Christopher Zoukis's Blog - Posts Tagged "education"

The Wyoming Department of Corrections is proud to have the second lowest recidivism rate in the nation, 38% below the national average. Three out of four offenders released from Wyoming’s prisons stay out. Department of Corrections officials believe their prison education programs are, to a large extent, responsible for their success.

Wyoming’s lawless Wild West days are firmly in the past. The state’s crime rates are well below national averages. Violent crimes are 43% below national rates, and property crimes 22% lower. Burglaries are just half the national average, and robberies a tenth.

As a consequence, the state’s prison population is small at about 2,200. Yet, despite the low crime and impressive re-incarceration rates for released offenders, the prison population has grown by almost a third since 2000. In fact over the decade to 2010, the rate by which Wyoming’s prison population increased was double that for the rest of the country. It now appears to have leveled off.

As has happened across the country, funding for public services, including prisons, has been cut. Betty Abbott, Education Programs Manager for the Department of Corrections recognizes that education and programming usually bear the brunt of such cuts. Despite now being underfunded, she must do the best with what is available.

Fortunately, Wyoming’s prison population is better educated than most. While nationally about 40% of state prisoners have neither a high school diploma nor a GED, the majority of Wyoming’s prisoners do have one or the other. Those who do not must take mandatory GED classes. About 20% of current Wyoming inmates obtained their GED while in prison.

Earning a GED while inside is certainly worth the effort. Over many decades, studies have consistently shown that obtaining a GED in prison is associated with a lowered risk of returning to prison. The RAND Corporation’s highly influential meta-analysis of over fifty prior studies, published in 2013, suggests that the reduction is around 30%.

The benefits of earning a GED don’t end there though. Studies have also shown that post-incarceration employment rates can be up to 50% higher, and wages increase too.

For those inmates who already have their high school diploma or GED, more advanced educational opportunities are available. Eastern Wyoming College, for example, offers prisoners an advanced computer applications course, complete with college credits.

The same RAND meta-analysis demonstrated that on average, participation in college education while in prison reduced an inmate’s likelihood of returning to prison by 51%.

It is regrettable that Ms. Abbott, and her peers across the country, must manage the education of our prisoners with dwindling resources. As the RAND Corporation observed, crime prevention is more cost-effective than building prisons. And of all crime prevention methods, education is the most cost-effective. So cost-effective, in fact, that on average, a dollar spent on correctional education brings around five dollars in direct savings from avoided incarceration costs, as fewer released offenders return to prison. Add in the avoided losses to new victims of crime, contributions to the economy from the increased productivity and consumer spending of successfully re-integrated ex-offenders, not to mention the taxes they pay, and that savings can easily be tripled.

With its impressively low re-incarceration rate, Wyoming’s prison and probation systems are clearly doing better than most. In scrambling for savings, however, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that money spent on prison education is a fantastic investment. Short term savings from cutting prison education programs now will likely turn out to be an expensive folly in the long term. It is to be hoped that Wyoming can stay at the top of the recidivism league table, and lead the way for other states to follow.

On Friday, Dec. 5 Christopher Zoukis discussed the benefits of education for prisoners and its direct effects on reducing recividism with Canadian radio station Toronto AM 640.

You can hear the whole interview here: https://soundcloud.com/am640/mcarthur...

You can also read it in the transcript below:

Christopher Zoukis is an expert in the field of correctional education, he’s been incarcerated for the past eight years in Virginia, he’s an advocate, an active advocate for prison education, a noted legal commentator and practitioner, and author of several books including his most recent one called, “College for Convicts”. It examines how recidivisms drops when those convicted are afforded the opportunity to educate themselves, and Christopher Zoukis is on the line and joins us here this afternoon on Talk Radio in Toronto AM640.

Jeff McArthur: “Chris, how are you sir?”

Chris Zoukis: “I’m very good, and you?”

JM: “I’m okay, thanks for joining us and I have to admit off the top, this is a first for me. 20 years of broadcasting and we’re doing an interview live from jail today.”

CZ: “Live from the Federal Bureau of prisons.”

JM: “Can you give us kind of an idea of what a day in the life is like for you?” You’re in medium security? Correct?”

CZ:: “I am. I’m in medium security. My mornings usually start around 6 in the morning when they call chow and ah from that point Monday through Friday I usually work out until 10ish. Um and then they really revolve around the meals and around work. (background automatic female voice “You are calling a federal prison”) Um lots of time in my cell, lots of time reading and writing. “

JM: “What was that in the middle?”

CZ: “They do that twice in each phone call. It’s just to remind you that in fact you are talking to a federal prisoner.”

