https://www.pbs.org/show/college-behind-bars/college behind bars, about a prisoner college education programme ran by Bard. executive produced by ken burns.
a bunch of long-term cons reading shakespeare and aeschylus and taking liberal arts. it's good shit.
Rand corp estimated that getting a prisoner a college education saves 5x as much money in the justice system in the long-run. the state spends as much in a year on keeping a prisoner behind bars as an entire harvard undergraduate education. per year.
some incredibly eloquent people, prisoners and prison staff/academics.
it's very interesting seeing how flipping them into a classroom environment, student roles, collaboration etc. completely resocializes them. people who would be gangbangers, violent and disruptive, etc, in the ordinary prison population, perhaps not even able to talk because of gang affiliations or beefs or whatever, then become super-respectful co-students and help each other with their work. it makes them far better at seeing the point in society and their stake/investment in it.
it's not all a happy picture, of course. but verrrrrry interesting.
Last edited by uziq (2020-06-17 12:21:37)