образование в тюрьмах

SEIU Local 1000, PO Box 160005, Sacramento, CA 95816-0005Member Resource Center: 866.471.SEIU (7348)

"This validates what we've been saying all along, that cutting teachers and expanding classes will simply not work."- John Kern    Chair of Unit 3 EducatorsThe new report by the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board listed numerous problems with prison education including "increased class size, reduced time in class, administrative paperwork, student turnover, wrongly assigned students, inmate homework, and elimination of some vocational education programs."150-student classes"This validates what we've been saying all along, that cutting teachers and expanding classes will simply not work, especially with an inmate population," said John Kern, chair of the Bargaining Unit 3 which pushed for the education review. "We told them that this new model would fail at rehabilitating inmates, they adopted it anyway-and we were proven right."The new education model, which in some cases had classes as large as 150 students, was adopted last year as the state laid off 800 educational personnel in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), including 650 prison teachers. Kern and other Local 1000 members argued that the larger classes were doomed to fail.Numbers game"It's a numbers game. It's not education," said Kern, a teacher with more than 25 years of experience educating inmates. "Prison classrooms resembled more of a train station than anything else, with all the trains running slowly or canceled."Teachers sway boardThe oversight board's scathing report drew on a Local 1000 survey of prison teachers. More than 80 percent said that most of their class time was spent managing paper work instead of teaching inmates.But it remains unclear how CDCR will fix the broken rehabilitation system as the state grapples with a projected budget deficit of $25 billion."Identifying the problem and admitting to the mistake is only the start," Kern said. "Rehabilitation will reduce recidivism and cut prison costs in the long run. But it requires a commitment up front."

Members fought 'flawed' rehabilitation model last yearAfter complaints from Local 1000's correctional teachers and an independent review, the state has admitted that changes implemented last year to prison education are a step backwards, do not prepare inmates for release and have left classrooms unmanageable for teachers.

State admits that prison teachers are right - SEIU Local 1000