The council noted that the district's programs served 38 percent of the potential prison population, down from 46 percent in 1991. The reduction was due largely to the skyrocketing prison population. One is to increase education resources so inmates can spend more time in the classroom. Devoting more resources to the inmates most likely to benefit from an education would also help. Those with the greatest educational deficit tend to be older inmates, but they are less likely to return to prison.
Recidivism is impacted the most when teaching young offenders how to read.
Haynes says a new priority system will be in place by the end of the 2000-2001 school year. The system will include an inmate's age as a factor when deciding who is enrolled in classes first, with an emphasis on teaching inmates who are under 35 years of age. Shuffling resources to help those who need education the most is likely to reduce recidivism whether or not the state decides to spend more money to educate inmates. State policy makers always have a difficult task deciding how to best spend limited education resources, on inmate education or in the public schools. With the necessary electronic hardware in place, the WTC faculty began teaching inmates at the John Wallace and Dick Ware units in Colorado City.