What are the Educational Needs of Inmates?

Inmates have among the lowest academic skills and literacy rates of any segment of society. Upon completing their sentence, most inmates re-enter society no more skilled then when they entered the correctional facility. Data on inmate education attainment and achievement at time of incarceration or enrollment in correctional education could help policymakers understand the relative need for instruction and how these needs change over time. Specifically, data could answer the following policy questions:

• Education Attainment—highest level of education completed by an inmate.
  
  
• What types of degrees do inmates possess when incarcerated?
  
  
• How does inmates’ educational attainment compare to that of the general population?
  
  
• Have inmates’ educational attainment levels changed over time?
  
  
• Education Achievement—tested educational level of an inmate.
  
  
• What are the educational achievement levels of inmates at intake or upon first enrollment in correctional education?
  
  
• What are the average reading and math skills of inmates?
  
  
• How do inmates’ achievement levels correspond to their educational attainment levels?
  
  
• How do educational attainment levels differ across inmate groups?

Variables

To provide policymakers with a more comprehensive understanding of the educational deficits of the inmate population and the need for instruction, state administrators will need to standardize reporting around the following data elements:

Standardizing State Reporting

Although all states collect data on the educational needs of inmates, the type of data they collect and when they assess inmates’ skills vary. These differences make it difficult to compare statistics across states. To standardize reporting on education attainment and achievement:

1. States should consider collecting education attainment or achievement data on all entering inmates.
   
   At intake, many states ask inmates to report the highest level of education they have completed before incarceration, and some test all entering inmates to assess their educational skills. Others limit data collection to those participating in correctional education programs. To help policymakers understand the need for services among inmate populations, states should consider developing a common standard for how and when to document inmates’ skills. For example, states could agree to test all inmates at intake using their state-approved standardized assessment.
   
   
2. States should consider verifying inmates’ self-reported education attainment claims.
   
   State correctional administrators verify a relatively high percentage of inmates’ education attainment claims to ensure that inmates are placed in the appropriate courses and to prevent them from fraudulently enrolling in coursework to avoid other correctional assignments. Few states, however, verify the education status of inmates who report that they were dropouts. Moreover, some states have found that inmates’ education attainment claims frequently do not match the academic knowledge and skills they possess, as documented by standardized assessments. Using existing data, states could assess the extent to which verification improves data validity, the probable effect of relying on self-reported data in states that do not verify inmate claims, and the degree to which education attainment is a good indicator of an inmate’s knowledge and skills. States could then use this information to determine whether or not they should agree to verify inmates’ self-reported education attainment claims.