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Cuts to vocational ed for prisoners will increase recidivism, future incarceration costs

I can't tell if it's part of the $34 million already slated to be cut from the Windham School District, but Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman reports that key legislative leaders (Shapiro, Whitmire and Madden) want to eliminate funding for post-secondary education of inmates. Ward's story opens:For the past decade, Texas' imprisoned criminals have been allowed to work on college degrees and take vocational courses while behind bars.They're supposed to repay taxpayers once they get out. But of the more than 22,000 felon-students who are out of prison, only 6,630 have repaid the state in full, to the tune of $4.2 million, according to state records.The remaining 16,088 ex-convicts owe the state $9.5 million, the records show.Over the 10 years the program has been in effect, the state has spent $26...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).