Incarcerated students are more likely than their nonincarcerated peers to have reading problems. Teachers in correctional facilities are faced with many challenges when attempting to help these students. Technology assisted instruction offers teachers hope in assisting these students to better achieve.

The prisoner constituency is one of the most excluded in society. Addressing recidivism requires amongst other considerations, an enabling of these individuals to fulfil rehabilitative intent. The article argues that this necessitates an educational discourse and methodology that is embedded in concepts of emancipation and empowerment, where…

Since the late 1960s, politicians and policymakers have talked tough on crime and have passed tough laws to build prisons and to prescribe lengthy sentences for the criminally convicted. In the past five years, however, public attention has focused on a criminal justice issue to which politicians and other public officials previously paid little…

Although HIV risk reduction interventions and family programs are crucial elements of the rehabilitation process for women offenders, these programs have operated in isolation from each other. HIV interventions for women offenders have not attended to family relationships, and family programs for women offenders have not focused on HIV-related…

The purpose of this article is to illustrate a number of the deficiencies that currently exist in our understanding of women's participation in prison education, and to offer alternative methods to reduce such deficiencies. Through a review of empirical studies that examine the conditions of women's prisons and two trend studies examining women's…

Novice prison teachers experience confusion and disorientation--culture shock--when they go to teach in prison because teaching and prison cultures collide. The stages of acculturation associated with culture shock are predictable and so are the identities and experiences of teachers who are positioned by the cultural dynamics of prison teaching.…

If correctional education aims to transform individuals and bring about change, we need to consider the whole person who comes with human needs, emotions and attitudes. In order to expand our approach, alternative programs should be explored. A somewhat unusual but very promising approach to address offenders' human needs is the use of animals in …

This paper describes the "Think Exit at Entry" program that has become the guiding principle for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The Georgia DJJ believes that the transition process begins the day the youth enters the system and continues well after release from the institution. Literature points the need for transition…

Adjudicated youth face tentative futures upon release from secure care settings. Their fate is often dependent upon the existence of quality aftercare programs emphasizing effective, integrated transition services to help them reintegrate successfully. The goal in developing transition plans for youth exiting detention is to reduce the likelihood…

This article explains and analyzes the practical application of the Socratic method in the context of inmate education, and identifies core critical thinking elements that emerge from four transcribed Socratic discussions with prison inmates. The paper starts with a detailed examination of the stages of the Socratic method as practiced by the…

The compulsion and capacity for self-expression in penal institutions can be witnessed through the endless production of such creations as wall murals, graffiti, effigies, adornments, decorative envelopes, and tattoos. The intent of this paper is to examine the self-directed expressive endeavors of male residents at a county jail. The examples…

The authors used model-based cluster analysis to identify subtypes of criminal psychopaths on the basis of differences in personality structure. Participants included 96 male prisoners diagnosed as psychopathic, using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991). Personality was assessed using the brief form of the Multidimensional…

The outrage over revelations of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison has faded from public discourse, but a number of questions remain unanswered. This paper criticizes official rationalizations offered for the abuse. We make the case that these abuses are systemic, resulting from dehumanization of the enemy and the long reliance on and…

Prison suicide rates are increasing. The impact of witnessing a suicide or how many people do so is unknown. The aim of this study was to find how many young people detained in a Young Offenders' Institution (YOI) have had contact with another's suicide attempt and to test for association between this and own self-harming behaviour. A…

This article presents an interview with poet Helen Frost. Frost talked about how poetry can help at-risk children. She also related the challenges she faced when she wrote her latest book titled "The Braid."