Improving Corrections Education: Two Perspectives for Voc Ed. Occasional Paper No. 111.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper contains two addresses on improving the quality of correctional education through vocational education research and resources. In the first part, Osa Coffey, Executive Director of the Correctional Education Association, speaks of the need for research and resources in vocational education for incarcerated persons. She states that the field today lacks clear direction and purpose, but is nevertheless ready for improvement and change. She outlines corrections today, the educational needs of inmates, the scope of current educational service delivery, the cost of corrections, the goal of correctional education, and research and resource needs in correctional education. She concludes that the services of researchers and the National Center for Research in Vocational Education are greatly needed to ensure that inmates receive the education they need to change their lives. In the second part of the paper, Dianne Carter, a corrections programs specialist at the U.S. Department of Education, presents a summary of some of those characteristics that she believes are common among good correctional education programs. She divides these characteristics into four categories: environmental characteristics, administrative leadership, instructional personnel, and instructional content and strategies. Before discussing these, she briefly describes the offender population. She concludes that partnerships between educational researchers and correctional facilities are needed to improve programs. (The paper includes a record of the question-and-answer session, criminal justice and correctional education statistics, prison population statistics, a policy statement on correctional education by the U.S. Department of Education, and references.) (KC)