Does providing inmates with education improve postrelease outcomes? A meta-analysis of correctional education programs in the United States

Objectives

Our study addresses the question: Does providing inmates with education while incarcerated reduce their chances of recidivism and improve their postrelease employment prospects?

Methods

We aggregated 37 years of research (1980–2017) on correctional education and applied meta-analytic techniques. As the basis for our meta-analysis, we identified a total of 57 studies that used recidivism as an outcome and 21 studies that used employment as an outcome. We then applied random-effects regression across the effect sizes abstracted from each of these studies.

Findings

When focusing on studies with the highest caliber research designs, we found that inmates participating in correctional education programs were 28% less likely to recidivate when compared with inmates who did not participate in correctional education programs. However, we found that inmates receiving correctional education were as likely to obtain postrelease employment as inmates not receiving correctional education.

Conclusion

Our meta-analysis demonstrates the value in providing inmates with educational opportunities while they serve their sentences if the goal of the program is to reduce recidivism.

     

‘In Canada of all places’: national belonging and the lost Canadians

This paper explores the role of kinship and ethnicity in the designation of Canadian citizenship. Using the phenomenon of Lost Canadians – people whose citizenship status is ambiguous due to conflicting laws, unfamiliarity with requirements to maintain citizenship and quixotic enforcement of these requirements – the paper offers evidence for the kinship basis of a contemporary liberal democracy and reveals the degree to which a Canadian ethnic identity is operative in this settler society. But the objective of the analytical exercise is not to rest at the observation that Canadian nationalism is ethnic. Rather, by examining the ways in which the complex rules of Canadian citizenship define or exclude people from citizenship, we see how thoroughly rule-bound the status of national belonging really is. It thus might be observed that Canadian nationalism, indeed, all nationalisms, are civic since they rest on rules for belonging. Once we notice the rule-boundedness of belonging it becomes possible to disentangle these rules – kinship rules – from their connections to nature and biology and thus to appreciate their social character. From this vantage we might begin to think about alternative, and potentially more democratic, forms of belonging.     

Examining Empirical Evidence on Diversity Effects: How Useful Is Diversity Research for Public‐Sector Managers?

This article reviews the body of empirical research on work-related consequences of human diversity and presents an agenda for future investigations. Ideally, a synthesis of research findings to inform managing-for-diversity efforts should enable managers to interpret events in their own administrative contexts. Our assessment of the diversity literature suggests that managers are using largely untested assumptions as a basis for diversity policies, strategies, and actions. We call for greater contribution from public administration scholars to the body of research focusing on how human diversity can best be managed to produce positive results for individuals and their work organizations.     

Widening Participation and Higher Education

This article considers higher education 'widening participation' policy and practice, focusing upon attempts to widen access in relation to applicants from under-represented socio-economic groups and educational backgrounds. Some key United Kingdom approaches are described and discussed in the light of the concept of affirmative action. The article also examines the legal support for widening participation.