Prison Education

Catherine Schreiner
English Comp.
Prison Education

“If you treat an individual as he is he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become as he ought to be and could be” (Goethe). The heated debate over prison education is much like this. Do we educate our prisoners and treat them as what they ought to be and could be, or do we treat them as they are, criminals? Do we give them a chance to change, or assume they don’t want to change? Many feel that educating our prisoners is a human right. The other side to this debate is that it would cost too much money. There are two very important sides to this debate and we must weigh the pros and cons of both.
Brian Noad, who wrote Adult Education in NSW prisons, has pointed out that “it is a human right that prisoners should be allowed access to education” (2). Prisoners are still humans and although they have made mistakes they have righ...