NCJ Number
229351
Date Published
2009
Length
57 pages
Annotation
This report synthesizes the findings from the Reentry Roundtable on Education papers and the discussion generated throughout the session.
Abstract
In recognition of the pressing need to explore the issues surrounding education, incarceration, and reentry, the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Urban Institute hosted the Reentry Roundtable on Education in New York City in 2008. The meeting examined the current state of education during incarceration and reentry and identified promising programmatic and policy directions. This monograph supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) summarizes the discussions that took place at the Roundtable assessing the state of knowledge and practice and identifying promising new approaches, issues of concern, and opportunities for collaboration. Twenty-nine individuals participated in the Roundtable as well as more than 100 observers. The conversations at the Roundtable made it clear that education can play a crucial role in rehabilitation and reintegration for people who are or have been incarcerated. The Roundtable also demonstrated that there are individuals, from correctional administrators to reentry advocates to researchers, who believe in correctional education and are working to expand and improve it. Participants focused on the importance of equipping educators with the tools they need and working with them to develop innovative strategies for providing education within prisons and in the community, and most importantly, the value of building partnerships. Figures, tables and references