Essay Sample on Providing Free College Education for Prisoners

Introduction

Prisons are correctional facilities which become habitats for the people who fail to abide by the law. Prisoners are discouraged from committing crimes through being apprehended and punished in prisons. When in prison, the inmates are considered to have limited their freedoms and opportunities by committing felonies. Most inmates are expected to have changed their conducts by the time they are completing their sentences. However, when some convicts are released from prison, they end up going back to the same behaviors that led them to imprisonment. Most convicts end up in jail due to cases of illiteracy that leads to unemployment hence forcing them to engage in criminal activities. It is therefore essential to educate convicts while in prison to ensure they acquire knowledge to help them survive and co-exist with others outside prison. This paper will concentrate on the outcomes of providing a free college education to prisoners.

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Firstly, free college education contributes massively to reducing the rates of recidivism. Recidivism refers to the act by which individuals repeat a detrimental behavior even after they have faced the negative consequences of such conduct. Therefore, providing education to prisoners reduces the rates at which such convicts are imprisoned again. As a result, expenses of future prison sentences are spared which relieves the taxpayers more burdens.

Secondly, most are the cases in which ex-convicts face the challenges of attaining employment once they complete their sentences which are linked to re-offending. Education provided in prison is aimed at ensuring that the rate at which ex-prisoners engage in crimes again is reduced. As a result, the ability of inmates to secure employment after being released is increased. Providing free college education for prisoners can be a crucial ingredient that will play a significant role in the employment fields for prisoners.

Thirdly, offering free education to prisoners is associated with therapeutic benefits which include improving self-esteem, relieving boredom and inspiring creativity in the convicts. Many prisoners have low self- esteem which causes them to look at themselves and their lives as meaningless. However, through prison education, they can gain knowledge which helps them value their lives and discover many things that they can do other than crimes. Prison education keeps the prisoners engaged as they have courses to learn about and this reduces boredom. Similarly, when exposed to education, the convicts gain skills that help them become creative and innovative in the outside world.

Conclusion

In most cases, convicts around the world are constantly less educated than the overall population. Prisoners are ranked in the lowest category of illiteracy which leads them in criminal activities that eventually lead them behind bars. Therefore, free college prison education is significant in ensuring that the convicts become more transformed in behavior and are also employable by improving their skills. Sometimes administration and attendance of educational programs in the correctional facilities can be hard due to reasons like staff shortages and lack of resources. Also, prisoners may be unwilling to participate due to their low literacy level. However, such can be overcome by ensuring that such prisoners are provided with primary and secondary education that will build a foundation for the college level.