"A mind is a terrible thing to waste," went the old tagline for the United Negro College Fund. It dates me a bit, I realize, even to remember those long-ago TV commercials.
The truth of the statement, however, remains unalterably true. Indeed, it is truer than ever, given how closely tied job prospects have become to educational attainment.
For that reason, one of the nation's most prominent law enforcement officers has become the champion for putting in place programs for inmates to get a better education. As NPR recently reported, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca in instituting an Education-Based Incarceration Initiative to promote intellectual development among prisoners in his 160,000-inmate jail system.
The program is now in a beta phase, with about 2,000 inmates testing an ambitious curriculum. The areas of instruction range from traditional subjects like reading, writing, and science to life skills and decision-making. The instruction is intended to help inmates progess to more adult levels of thinking, in which they make better choices and commit fewer new crimes.
Jail is, admittedly, a rather unlikely setting for a renewed emphasis on education. For one thing, jail stays tend to be quite short compared to prison sentences. But Baca clearly believes that improved education has to start somewhere, if we are ever to make real progress in reducing the recidivism rate.
As NPR said in its clever headline, the sheriff is attempting to teach inmates to get out of jail. Not by physical escape, but by an education that is the key to the future.
Showing posts with label inmates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inmates. Show all posts
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Prisoners' Right to Marry
The governor of New Hampshire signed legislation yesterday making same-sex marriage legal there, beginning on January 1, 2010. This brings the number of states to have done so to six — seven, if California is included. Approximately 18,000 same-sex couples were married in California before voters repealed the law permitting them by approving Proposition 8 in November, and those marriages remain valid.
Prominent attorney David Boies appeared on the Charlie Rose talk show in the evening to outline the status of a constitutional challenge to Prop. 8. He has filed the case and expects a ruling at the district court level to come possibly as early as this summer.
In laying out the rationale for an equal protection challenge to Prop. 8, Boies pointed to well established Supreme Court precedents holding that the right to marry is a fundamental right. The most widely known is still Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967), striking down racial restrictions on marriage.
Another example of the right to marry as a fundamental right, Boies said, is prisoners’ right to marry. He did not get into the details of that case with Charlie Rose, but I looked it up. In Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S. Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed2d 64 (1987), the Supreme Court upheld a prisoner’s right to marry, even if the marriage is to another prisoner. The litigation arose in a correctional facility in Missouri housing both male and female inmates.
What will happen when an inmate in a state allowing same-sex marriage wants to marry someone of the same sex? California has already given some thought to the issue, as NPR reported last summer.
To borrow a line from Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’
Prominent attorney David Boies appeared on the Charlie Rose talk show in the evening to outline the status of a constitutional challenge to Prop. 8. He has filed the case and expects a ruling at the district court level to come possibly as early as this summer.
In laying out the rationale for an equal protection challenge to Prop. 8, Boies pointed to well established Supreme Court precedents holding that the right to marry is a fundamental right. The most widely known is still Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967), striking down racial restrictions on marriage.
Another example of the right to marry as a fundamental right, Boies said, is prisoners’ right to marry. He did not get into the details of that case with Charlie Rose, but I looked it up. In Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S. Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed2d 64 (1987), the Supreme Court upheld a prisoner’s right to marry, even if the marriage is to another prisoner. The litigation arose in a correctional facility in Missouri housing both male and female inmates.
What will happen when an inmate in a state allowing same-sex marriage wants to marry someone of the same sex? California has already given some thought to the issue, as NPR reported last summer.
To borrow a line from Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’
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