High-quality education opportunities for justice-involved learners have demonstrated a strong economic return – a study produced by the RAND Corporation found that, for every one dollar invested in prison education programs, there is a four to five dollar reduction in incarceration costs during the first three years post-release. Despite these benefits, only seven states are currently opting to allocate the maximum allowable amount of state leadership fund to improving outcomes for this population of learners. This brief, featuring research from Richard Crosby and Janelle Washington, offers actionable recommendations on improving program quality and increasing opportunities for justice-involved learners to access high-quality CTE programs.
This resource is part of the Building a Diverse Leadership Pipeline: Elevating Knowledge series that provides policy recommendations for state leaders featuring original research by select members of the inaugural cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. Through highlighting this work and positioning the findings as potential action steps for the field, this series aspires to elevate a new and more demographically diverse generation of CTE leaders.
