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Genuine education reform is based on the premise that every young person deserves access to high-quality education. Although federal law guarantees the right to education to all, incarcerated youth are often disregarded. However, efforts to build robust education programs for young people in California juvenile detention facilities have received a boost, according to 2023 reports by The Imprint and EdSource.
An education budget trailer to the California state budget for 2023–24 included funding for higher education programs for incarcerated youth and greater oversight of educational institutions in juvenile detention facilities, Jeremy Loudenback and Sara Tiano reported for The Imprint in July 2023. Katie Bliss, the California higher education coordinator at the Youth Law Center, described the state’s investment of $80 million for education programs serving incarcerated youth as “nationally historic.”
The state committed funding to support education for incarcerated youth amidst uncertainty about the direction of its troubled juvenile justice system. In June 2023, California closed the last of its eleven Division of Juvenile Justice facilities, which will be replaced by what the Los Angeles Times described as “an array of programs devised by probation departments in California’s 58 counties.” As Betty Márquez Rosales reported for EdSource, the 2023–24 budget consequently allocated funds to county offices of education to support juvenile court schools and alternative education schools.
The budget includes a number of accountability measures for court and community schools, including assurances from community colleges, California State University, and the University of California, that juveniles with high school diplomas or a California high school equivalency have access to public postsecondary academic and career technical education courses, independent evaluation of county court and community schools, and annual reporting of data regarding justice-involved youth.
Research supports the value of providing education to incarcerated individuals. For example, a 2019 analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice concluded that postsecondary education in prison increases employment and earnings for formerly incarcerated people and reduces recidivism rates, which the Vera study estimated could reduce taxpayer spending on reincarceration by more than $365 million per year.
Funding for public education in California is often deemed newsworthy by corporate and independent news outlets. Nevertheless, investments in education specifically for the state’s incarcerated youth have received little to no coverage by establishment news outlets. Coverage from independent outlets such as The Imprint and EdSource are rare but welcome exceptions to this pattern of limited news coverage.
Jeremy Loudenback and Sara Tiano, “California Invests in Education for Incarcerated Youth,” The Imprint, July 7, 2023.
Betty Márquez Rosales, “California’s Most Vulnerable Students May Be Seeing Increased Funding Soon,” EdSource, June 27, 2023.
Student Researchers: Raeghan Brousseau, Amara Padula, Tara Shea, and Natasha Tykulsky (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Faculty Evaluators: Allison Butler and Jeewon Chon (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
More/Source: https://www.projectcensored.org/california-education-incarcerated-youth/