Dolly Parton and Prison Education
Uncategorized February 26th, 2008Here’s a kind of different approach to talking about prison reading programs…
The Ionia Sentinel had an article entitled “Raising funds, literacy; Imagination Library” by Frank Konkel which discusses the importance of early childhood reading programs. The article discusses a library program run by The Dolly Parton Imagination Library which provides reading material for young readers. Now, you may be asking, “What does Dolly Parton and some elementary students have to do with prison education?” Well, I asked myself the same thing when Google Reader delivered this article to me. But what I discovered is that they truly are related.
One point the article makes is that increasing literacy in young children works as great preventative action in keeping them away from criminal activity.
“What I’ve seen in my 31 years, most children who act out are frustrated learners. In this day and age, you’ve got to have good reading skills, and if you don’t, then you’ll struggle,” Kjolhede said. “Even mathematics is reading intensive these days. If a teenager isn’t doing well in school they have a tendency to bail out because it’s easier to fail in the eye of a teenager than it is to go to class and get Es because they can’t read.”
Community members are backing the program, too. Both Judge Robert Sykes and Ionia County Sheriff Dwain Dennis said the judicial system and law enforcement are taking a proactive - rather than a reactive - stance on crime.
Clearly improving literacy at a young age can prevent criminal activity, and I think that much of the public would feel the same way too. Of course taxpayers and donors would give money to literacy programs for young children, especially if it can help prevent criminal activity.
So, to relate this story to my blog topic, perhaps children’s literacy programs could be used to boost funding for prison literacy and education programs. It may seem like a strange idea, to couple young children and inmates in a funding program, but I think it would help prison libraries get funding. This article gave me the idea of having something like a community-wide literacy fundraiser or event, similar to what was done at the Dolly Parton Library. The proceeds from such a fundraiser could then be dispersed throughout the community, including prison libraries.
As I discussed in my previous post, I could imagine it would be hard to get the public to donate a lot of money to prison education programs. But this article helps to show that its possible if it is marketed correctly. The article states that donors have no problem investing money because they see it as an investment with a high return.
Businesses, industries and corporations are all potential donators and could provide excellent long-term, tax-deductible funding solutions for the imagination library. What’s more, Kjolhede said, is that it’s an investment that makes a guaranteed return.
“Research shows that by investing in early childhood education, governments in partnership with private firms and non-profit foundations can reach extraordinarily high economic returns,” said Kjolhede. “The benefits are low risk and long-lived.”
When people feel that they are improving their community by increasing literacy, they are more willing to give. So why not show that literacy programs in prison and for children essentially have the same outcome: a better community. If literacy can prevent young people from resorting to crime, it seems logical to say that increased literacy can prevent prisoners from resorting to crime again.
Another benefit of combining the research on the benefits of literacy and a fundraiser for community-wide literacy is that it helps ease people’s tensions about giving money to a prison program. If they don’t like the idea of doing that, they can always feel good about the fact that their money is going to a number of places in the community (including the children) along with the prison.
Perhaps this different way of looking at donating to prison funding could yield more fruitful results when it comes to increasing prison education program budgets.
The whole article can be found here.
Raising funds, literacy: Imagination Library
By: Frank Konkel, Ionia Sentinel-Standard 2-25-08
February 26th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I think that attacking a social issue, like crime, at a young age is fantastic. As noted in the article, research draws a huge correlation between low literacy (or even education as a whole) to criminal activity. Why would we as a society want to spend millions of dollars a year punishing un-educated, illiterate criminals when we could just as easily spend that money on preventing the kids from ever becoming a criminal? I do realize that the idea of eliminating crime by teaching kids to read does indeed sound a little utopian in nature; but why not? Who can say definitively whether it will work or not? If the American society does try to redistribute funds from dealing with criminals to improving childhood literacy and it doesn’t actually reduce crime rates, what’s lost? The only thing “downfall” to the program would be an increased literacy rate among children. I personally can support any program that has a “downfall” or accidental outcome of higher literacy rates for kids. As for the last comment Mark makes about people not wanting to support criminals and prison programs, I don’t know how many people would be truly against reducing the number of prisoners in our already overflowing prison system. I for one would pay a percent more in taxes this year in the hopes of having less crime next year.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I really like this last post. I agree with Mark that it is important to help literacy rates, no matter what part of society. Too often in our world, we tend to turn our backs on offenders. Once someone has broken the law, it seems our system is set up to ensure their failure, to prevent them from overcoming. I have read Plato’s Republic. An ideal society will seek to bring back someone into the fold who has strayed. Rather than punish them and brand them for life, ostracizing them from society, a criminal should be taught the error of their ways. Rather than spending money on bigger fences and thicker bars, why not try to correct their behavior, why not try to better the individual and not punish him.
I agree that although people want to give to support and better their community, I can see where people might be leery of giving to a prison. “If literacy can prevent young people from resorting to crime, it seems logical to say that increased literacy can prevent prisoners from resorting to crime again.” I absolutely agree with this statement and feel it is the crux of the argument. I think that if you follow this line of reasoning out, you will be able to enable people to see the correlation. Essentially, for those giving, a better community is the main goal. Certainly a better community would come about with fewer repeat offenders. I can see where it would be a hard sell at first. I think that people will certainly agree with the first part of the argument concerning children. It makes sense to follow that line of thinking out and extend it to other aspects of life. If literacy helps kids stay away form crime, it will certainly help ex-offenders to do the same. I think it is about time that we look for ways to better all of our lives, criminals as well. Hopefully by doing so, we will help them to become positive citizens again. Isn’t that the overall goal of reform, to correct behavior?
April 15th, 2008 at 3:12 am
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