Corrections_Today_July_August_2019_Vol.84_No.4

Communications & Publications

A second chapter specifically focusing on college in prison is authored by Andrea Cantora, a criminologist on faculty at the University of Baltimore and the founding director of a college in prison program operating in a Maryland state prison. She describes the current “Second Chance Pell” experimental sites initiative. This program dates back to 2015 when the Obama Administration pushed forward to partially restore Pell grant access even without Congressional action. Her descriptions of the provisions of this program and the process of implementation are informed by her own experience implementing a site. Her discussion includes an important dose of reality. She recounts the practical and specific challenges incumbent on both incarcerated students and prison college program staff to negotiate a federal student aid application system designed to serve the non-incarcerated. Cantora’s participation in the Pell aid program if and when Congress authorizes full Pell restoration. Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, offers a substantial and challenging chapter review on whether reentry programs are effective, and how we know it. As the leader of the “What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse,” funded under provisions of the Second Chance Act, Director La Vigne is analysis should inform efforts to facilitate incarcerated students’

in a unique position to instruct us on the evaluation challenges and opportunities pertaining to correctional treatment programs and reentry. This information is well worth the attention of professionals and policy makers concerned with correctional treatment. La Vigne takes this opportunity to hold up a new model of evaluation which, in contrast to the “gold standard” in program evaluation, she calls the “platinum standard.” Only studies including a rigorous process evaluation are eligible to reach this standard. She points out that the results of research can only inform policy and practice if we know what the treatment truly consisted of. In other words, not what treatment the project was intended to provide but what program staff actually did, and what treatment the subjects actually experienced. Lacking this element of reality, the conclusions of seemingly strong evaluations may be misleading. Too many potential students are “doing time” when they could, should and want to be investing their prison time in skill development.

in the community of advocates for effective reentry policies and

programs. Heaton provides a straight- forward explanation of why reentrants need assistance in transitioning to post-release employment. He also describes successful efforts to provide this support. The discussion of work compliments other discussions of how education can be effective in developing the human capital of incarcerated citizens, and in preparing them for the challenges of reentry. Although there is so much to commend in this volume, it is still important to consider what has not been included. A particularly unfortunate oversight is the absence of a discussion of the educational profile of the U.S. prison population. Also lacking is a related discussion of the extent to which existing in-prison programs address the identified needs of the population. This gap is surprising, especially since relatively current and comprehensive information on the educational profile of state and federal prisoners is currently available. The “prison study” in the federal Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics commissioned survey of adult skills was a major investment that is under appreciated. This survey is a component of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC). 1 The PIACC prison study included both face-to-face interviews and individual skills assessments of a national sample of prisoners.

“Education for Liberation” includes a notable chapter on the importance of work in reentry success authored by Will Heaton, a prominent voice

70 — July/August 2019 Corrections Today