The coronavirus pandemic has upended education in schools across the country as many students have been forced to learn remotely, sometimes without access to reliable internet or adequate technology. These conditions have made it much harder for all students to effectively learn, but one population has been hit especially hard: young people taking classes inside prisons.
According to laws on the books in most states, young people learning inside juvenile facilities are entitled to the same quality of education as their non-incarcerated peers. But in practice, this is rarely the case. A 2019 report by Prison Policy Initiative noted that youth in detention centers often report receiving severely limited education services, including special education, GED preparation, and job training. In 2018, EducationWeek cited 2018 data from Bellwether Education Partners that found only 55% of students taking classes in juvenile-justice facilities have access to algebra II courses, as opposed to 92% of students in traditional high schools. In its report, EducationWeek also noted that approximately 6 out of 10 students who attend school in a juvenile facility will never re-enroll in school after release, according to data from the Federal Interagency Reentry Council. This is in part because many students struggle to get credit for the courses they take while incarcerated: A 2020 study by the Juvenile Law Center found that only about 9% of respondents surveyed said young people were able to earn credit for all the courses taken in detention facilities while attempting to re-enter a traditional school.
“Even before COVID, young people who were incarcerated had a number of educational challenges,” Nina Salomon, the program director at the Council of State Governments Justice Center, tells Teen Vogue. “These students often come into the system already behind educationally, and then they fall further behind because they don’t have access to rigorous curriculum or support while in custody.”
The pandemic has made these inequities more profound. According to a 2019 report from the Council of State Governments Justice Center, youth prison facilities in nine states did not allow young people to access the internet at the time, and access to remote learning seems to range from difficult to impossible. In some youth prison facilities, teachers have not only stopped coming in to teach, but students don't even have access to proper remote learning tools like Zoom. According to November 2020 reporting from The City, the 141 minors jailed throughout New York City at the time were only allowed to communicate with their instructor via text chat and couldn’t use other technology, such as Zoom or video chat, to communicate directly with teachers or ask questions. At some juvenile facilities, students are occasionally given tablets or laptops to complete their remote work, but this technology can sometimes be taken from students as punishment for “bad behavior," according to The City. In December, the publication reported that paper packets and text messages had similarly replaced in-person enrichment programs and high school classes for hundreds of 18- to 21-year-old students on New York City’s Rikers Island. Instead of being taught directly by an instructor, students received “packets of information” that, according to experts who spoke with Teen Vogue, were not always graded or customized for students based on age or grade level.
In a statement to Teen Vogue, a representative from the Department of Education said: “Our staff are delivering live, high-quality remote instruction to our students in detention and on Rikers Island. In detention, we have added audio for our students and we’re exploring the addition of video capabilities. In Rikers Island, we’re working actively to add video and audio capabilities at the same time that all high schools return for in person learning. We’ve worked closely with our agency partners to support students accessing their education during this crisis through expanded communication and educational opportunities, and we hope to soon be able to provide to provide safe and secure video conferencing and necessary in-person support.”
According to David Domenici, the executive director of BreakFree Education, the packet system is being used in several youth facilities across the country. “We know there are juvenile justice facilities where, for days or even weeks at a time, the only education has been poorly done packets,” he says. “The packets often aren’t individualized and they may not be graded, and students may have new packets delivered once every week or two with no feedback loop on their progress in learning the material.”
COVID-19 has affected education for incarcerated adults as well. Since the onset of the pandemic, many programs that offered college courses to incarcerated adults were halted or have gone virtual, according to a June report by Inside Higher Ed. This has presented a problem because, as in juvenile facilities, most adult prisons do not allow incarcerated people internet access.
Taylor Rogers, a graduate student at Northwestern University and a tutor with the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) in partnership with the Stateville prison, tells Teen Vogue that since the start of COVID-19, NPEP has shifted to correspondence tutoring rather than virtual learning. Once a week, a member from NPEP drops off coursework and tutoring materials at the prison, and then pick them up a few days later. “Despite our best efforts, there is no way to compensate for the lack of human contact, and instructors and tutors often work together to come up with creative ways we can try and foster better connection within these horrific circumstances,” Rogers says.
Research shows that offering higher-education programs in prison can reduce recidivism and save taxpayers money. It can also boost morale and provide incarcerated people with a break from the monotony and despair of life behind bars. Many activists are pushing for incarcerated students to have access to quality education while detained because they recognize that strong education will allow detainees to better reintegrate into society after they are released.
“This is a population we would consider the most vulnerable for education,” Salomon says. “Young people often enter youth facilities already behind in terms of grade level, or already having repeated a grade. Many are special education-identified or have other educational challenges. Putting these people in an environment where they are isolated and not getting the support they need just puts them at higher risk in falling further behind in school. We want to make sure these young people have access to quality education so that when they are released, they are equipped to get a good job, pursue higher education if they choose, and overall live more fulfilling lives.”
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