Findings and recommendations are presented from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ Education Outcome Study (EOS) on the efficacy and effectiveness of the Department’s correctional education program.
The study’s findings focused on recidivism and postrelease employment as reported in official records for criminal histories and the Labor and Industry Council’s employment and wage data. Highlights of findings include: (1) for rearrest, correctional education participants had lower rates of recidivism (23.6 percent) compared to the nonparticipants (29.4 percent) with correctional education participation found to significantly reduce the odds of rearrest; (2) for “all recidivism,” correctional education participants had lower rates of recidivism (40.9 percent) compared to nonparticipants (45.9 percent); (3) for “all recidivism” by education program type, a consistent pattern was found with participation in multiple education programs having the lowest rates (38.3 percent) followed by GED participation (46.9 percent), vocational education (47.2 percent) and basic education (48.9 percent); (4) for legally employed, correctional education participants had a lower rate of employment (55.8 percent) compared to nonparticipants (59.1 percent); and (5) for wages earned, the quarterly wages for the education participants averaged $5,060.88. Based on the findings, several recommendations were proposed. Highlights of these recommendations include: (1) utilize better testing, assessment, and education planning for participants in correctional education; (2) strengthen ties to education programs in the community and assist inmates in making contact with them prior to release; (3) provide more staff training; and (4) recognize the achievement by inmates in some meaningful way. The purpose of the second phase of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ Education Outcome Study (EOS) was to examine both the recidivism and employment outcomes of the inmates who participated in correctional education and a comparison group of those inmates who did not participate in any correctional education programming after release from incarceration (outcome evaluation). Tables, references and appendixes A-D