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In Our Lifetime: A Reformist View of Correctional Education

NCJ Number
149375
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1994) Pages: 30-37
Author(s)
R L Arbenz
Date Published
1994
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article presents the author's vision of correctional education's future, based on a review of the relevant literature.
Abstract
The author proposes that effective correctional education strategies be used as models of future reform and that correctional education professionals be given the authority to implement changes in correctional agencies. A summary of correctional education research over the past 20 years provides the basis for these proposals. In addition, the author identifies the steps and conditions necessary to achieve the reforms he recommends. There are three conditions the author believes are necessary to transform prisons into schools. First, there must be a continuing education program for the entire correctional education community. Through this education, a second condition will be met. A knowledgeable professional community will embrace cognitive-democratic theories of education and institutional management. The third condition is the expansion of political involvement by correctional education's various professional associations. The acceptance of a new paradigm will not be enough to revolutionize inflexible governmental agencies. 31 references