Education vs. Incarceration: Which is More Effective?

Introduction 

The United States has the highest rates of incarceration in the world, with over 2.2 million people in jails and prisons. The number of people in incarceration has been on the rise years after year due to changes in judicial system laws and policies. The current total number of people in incarceration indicates a 500 percent increase over the total number of people in incarceration four decades ago. The high numbers of people in incarceration pose a high fiscal burden to state and taxpayers. There is evidence that mass incarceration has not been effective in minimizing prison or jail readmission. The American education system is one of the best globally ( Ewert, Sykes and Pettit, 2014) . The education system is characterized by federal and state laws that ensure there is an equal education opportunity for all and mandatory education for children between the ages of five years to eighteen years – depending on the state. At high school and college education levels, the government has developed favorable education financing schemes, including student loans, to ensure all American students have an equal opportunity to pursue college and university education. Studies have established that most people in incarceration have low education levels since most of them dropped out of school. Statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) indicate that in 2018, only 8 percent of all people incarcerated in America had attended some college-level education ( Crawley and Hirschfield, 2018) . At what level of education do most people who later find themselves incarcerated drop out of school? This is an important question to address so as to develop specific policy recommendations to minimize the level of school dropout at that established level of education. 

Statement of the Problem 

Incarceration has become a politically charged topic in America, and when discussed, the concept of education arises. Many studies have been done on education and incarceration and established an existing correlation between education standards and incarceration. What remains unclear is with the federal and states effort to make education compulsory to all children between the age of five and six to the age of sixteen or eighteen depending on the state, a high number of people in incarceration have low levels of education. With the revelation from past studies that most people in incarceration dropped out of the education system, there is need to establish the modal level of education where most people in incarceration drop out of the education system so as to develop policy recommendations to the department of education to minimize high dropout levels at that specific level of education. 

Aim of the Study 

This study seeks to establish the modal school dropout education level for most people incarcerated to develop policy recommendations to minimize the dropout level and reduce incarceration. 

Research Question 

The paper is guided by the research question: 

What is the modal school dropout education level for most people incarcerated? 

Literature Review 

Education and incarceration in America are two intertwined topics that correlate to one another. A study by Cramer, Gonzalez and Pellegrini-Lafont (2014), established that the states with more prisoners per 100,000 people had a below the US average education level of a high school diploma while states with the lowest prison population had attained the US average education level of a high school diploma. In the study, Cramer, Gonzalez and Pellegrini-Lafont compared states with high imprisonment rates like Arkansas, Florida, Arizona, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The researcher noted that the education levels of all the states with a high imprisonment rate were below the US average of 85% of the population with a high school diploma. The research further evaluated the average education levels for states with lowest incarceration rates like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Maine and established that all the states had an average education level above the below the US average of 85% of the population with a high school diploma. 

Education is empowering, and the exposure to high levels of education leads to higher empowerment levels in society. Education provides people with the ability to attain a financially stable life and avoid falling prey to criminal behaviors often associated with poverty and other social-economic issues ( De Giorgi, 2015) . Therefore, if a person attains high levels of education and training, he is less likely to get involved in crime and become incarcerated within the prison system. In today's American society, education plays a major role in determining whether or not they can acquire a job. One of the minimum requirements for any job in America is a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma ( Bell, 2016) . Without either of the two, one is less likely to obtain a formal job in America; hence may struggle to afford rent, buy food and cater for other personal and family needs, hence they may be tempted to get involved in crime to support his livelihood. 

In a study by Crawley and Hirschfield (2018), it was established that over 10 percent of all dropouts in the American education system are in jails or prisons. The study stratified the different levels of education levels the incarcerated individuals had, and only 3 percent of the prison population were high school dropouts. There was also a noted difference between teen peers of those who graduated high school and those who dropped out. Teens that dropped out of school at high school level were over three times more likely to be incarcerated in life compared to their peers who graduated high school. However, there was a difference in the high school dropout statistics between the federal and state prisons. It was established that only 59 percent of federal incarceration inmates were high school dropouts, while 75 percent of the state prison inmates were high school dropouts. 

