What Should Be Included in Adult Education Programs for the Incarcerated?
Adult education and literacy training for inmates should include the core basic skills of reading, writing, calculating, speaking, listening, and problem solving. Instruction should also focus on job skills and life skills. The goal of instruction should be to upgrade educational skills to enhance opportunities for employment and fulfilling individual potential. The Correctional Population Generally, the adult correctional population is poor, unskilled, and unemployed or underemployed. Approximately 49 percent of the Prison Population has not completed High School or a GED, compared with approximately 24 percent of the general population. • As of June 30, 1998 there were an estimated 1,210,034 adults incarcerated in State and Federal institutions. • As of June 30, 1998 there were an estimated 592,462 inmates held in the nations local jails. • As of July 1, 1998, there were an estimated 668 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. Residents, up from 292 at the year-end 1990. • As of year-end 199
