“Now What?” A Primer on Correctional Education in Minnesota and its Connection to Public Health

“Now What?”

A Primer on Correctional Education in Minnesota and its Connection to Public Health

Spring, 1998: “Good morning,” I said to the class. It’s a standard greeting from teachers to students. The difference this time was that I was at MN Correctional Facility–Oak Park Heights instead of on campus at Inver Hills Community College, where I’d been teaching Public Speaking and Interpersonal Communication since 1994. Over the next 20 years I would have the privilege of teaching a number of classes in five Minnesota state prisons, and a fundamental question was always present for me: “Now what?” That is to say, “Now that they’re in prison, what should people do with their time while they are incarcerated to benefit themselves and the larger community?” One of the answers I kept coming back to was, “Go to school.” When a person arrives in a Minnesota prison they go through a full array of assessments, including verifying their education history. Incarcerated persons without a high school diploma or equivalent are required by the Department of Corrections to attend Adult Basic Education classes. Those with a diploma or equivalent have other opportunities, such as career and technical education or higher education. Over the years the available options have evolved, but the basic premise remains the same: education programming is an essential part of Minnesota’s correctional system.1 This belief is not new and it’s not unique to Minnesota. In his 1931 book, The Education of Adult Prisoners: A Survey and a Program, Assistant Director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Austin MacCormick, wrote that the public needs to accept the fact that “modern educational standards apply to the prison as well as to the free community.”2 MacCormick’s argument stemmed from his belief that the incarcerated population deserved to be educated prior to their release back into society, allowing them to return as more responsible, involved, and productive citizens. Ninety years later “criminal justice reform” and “correctional education” have gained national attention as a result of several factors—the 2010 publication of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness;3 the 2015 establishment of the Experimental Sites Initiative, a “second chance pilot project” reinstating Pell Grants in select jails and prisons;4 the 2018 federal First Step Act, a bipartisan effort to improve criminal justice outcomes;5 and, the total restoration of Pell Grant eligibility for the incarcerated in 2020 (Pell Grant access was eliminated for incarcerated students in 1994).6 Something is happening, but what is actually going on, and why? Two primary streams have converged in the national debate surrounding these issues —money and morality.

The Economics:

The exponential growth in the incarceration rate and its associated costs over the last 40 years has produced a public health crisis — mass incarceration.7 Minnesota has been no exception to this reality, with four times as many people incarcerated in 2020 compared to 1980.8 Only the COVID-19 pandemic has been able to shrink the prison population over the last 12 months, and it remains to be seen what will happen when courts begin to get back to pre-COVID activity.9 The fiscal reality of having more than two million adults incarcerated on any given day in the United States is sobering, and many community leaders have been seeking ways of reducing costs and redirecting that money into communities that have been systematically under-resourced for decades. Currently there are myriad reform efforts underway at the local, state, and national levels designed to: (1) slow down the number of people entering jails and prisons; (2) release those currently incarcerated sooner than originally planned; and, (3) find evidence-based solutions to lowering the rates of recidivism.10 That’s where correctional education comes into the economic argument. Shortly after a study conducted by the RAND Corporation was published in 2013, legislators and other policy makers began referencing its findings in a variety of contexts.11 The central conclusion from

the research was that educating the incarcerated saves money over time. While there are nuances to the particulars of effective correctional education programming, the economic momentum was there to find ways to provide more educational opportunities to the incarcerated, such as reinstate Pell Grants and expand access to higher education. All of these efforts should reap savings in the long term, providing opportunities to shift spending in ways that will impact the social determinants of health and lead to healthier, safer communities.

Do the Right Thing:

The connection between punishment and resources goes back millennia. A fundamental question is: “What do you deserve when you’ve ‘broken the social contract’?” Most people would accept that the government has a responsibility to provide food, shelter, and basic medical care. Beyond that, it is up to federal, state, and local policy makers to decide what incarcerated populations should have access to. A major factor in the moral debate is the proliferation of racism throughout our society, and the criminal justice system is no exception. In fact, a strong case can be made that the worst examples of systemic racism and inequality can be found within our jails and prisons — mass incarceration is the inevitable outcome of white supremacy and the dehumanization and devaluing of the BIPOC population. In Minnesota, for example, American Indian women make up 1.1% of the population, but 21% of the adult women incarcerated in the state’s prison in Shakopee.12 Thus, moral arguments also involve addressing these disparities and the factors that have contributed to them in Minnesota and throughout the nation. Providing correctional education to the incarcerated population is one way to try to mitigate factors that perpetuate a racist system.

