Fund prison degree program
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Tuesday, May 1, 2007
A discouraging statistic is prison recidivism, where an inmate leaves prison and, a short time later, re-offends and is placed back into the correctional system. Prison is, of course, meant to punish, but it should also help inmates to make better future choices.
One success story when it comes to preventing recidivism is education. Inmates who receive a degree while in prison have very low recidivism rates. Utah State University's prison-degree program for inmates underscores that success. In the past 20 years, 91 inmates have received degrees from USU. According to USU administrator Vince Lafferty, who helped start the prison-degree program, not one of the graduates has re-offended.
That is an astonishing and wonderful rate of success. It is a great deal for the inmates. They pay $100 a semester. It takes about six years to get a degree. Currently there are 166 inmates enrolled in the USU program.
We would think that state officials, the Legislature, Gov. Huntsman and others would trumpet this achievement and do everything our state can to keep the USU program going. Inmates leaving with marketable skills are a great deal for society; they contribute taxes and skills, rather than continuing to be a burden on taxpayers.
Unfortunately, all of this is going to stop in August. According to Standard-Examiner reporter Tim Gurrister, USU will be dropping the program. The university says it's "suspending" the classes, but regardless of words used, there will be no prison-degree program this fall.
The reason is money. USU is running a $600,000 deficit and can't afford that. With all the extra cash the Legislature plays with, we think helping with the USU program -- the only one in the state that offers a bachelor's degree -- would make a lot of sense. As we mentioned, it saves the taxpayers a lot of money.
Unfortunately, Kathleen Robertson, USU's program administrator, told the Standard's Gurrister that the prison task force she oversees was told the prison-degree program "will never be a priority with the Legislature." Indeed, the Legislature was not approached to help fund the USU program this past session, reports Gurrister.
It is time for the Legislature to be approached. We urge Utah State University, the state prison task force and others to flex their lobbying muscles and seek the funding needed to save the prison-degree program.
Supporters should come to lawmakers and the governor prepared. They should have facts that prove the long-term benefits of providing education to inmates who want the chance.
Also, provide facts that prove how costly it is to deal with a merry-go-round of recidivism -- surely they must exceed the $600,000 USU is coming up short.
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