Despite similar crime rates, the US incarceration rate is more than five times that of comparable countries. Out of every 100,000 Americans, 693 are in prison—a number that has multiplied in the past four decades. With both incarceration and recidivism rates at shockingly high levels, many wonder, What can be done?

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Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, former dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, explores one option in her new book, Liberating Minds: The Case for College in Prison. Langemann argues that educating people in prison is actually part of building a democracy. When incarcerated people have access to education, the benefits—including increased levels of hope, decreased recidivism rates, increased employment opportunities, giving back to communities, and stronger relationships with family members—ripple widely both inside and outside correctional facilities.

Recently, Lagemann—along with Anthony Annucci, acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections, and Dorell Smallwood, graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative and youth advocate at Brooklyn Defender Services—took part in a panel discussion at the Ford Foundation about the critical role of education in the incarcerated community.

Democracy is more than a political structure; it’s a way of understanding how we interact with each other. And so we cannot claim to be a democracy when a significant portion of our population is behind bars, without basic rights. Democracy and education go hand in hand: For the millions of men and women who are locked out of society, education is the only way they can participate in society—while in prison and once they are released.

College-in-prison is not universally embraced, and an immediate challenge is one of perception. Questions and criticism abound, rooted in the stigma we so often attach to people with criminal records. Some wonder: Is access to free education really something that this population deserves? Smallwood and Commissioner Annucci agree that empathy matters—indeed, the best antidote to stereotypes and oversimplification is showing that incarcerated people are as real and complicated as anyone else.

Read the source article at Ford Foundation