JM: “And is this conversation likely being monitored right now?”

CZ: “It certainly is.”

JM: “Alright and you’re a big promoter of, as I mentioned in the intro of education. Ah how did you get involved in this? Did it kind of provide a salvation for you, for your time in prison?”

CZ: “You know it really did. When I came to prison. First of all when I came to prison I was a senior in high school. Um so I actually didn't graduate high school. Um but when I came to prison I earned a GED. Ah and I wanted to continue my education so I ended up finishing my high school diploma through a correspondence program. Well after that I wanted to go to college, but there weren’t any resources around. I didn’t know of any programs that were available. There certainly wasn’t any funding for anything so I started digging and with support of my family I was able to compile a mini research library of a correspondence catalogues and through that I was able to start taking baby steps and I first took a paralegal course and as the years went on I took other courses. I took some theoriological courses and now I’m in college through correspondence.”

JM: “Well, you know I was jokingly going to say I hope you studied the law so you could find a way to get out of there but….”

CZ: “That is the first thing I started on. I really learned how to read. I read a little bit on the street but I wasn’t a big fan of it. I really got into the habit of reading by doing legal work.”

JM: “Ok, so is. From that have you developed a love for the law in a strange way? Or has that kind of been a jumping off point into other studies?

CZ: “ I think it’s been a jumping off point, but I think the law is what, for prisoners is what confines us and what dictates our lives. And it’s also what frees us too. So I think that the law is something that all prisoners can have a significant interest in but not necessarily rule our time.”

JM: “Right. So do you think most prisoners if they do get hooked on education, and is as you suggested a great thing for them. Is that what they naturally gravitate to, first and foremost?

CZ: “I think once a prisoner gets a taste of education they want to continue it, but often there aren’t any opportunities so they get frustrated and then they stop. So, for example a lot of students here. They earn their GED and they want to continue on with something more but there’s nothing there. There’s no money to go any place. There’s no person here to help them figure out what they options are. I think for the people who actually dig into it a bit and actually figure out about correspondences and if they get a passion for something and I think that they have so much time on their hands that they’re willing to put in the time and effort to see it through.”

JM: “ Joined on the line by Christopher Zoukis, his book is called “College for Convicts”, he joins us live this afternoon from FCC Petersburgh a medium security prison in Virginia

“And Chris, what is it about education that, and I know you’ve examined this, those that have been convicted they are less likely to reoffend if they take the opportunity to educate themselves behind bars. Why is that? Does education give them or provide them hope?”

CZ: “Absolutely! Now, when we look at the research we see that with each additional level of education obtained the recidivism rate goes down accordingly. So for example, prisoners who have some high school tend to at a recidivism rate of 54.6 %. Once they have quality vocational training that number drops to about 30 %, with an associates degree 13.7 %, with a bachelor’s degree 5.6% and out of Hudson Link which is a great program out of New York they show a 0% recidivism rate for anyone who earns a master’s degree. The proof is the pudding. There are hundreds of studies dating back to 1930 that all agree that education reduces recidivism. No one disagrees with this.”

JM: “So does it kind of come back to if you see jail/prison as punishment or rehabilitation or maybe a combination of both. And do you find, I guess do you find, particularly in the American system, since you’re the one you’re incarcerated in. Is there too much emphasis on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation?”

CZ: “Absolutely! I think that victims of crime have a right to be angry. That people have committed crimes against them. They’re completely justified in that and people who violate the law should be punished. On the other hand once they are punished. Going to prison is a punishment. It's not the start of the punishment. But once they’re in prison we need to provide people with the tools to succeed. Most people in the American prison/complex all the different systems. They tend to have the education of less than 6th grade. What can a sixth grader do? What kind of person who’s 30 – 40 years old who has a sixth grade reading level and mathematic skills, do? Nothing. So what do they do? They go out they sell drugs. They commit petty crimes. They just don’t know better. And once they get incarcerated we need to give them the tools they need to succeed in the future. They need an education. They need a GED to start with. Then they need some kind of training so when they get out they have a marketable skill. That way they can support themselves and they can support their families.

JM: “So I guess there’s, I don’t know a public education campaign if you will that, a battle for the hearts and minds on the outside that think that these prisoners just deserve to be punished. But what about those on the inside, Chris? And did you talk to your fellow inmates and tried to convince them that education is the way, the path to a better life? What’s their reaction?”

