Need for Instructional Guide

These constraints must be minimized for educators and service providers to remain focused on their main goal: facilitating a successful transition of incarcerated youth back to a nonincarcerated environment. This instructional guide will assist educators and other service providers in their quest to maximize the, albeit limited, opportunities for education in the correction setting by first looking at a brief history of such programming in county correctional facilities. This background underscores the need for effective educational programming now.

The reader of this instructional guide will then learn about life within the correctional facility. Because this setting is so vastly different from the environments in which learning typically takes place, it is no surprise that the actual art of education is vastly different as well. Educators must know not only how to reach sometimes very alienated and unmotivated students, but also be aware of the dynamics of the facility. The respective roles and responsibilities of inmates, corrections officers, and administrators will impact the education provider. In addition, the providers may find themselves answering to two “bosses”: the correctional facility staff and the affiliated school district staff. Communicating and interacting with all of these players, while at the same time maintaining their own security, is truly a challenge for new, and sometimes even more experienced, educators in correctional facilities.

Lest one gets trapped in the politics involved, education providers must continually focus on what their clients, i.e., incarcerated youth, need. From assessment to marketing to recruiting, educators must strive to understand where their students are coming from and where they are going. Educators should be secure in knowing that they can rely on both the school district and corrections administrations for assistance in meeting the needs of incarcerated youth and facilitating their transition to the “outside” world.

This instructional guide is another source of assistance for education providers. In addition to general knowledge about the field of incarceration, this guide includes very practical suggestions for the how, what, and when of program delivery. New educators can refer to the sample lessons and other sections of the guide to answer their questions about selecting appropriate instructional materials, dealing with logistical problems, and recognizing important data. Please note that incarcerated youth will be characterized most frequently as “learners” or “students.” If the particular context is the corrections environment rather than the education program, the word “inmates” will be used. Also, in referring to incarcerated youth and adults, the age range is assumed to be 16 to 24.

Finally, this document will serve as a motivational piece for educators, both new and more experienced. It offers insight into what does work and why, instead of merely noting what does not work. It illustrates successes, in contrast to much of the current literature that focuses on failures. As voiced by many practitioners in the field, a resource such as this is invaluable for orienting new staff, refreshing more experienced staff, and facilitating networking among all staff.