WHERE ARE WE NOW? AN UPDATE ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE
INVITING CONVICTS TO COLLEGE PROGRAM
Chris D. Rose, Ph. D
Public Affairs Department
Criminal Justice Program
800 Algoma Blvd.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8601
Phone: 920-424-0860
e-mail: rosech@uwosh.edu
Kristin Reschenberg, M.A., Ph. D Student
College of Criminal Justice
Northeastern University
400 Churchill Hall
Boston, MA 02115
e-mail: reschenberg.k@husky.neu.edu
Stephen C. Richards, Ph. D
Public Affairs Department
Criminal Justice Program
800 Algoma Blvd.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8601
e-mail: richarsc@uwosh.edu
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Where are we now? An update on the evolution of the Inviting Convicts to College
Program
by Chris D. Rose, Kristin N. Reschenberg, and Stephen C. Richards
In a previous article published in Offender Programs Report, we presented details
on an innovative college education program for prisoners and university students that did
not require federal, state, prison, or university funds to maintain (Rose, Reed, and
Richards, 2005). The goal of the program was, in part, to regain some of what was lost
when prisoner eligibility for Pell Grants was eliminated with the passage of the Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993 and the Higher Education
Reauthorization Act of 1994.
With the passage of this legislation, the quality and
quantity of college educational programs in prisons quickly diminished (Parenti 1999;
Pollock 2004; Tewksbury and Taylor, 2000; Tregea 2003; Welsh 2002).
When we implemented the “Inviting Convicts to College Program” (ICCP) at
Oshkosh Correctional Institution (Oshkosh, WI) in 2004, our goal was to offer a low cost
program that was beneficial for: 1) the prison education department (they could increase
the variety of courses that they could offer without putting a further burden on their
limited resources), 2) the prisoners (eligible prisoners could enroll in a program designed
to prepare them for college upon their release), and 3) criminal justice students at the
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (criminal justice majors could enroll in a unique
educational opportunity that would place them in the prison setting and help prepare them
for their future criminal justice careers and/or graduate school enrollment).
Over the past five years we have implemented over 15 individual ICCP’s at three
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different prisons (Racine Correctional Institution1, Oshkosh Correctional Institution, and
Taycheedah Correctional Institution). During this time we’ve learned quite a bit about
how to maintain, implement, and improve the ICCP. In this article, we provide an update
on how the ICCP has evolved after completing its first “nickel” in prison. As with our
previous article, it is our hope that other universities will partner with correctional
institutions to develop the ICCP, use it to build small bridges from the prison to the
university, and to help bring college programs back to American prisons.
The Inviting Convicts to College Program: The Underlying Goals and Themes
One thing that has NOT changed about the ICCP is the underlying goals and
themes of the program.
“Inviting Convicts to College” is still a low cost college
preparatory program conducted on site at a local area prison where eligible prisoners
enroll in a non-credit college course and eligible junior or senior students, who are
closely advised by criminal justice faculty, deliver and discuss the course material with
the enrolled prisoners. Ultimately, these students are responsible for providing prisoners
with an educational experience that will give them the ability to make an informed
decision about enrolling in a university. Not only do we want prisoners to be able to
determine if they want to go to college, but whether they can actually attend a university
and, if so, whether or not they could likely do the work and graduate.
For those prisoners who learn they can pursue a higher education, one of the
underlying goals of the ICCP is to have these prisoners accepted for enrollment in a
college or university by either the end of the ICCP or by the time they are released from
prison. As such, enrolled prisoners work with the criminal justice interns to complete the
1
Due to the geographical distance between the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and Racine Correctional
Institution, the ICCP is no longer available at RCI.
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paperwork necessary to apply to a university or college of their choosing, as well as, the
appropriate financial aid paperwork.
Beyond this administrative portion of this course, the ability of the prisoner to
make an informed decision about university enrollment will depend upon knowing
something about the expectations and difficulties associated with attending college. To
provide them with an understanding of such expectations, prisoners must complete the
substantive portion of the ICCP.
Just like progression through university courses,
successful progress through this portion of the program depends upon the successful
completion of all objectives and requirements illustrated on the course syllabus (i.e., class
participation, course assignments, exams, satisfactory research papers, and so on). Thus
far, the substantive coursework for the ICCP’s at Taycheedah and Oshkosh Correctional
institution have centered on convict criminology, a developing field in critical
criminology that “… consists primarily of essays and empirical research conducted and
written by convicts or ex-convicts, on their way to completing or already in possession of
a Ph. D., or by enlightened academics who critique existing literature, policies, and
practices, thus contributing to a new perspective on criminology, criminal justice,
corrections, and community corrections” (Ross and Richards, 2003, p. 6).
