Liberating Minds: The Case for College in Prison

by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann

Overview

An authoritative and thought-provoking argument for offering free college in prisons—from the former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
 
Anthony Cardenales was a stickup artist in the Bronx before spending seventeen years in prison. Today he is a senior manager at a recycling plant in Westchester, New York. He attributes his ability to turn his life around to the college degree he earned in prison. Many college-in-prison graduates achieve similar success and the positive ripple effects for their families and communities, and for the country as a whole, are dramatic. College-in-prison programs have been shown to greatly reduce recidivism. They increase post-prison employment, allowing the formerly incarcerated to better support their families and to reintegrate successfully into their communities. College programs also decrease violence within prisons, improving conditions for both correction officers and the incarcerated.
 
Liberating Minds eloquently makes the case for these benefits and also illustrates them through the stories of formerly incarcerated college students. As the country confronts its legacy of over-incarceration, college-in-prison provides a corrective on the path back to a more democratic and humane society.
 
“Lagemann includes intensive research, but her most powerful supporting evidence comes from the anecdotes of former prisoners who have become published poets, social workers, and nonprofit leaders.”—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620970591
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ellen Condliffe Lagemann is the Levy Institute Research Professor at Bard College, where she is also the Distinguished Fellow in the Bard Prison Initiative. Formerly she served as president of the Spencer Foundation and as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She lives in Ghent, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Learning to Learn: An Outcome of College in Prison 15

2 Of Value to All: The Economics of College in Prison 31

3 Instilling Purpose, Curbing Violence: The Impact of College on Life in Prison 53

4 Families and Neighborhoods: The Spillover Effects of College in Prison 75

5 Democracy and Education: The Civic Imperative for College in Prison 93

6 The Challenge of College in Prison: Insights from History 111

7 What Works? Insights from the Bard Prison Initiative 133

8 Variety and Difference: College in Prison Across the United States 153

Conclusion: College for All 173

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Index 213

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2016
Lagemann, a former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Distinguished Fellow of the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College in N.Y., argues that providing prisoners with a college education is good for both prisoners and society. College education helps the formerly incarcerated cope with the shame of having been imprisoned, communicate with their families, and increase opportunities for employment, and such programs also help society by lowering recidivism, incarceration costs, and the crime rate. In response to conflicting research about recidivism, Lagemann argues, persuasively, that these studies were either flawed or based on older, coercive models of prison education. She claims that self-directed programs in which prisoners have control over when and what they learn are effective. There is a particular focus on the Bard Prison Iniative, but other programs are mentioned too, including the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound at the Washington Correctional Facility for Women and the Prison University Project at San Quentin in California. Lagemann includes intensive research, but her most powerful supporting evidence comes from the anecdotes of former prisoners who have become published poets, social workers, and nonprofit leaders. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Liberating Minds:
"Lagemann’s evocative book makes a convincing 'case for college in prison,' to quote its title, carefully documenting the great many benefits that its graduates receive from BPI.”
—The New York Review of Books

"A valuable arsenal of information for policymakers seeking prison reform in the present political climate."
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Ellen Lagemann's An Elusive Science:
"Candid and incisive…a stark yet enlightening look at American education."
—Library Journal

From the Publisher

2016-12-08
A strong argument for expanding college-level study in the nation's prisons. Until the early 1990s, more than 700 state and federal prisons offered postsecondary education. Most such programs ended after the passage of the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, which eliminated Pell Grants for higher education for prisoners. But programs across the country—at colleges from Princeton and Boston University to Kalamazoo Valley College—have since offered such classes for thousands of prisoners with considerable success, writes former Harvard Graduate School of Education dean Lagemann (Education/Bard Coll.; An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research, 2000, etc.). Drawing on research, interviews, and her own experiences teaching in the Bard Prison Initiative, which enrolls 300 full-time students at six New York State correctional facilities, she argues there is "overwhelming evidence" that college-in-prison programs have "significant benefits" for prisoners as well as families and communities. For example, she writes, only 2 percent of Bard graduates return to prison (the national recidivism rate is 50 percent), and 75 percent are employed within a month of their release. Similar outcomes occur among inmates elsewhere. Her interviews capture the transformative effects of college study on inmates used to the stultifying routine of prison life. Many experience a newfound self-esteem and thirst for knowledge. "All I knew before was the street," says one Bard graduate. "I know the world will be what I make of it. I can make my family proud." Unfortunately, "comprehensive data about the range of offerings and their relative effectiveness" is lacking, and even the number of prison participants is unknown. The "best available census" found some 70,000 prisoners engaged in college study in 2004. Programs vary greatly, with most focused on vocational training. While tough-on-crime critics disparage such taxpayer-subsidized efforts, the author believes changing attitudes toward mass incarceration and the value of college for all can galvanize new public funding. A valuable arsenal of information for policymakers seeking prison reform in the present political climate.

Kirkus Reviews