School Program Options

According to Griffin's (1978) survey of prison education programs in 1978, about 2,000 of the 9,500 inmates in Canadian penitentiaries were participating in full-time educational programs. And, over the past twenty years, there has been a rapid expansion of programs and facilities relating to prison education (in Linden, 1982, p. 45).

Adult learning offers unique challenges and opportunities. This is especially true for adult learners within a prison setting. Teachers commented that factors such as a safe and positive learning environment, time between breaks, length of classes, and seating arrangements, all have an impact on learning.

A variety of school options are available to individuals dependent upon the particular prison setting. And, as one literacy guide has reminded us, "Adults have a wealth of personal, family, work and life experiences which provide unlimited possibilities for the creation and understanding of lessons."(Manitoba Education & Training, p. 55).

Table 3 depicts the program options available to students at the five sites.

It is noteworthy that 17.5% of all prisoners are involved in either full time or part time schooling behind the walls of these five sites (212 of 1210). Each of the five sites provides a variety of adult-learning options. Please note that this includes all students at all of the five prisons studied. Teachers were the source for this information.

Table 4 presents the educational categories in which the students at the five prisons were presently enroled. While table 3 includes all 212 students at the five sites, Table 4 includes only the 49 participants interviewed for this study. Please note that the Riverbend Generalized Program denotes the fact that all students at that site generally followed the same schedule in the morning while they completed individual work in the afternoon. Students did not identify individual school goals or areas of concentration therefore Tables 3 and 4 present this group in the "other" or "Generalized" categories.