The Effect of Demographics on Low Literacy and Education Levels in the Prison System:

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Gender

On average, over the previous decades, there has been a widely significant difference in the number of men incarcerated than women, however this average has been gradually changing (Degiorgio 2015). In 2000, women made up less than ten-percent of Washington’s state prison population, while the majority consisted of African American men (Nelson, 2007). The year 2003 doubled the average number of women at risk for lifetime incarceration, which included a high amount of African American women with only brief formal education backgrounds (Wildeman 2009). Studies have demonstrated since that time that female inmates are more likely to reoffend if they have previously received low levels of education, though this potential decreases significantly if treatments and interventions, such as literacy programs, are provide during incarceration (Degiorgio 2015). On the other hand, in 2004, the majority of prison inmates in the United States consisted of men as well; where the average was approximately 90-percent. More recently, in 2011, the Indiana Department of Correction provided statistics that noted almost 30,000 men and women inmates throughout the state’s prison and jail system (Cantrell 2013). In the study on “The Learning Gains of Male Inmates Participating in a Basic Skills Program,” that as compared to their scores in math (54.2 hours) and language (36.2 hours), the 124 participating male inmates spent more than two-fold the amount of time (118.4 hours) to increase their 1.0 learning level. This statistical information was not found for women inmates (Messemer and Valentine 2004).

In the literacy program, such as Reading Legacies, for both men and women is especially important for those individuals who are also parents, because not only does such education provide greater economic opportunities for them at the end of their term, thus providing a better future for their children, but it also ensures that the individuals stay on a positive and productive pathway that will better integrate them into their communities (Blumberg and Griffin 2013). In addition, literacy programs for adult inmates can also help parents maintain a long-distance relationship with their children and next of kin (i.e. via hand-written letters), thus not only providing a more loving connection with their mother or father, but also providing a stronger and more effective support system for the inmate and his/her family once released from incarceration. Such emphasizes is important to recognize that without such educational programs for illiterate or otherwise unskilled parental inmates, the risk for their children to also become poorly educated and possibly illiterate adult prisoners in the future increases significantly (Wildman, 2014). Thus, literacy and other education programs provide both men and women with not only a second chance at changing their own lives, but also the lives of their children and future generations.

Age

Limited information was available concerning the effects of age on literacy rates in state and national prisons. In the regression analysis study, that age remained a consistent variable that tended to demonstrate strong potential for educational success (As cited in Brown and Rios 2014). The discussion of the data from the end of the 20th-century shows that incarceration rates were highest for individuals born from1945 to 1949 and 1965 to 1969 ( Nealy 2008). These individuals were found to be more susceptible to incarceration due to their low social-economic status that is most commonly, though not limited to, due to a poor social and education base earlier on in life (Pettit and Western 2004). This rate increased for both white men and black men, ages 18 to 34, the decade before the turn of the century, in which white men experienced a more gradual but sporadic increase in first-time offense prison incarceration rates, while black men experienced a steady and gradual increase that has since fluctuated and decreased since the beginning of the 1990s. The study further found that in 1999 the number of both white and black men that had attained an education that was equivalent to less than high school decreased significantly since 1979, though with the percent of black men still double that of white men, while the percent of individuals who achieved either high school or college equivalency had increased for both quite moderately (Western, 2004). Another study, primarily focusing on women and the age of their first arrest at either 18 and Younger, or 19 and Older, notes that the use of literacy and educational programs are more likely to be effective early on in the individual’s life (Degiorgio, 2015). However, the study did not specify at what point this occurs.

Conclusions

In conclusion, this composition provided a brief literature review that aimed to answer the question: How is the highest year of school completed, influenced by age, race and gender in the United States prison system, and is this the reason for low literacy levels? The collection of peer-reviewed, scholarly analysis provided an extensive overview of qualitative and quantitative data found over the previous decades, which found that Caucasians are more likely to complete high school education, than that of African Americans and Latinos. However, males and African Americans are more likely to be imprisoned at a young age with limited education (high school or less). Studies also found that literacy levels are most likely to increase if the prison is a younger age, and they are less likely to repeat illegal offenses; though limited data has been provided to entirely support this idea. The scholars collectively argue that for incarnation rates to decrease and literacy levels to increase in the coming decades, a number of issues need to be taken into account. Emphasis on impending issue that hinders the U.S. from solving the on-going illiteracy predicament throughout America’s national prison system, is that with the current excess of state prisoner numbers there continues to be a consistent lack of educational resources available to meet annual needs (Fabelo 2002). Scholars such as Franklin have provided educational programs that are potentially cheaper for national and state prison institutions, as the “Read to Success” Literacy Program and the African American Literature Program of Washington state is entirely grant-based and education tutors are fellow inmates (Smith and Silverman 1994). However, such programs still provide limitations to prison educational systems, due to their uncertain availability of outside tutors and limited funding on an annual basis by grant-makers. Thus it’s suggests that grant-makers and other sponsors provide effective time management, efficient