The underlying goals for our criminal justice students have also remained the
same over the past five years. Once accepted and enrolled, the students are responsible
for organizing and developing independent course lectures, class discussions, course
assignments, exams, and so on. Then, these students (two teaching interns per ICCP)
enter the prison once a week to co-teach the course and hold weekly two-hour class
meetings with the enrolled prisoners for a total of 14 class meetings throughout the
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semester. To help prepare students for this responsibility, they are advised on a weekly
basis by the professors responsible for coordinating the ICCP.
During these meetings, they receive instruction on lecture presentation and
organization, developing exams and assignments, grading assignments and exams, and
the Baccalaureate Degree requirements at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Many
of these assignments are designed to help prepare them for possible graduate student
responsibilities that they may soon acquire.
For instance, they develop a teaching
portfolio containing syllabi, written lectures, exams and/or quizzes, in-class assignments,
and homework assignments. They write research papers pertaining to their experiences
with the ICCP and, typically, present these papers at regional and national conferences.
Requirements and Procedures for Student Enrollment in the ICCP
During our first five years with coordinating the ICCP, we developed a rather
lengthy set of criteria that interested students must meet in order to be enrolled as a
teaching intern for the ICCP. These criteria are designed to help ensure that only the
most responsible, mature, and capable students are placed in the ICCP as a teaching
intern. To be eligible for enrollment in the ICCP, criminal justice students must: 1) have
completed, at least, two-thirds of the required criminal justice courses associated with
their major, 2) be classified as either a junior or senior, 3) have an overall grade point
average of 3.0 (on a 4-point scale), 4) attained unanimous permission from the professors
coordinating the ICCP (typically, this has been two coordinating professors), 5) have
completed and earned, at least, a “B” in an upper division course covering the substantive
material to be taught in the ICCP (thus far, this has been a course on convict
criminology).
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Once students have been approved to be a teaching intern in the ICCP, they must
meet with prison staff, where they are introduced to the security protocols of the prison,
as well as, measures that can be taken to help ensure their safety in the event of an
emergency. Second, they meet with the prison education director to discuss their
classroom assignment. Third, they meet with the university’s admission and financial aid
to become familiar with the information they will need to explain to their prisonersstudents. These meetings also serve to introduce the teaching interns to key figures who
can assist them as they teach the course at the prison.
Requirements and Procedures for Prisoner Enrollment in the ICCP
In addition to the criteria that has been set for students interested in enrolling the
in the ICCP, a set of rules and regulation determine prisoner enrollment. In each of the
ICCPs we have coordinated, the prison education directors have acted as the gatekeepers,
and they have been primarily responsible for recruiting and enrolling prisoners.
Undoubtedly, the education directors’ act in accordance with specific prisons rules and
regulations associated with prisoner involvement in programs. As such, we have had
little control over determining which prisoners have been enrolled. We have, however,
also developed a set of academic guidelines that we ask the education directors to
consider when enrolling prisoners.
First, convicts must be eligible to attend a college and/or university. Prisoners
that have not previously earned a high school diploma, GED, or HSED cannot be
accommodated with the ICCP. Second, while we make no suggestions on enrollment
concerning the criminal offense for which the prisoner is currently serving time, we do
expect the prisoners to have a sincere interest in eventually attending college. Third,
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based upon the educational director’s discretion, convicts that have a consistent history of
conduct reports for major prison rule infractions during their current incarceration have,
typically, been disqualified from enrollment. Finally, depending upon the degree of
prisoner-student interest, we have suggested that education directors give preference to
those prisoners approaching their mandatory release date.
What We’ve Learned during the ICCP’s First “Nickel” in Prison
Currently, we are working on the first assessment of the Inviting Convicts to
College Program, which evaluates the effectiveness of four consecutive ICCP’s that were
offered between 2006 and 2008. This assessment is designed to determine if the ICCP is
successful at its stated goals. For instance, is it effective at enrolling prisoners in an
accredited university and/or technical colleges upon their release? Do the student teachers
present a rigorous educational program that helped familiarize and prepare prisoners with
the expectations of college coursework, enrollment and financial aid processing? Is
participation in the ICCP an applicable, as well as, rigorous educational experience for
the teaching interns?
