Sentencing People to Learn?
The Future of Literacy in Prisons
National corrections information shows that the majority of Canadian prisoners
are "undereducated". It is fairly well recognized that many people
who end up in prison have problems with reading and writing. But reports
vary when it comes to actual numbers. Some researchers think that at least
half (50%) of people who are sentenced to prison for two years or more are
functionally illiterate. Whatever the actual numbers, it is clear that many
prisoners have limited literacy and numeracy skills.
In 1989, I visited 29 communities and interviewed 426 people about the state
of literacy programming for prisoners and ex-offenders across Canada. The
research project was one of many funded by the federal government in preparation
for 1990, the International Year of Literacy.
Much of the work on the project involved discussions with prisoners, volunteers
and staff in prisons. Many of the education programs in prisons were starting
to concentrate on providing literacy help. In fact, the politicians and
policy-makers were demanding that prisoners enrol in adult basic education.
They argued that giving prisoners literacy training would help keep them
from committing crime.
The overall results of the project were very distressing. Men and women
in prisons across the country described horrible experiences of trying to
obtain an education. I heard lots of examples of negative treatment by family,
teachers, students and school administrators. Many had been labelled as
"bad" and "stupid" in elementary school. These sorts
of labels tend to follow people as they grow up.
Too often, children who are called names and otherwise verbally, emotionally
or physically abused, start to believe the negative things other people
say about them. They often believe that they are "bad" and "stupid".
Worse still, they start to believe that they deserve to be treated badly.
All of this can directly affect how they are then treated by others. It
does not take long before a vicious cycle develops. People are told they
are bad. They believe they are bad. They do bad things. People continue
to tell them they are bad. If they are also told they are stupid. They start
to believe that they cannot learn any new ways of living or thinking about
themselves or other people.
Unfortunately, the situation has not changed much in the past six years.
Many people think the situation is getting worse. I am one of these people.
I think that people who do not have power or influence in our communities
tend to be blamed for their own situations. Poor people, people who are
not white, people who have a criminal or youth record are often blamed for
all kinds of problems in the community. Most experience a high degree of
discrimination.
How many times have you heard someone say that people should pull themselves
up by their boot straps. These people do not seem to realize that many of
the people who live on the margins of our communities do not even have boots!
Cutbacks in funding and limited resources overall have severely limited
the availability of educational, social service and health assistance for
individuals and groups who are disadvantaged. It is difficult to imagine
how difficult it is for people to think about improving their literacy and
numeracy skills when their basic needs for food and shelter are not being
met.
Current plans to further cut funding for Canada's social programs will likely
see an increasingly bleak future. Is there hope for those whose social and
economic well-being is further hampered by imprisonment and the stigma of
a criminal record?
Current correctional practices do not hold out much hope. But, I do think
we can all work to change the situation. We can encourage correctional authorities
to support and promote integrated educational programming for prisoners.
We can encourage them to provide prisoners with choices and incentives for
educational advancement. Then perhaps we will cease to hear of prisoners
and staff alike being punished for failure to attain correctional literacy
quotas.
Prisoners themselves have requested that the teaching of literacy skills
be integrated into and include life and vocational skills acquisition. For
example, women in prison have requested that the academic and work programming
be combined to create a more useful and comprehensive educational component.
In addition, given that 2/3 of women in prison are also mothers, many have
indicated that life skills programming, as well as educational and work
opportunities should include child development and child care training.
The lesson is not a new one. To improve the future of literacy programming
in the community, most of us learned that we first had to listen to and
meet the needs of our learners. The future would look a lot brighter for
prisoners if all federal and provincial providers of "correctional"
services would adopt a consistent approach.
K. Pate
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