Corrections_Today_July_August_2019_Vol.84_No.4

Communications & Publications

Bookshelf

represent just some of the input brought to the table over the course of these explorations. Robinson, the current executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, was previously the chief state education officer in Florida and then in Virginia. Smith is a policy analyst at the Council of State Governments Justice Center and was previously the manager of external affairs at AEI. In addition to the capable leadership they brought to this project, they together authored an introduction, as well as a concluding statement, which might be described as a call to action. the current “hot topic” in correctional education, and because Pell grants support post-secondary education, it is no surprise that post-secondary education receives a disproportionate amount of attention in this publication. Because providing federal Pell grants to those incarcerated is

been political. Fortunately, criminal justice reform and particularly improved prisoner reentry services have captured imaginations on both ends of the political spectrum, as we saw recently with the enactment of the First Step Act. A joint foreword by high profile public policy figures on the right (Newt Gingrich) and on the left (Van Jones) reflects the possibility of bipartisan support. Their forward includes these words: “As two leaders from different philosophical and ideological poles, we can agree that empowering people in prison through greater access to quality educational opportunities is a worthy effort to increase public safety, strengthen our democratic institutions, and grow our economy.” (p. viii) The various essays published as chapters in “Education for Liberation” move the conversation forward from general support for improved and expanded educational opportunities to in-depth considerations of various opportunities and challenges associated with these offerings. In their introduction, Robinson and Smith describe their processes to engage stakeholders to visit correctional programs, to understand the history of education in correctional settings, to hear the voices of program participants, to identify innovations, to better understand obstacles, and ultimately, to call out significant opportunities to advance this field. Because providing federal Pell grants to those incarcerated is the current “hot topic” in correctional

Education for Liberation: The Politics of Promise and Reform Inside and Beyond America’s Prisons Edited by Gerard Robinson and Elizabeth English Smith Rowman & Littlefield (2019), 187 pp. Reviewed by John

Linton, retired director, Office of Correctional Education, U.S. Department of Education in Washington D.C.

The publication of “Education for Liberation” is a capstone for the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) recent activities focused on education in U.S. corrections. Gerard Robinson and Elizabeth English Smith led this work and jointly edited this book, bringing together a variety of advocates, scholars, program providers, researchers and program participants for exchanges of information and perspectives on education behind bars. The nine topical chapters plus the one “student voices” chapter in this volume

Policy considerations pertaining to the provision of educational opportunities in prisons have often

68 — July/August 2019 Corrections Today