Approximately two million men and women are currently incarcerated in the nation's penitentiaries (Butterfield, 2002). Ninety percent of these inmates will eventually be released from prison (Linton, 2004). The vast majority of these inmates enter prison without basic literacy skills or job training. According to the U.S. Department of Education…

Prisons are usually oppressive, bureaucratic, alienating places that sever or suspend the prisoner's sense of community and restrict the possibility (or desire) for social and civic participation. They produce a nihilistic culture that encourages a numbing detachment from others. How is it that we can speak of democracy in places such as these?…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two adult basic reading programs, Direct Instruction Corrective Reading Decoding and Laubach Literacy, on the reading achievement of incarcerated male adults (n = 27) in an Alabama prison. Participants were tutors and students taking part in a reading tutoring program at the facility. The…

In many U.S. prisons an overuse of individualized instruction silences literacy learners and reinforces oppressive notions about what knowledge is and whose knowledge counts. In these classrooms, methods that invite learners to tap their background knowledge, reflect on their worlds, and dialogue with others to construct meaning--commonplace in…

In this update, Linton provides a report on what transpired during the invitational technical assistance training meeting for State adult correctional education programs titled "Making Data Work for You," which was hosted by the Department of Education a year ago. As a key part of that training, States shared their efforts to utilize data to…

Offenders involved in this study lacked basic financial knowledge which presented a barrier to their success upon release. The researcher modified existing curriculum and created a course in financial literacy for offenders within a medium security correctional facility based upon their personal experiences. The offenders gained financial…

The purpose of this study was to document the effectiveness of a small pilot program designed to address the academic, psychosocial, and adaptive needs of juvenile offenders with substance abuse diagnoses. This research measured functionally defined outcomes and examined disparities between students who achieved success and those who did not.…

This article is a sequel to previous "Journal of Correctional Education" articles providing teaching strategy suggestions for correctional educators. The self actualized correctional educator employs teaching strategies which do not rely on the correctional institution for implementation. Thus, he/she is freed from bureaucratic and custody issues,…

Prison education in Europe is based on an adult education model. This is clearly stated in the Council of Europe Recommendations on Education in Prison (1990). It states that "the education of prisoners must, in its philosophy, methods and content, be brought as close as possible to the best adult education in the society outside (COE, 1990: 8).…

A non-randomized control trial was conducted to assess the feasibility and efficacy of the Life Interventions for Family Effectiveness (LIFE) project: a family-based, evidence-based comprehensive substance abuse intervention for at-risk adolescents and their families. The Matrix Adolescent Treatment Model of program delivery was utilized in the…

The purpose of this study was to survey the opinions of female juvenile delinquents residing in a correctional center about the role of teachers and schools in serving students involved in violence. The term violence referred to behaviors and actions including threats or intentional harm to individuals or property (Van Hasselt & Hersen, 1999). A…

The main activity of the European Prison Education Association (EPEA) since the last edition of the Journal was the 11th European Prison Education Association International Conference, which took place in Dublin, Ireland from June 13th to 17th. The conference, Learning for Liberation, was the largest EPEA conference to date with 180 participants…

The purpose of this study was to measure whether Christian programs had a positive influence on the academic achievement of low-literate male inmates. The sample consisted of 124 male inmates in a closed security prison in the southeastern United States who were participating in an Adult Basic Education (ABE) program. The researcher grouped the…

Because of the disproportionate number of violent males in American society (particularly in the juvenile justice system), teachers and researchers should afford greater scrutiny to the relationship between masculinity and violence. Incarcerated male youth have unique issues not only because of their incarceration, but also because of their…

This article describes an education program initiated by African American prisoners in the Airway Heights Correction Center in Airway Heights, Washington. The purpose of the program was to help the inmates to make productive use of their time while incarcerated and to help lessen the high return rate of African American men to the prison. Although…