prison. Empowering prisoners with education can transform this cycle. This is especially important when incarcerated students have children of their own.

In 2019, there were 2.7 million children in the United States with an incarcerated parent and 5 million who will have a parent behind bars before they turn eighteen. Immediately upon release, those parents face the responsibility of providing for their children. Equipping incarcerated parents with marketable job skills helps them support their families. Simultaneously, the children of incarcerated students learn that education is desirable and achievable, and can keep them away from trouble themselves — a hidden positive that strengthens families and communities.

Is there financial proof? Yes. As UCD professor Dr. Stephen Hartnett wrote in a recent Denver Post op-ed, “Our belief in the crime-stopping power of education is supported by a wide range of evidence. As the Rand Corporation recently proved, education reduces recidivism, meaning every dollar spent on education for prisoners saves between four-to-five dollars in later prison costs.” The results speak for themselves.
Driven by a constant barrage of Hollywood stereotypes, the public often views incarcerated people as lazy and dumb. Colorado prisoner David Carrillo has proven both of those assumptions to be incredibly misplaced. While incarcerated, he has completed a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in business administration with honors from Adams State University. Asked why he pursued an education, he emphatically states, “To provide myself with better options and opportunities for a better life.” Since he started his education, he has also become a role model for others around him looking to change their lives. He is now seeking a doctoral program to continue his education.

Prison education creates a correctional space where the incarcerated are incentivized to follow the rules. Not only must prospective students remain infraction-free for six months before applying, but they generally continue to follow the rules throughout the program. Since the fall semester of 2021, one Colorado DOC official reports, students in our UCD strategic communication program at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility have received zero write-ups, compared to roughly 400 throughout the rest of the facility. Incarcerated individuals recognize education as an invaluable opportunity, and we behave accordingly.

We know the value of education in prison because we are two incarcerated students who have benefited from it. But as the Vera Institute of Justice’s Nicholas Turner and Georgetown Law Center’s Peter Edelman explain, “What no report or data can truly capture, however, is the power of post-secondary education in prison to empower people and provide them with a newfound sense of hope and confidence, which can positively affect the communities in which they live, including those within prison and those outside of prison, to which many will return.”

Study after study proves the benefits. The math just adds up.

Jacob Carlock #108477 and Sean Mueller #152442 can be reached at CTCF, PO Box 1010, Cañon City, CO 81215.

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