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MAY/JUN 2012 ■ For Parents, Educators & Students ■ Education update11By Barbara MartinsonsCounting all the people in jail and on probationor parole you get over 7.2 million peopleunder the supervision of Corrections. This isone in every 31 U.S. adults [as of March 2009].Almost all current inmates will be released intime, and will re-enter their communities. Ofthese, roughly 2/3 will end up “recidivated,” rearrested,and some 40 percent to 60 percent willbe re-incarcerated, within three years after theirrelease (Langan and Levin, 2002). For many, theprison exit is a revolving door.Education for those in and those in transitionfrom prison is part of the solution to recidivism.The US Department of Justice released a studyin 1994 that is often cited. It showed that of275,000 prisoners released from prison in theearly 90s, 67.5 percent had been rearrested withinthree years after release, and 51.8 percent wereback in prison. There are also many studies ofHigh School Students Gather atthe United Nations to DiscussHuman ExploitationBy Zara JamshedAt the 36th annual UNIS-UN conference,high school students from the United NationsInternational School and 300 students fromaround the world congregated at the GeneralAssembly Hall of the United Nations to discussa topic of global relevance.This year’s topic was “Human Exploitation— Exposing the Unseen.” Many esteemedguests from various fields of study deliveredspeeches at the conference concerning themesof labor and sex trafficking, child soldiersand prostitution. Katherine Chon, cofounderof the Polaris Project, explained how shehad first become aware of human traffickingand how she became inspired to try andcombat this type of crime. Daniel Persico,vice president of KEMET, talked about howthe large manufacturing company was ableto extract necessary minerals and remain 100percent conflict free. Rachel Lloyd, ExecutiveDirector and Founder of GEMS, was once avictim of sex trafficking, but used her experienceafter she escaped to create an organizationin New York dedicated to helping youngwomen reintegrate into society.One remarkable feature about the conferenceis the active participation of the students.During the student panel, five studentsfrom various countries — Turkey, Argentina,Japan, India and the United States — gatheredto discuss how human exploitation affectsthat student’s country and society as well ashow governments handle these problems.Every panelist took a different angle to thewide problem of human exploitation. A studentfrom the United States focused on therepercussions of the enslavement of AfricanAmericans on his society while the studentHigher Education In and After Prisonthe impact of education in generaland college in particular onrecidivism. Each comes to thesame conclusion: recidivism isreduced when inmates attendschool/college while in prison,and that this reduction correlatesto the amount of schoolingcompleted.Perhaps the work on recidivismand college is bestsummed up by ProfessorMichelle Fine, DistinguishedProfessor of Psychology, UrbanEducation, and Women’sStudies at the Graduate Centerof the City University of New York in a reportcalled Changing Minds, written in collaborationwith incarcerated women at the BedfordHills Correctional Facility (BHCF). The studyfrom India focused on labor exploitation aswell as mail-order brides. Other studentsreferred to the status of prostitution in his orher home country or the popularity of pornography.This panel, followed by a questionand answer session with the entire populationof students allowed for great student involvement.The student debate was conducted underthe resolution statement, “RESOLVED, adultprostitution is a violation of the individual’shuman rights and should be deemed illegalby governments internationally.” The affirmativeteam from Japan argued how sexualencounters for profit are often nonconsensualand therefore violate an individual’s humanrights. However, the American students onthe negative side claimed that restricting theoccupation of a person is in itself deprivationof rights as well as that it was impossible forgovernments internationally to completelyabolish prostitution. After a lengthy discussion,the students voted the affirmative teamas the side that had presented most convincingly.The student film competition alloweddifferent schools to present their perspectivesin an engaging way. All of the films took differentperspectives on the theme of exploitationunique to their particular lifestyle.This year’s UNIS UN conference broughtto light an issue that students were not necessarilyaware about and gave them a plethoraof viewpoints and experiences to take backhome. Hopefully this type of awareness willdecrease ignorance and inspire youth to havean impact. #Zara Jamshed is a junior at the UnitedNations International School and an intern atEducation Update.found that college programsfor those in prison radicallyreduced recidivism rates from30 percent for women whodid not attend college