Prison Literacy: Implications for Program and Assessment Policy.

facilities for physical therapy; brought in the best artists andspeakers for weekly cultural programs; experimented continuouslyin special school programs for handicapped learnersincludingindividualized physician-prescribed diets and calisthenics; hiredonly the most qualified and best-trained, full-time teachers; startedthe first inmate newspaper in the U.S.; provided some post-releaseplacement services and several well-documented follow-up studies;and generally used the entire institutional programming effort tofurther educational aims. Brockway was a real professional as aprison educator (Gehring & Muth, 1985, p. 145-6).Wines, Brockway, and their growing alliance of prisonreformers formed the National Prison Association (later, AmericanCorrectional Association), and they held their first congress in1870, under the presidency of Judge Rutherford B. Hayes, inCincinnati. There, H. S. Tarbell enunciated the first principles ofeducation in prisons:To give to the inmates of our prisons higher thoughts,increased acquisitions, and desires for a better life, is theobject of the prison school....The most important elementin the whole arrangement is a suitable teacher....He mustbe a painstaking, consistent, steadfast man, of so muchcharacter and scholarship as to secure the respect andconfidence of the prisoners. There must be no sham, nomere assumption about him; for all shrewd observers ofmen and motives, of all lynx-eyed detectors of hum-bugand affectation, the inmates of our prisons are thesharpest. (Tarbell, 1870, p. 1940; cited in Wallack, 1939,pp. 7-8)The National Prison Association (NPA) set forth two ideals:each inmate's human individuality requires specialized attention,and each inmate's potential to become a good citizen ought to befostered. The NPA announced prison education to be a part of its"Declaration of Principles":Education is a vital force in the reformation of fallenmen and women. Its tendency is to quicken the intellect,inspire self-respect, excite to higher aims, and afford ahealthful substitute for low and vicious amusements.Education is, therefore, a matter of primary importancein prisons, and should be carried to the utmost extentconsistent with the other purposes of such institutions.(Tarbell, 1870)3624 TECHNICAL REPORT TR93-I