UC Berkeley has been beaten around the head and shoulders in the last few years, partly taking external abuse from politicians and voters who are busy brewing their seed corn into beer and drinking it, but also from our own bad behavior . But really good things happen here as well: at least one of these students, I realize, was in my class last fall. Yay for them, and yay for us!
BevWM says
Very good story, and I hope that opportunities like this can be made available (and known to be available) to the prison population. And I sure hope that, after an accomplishment like this, those who have graduated have the same access to careers that they would if they hadn't been imprisoned first.
JamesWimberley says
Recidivism is usually reported as a bad-news story. But given the lack of effort in the US penal system on rehabilitation, we should perhaps be surprised that something like 40% of released convicts are not rearrested. Some of course are still criminals, but cleverer. This cannot be true of all, and many do manage to go straight, with little help. Wikipedia claims the recidivism rate in the UK is 50%. It is most unlikely this is due to less efficient policing, so British prisons and parole officers are doing something better. 50% is still a low bar, but reaching it would mean a large reduction in American crime.