CZ: “You know most of them already know it. They come to me because they want to know. They don’t come to me because they don’t know if they should educate themselves. They come to me because they want to know how. Now the bureau of justice statistics says that between 95 and 97 % of all American prisoners will one day be released. That means that there’s around 650,000 people a year being released from custody. Of those 67 – 80 % are re-arrested within 3 – 5 years. The system is failing. People want their future neighbors to be successful, to not commit crimes against them. They need to teach them something. They need to educate them. So people in prison, know education is their path and their key they just don’t have a way a mechanism of obtaining it.

JM: “For those who aren’t convinced, I think it’s a pretty easy argument you can make that this is a great savings for tax payers. Invest in convicts now, they are less likely as you say to reoffend and they won’t be a burden on the system or society and costing taxpayers. As a matter of fact they might become productive members of society and tax payers.”

CZ: “You know absolutely. It costs 30 around $25 – 55,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner depending upon what system their in. It costs around $1,400 a year to incarcerate them. I mean correctional education is easily two times as cost effective as incarceration. The United States spends 70 billion dollars a year on their prisons. It’s ridiculous! That’s money that should be going to community colleges. They should be paying more into programs. There are people in our country and in Canada who need help. I mean this is just money that we’re taking away from the social support programs that people rely on.

JM: “So finally Chris, how much longer have you got left on your prison term?”

CZ: “I have four more years.”

JM: “Alright, and after that four years what do you hope to do?

CZ: “I would like open a consulting group which helps people who are getting ready to go into prison. Prepare them for prison. And once they’re in prison help them to get through the trouble spots. And on the tail end, when they get ready to get out, help them figure out how to get their life back together. I mean no one has experience in these things you know. No white collar criminal says ‘Oh well I’m ready to prison..” And on the flip side people who don’t have a whole lot of experience being successful outside of prison. They don’t know how to be successful, they don’t how to get back into society. I want to find a way to help people on both ends of the spectrum.”

JM: “Well listen, I think it’s a good thing for the convicts, a good thing for society as a whole there’s no sense just punishing people and not rehabilitating them as well. Interesting discussion. Again the book is called “College for Convicts”, Christopher Zoukis. Chris, thanks so much, I really appreciate you joining us.”

CZ: “Well, thank you for having me.”

He was buried in the family cemetery near his chateau, which is actually a castle in the center of an opulent park. Construction of the castle began in 1477. It is located on the borders of Perigord and Bordelais, in the Dordogne part of France.

A tall white floriated cross, or ‘cross botone’ marked the grave. For reasons unknown, his remains were transferred from the family cemetery to Saint Antoine Church in Bordeaux. Eventually, Saint Antoine Church was torn down, and the property developed into the Convent des Feuillants. The convent, too, was later demolished.

Supposedly, somewhere in there, his remains were moved once again. This time to the Musee Aquitaine, Faculte des Lettres, at the University of Bordeaux. Whether or not this is true is open to argument. I suspect it is not, and that his bones lie unmarked and forgotten near the extinct Saint Antoine Church, whose precise location has also been forgotten.

And presumably his heart, pickled and bottled like so much fruit, is in the church of Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, which is located near the family chateau. Which is a nice thought, because it means at least a part of him ended up right back where he started. But this, too, is doubtful. As no one knows when his heart was moved, or by whom.

All that to say this: no one really knows where he’s buried. Which is sad, for he created a totally new way of writing – the essay.

His name was Michel Eyquen de Montaigne-Delecroix. Born on the family estate, the Chateau de Montaigne, which was purchased with money from a vast fortune made in herring. The Montaignes were secret Jews, who converted to Roman Catholicism to avoid exile and probably extermination. Privately, they continued to worship as Jews.

Michel, immediately after his birth, was sent to live with a local peasant family. He lived in a squalid cottage and ate slop.

This was his father’s idea.

His father was a liberal with definite opinions on how to educate his son. This initial stage, which lasted until he was three years old, was to make him aware of the realities of the common man’s existence.

When he was three, his father brought him home to the chateau for the next stage of his education, which was to learn to speak Latin and only Latin. The boy was not allowed to even hear French being spoken. During this stage of his education Michel received private, unstructured tutoring by a German doctor. No books were used and nothing was mandatory – he could do whatever he felt like doing.

When he turned six, never having heard or spoken French, Michel was delivered to the College de Guyenne, an exclusive boarding school in Bordeaux. Michel proved to be a prodigy, soaking up French and everything else like a sponge. After graduation at the age of thirteen rather than the normal eighteen, given the choice, he studied law in Toulouse. Shortly after graduation from law school, he received an appointment to the high court in Bordeaux, where he socialized with the liberal writer Etienne de la Boetie, who was not only his best friend, but more vitally, his soul-mate. There is no implication that theirs was a homoerotic relationship.