Generally speaking, the results of our analysis have been very positive. Of those
prisoners who successfully completed one of these four ICCPs, for instance, 13 percent
were admitted to a college or university by the end of their enrollment in the ICCP.
Additionally, prisoners have had very positive things to say about their experiences in the
ICCP. The comment below typifies the types of responses prisoners have given to our
interview questions relating to the quality and relevance of the ICCP:
The course has really opened my eyes to my full education potential, and
what college education is really about. It is the best course in my 8 years
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so far in prison. I think they should use this course in every prison and
maybe other places where troubled kids and adults might be and don’t
know that this [college] might be possible for them.
Similarly, the criminal justice students have provided consistent and positive comments
about their experiences in the ICCP. The comment below, taken from an excerpt from
one of our structured-interviews with one of the student teachers, represents a case-in
point:
The teaching experience I gained through the ICC program has been
invaluable. Some of the skills I have gained are the ability to organize and
lead discussions, the confidence to share my thoughts and ideas in a group
forum, and to develop relevant and clear lectures. These skills have been
useful to me as a new graduate student, and will continue to be useful as I
prepare to teach my first courses in graduate school.
While a full description and interpretation of this entire assessment is beyond the scope of
this article, we would like to comment on a number of our findings that those interested
in developing an ICCP at their local university and prison might find of particular
interest.
We have two important suggestions based on the fact that our current experience
with medium security prisons. Our current assessment data, based on one medium
security prison for men, identified a number of prisoners could not take full advantage of
the program due to the fact that their mandatory release dates were far in the future. For
these convicts, the program may have been an effective academic exercise, but it could
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not possibly help place them in a university setting in the immediate future and, as such,
its impact on these prisoners may fade over time.
In response, we suggest it may be more effective to offer the course at minimum
security prisons or community based correction centers, so universities could reach a
population that might take immediate advantage of the program. These prisoners might
complete the course and then go directly to college. Of course, these facilities would
have to have a sufficient number of men or women interested in taking the course, and an
available classroom.
In some states, it might even be possible to hold classes at the
university for prisoner students with community custody status, via day passes. Given
this venue, the prisoners would successfully complete the free ICCP course, and then
immediately enroll as a full time college student. They could even use their university or
technical college financial aid award to pay for their room and board at the community
based facility (halfway house or treatment center).
Second, we might want to explore or expand beyond the substantive material of
Convict criminology. Our assessment data has also shown that while prisoners felt the
topic of Convict Criminology to be inspiring and of compelling interest, they did not find
it especially relevant to their future career choices. How many prisoners are going to
complete PhDs? As such, we suggest exploring the use of different subject matter. For
instance, introductory topics in sociology, psychology, political science, and so on could
also be included. The inclusion of varying topics would help address the concerns of the
prisoner-students about the relevance of the topic, as well as open up the program to the
involvement of other liberal arts students who are studying topics that overlap with crime,
corrections, and crime policy.
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Conclusion
While all U.S. prisons have a prison education department, relatively few offer
college education programs. Furthermore, each of these departments is likely to be: 1)
under-funded; 2) lacking resources, equipment, and coordination between separate
classes; and, 3) offering little support to their prisoners who are motivated to pursue a
college education (Austin, Carroll, McCall, and Richards, 2001; Irwin, 2005; Lanier,
Philliber, and Philliber 1994; Lin 2000; Pollack 2004; Richards 2003; Ross and Richards
2002, 2003). The lack of quality college education opportunities for inmates is illogical,
because it is beneficial to society to ensure that released prisoners possess the skills that
they will need to attain and maintain employment once released (Pollack, 2004).
After its first “nickel” in prison, we have found the ICCP to be one inexpensive
and effective way to build a bridge from the prison to the university, and help address the
lack of college education opportunities in correctional facilities.
In light of the
restrictions placed by Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993 and the
Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 1994 on prisoners’ ability to receive a college
education and, ultimately, a reduced likelihood of recidivism (Messner 2003; Welsh
2002), an expansion of the ICCP to other universities, prisons, juvenile detention and
community corrections centers may help to alleviate some of the negative results of these
legislative restrictions. The benefits that this program can potentially provide to convicts,
prisons, university students, and surrounding communities may outweigh the minimal
costs that it places on university and correctional budgets.
