Studies of Correctional Education Programs

Overview & Synopsis

This article critically reviews recent studies of adult basic education (ABE), general education development (GED), vocational, and college education programs in prisons. Thirteen studies were collected from various databases across multiple disciplines to examine the types of program evaluations and statistical analysis techniques researchers used. This review indicates that recidivism, commonly used to evaluate these programs, was not consistently defined, although most educational programs' evaluations showed lower recidivism rates; secondary data were commonly used for analyses; and statistical analyses may not have been accurate. Implications for future research include the use of multiple evaluations to measure program efficacy, and more careful analyses of results.