Prison education programs as factors in inmate recidivism rates

The purposes of this study were to determine the effects of participation and completion of the CCSD prison education program by incarcerated male students on subsequent rates of recidivism; and to determine if there were any significant differences at the.05 level between 18 different dependent variables in inmate behavior. It was hypothesized that students who were program persisters/completers would have higher success rates once having achieved parole/expiration, and would have lower rates of recidivism. Students who were noncompleters/nonpersisters would have higher recidivism rates upon achieving parole/expiration. The variables were: (1) Current age; (2) Ethnicity; (3) Age at first admission; (4) Prior number of arrests (Police Contacts); (5) Nevada Department of Prisons admission status; (6) Court ordered adjudicated sentence length; (7) Juvenile delinquency contact record; (8) Number of prior probation failures Rules and Order; (9) Number of prior probation failures Rearrest; (10) Number of prior parole failures Rules and Order; (11) Number of prior parole failures Rearrest; (12) Psychological Evaluation: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Special Scales range from{dollar}{dollar}\eqalign{&\rm A\ \ A{-}\ B{+}\ B\ \ B{-}\ C{+}\ C\ \ C{-}\ D{+}\ D\ \ D{-}\ F\cr&1\ \ \ 2\ \ \ \ 3\ \ \ \ 4\ \ \ \ 5\ \ \ 6\ \ \ 7\ \ \ 8\ \ \ \ 9\ \ \ 10\ \ 11\ \ 12;\cr}{dollar}{dollar}(13) Nevada Department of Prison\u27s Intake Reading Grade Level test scores (WRAT) range 0000 to 1400 (month and year); (14) Highest grade level achieved at time of DOP intake range 00 to 16; (15) Drug and Alcohol factor in crime commission range: single usage 01 through 09; multiple usage 10 through 16; (16) Total number of cumulative felony convictions; (17) Incarcerated with enrollment option; (18) Severity of crime; The sample for the study was composed of 1,840 CCSD prison students of various ethnic backgrounds, educational levels and ages, out of which 757 inmates were non-randomly tracked. Recidivism rates were used to gage the success or failure of the students. The data was analyzed to test the following null hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between recidivism and the above listed variables at the.05 level of significance; A chi square test of independence was used to test statistical significance of the variables stated above. A T test was applied to categories within the variables to test for statistical significance of proportions within different categories of the independent variables