Is it possible for the government to further invest in education and specifically the education levels that most people drop school and later find themselves in incarceration? Research has shown that education and incarceration go together hand and hand and have a high fiscal burden to state and taxpayers. According to the Annual determination of the average cost of prison, the average cost of incarceration for a single Federal inmate was $34,704.12 ($94.82 per day) in FY 2016 and $36,299.25 ($99.45 per day) in FY 2017(Federal Register, 2018). Today, the estimated total cost to incarcerate an individual is $36,000 a year. According to Powell (2019), the average college cost and tuition fees in the years 2019-2020 at an in-state public college is at $10,116. While the average cost of inmate incarceration is approximately $36,000. Comparing the cost of college to the cost of incarceration, it takes the cost of incarcerating a single inmate to educate three college students for a year. Thus, it cost 2/3 less to educate students at a college level than incarcerate them after dropping school. Thus, since the government can meet the costs of mass incarceration, it can also meet the cost of educating students to levels that will lower the levels of incarceration in the future. 

Methodology 

Research Design 

The study shall adopt a descriptive survey design. Through a survey, the researcher will be able to collect information to describe a population that is too large to get information from each subject. A descriptive study is preferred for this study for it provides an accurate account of the subjects' education levels and stages they dropped out of the education system. 

Study Location 

The study shall be conducted in thirteen different states, namely Arkansas, Florida, Arizona, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Maine. 

Study Population 

The study population shall consist of jail superintendents in Federal, state, and local incarceration centers in the state. A total of 130 superintendents will be recruited for the study 10 from each state. The superintendents will be selected using a random sampling method to provide information on the education levels of all inmates admitted into their jail or prison in the last two months. The total of study participants shall be 130 people, but the size of data collected on the education levels of all inmates shall depend on the number of inmates admitted in the 130 selected jails or prisons. 

Research Instrument 

The data collection instrument for the study shall be a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire shall have guiding questions that shall enable the prison or jail superintendents to provide the education levels of the inmates, pointing exactly the level of education that they dropped out of school. The superintendents will obtain the information from the inmate admission registers that contains all information about the inmates. 

Validity and Reliability of the Instrument 

Before the instrument is used for the study, it shall be reviewed to ensure it measures the construct under investigation. The Cronbach alpha coefficient shall be used to test the questionnaire's reliability. 

Data Collection procedure 

The questionnaire shall be mailed to the superintendent's emails and will have 10 working days to complete and resend the feedback to the researcher. However, before sending the questionnaires to the superintendents and informed consent shall be requested so that they participate voluntarily in the study. 

Data Analysis 

The collected data shall be checked for completeness and then coded in the computer for easy analysis. The data shall then be analyzed using computer-aided statistical software to establish the modal level of education where most people incarcerated drop the education system. 

References 

Bell, C. (2016). Special needs under siege: From classrooms to incarceration. Sociology Compass , 10 (8), 698-705. 

Cramer, E. D., Gonzalez, L., & Pellegrini-Lafont, C. (2014). From classmates to inmates: An integrated approach to break the school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education , 47 (4), 461-475. 

Crawley, K., & Hirschfield, P. (2018). Examining the school-to-prison pipeline metaphor. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice . 

De Giorgi, A. (2015). Five theses on mass incarceration. Social Justice , 42 (2 (140), 5-30. 

Ewert, S., Sykes, B. L., & Pettit, B. (2014). The degree of disadvantage: Incarceration and inequality in education. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 651 (1), 24-43. 

Federal Register. (2018). Annual Determination of average cost of Prison. Retrieved https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/30/2018-09062/annual-determination-of-average-cost-of-incarceration 

Powell, F. (2019). See the Average college tuition in 2019-2020. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/paying-for-college-infographic