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16 | P a g e Advantages of Continuing Education • Higher income • Expanded job opportunities • Positive role model • Reduced likelihood of returning to prison, especially if under the age of 21 years The best time and cost effective time to complete your education is before you get out. Contact the educational program at your institution for class enrollment. A 2013 RAND study concluded that offenders who participated in education programs were 43% less likely to return to prison within three years of release. a) Three state recidivism studies made in 1997 by Steuer, Smith, and Tracy, conducted in Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio involved 3600 men and women inmates released from prison at least three years. The study showed that male and female offenders who participated in education programs while in prison reduced re-incarceration by 29%. (Recidivism Rates) b) A 2007 study of incarceration in Colorado found that recidivism rates of women who participated in vocational programs had a recidivism rate of 8.75%, those who completed their GED, 6.71%, and those who participated in neither a vocational or academic program, 26%. (Recidivism Rates) c) Another study in 2002 surveyed research in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Results indicted that educational programs cut recidivism from 49% to 20%. (Recidivism Rates) d) “National studies show,” write Keys and Jackson, “that college classes cut recidivism by 30% or more. That would make a good investment for state taxpayers.” e) According to the National Correctional Association, in a 2009 report, inmates who earn an AA/AS are 70% less likely to recidivate than those who did not complete a program; a GED, 25% less likely to recidivate; and those who earn a vocational certificate, 14.6% less likely to recidivate. (Education Newsletter 1) f) A recent U.S. Department of Justice report says that “Prison-based education is the single most effective tool for lowering recidivism. According to the National Institute of Justice Report to the U.S. Congress, prison education is far more effective at reducing recidivism than boot camps, shock incarceration or vocational training.” The report goes on to say that “Other studies sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Prisons find that . . . the more education programs successfully completed for each six months confirmed, the lower the recidivism rates. The exact figures indicating these inverse recidivism rates for degree recipients were: Associates (13.7%), Baccalaureates (5.6%), Masters (0%). (Education Newsletter II) Adult Basic Education in Idaho From the Career &Technical Education website (www.cte.idaho.gov) Idaho offers Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs, leading to completion of the General Education Development (GED), free of charge. ABE Learning Centers are located at each of Idaho’s colleges and universities. Adult Basic Education Adult Basic Education (ABE) is a federally funded program that provides basic skills instruction to adults who fall below a 12th grade level in reading, writing, or math. We also provide instruction in English as a Second Language for students who cannot speak, read, or write the English language. Because we are federally funded under the Workforce Investment Act, we offer our classes to students free of charge.