Argumentative Essay: The Prison To College Pipeline

The Prison to College Pipeline Society forgets about the people who become incarcerated, who will be getting out eventually with possibly no life skills or education. There is no secure safety net for formerly imprisoned people to be successful once they get out. There are copious benefits to making programs to help the formerly incarcerated get into college. These benefits are not only for them but also for us as a whole. 95% of people will be released from prison out of the 600,000+ that are sentenced every year but prison is said to be a revolving door. People get released just to end up back in there. Roughly three-quarters of them will be sentenced to prison again within five years of being released, this leads to the first benefit.

Schooling within prisons helps reduce the amount of violence so well known in prisons. This creates a more safe and more comfortable environment for prison staff and prisoners. Schooling would also decrease our unemployment rate. In the United States alone we lose $60 billion for what could have been made by formerly incarcerated people if they were able to obtain jobs easier. Having an education would improve self-esteem, social skills, and involvement in their communities. These people have a right to have a voice no matter their past. In a quote John B. King Jr. made a very good point about ex-prisoners having rights, “We can create more inclusive, productive, and stronger communities by ensuring that students who have paid their debt to society are provided with the chance to pursue higher education.” Prisoners and formerly incarcerated people should be able to receive an education just like the rest of us but there are so many hurdles to get past for them to make it work. So many of them do not even have the real-world experience to be successful even with a full-time job. Depending on circumstances if they are on parole they have a set curfew which can make having a job and going to classes nearly impossible. They cannot be housed in dorms because of things like other college students having substances like marijuana on the same floor as them. If someone on their floor gets a fine for marijuana then that can be counted towards them as a violation of their probation or parole. This could send them back to prison. This is what feeds into the toxic cycle and why recidivism is so outrageously