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BY PHILIP POTEMPA
ppotempa@nwitimes.com
219.852.4327 | Sunday, July 20, 2008 | (No comments posted.)
David Crum is used to the arguments and debates.
Crum, director of the correctional education program at Purdue University North Central in Westville and a former guard at Westville Correctional Center, realizes the general public doesn't always understand why incarcerated inmates are allowed to take higher education classes while serving a sentence.
"I have a recent clip from the New York Times that I keep handy when someone asks why are we doing this," said Crum, who coordinates Purdue's prison programs at Westville Correctional Center and the Michigan City Prison Lakeside Facility.
"If you look at the numbers, you'll see education makes a difference in these people's lives."
According to Crum, the statistics, both good and bad, must be compared:
* The United States runs the largest and most expensive prison system in the world.
* The rate of imprisonment in the United States is five times the rate in Britain, eight times the rate in France and 14 times the rate in Japan.
* The cost of housing this country's inmates exceeds $40,000 per inmate per year, more than in-state enrollment at many U.S. universities.
* The American prison population grew by 80 percent in the past decade, since 50 percent of prisoners return within three years of being released.
* Researchers have discovered in multiple studies that inmates who attend vocational training or college classes are more likely to stay out of jail once they leave.
* In the mid-1990s, Congress made convicted felons eligible for Pell grants and the same federal tuition assistance programs aimed at the poor, which helped encourage more inmates to seek higher education and form positive goals.
* It's much easier for inmates who have completed further education to find employment after they are released.
The program started at the prison in 1985, and the college students in these prison programs must meet Purdue University admissions standards and take the same courses and read the same textbooks as students on the regular campus.
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