Statement
Education can mean many things to different people around the world. For many it is a privilege, that they take for granted, to be able to go to school every day. Yet, for many individuals incarcerated they lack an education all together. In the past education systems were put in place for these individuals, so that behind bars they could complete either an elementary school, high school, or even a post-secondary education. Some many think putting in place these education systems is a step in the right direction for inmates, but others are skeptical of its consequences. I plan on studying whether education in the prison systems during the 1970’s to the 1990’s was used as a social control mechanism or was it merely a social concern outbreak. Many people think about the topic of recidivism when they think of the education systems put in place in prisons. So were these special programs put in place to stop crime after a criminal was let go, or was is for a social control aspect in the governments eyes?
Bibliography
Angle, Terry. “How Americans and Europeans Influenced the Early Development of Correctional Education in Ontario.” Journal of Correctional Education 46, no. 2 (1995): 40-43.
Ayers, Douglas J. “A Model for Prison Education Programs and Guidelines for Their Operation.” Journal of Correctional Education 30, no. 1 (1979): 3-8.
Boulianne, Réal, and Meuneir, Claire. “Prison Education: Effects of Vocational Education on Rehabilitation.” McGill Journal of Education 21, no. 3 (1986): 217-228.
Duguid, Stephen. “Cognitive Dissidents Bite the Dust – The Demise of University Education in Canada’s Prisons.” Journal of Correctional Education 28, no. 2 (June 1997): 58-68.
Duguid, Stephen. “Using Recidivism to Evaluate Effectiveness in Prison Education Programs. Journal of Correctional Education 47, no. 2 (June 1996): 74-85.
Duguid, Stephen. Yearbook of Correctional Education: 1989. Burnaby, Canada. Simon Fraser Education Program through the Institute for the Humanities, 1989.
Duguid, Stephen. Yearbook of Correctional Education: 1990. Burnaby, Canada. Simon Fraser Education Program through the Institute for the Humanities, 1990.
Elwood, R., Martin, K., Murphy, D., Hanson, C., Hemingway, V., Ramsden, J. Buxton, A. Granger- Brown, L-L., Condello, M., Buchanan N., Espinoza-Magana, G., Edworthy, T., and Hislop, G. “The Development of Participatory Health Research Among Incarcerated Women in a Canadian Prison.” International Journal of Prisoner Health 5, no. 2 (2009): 95-107. doi:   10.1080/17449200902884021
Emmert, Ellen. “Offender Assistance Programs Operated by Postsecondary Institutions of Education, 1975-76.” AACJC Publications 1, no. 1 (1976): 1-26.
Goldsmith, Larry. “History from the Inside Out: Prison Life in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts.” Journal of Social History 1, no. 1 (1997): 109-125.
Gould, Mary. “Rethinking Our Metrics: Research in the Field
of Higher Education in Prison.” The Prison Journal 98, no. 4 (2018): 387-404. doi: 10.1177/0032885518776375.
Irvin Waller, Men Released from Prisons. University of Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979.
McLeod, Katherine., Bergen, Cara., Roth, Kate., Latimer, Catherine., Hanberg, Debra., Stitlis, Blake., Buxton, Jane., Fels, Lynn., Oliffe, John., Myers, Nicole., Leggo, Carl., and Martin, Ruth. “Participant-Driven Health Education Workshops with Men Transitioning from Prison to Community.” Society for Public Health Education 20, no. 1 (January 2019): 8-11. doi: 10.1177/1524839918816328.
Morin, Lucien. On Prison Education. Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Government Publishing Centre, 1981.
Skinner, Shirley., Driedger Otto., Grainger, Brian. Corrections: An Historical Perspective of the   Saskatchewan Experience. University of Regina: Canadian Plains Reports Research Center, 1981.
Volpe, Richard., Waksman, Mary., and Kearney, Colleen. “Cognitive Education in Four Canadian Prisons.” Journal of Correctional Education 34, no. 2, (June 1985): 66-74. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41971711.
