“Why should higher education be given to inmates who may never leave prison?”

This question was posed to me, a non-lifer; here’s what I believe:
By Lamarr K. Mainor, Sr.
The infectious nature of higher education has a ripple effect, meaning that the more people you educate, the more likelihood that those educated will encourage and assist others in educating themselves. We should offer higher education to inmates who may never leave prison because, systematically, it is the lifer who has the most persuasive influence over the percentage of the population who will get out of prison. It is the lifer who has completed the most time, experienced the most lessons, and gained the most wisdom through these experiences. It is the lifer that the young, first time inmate looks to for guidance on how to live and, ultimately, survive in prison. So it is the lifer who should not only have the answers on how to do the time, but also the solutions for how to grow, mature, change, and stay out of prison. Higher education can equip an individual with these tools. To educate, by definition, is to develop, mentally and morally, by providing information, instruction, and discipline. Imagine the effect it could have on the entire community within the prison if this core of the prison population were highly educated. Not only would it empower inmates to give back to society from inside the prison walls by mentoring at-risk youth and assisting in victim-offender groups, but these lifers would be the tutors and counselors who help those who are going home. I know all this to be true because I was mentored and influenced by a lifer who had been highly educated, and I am forever changed because the lifer I looked to had the knowledge within to pass along to me. It is my honor to continue this ripple effect!

Reprinted from Prison University Project March 2008 newsletter. To support or join this cause please visit
http://www.prisonuniversityproject.org/index.html
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Comments

By jennifer michaels on October 1st, 2009 at 8:23 pm

i happen 2 google an old friend of mine lamarr mainor. to my suprise i see all these articles he wrote himself and him in a cap and gown. i am so happy and so proud of him and the eduction he has gotten while hes been away. i support everything you are doing to give theses men a better future upon there release.