January continues to be Higher Education month, and the folks over at Education from the Inside Out are doing an excellent job promoting higher learning for all (including the incarcerated) through their campaign of everyday people sharing why education has been so important to them. Soon, we here at PGRI will be offering up our own voices to this common goal, in the form of letters petitioning our state representatives for Pell Grant reinstatement.
I have read the letters that inmates of ToCI have written for our cause, and they are full of passion. Sometimes they desperately call out for help; occasionally, they are even angry--but in all cases, the emotion that leaps off the page is completely understandable. The missives speak of lost opportunities for self-improvement, the reduction of chances for success post-release, and loss of hope for balancing one's odds in life, when the opportunity for education is stripped away. These men feel they will be fighting even more of an uphill battle post-release, than they would if they were educated.
Several of the inmates I work with at ToCI have expressed how disappointing it was when Owens Community College ceased their Advanced Job Training program at the institution, which gave many of them hope for future employment. At this point, their only options for intellectual advancement or job skills beyond acquiring a GED is to learn computer repair. We must offer our incarcerated more opportunities than this!
As soon as I can get clearance to post some of these letters, I will. I expect you will be as moved by them as I have been.
And to piggy-back on EIO's efforts, think about how has education been important and integral to your life. Shouldn't these reasons apply to America's incarcerated, as well? After all, education should be a human right, not a privilege.
No comments:
Post a Comment