NCJ Number
127337
Journal
American Jails Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (July/August 1990) Pages: 64-65,67-68,70,72
Date Published
1990
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The Lafayette Parish Correctional Facility (Louisiana) uses inmate tutors in a program that enables inmates to receive their high school equivalency diploma.
Abstract
The program has been recognized as one of the best Laubach literacy programs in the nation. A local literacy organization, Volunteer Instructors Teaching Adults, trains inmates how to teach. To date, more than 200 inmates in the 700-capacity jail have tutored, allowing instruction to be available 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to providing the General Educational Development (GED) program, the curriculum provides Adult Basic Education classes that teach life-coping skills. Hispanic detainees are taught English, and Sheriff's deputies are taught Spanish. The program has five phases: awareness which involves dissemination of information about the program to inmates; training which involves tutor selection and tutor training; recruitment which consists of the screening of inmates for entrance into the program; application which involves tutor-inmate matching and instruction; and evaluation which consists of documentation of student achievements and the measurement of recidivism among students. Of the inmates who have received their GED diplomas while incarcerated (557), less than 4 percent have returned to the jail compared to a national recidivism rate of 65 percent.