Presenter: Max Wilson – Family and Human Services
Co-Presenter(s): Hannah Volker
Faculty Mentor(s): Miriam
Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation
Study Purpose: Individuals who were formerly incarcerated have a more difficult time gaining employment than those who weren’t. Education programs offered in prisons are meant to help reintegrate individuals back into society once they are released. These programs include educational resources that cover basic education, GED certification, degree programs, trade training, and more. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between prison education or work programs and employment post incarceration.
Study Design: Using data from the Life Study, a dataset consisting of 411 individuals reentering their communities after incarceration, we conducted a Pearson’s Correlation to determine the correlation between any participation in prison education or work programs, and employment post incarceration.
Findings: Our findings suggest that there is no statistically significant correlation between participating in a prison education or work program and employment post incarceration.
Conclusion: These results may indicate that variables beyond education are involved in limiting the ability to find employment after serving one’s sentence. They could also indicate that the current way these programs are run is ineffective at preparing individuals for finding jobs. Future research should further examine this relationship and explore how to make prison education programs more effective at educating incarcerated individuals and preparing them for the workforce at reentry.