At the age of thirty-two, he “made himself fall in love” and married Francoise de La Chassaigne. They had six daughters, of whom only one survived past the age of ten. Later, in his writings, he stated that he believed marriage was a necessary institution. But that he, personally, found marriage to be like the chains of a criminal, limiting his freedom.

This viewpoint, undoubtedly, had its origins in the freedom he enjoyed in his father’s system of educating him.

Fascinated by literature, Michel decided at his father’s request to translate Raymond Sebond’s book, Natural Theology, from Latin into French. After an effort of four years, his translation was published, garnering much critical acclaim.

When his father died, Michel moved into the family chateau. Now with more money than he knew what to do with, he decided to retire. He was thirty-eight years old. And from this point on, he became almost reclusive. Hidden in his library, surrounded by his books, he began writing his Essays, which word means ‘to try.’ He was trying something new, trying a new style of writing.

Seven years later, at the age of forty-five, Michel felt an excruciating pain in his lower back. The diagnosis was kidney stones. For an entire year, he visited spas, hot springs, doctors and quacks in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, trying to find a remedy for his affliction, which grew worse and worse, often incapacitating him for days.

During all this, he never stopped writing. His Essays continued, and he published the record of his travels throughout Europe as he searched for health.

Finally, four years before his death, Montaigne, while in Paris, was introduced to Marie de Gournay, who had read his Essays, finding in them refreshment for her mind and soul. She was brilliant, beautiful and twenty-two years old. Montaigne took her under his wing as his fille d’alliance, which meant he embraced her as an adopted daughter, not in any legal sense, but in spirit. There is little doubt that Montaigne embraced her physical body as well.

He moved into her home, using her as his secretary, dictating pages of the ongoing volumes of Essays. His will made her his literary executrix.

He finally succumbed to kidney failure at the age of fifty-nine.

The central theme of Montaigne’s Essays was himself. And only someone educated in such an unorthodox manner – with freedom – would have felt free enough to disregard the prevalent ‘rhetorical’ style of his day. Montaigne wrote about himself in a new style that was reflective of him.

Montaigne was discovering himself as he penned his words. He even warned his readers that “These are my humors and opinions; I offer them as what I believe, not what is to be believed.” In other words, Montaigne was not attempting to convince, convert or persuade anyone. He was simply expressing himself as he would in honest conversation with his friend La Boetie.

This new genre was quickly embraced by other writers because it freed their thoughts from the demanding structure of the indicative sentence. There are other moods: subjunctive, optative, and most importantly, the interrogative. Literary artists decided that asking themselves questions was healthy, even if they had no answers. For that’s what being human is – doubting, asking, seeking. And by stirring at the pot of interrogation, perhaps answers might float to the top of the stew.

Like the ugly duckling, whose education was freely informed and unstructured, and who grew into a gorgeous, noble swan, Montaigne, once he retired from the constraints of public life, spread his wings and was carried to the wonder of a new metamorphosis. Neither the ugly duckling nor Montaigne was arrogant, vain or elitist. Though both could easily have been – the duckling in his glory, Montaigne with his wealth.

Like Montaigne, the ugly duckling essayed – tried – and because of his trying he discovered more happiness than he could ever have hoped for. On his part, Montaigne kept trying to communicate the doubts, the opinions, the chattiness of his mind. He essayed because he needed to touch the mind of another human being. He needed a friend.

In the end, the ugly duckling tried because trying is innate to truth. And the truth was that he was a swan. Montaigne tried in his writing because trying is innate to human beings as they search for the truth.

And that’s probably the most remarkable thing about essays: they allow us to be human.

Prison education advocacy is coming from an unlikely country: Lebanon.

The country is generally only on America’s radar for its assistance in the conflict against ISIL and a fractured and complex internal political state. But despite the beleaguered state of the nation at the moment, the Minister has seen fit to prioritize the rehabilitation of prison populations.

This past week, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab announced his desire to see complete educational facilities integrated into the nation’s prisons. His comments came on the heels of a recent visit to a woman’s prison where he met women with women in the process of taking the first ever Life Sciences Baccalaureate exam hosted inside a prison. The visit formed part of a widespread initiative by the Minister to examine the state of education across the country.

Like so many of us involved in prison education, Bou Saab has realized how important education is to providing hope to inmates, and fostering their will to make a better life for themselves and their communities upon release. He noted that he would be discussing the building of education facilities within Lebanese prisons with the Minister of the Interior.

If a country as mired in conflict and political gridlock, with one of the most infamous prison systems in the world, can appreciate the role that prison education plays in contributing to a strong social and economic fabric, and prioritize it accordingly, what’s our excuse?