Analyzing For-Profit Colleges and Universities that Offer Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates to Inmates Incarcerated in American Correctional Facilities

Abstract

Postsecondary education for inmates is championed as an important path to rehabilitation and a factor minimizing recidivism. Over the past four decades, several for-profit colleges and universities have offered degree-based programs to inmates at American correctional facilities. This article reviews the history of these educational institutions, the typical inmates who enroll in these kinds of courses, the appeals that these businesses make to convicts, the channels for their advertisements, and the experiences of inmates who have enrolled and (sometimes) graduated from these courses. This study takes both an historical and an autoethnographic approach to its subject matter. The authors conclude by speculating on appropriate policy responses to for-profit postsecondary education institutions that provide this kind of service to inmates, and alternatives that may be better methods for college degree instruction and delivery in jails and prisons.

KEYWORDS:

• correctional programming
• postsecondary prison programs
• prison college programs
• prison education programs
• rehabilitation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to Creasie Finney Hairston, Joseph Strickland, and the anonymous reviewers for comments.

Notes

This could be explained by a number of reasons including the possibility that they may believe that their complaints would not be taken seriously.

Interview with John Linton, Office of Correctional Education, Division of Adult and Vocational Education, U.S. Department of Education, January 21, 2014.

The PSCE workshop was created because a significant number of inmates regularly inquired about college courses. Unfortunately, most of them had little to no understanding regarding the intricacies of a college education. The workshop provided a safe environment wherein inmates felt comfortable asking questions apropos to their educational goals.

Anecdotally, all three authors have noticed that most inmates who are interested in higher education often see it as means to eventually go into business for themselves.

Although, because of its focus on illegal drug use, High Times is banned in many correctional facilities, it may still make its way in because of lax screening procedures in the mailroom.