I plan on using all of my sources to aid in the distinction of whether education in the prison systems are a use of social control or social concern. I am going to use the articles, Offender Assistance Programs Operated by Postsecondary Institutions of Education and A Model for Prison Education Programs and Guidelines for Their Operation to talk about what types of education programs were put in place. I also plan on using Offender Assistance Programs Operated by Postsecondary Institutions of Education to talk about how the history of education programs goes further back into history, as far as the 1800’s. Although the government only started pushing education on inmates during the 1970’s to the 1990’s. I also want to use the book Men Released from Prison along with the articles Participant-Driven Health Education Workshops with Men Transitioning from     Prison to Community and Prison Education: Effects of Vocational Education on Rehabilitation to talk about the aftermath of what prisoners felt after receiving an education in prison and later being released. I think it is also important to use the article History from the Inside Out: Prison Life in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts. Although this article is not solely based on Canadian statistics, it gives an example of what was happening inside the prisons at this time. I then want to use the article Cognitive Education in Four Canadian Prisons to compare how the educations were set in place with the governments roll in these programs. I would also like to use Mary’s article called Rethinking Our Metrics: Research in the Field of Higher Education in Prison to show how the rate of recidivism in the prison system is in some aspect correlated. I also want to shed a little light on the 1997 article Cognitive Dissidents Bite the Dust – The Demise of University Education in Canada’s Prisons because I believe that it is important, while still looking in the 1990’s, to see if a shift is happening between whether education programs are social control or social concern. If they start to take out these educational programs, why is that? There are multiple studies that show there was a decrease in recidivism when inmates took these courses. It is shown that running an educational program costs far less than having an inmate keep coming back into the prisons. I also want to use the article The Development of Participatory Health Research Among Incarcerated Women in a Canadian Prison to use that as a resource to show how prison education programs may be a social control aspect. Women in prison tend to have a higher recidivism rate than men. This along with being able to teach women about proper health may lead in a decrease in recidivism and a decrease in poor mental, physical, and sexual health. Using all these journals, articles and books I will be able to try and decide whether or not I believe that educational programs are used as a social control or as a social concern.
Statement of Process Document
- How did you choose your topic? Please explain in as much detail as possible.
I choose my topic based on my interests in study at Thompson Rivers University. I have taken many crime and deviance courses at Thompson Rivers University, yet I always had a simple question coming out of them in relation to the education systems that are put in place for the offenders. Being able to bring in the knowledge I have learnt from my other courses and relating it to whether or not education in the prison systems was a means of social control or social concern is going to give the ability to try and answer a question I have always had.
- How did you choose your sources? Please explain your thinking that led you to choose the evidence you will use to interpret the topic.
I tried to choose my sources based on their date of publication along with their relevance to the Canadian prisons. Although not all of the sources I have collected fall into this category I do think they have good, relevant information towards my topic and can better help to address my thesis in my paper. Canada wasn’t the first to implement the education programs in prisons so I do think it is important to at least address this in one of my sources.
- What assumptions did you bring to your research? For example, what preconceived notions about the topic did you have before you began your research? Did your sources cause you to reconsider those ideas? Please explain in as much detail as possible.
I didn’t know what type of assumptions I would bring to this paper. I had a kind of personal feeling that prison education programs are used as a social control aspect. I thought a lot about the recidivism and how an education would be involved in that. In the past most of the incarcerated were poor, minority individuals. I don’t think that the research I have done has made me reconsider ideas about whether the government had used education in a prison system as a means of social control or of social concern. But I have found interesting topics and ideas based upon the concept of education in prisons, and how they shaped the way a society worked during the 1970’s-1990’s.
- How has your view of the past changed as a result of the research that you have done? What unanswered questions about this topic do you still have?
I think my view of the past has changed a little as a result of the research I have done. I was aware there were certain education systems set in place for inmates. I just didn’t know exactly how far back it went into Canada’s history. I think it is important to realize that education isn’t just learned in a school-like setting. Those that are less fortunate should have the same opportunities as anyone else to have access to an education. I think that implementing the education programs inside prisons give prisons of both the past, and present a way to get more knowledge before being released back into the public.
- What will you do differently next time?
I think next time doing a research project like this I would want to talk to inmates that have actually gone through the progress along with the education program. I believe it would be important to get the ideas of the inmates not just how people on the outside feel about the education programs offered in jail. Not many people realize the opportunities they have been given when they are given the chance to a basic education, so I think it is benifical to look into how the less fortunate look at education. I also believe that talking to someone in a government position to find their outtake on the situation would be helpful. Having boths sides of the story when it comes to education would give a better idea that if not only in the past, even today, is education in the prison systems a sign of social control or social concern.