WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education, which under the Trump administration has advocated transferring more power to states on various reform issues, hosted a convening Monday at which state and local leaders shared success stories about initiatives to educate inmates.
Upwards of 100 people representing education, labor, criminal justice, public policy and other sectors attended “Rethinking Correctional and Reentry Education: A Second Chance at Learning” at the department, with more watching live online as panel presenters and other speakers described innovative, employer-responsive approaches in locales across the nation.
The White House’s support of educational and other initiatives for returning citizens, such as proposing more than $500 million in next year’s budget to assist inmates – combined with various legislative actions such as Perkins V and the recently approved FIRST STEP Act – “make sense from a social, economic and moral perspective” because they reduce recidivism and help create productive citizens, “a plus for everyone,” deputy education secretary Dr. Mitchell Zais said in prepared remarks.
The president and education secretary Betsy DeVos “believe strongly in the power of redemption,” Zais said, and that funding from the federal level complements solutions and ideas from the people closest to the problem.
“We believe that local control unleashes innovation,” he said.
Michigan’s Vocational Village initiative, established in 2015 to begin equipping inmates to transition to employment, expanded on-premises vocational education by adding a skilled-trades training center for moderate- and high-risk offenders, said Heidi E. Washington, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The program is shaped by market demands in a state with a skilled trades gap that reflects a national shortage.
