Do not INCREASE segregation! Do not DECREASE education!

I have a bone to pick with the union that represents prison guards in Michigan. The corrections officers have expressed concern regarding the dangerous increase in assaultive behavior, prisoner-on-prisoner, and prisoners-on-guards. 

In a two-page letter, recently sent to MODC Director Heidi Washington by union president Byron Osborn, he said: The prison pendulum has been stuck on the rehabilitation and education side of the system for too long and we, the officers, need it to start swinging back toward the safety and security side of the system.”  His solution to the problem: expanded segregation units and increased use of high security housing. The letter frames prolonged isolation and higher security placement as necessary for safety. 

I respond with two questions. 

    One, in a department of CORRECTIONS, how can there ever be too much emphasis on rehabilitation and education? And, two, how does increased torture reduce any problem in prison? 

Solitary confinement has been internationally recognized as causing serious psychological harm. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules, define prolonged solitary confinement as confinement for twenty-two hours or more per day without meaningful human contact lasting longer than fifteen consecutive days. The Mandela Rules labels the practice as torture or cruel and inhumane punishment. 

Now let’s talk about this education business. 

A recent announcement informed us that the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen and expand higher education in Michigan’s prisons! The grant will support the continued development of the Michigan Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (MiCHEP) and enable new educational opportunities for incarcerated students across the state. 

MDOC administrators deserve praise for our state’s prison education program! Listen to this. Michigan currently has 1,300 incarcerated college students! Besides that, 3,000 prospective students are on waiting lists! And, as of today, 14 Michigan colleges are offering degrees in our corrections facilities! 

Nationwide figures claim that prison education programs can reduce recidivism rates by up to 43%. Word from some of the local-area colleges and universities providing these services is that recidivism figures are near or at zero! 

We like this statement by our friends at Citizens for Prison Reform: “True safety in our prison systems isn’t created by isolation and segregation, it’s built through dignity, rehabilitation, and support. We deserve prison policies rooted in connection, accountability, and growth.” 

It’s no secret that some of Michigan’s corrections officers have opposed college education programs from the very beginning. Why should anything good be offered to anyone who is being punished by incarceration? 

We express the hope that our prison education system thrives and continues to grow! It’s working! And we’re willing to bet that assaultive behavior is not rampant among incarcerated college students or grads behind bars. 

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

― Nelson Mandela