NCJ Number
94137
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1981) Pages: 421-438
Date Published
1981
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses how education can be used to persuade or enable the criminal to make different decisions in the future, decisions which will not lead to further criminal activity.
Abstract
The educational approach assumes that most prisoners are simply deficient in certain analytic problemsolving skills, interpersonal and social skills, and in ethical/moral development. Prison education must have two essential elements. It must first have a central concern of ethics or morality, and it must have as its primary aim the development of thought itself, the facilitation of critical thinking skills through an issue-oriented curriculum, the encouragement of logical argumentation, and consistently high expectations of its students. Descriptions of the model program developed by the University of Victoria at Matsqui Institution illustrate this approach. The program results in significantly different behavior. A total of 47 references are provided.