CULTURE CLASH (Express Yourself)
Education Education in Prison Prison in By Cliff
ONE OF THE MOST TROUBLING PROBLEMS IN THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE (TDCJ) IS REHABILITATION AND EDUCATION ARE SPORADIC AT BEST, AND COMPLETELY LACKING AT WORST. Unfortunately, for over
140,000 individuals residing in our state penal institutions, the worst is far more likely to occur. In other worlds, “mass incarceration” does not mean “mass rehabilitation” or “mass education.” Instead, it means human warehousing; a place where people are stored until “the powers that be” decide it is time for them to rejoin society.
Illustration courtesy of Bianca Bagnarelli
When products are warehoused, they are stored and ignored until someone decides they are needed. Warehoused products are not improved or altered during their storage. They merely sit and wait until they are moved. For the vast majority of inmates in TDCJ, that is exactly what we experience. Education is something that could readily improve the futures of many incarcerated individuals, preparing them for release into what we refer to as the “free world”, or society. Rehabilitation begins with education about the addictions, lifestyles, and choices that lead us to prison.
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