Studies in Illinois, Florida, Alabama and New York found that adult inmates engaged in academic education had lower criminal involvement, less recidivism, higher employment and more likelihood of continuing their education once they were released. The more education people have and the more literate they become, the less likely they are to commit crimes. It was this indisputable fact that prompted the Legislature to approve the Prisoner Literacy Act, which requires the Department of Corrections to provide literacy programs in every prison, with the goal of raising the reading skills of every inmate to a ninth-grade level by the time they are paroled. Clearly the law is being ignored. Teacher vacancy rates in the prisons are at all-time highs.
Class sizes are enormous.
Sen. Richard Polanco's SB 1845 would create a new 15-member Correctional Education Board with a superintendent appointed jointly by the Legislature, the governor, director of the CDC, chancellors of the University of California, California State University and California community colleges. The purpose of the bill is to create a structure that can rebuild educational opportunities in prison and thereby improve public safety. Historically, when the prison system has been squeezed for money, education has been sacrificed . The goal of the Polanco bill is to create an educational institution within the prison that wardens can't ignore, an educational institution that, as the Little Hoover Commission said in its 1998 report on state prisons, is committed to protecting the public beyond the prison gate. The Polanco bill was approved by the Senate with large bipartisan support, and won equally strong backing in the Assembly.