Conclusion:

What do you deserve if you go to prison, and, how should you spend your time? As Austin MacCormick noted 90 years ago, education can play a vital role in promoting human flourishing for the incarcerated. In Minnesota, those in our state prisons have access to educational opportunities that can improve their quality of life, reduce future victimization, lower costs, enhance public health and safety, and help restore the vitality of all our communities.13

Jim Verhoye, PhD grew up in San Diego, CA, five minutes from the ocean, and enjoyed a childhood of bodysurfing and beach bonfires. He came to the Twin Cities area after completing a BA and MA in Communication Studies at San Diego State University. He completed a PhD in Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota and has been teaching as an adjunct college instructor for the last 31 years. In 1998 he taught his first college class in a prison, which was his introduction to the field of Correctional Education. Jim worked in five Minnesota state prisons as a teacher and administrator for over 20 years and served as the president of the Minnesota chapter of the Correctional Education Association for two years during that time. He currently works for Avivo, a nonprofit in the Twin Cities, as the Director of the Avivo Institute of Career and Technical Education. Contact information: jim. verhoye@gmail.com; Twitter: @jimverhoye.

(Endnotes) 1. For the most recent list of education classes and programs within the Minnesota Department of Corrections, see: https://mn.gov/doc/ assets/Education%20and%20Programming_ tcm1089-364582.pdf. 2. MacCormick, Austin. The Education of Adult

Prisoners: A Survey and a Program, New York,

National Society of Penal Information, 1931, p. 261. 3. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass

Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

New York: [Jackson, Tenn.]: New Press; Distributed by Perseus Distribution, 2010. 4. https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/ us-department-education-launches-sec-

ond-chance-pell-pilot-program-incarcerated-individuals. 5. https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/overview. jsp#:~:text=On%20December%2021%2C%20 2018%2C%20President,mechanisms%20 to%20maintain%20public%20safety. 6. https://www.vera.org/newsroom/congressvotes-to-lift-ban-on-pell-grants-for-people-inprison. 7. With its many direct and indirect effects on the health of individuals, families, and communities, incarceration is a major social determinant of health and as such, mass incarceration is one of the major public health challenges facing the United States. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/books/NBK555719/. 8. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/MN.html; and, https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Adult%20

Prison%20Population%20Summary%201-12020_tcm1089-418232.pdf. 9. The current prison population in Minnesota has gone down by 20% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; https://mn.gov/doc/ assets/Adult%20Prison%20Population%20

Summary%201-1-2021_tcm1089-467125. pdf; however, the intersection of mass incarceration and the COVID-19 pandemic has been profoundly tragic in Minnesota and throughout the United States. For Minnesota information, see: https://mn.gov/doc/about/ covid-19-updates/. For national information, see: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/ covidspread.html. 10. For a thorough review, see: https://www. prisonpolicy.org/factsheets/pie2020_allimages. pdf. 11. A primary finding from this study was: Inmates who participate in correctional education programs had 43 percent lower odds of recidivating than those who did not. This translates to a reduction in the risk of recidivating of 13 percentage points. https://www.rand.org/ pubs/research_reports/RR266.html. 12. https://coms.doc.state.mn.us/tourreport/04FacilityInmateProfile.pdf; and, http://www. culturecareconnection.org/matters/diversity/ americanindian.html. 13. There is currently a bill in the Minnesota state legislature that would provide incentives to incarcerated individuals to participate in programming in order to earn reductions in time served in prison. Programming highlighted in the bill includes: substance abuse treatment and counseling; mental health counseling; and, education, such as high school graduation testing, Career and Technical Education training, and college courses: For the full text of the bill, see: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill. php?b=House&f=HF2349&ssn=0&y=2021; also, for further information, see: https://mn.gov/ sentencing-guidelines/assets/08B-MRRA_Policy_FAQ_tcm30-474003.pdf.