Research & Reports

“providing reading and educational materials to prisoners
through gifts to prison libraries”

Educational Programming in New York State Prisons

· Analysis of Return Rates of the Inmate College Program Participants, New York State Department of Correctional Services, August, 1991. (college enrollment while in prison cuts recidivism.)

· Bringing College Back to Bedford Hills, New York Times, June 24, 2001 (reporting on the college and pre-college program at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility)

· Changing Minds The Impact of College in a Maximum Security Prison, Graduate Center of CUNY & Women in Prison at Bedford Hills CF, NY, September, 2001. (Appendix B to the report is a bibliography of research reports concerning the positive impact of educational programming in preventing recidivism)

· Follow-Up Study of Offenders Who Earn GEDs While Incarcerated in DOCS, New York State Department of Correctional Services, May, 2001. (Helping a prisoner get his GED while incarcerated cuts recidivism)

· Program Spreads to Sing Sing, New York Times, June 24, 2001 (reporting on plans for a college program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility)

· State of the Prisons: Conditions of Confinement, Correctional Association of New York (Reports on the educational and rehabilitative programming–or lack thereof–at many of the New York State prisons, based upon visits by CANY official visitors. This report has been sharply criticized by DOCS as unduly negative.)

· The Network of Episcopal Social Services Vera Institute of Justice (Describes inmate-initiated rehabilitative efforts at the nine prisons that participate in the Network program.) (On the www.vera.org site click on the Sentencing and Corrections link, then Publications. )

· Testimony in support of Funding for Prison Libraries and Educational Programming addressed to the New York State Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees, Joint legislative hearing on the Governor’s proposed 2002-2003 State Budget relation to Criminal Justice, Annette Johnson, February 25, 2002

· Testimony concerning the Positive Correlation between Inmate Education and Reduction of Recidivism, presented to the New York State Senate Democratic Task Force on Criminal Justice Reform, Annette Johnson, December 4, 2000 (Good summary of some important issues. There is also a bibliography of studies that show the positive effect of inmate education in reducing crime.)

Positive Effects of Educational Programming in Prison

· Education as Crime Prevention: Providing Education to Prisoners, Center for Crime, Communities and Culture. September, 1997. (On the www.soros.org site, click on Criminal Justice Initiative, then Publications.)

The Positive Impact of Prisoner Education in Reducing Crime, Annette Johnson, 2001.

· The Practice and Promise of Prison Programming [PDF] Urban Institute. May, 2002.

· Three State Recidivism Study [PDF] Correctional Education Association. September, 2001. (Methologically strong study on the effect of prison education programs in reducing recidivism)

· Recidivism of State Prisoners: Implications for Sentencing and Corrections Policy, [PDF] Sentencing Project. August, 2002.