InmateTutoring
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InmateTutoringSummary
From postings to the NIFL Focus on Basics electronic list nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov in December, 2004
Discussion Topic 5: Inmates tutoring inmates: negotiating with prisons to enable inmates to tutor others
From: Janet_Isserlis@brown.edu
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1240] Re:Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 14, 2004 6:26:22 PM EST
Anne, and maybe others
Could you please say more about the process of negotiation that you entered into with the prison to enable inmates to tutor others?
I'm in the process of working with one inmate to co-facilitate a writing group at a women's facility here in Rhode Island. When I told the deputy warden that eventually I hope that my student / co-facilitator could take over the group herself, I was told that that wouldn't be allowed as she would then have a leadership role (or words to that effect). The message was that she'd have something that others wouldn't.
It's too soon to tell where our project will go, but I'm curious to know if you, or others working in corrections, have had similar kinds of issues in setting up peer-run programs.
thanks,
Janet Isserlis
From: b.garner4@verizon.net
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1241] Re:Inmates as tutors
Date: December 14, 2004 7:05:07 PM EST
In perusing the LINCS Corrections collections while preparing for the "FOB" on corrections, I read one article about a program that has an inmate who tutors others: "F. Juarez is an inmate at CCI who believes in helping others. He is also the secretary of the Men's Advisory Committee, a certified Laubach Literacy Tutor Trainer and a speaker at the ceremony" (the ceremony described in the article, which appeared in the Tehachapi News. Written by Joy Gray Mazzola, it appeared on Vol. 25 # 32. Here is the link: http://www.tehachapinews.com/11242004/edu.html You might contact that program.
Barb Garner
From: woods@ncia.net
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1242] Re:Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 15, 2004 12:02:31 AM EST
Janet Isserlis wrote:
Could you please say more about the process of negotiation that you entered into with the prison to enable inmates to tutor others? ...I was told that that wouldn't be allowed...
Contact the Corrections Education Association, in particular Steve Steurer and the Maryland DOC. I attended a conference a few years ago in which they presented an overview of their peer tutoring program for basic reading skills. Everything about it was excellent and I have emulated many aspects of their program in my own situation within the VT prison system. The curriculum used to train the tutors in reading instruction was very sound. Maybe they can provide some insight into how to present your ideas.
I do have a few thoughts on your situation based upon my own experience.Using inmates as tutors can present difficulties if the tutoring program is poorly planned or not carefully monitored. We have occasionally had problems when rules were violated in the learning center and the tutor found himself in a difficult position of having to violate the "prison code" in order to enforce the rules.
Most prisons give inmates the opportunity to work at various facility jobs. Could your tutoring positions be made into facility jobs, which would then fall under the supervison rules of all other facility jobs?
As I am sure you know, there is no better way to learn something than to teach it. Maybe you could call your tutors students and they are receiving education in teaching reading, and living as responsible members of the community. The benefits your reading students get are incidental. Sometimes if you package an idea in terms of the educational benefits the recipients will receive, it goes down better.
Check out the RI Corrections mission statement and goals. If they say anything about preparing offenders for success outside of prison, developing employment skills, or assisting offenders in becoming positive contributors to society, I think you will have some powerful arguments in favor of the tutor program you want to create.
The traditions in prison management sometimes lead to the perception that to maintain order and security, one must tightly control everything in the prison environment. There are different approaches such as unit management that seek to give inmates more control over their lives and direct participation in their prison communities. Such approaches actually strive to create inmate leaders. When people have a degree of control in their lives, prison security is actually enhanced.
Good Luck,
Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont
From: spierson@crec.org
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1243] Re:Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 15, 2004 10:14:49 AM EST
Two facilities in CT have implemented External Diploma Program. There are former graduates of the program who help current students working toward their External diplomas. We have several success stories. Let me know if you would like an article or two.
