Education as Crime Prevention

After a binge of prison construction, many state legislators are seeking to shift California’s focus to figuring out how to keep down the repeat offenses that have caused crowding in the first place.

Wednesday the Assembly is expected to approve a sound vehicle for change, SB 1845, by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). The bill, which would expand prison education programs and create a board to oversee them, is supported by a broad coalition ranging from prison guards to both liberal and conservative criminologists. They point out that while state law requires prisons to provide basic literacy programs for at least 60% of inmates who lack high school diplomas, only 30% of such inmates have access to the programs.

Polanco’s bill could reach Gov. Gray Davis’ desk as early as next week. Its supporters worry that the governor, who has in the last year vetoed bills that he sees as coddling criminals, will kill this one too. The governor may side with crime victims opposed to furthering the educational horizons of victimizers.

Polanco’s bill, however, would prevent crime, not coddle criminals. According to a 1993 report to Congress, the more education inmates have, the less likely they are to return to crime after being released. The Government Accounting Office study also found that literacy programs cut the recidivism rate among juveniles by an estimated 20%.

The taxpayer expense for prisons also argues for anything that reduces repeat incarcerations. A 1998 study by the state’s Little Hoover Commission showed that prison education programs in Illinois, Florida, Alabama and New York significantly lowered repeat offense rates and heightened employment. As UC Berkeley criminal justice professor Elliot Currie puts it, “There is a whole set of ideologies that says you can’t fix people. But every serious shred of evidence says that that is not true.”

California taxpayers spend on average $21,000 a year to imprison a convict, only to see more than half of those released return to prison. The sensible choice for the state is to educate prisoners. As Andy Hsia-Coron, a literacy instructor at Salinas Valley State Prison, says, “The issue is not tough on crime versus soft on crime, but smart versus stupid.”