while inprison to 7 percent for womenwho did. “College in prison is apowerful intervention and relativelycost effective,” accordingto Professor Fine.I would argue that dollarfor dollar, education is amore effective crime-fightingstrategy than re-incarceration.As the study mentionedabove demonstrates, providinginmates access to higher education is fiscally farmore efficient than incurring the high rates ofre-incarceration and diminished employability.Specifically, the report estimates savings of about$9 million for every 100 prisoners over a periodof four years. The Hudson Link college programHershensonMoralescontinued from page 17Although CUNY is not one of the twomain partners of the high-tech graduate sciencecampus to be built on Roosevelt Island,the university has ties to Cornell and Israel’sTechnion, and will be involved in various collaborativeefforts (the president of City Collegeis a Cornell graduate, and many science facultynationwide are CUNY graduates).It’s not all science, of course. Hershensonspeaks of the “renaissance” at CUNY in alldisciplines — new professional schools in thehumanities and social sciences, the Macaulaycontinued from page 17When Education Update caught up with Dr.Morales, he had just returned from the college’s11th annual Undergraduate Conferenceon Research, Scholarship and Performance andwas filled with admiration for what he saw andheard: over 170 poster presentations and performancesby more than 300 undergraduates whowere doing work more commonly associatedwith doctoral-level projects. Morales was quickto point out the “hard work and dedication ofthe college’s faculty who mentor our students,”adding that the “faculty play a central role inmentoring and guiding student research.”He was especially taken with posters describingresearch regarding the resurgence of turtlepopulations at the former Fresh Kills Landfill(which will soon be transformed into New YorkCity’s largest parkland), anti-Semitism and itsrelation to attitudes toward Israel, and breastcancer. Underscoring the president’s commitmentto inclusion was the presentation by theLittle Fe Supercomputer Team, comprised ofsome of CSI’s best students, technical staffand an exceptionally talented high school students.The diverse, interdisciplinary team hasserving the men at the Sing Sing CorrectionalFacility, for example, has been in place for 13years with almost zero percent recidivism.Higher education during the transition fromprison is equally crucial in preventing recidivism.College and Community Fellowship, an organizationthat helps women returning from prisonto make the transition and complete college andgraduate school degrees, guides students throughschool while promoting their leadership, selfadvocacy,artistic expression, civic participationand long term economic security. The recidivismrate of these women, over 13 years, is less than2 percent.Barbara Martinsons has taught college classesin sociology and American history at the CUNYGraduate School, at Marymount ManhattanCollege and at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility,Sing Sing Correctional Facility and at SullivanCounty Correctional Facility. She serves on theBoards of Hudson Link for Higher Education andCollege and Community Fellowship.Honors College and New Community College(NCC), (Scott Evenbeck, president) acrossfrom Bryant Park, scheduled to open thisSeptember. “Our community college populationis over 100,000; we’re bursting at theseams,” he said. NCC will be based on afull-time credit model called ASAP, whichthe Chancellor instituted five years ago toimprove community college graduation rates.Where “this reform engine” has already beenin place, the change has been dramatic, risingfrom 25 percent graduation in three years to 60percent. Hershenson would go on … withoutnotes … but even Mr. CUNY has to get backto business. #expertise in a broad range of computational science,mathematics and engineering and includesmembers with physical and developmental challenges.The team built a high performance, parallelprocessing supercomputer and is currentlydeveloping the software to power CUNY’s firstautonomous vehicle.President Morales has a B.A. in history (secondaryeducation) from SUNY and a Master’sand a Ph.D. in Education Administration andPolicy Studies from SUNY Albany. His over32 years in higher education were in seniorexecutive positions at SUNY, CUNY and theCalifornia State system. For sure, he knows thelarge urban university scene. In fact, he representsCUNY on many national boards and coalitionsthat focus on urban colleges and universities.He serves on the Executive Committees ofAASCU and HACU, and CUMU, and furtherkeeps the University on the national stage byparticipating on task forces that concern themselveswith college readiness and reducing thenumber of students entering college who needremediation — constant questions for collegesand universities around the country.He soon paused in the recital of data to note —a heartfelt expression — that he also truly lovesStaten Island. #