Throughout our experience with the ICCP we have found that prison
administrators we worked with were very receptive to the idea of allowing it to be
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offered. The warden and prison education director at Oshkosh Correctional Institution,
for instance, offered a great deal of support in the development and maintenance of the
ICCP. In part, such support may be due to the fact that these administrators are operating
under a Department of Corrections mission statement that clearly promotes service to and
a desire to maintain collaborative relationships with its community. Regional universities
often serve the same community, operate under similar mission statements, and are often
located in close proximity. Thus, collaboration between these two institutions to enhance
a prisoner’s rehabilitation and a university student’s education can be perceived by both
institutions as part of their mission.
For those who may be interested in developing an ICCP, we offer a few
suggestions on how to approach the local prison administrators. First, interested faculty
members could begin the discussion with prison administrators by providing them with a
brief proposal that includes a course description and syllabi that list course work
expectations. This article might be a useful tool as well. In addition to the proposal we
suggest mailing a copy of this article to the prison administrators prior to the meeting. In
the proposal be sure to include a statement on the goals of the course that indicates that
the prisoners will be introduced to college by enrolling in a non-credit college course
where prisoners would be expected to attend class, pass exams, write papers, participate
in class discussions, and begin the process of enrolling in and applying for financial aid at
a local university or college.
After beginning the discussion via this proposal, it is very important to set up a
meeting with the prison administrators to fully inform them of the program goals and to
answer any questions they have. At this meeting seek their permission to offer the
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program to interested prisoners, and to work out the implementation details (deciding a
schedule for classes, the number of students to be enrolled, classroom availability, how
textbooks will be acquired, and so on). Regarding textbook acquisition, we suggest that
the interested faculty request that the prison purchase the textbook(s), and add these new
texts to their prison library. It has been our experience that Wardens are receptive to this
idea, because it is the only one-time cost that they will incur for the program. Ultimately,
the key to a successful discussion is to emphasize that you are interested in providing a
service to help them, their clients and your community. Good luck, and if there are any
interested parties who would like more information and details, do not hesitate to contact
us.
We can be found at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Criminal Justice
Program, which is housed in the Public Affairs Department within the College of Letters
and Science.
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References
Austin, J., M. A. Bruce, L. Carroll, P. L. McCall, and S. C. Richards. (2001).
"The Use of Incarceration in the United States: National Policy Paper."
Critical Criminology 10(1):17-41.
Irwin, J. (2005). The Warehouse Prison: Disposal of the New Dangerous Class: Los
Angeles: Roxbury.
Lanier, C., S. Philliber, and W. Philliber. (1994). “Prisoners with a Profession: Earning
Graduate Degrees behind Bars.” Journal of Criminal Justice Education 5(1):1529.
Lin, A. (2000). Reform in the making: the implementation of social policy in prison.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Messemer, J. (2003). “College Programs for Inmates: The Post-Pell Grant Era.” Journal
of Correctional Education 54:32-39.
Parenti, C. (1999). Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis. New
York: Verso New Left Books.
Pollock, J. (2004). Prisons and Prison Life: Costs and Consequences. Los Angeles:
Roxbury.
Richards, S. (2003). “My Journey Through the Federal Bureau of Prisons.” In Jeffrey I.
Ross and Stephen C. Richards (eds.), Convict Criminology. U.S.: Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Ross, J. I. and S. Richards. (2002). Behind Bars: Surviving Prison. New York:
Alpha/Penguin.
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Rose, C., S. Reed, and S. C. Richards. (2005). Inviting convicts to college: a
free college preparatory program for prisoners. Offender Programs Report, 8(6),
90-93.
Ross, J. I. and S. C. Richards (eds.), Convict Criminology. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Tewksbury, R., Erickson, D. J., & Taylor, J. M. (2000). Opportunities lost: The
consequences of eliminating Pell Grant eligibility for correctional education
students . Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 31(1/2), 43-56.
Tregea, W. (2003) “Twenty Years Teaching College in Prison.” In Jeffrey I. Ross
and Stephen C. Richards (eds.), Convict Criminology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Welsh, M. (2002) “The Effects of the Elimination of Pell Grant Eligibility for State
Prison Inmates.” Journal of Correctional Education 53:154-158.
_______________________________
Chris Rose is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin
Oshkosh. Kristin Reschenberg is a former University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Criminal
Justice student who was a teaching intern in the Inviting Convicts to College Program.
She is now a Ph. D. student in Criminology and Justice Policy at Northeastern University
in Boston, MA. Stephen C. Richards is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University
of Wisconsin Oshkosh. If you need more information about the program direct
correspondence to Chris Rose at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Department of
Public Affairs, Criminal Justice Program, Clow Faculty 401, 800 Algoma Blvd.,
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8601, rosech@uwosh.edu.