Susan Pierson, Trainer
Adult Training & Development Network
CREC
111 Charter Oak Ave.
Hartford, CT 06106
860-524-4024
Fax: 860-524-4050
spierson@crec.org
From: sfgraf@clan.lib.nv.us
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1244] RE: Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 15, 2004 7:53:50 PM EST
Ms Garner,
Nevada has had some interesting corrections education efforts. In the early 1990s a group of Vietnam Veteran, incarcerated, contacted the Nevada Laubach trainer and embarked upon a peer tutoring project that lasted for several years. A Federal grant two or three years ago provided staff for the Education Consultant to provide classroom instruction. The grant ended last year and currently Nevada provides no funding for corrections educational programming, except through adult high school diploma services.
In 2003 an LSTA grant from the State Library provided funding for a demonstration project BEHIND BARS: A family literacy project based on work done by Even Start in Florida.
I would be happy to write up something about out demonstration project if you would like.
Susan
Nevada Literacy Coalition
From: Wrmuth@aol.com
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1245] Re:Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 15, 2004 8:26:01 PM EST
Janet –
In the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), the role of inmate tutors has had its share of controversies. Although I am a strong advocate of inmate tutor programs, they do come with potential risks. For example, inmates with lower-literacy abilities may resist taking risks in front of other inmates and tutors may be placed in untenable positions of authority when staff are not around. In other cases, inmate tutors may need extensive mentoring to develop patience, non-directive coaching style, confidence. (I am sure you are well aware of these issues.)
Here are a couple strategies that might help you communicate the value of the program, and the controls you have in place, to prison management:
(1) Use a tutor development program that has outside certification. In the FBOP, at least one of our prisons has a Dept of Labor approved apprenticeship program for inmate tutors. Well trained tutors are better able to manage classes and may be able to use the certificate to get a job in adult education after release.
(2) Is it possible to have some staff coverage during the time the inmate tutors are teaching (e.g., a floating staff supervisor)? In FBOP, we run hundreds of (voluntary) inmate-taught adult continuing education (ACE) programs. Typically the classes run in the evening with one staff member overseeing 5 or more ACE classes.
Let me know if you want discuss further. Good luck!
Bill Muth
Education Administrator, FBOP
bmuth@bop.gov
From: anne.murr@DRAKE.EDU
Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1246] Re:Focus on Basics on Correctional Education
Date: December 16, 2004 5:27:38 PM EST
Janet,
You had asked about our process of initiating the inmate tutoring program in the women's correctional facility. Since Iowa prisons have lost all $$$ for basic literacy due to state budget cuts, the staff there welcomed our very needed service. We did not have to "make our case".
And Bill, we have taken the time to give the inmate tutors adequate training AND systematic instructional materials. They will be also be mentored throughout their tutoring experience. The tutors will meet in a large open room to reduce security concerns. They will do one-to-one tutoring, not group instruction, which is more manageable for a novice tutor.
Anne Murr
Drake University Adult Literacy Center
Des Moines, IA
6-09-05
Bill Hunt
In the State of Florida, inmate peer tutor programs are being launched officially. The problem of inmate control is overcome by the fact that a teacher is placed as coordinator. Tutors may then work in several classroom under the coordination of the teacher assigned. These program are obviously being tried in camps where the state does not wish to spend the funds to facilitate full education programs with teacher directed classrooms. The quality of the instruction will likely be less professional but still useful if carefully coordinated by the directing teacher.
7-20-05
David J. Rosen
Here's a description of a Minnesota inmate tutoring program from an article at http://www.stillwatergazette.com/story.asp?cat=NEW&story=6867
"At the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, about 20 tutors help prisoners sound out vowels and read aloud twice a week.
But the tutors aren’t aspiring teachers or even prison staff members — they’re inmates themselves.
With morning and afternoon classes that can reach 60 inmates, it’s important to have peers help teach and provide a “human touch,” said Helen Jaeb, Literacy One instructor at MCF-Stillwater in Bayport.
Before inmates can assist with classroom lessons, the prospective tutors go through two days of training by a representative from the Minnesota Literacy Council. The training is tailored for the prison environment, Jaeb said.
Like those who work at the prison crafting tables and chairs or repairing different types of vehicles, the tutors’ job at the prison is to help other inmates with schooling.
Tutors must have either a high school diploma or General Equivalency Degree (GED), read at a 12th-grade level and be able to do 12th-grade level math...."
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