prison growth vs. educational programming spending

The promise of a better tommorow: due to lack of funding, the percentage of inmates participating in education programs is declining, while the prison population continues to surge Black Issues in Higher Education – Find Articles:

According to the Urban Institute, roughly 94 percent of the money spent on prisons, which has exceeded $22 billion in recent years, has been earmarked for construction and maintenance. The remaining 6 percent has gone to prison-based education programs.

I’m not sure if this is the study that the above article references, but it says some stuff that is pretty interesting:

Despite a long-standing historical emphasis in American corrections on education and employment training (Piel 1998; Gaes et al. 1999), and despite the importance of prison programming for improving a range of outcomes upon release, levels of program participation have declined.  In 1991, 42 percent of soon-to-be-released prisoners (less than 12 months remaining) reported participating in education programs, compared with 35 percent in 1997 (figure 1).  Participation in vocational programs declined from 31 percent to 27 percent during this same period (Lynch and Sabol 2001).

One reason for these declines is the rapid and enormous growth in prisons.  Funding for correctional programs has not kept pace with population growth, which has led to a reduction in the number of programs aimed at helping prisoners, such as general literacy and higher education programs, in most state prison systems (Austin and Irwin 2001; Slambrouck 2000).  Higher education programming was all but eliminated by federal legislation enacted in 1994 (LoBuglio 2001).

The decrease in correctional programming also is attributable to an indirect effect of the rapid growth in prisons and the shuffling of prisoners from one facility to another.  This frequent transferring undermines the ability of prisons to implement effective educational and vocational programs.  At the same time, and precisely because of the frequent transferring of prisoners from one facility to another, greater attention and interest have been given to funding substance abuse and anger management programs. One reason is that these programs can be offered on a short-term basis and can be relatively inexpensive compared with educational or vocational training (LoBuglio 2001).

In summary, prison populations have grown significantly while funding for programs and participation rates have declined.  These changes are significant because, as the literature review below shows, educational and vocational training can contribute to a range of positive outcomes, including increased employment and reduced recidivism.

Woman Reports Zombie Attack

Mary posted this via MySpace regarding this past week’s zombie parade:

From The Herald-Times, Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Woman Reports Zombie Attack

Land Rover slimed with purple goo in front of Smallwood

By James Boyd

One woman’s car was covered with a purple gooey substance Monday night in an apparent zombie attack.

According to Bloomington police reports – yes, real police reports – a 20-year-old woman said she was in her Land Rover in the 400 block of North College Avenue just after 11 p.m., when a “group of zombies tried to attack her in the vehicle,” which was parked right in front of the Smallwood apartment complex.

The zombies covered part of the Land Rover in some type of purple goo, the report said.

She said the zombies put the unknown substance all over the car.

The group of ghouls then left the area.

She called 911 to report the incident, fearful that the purple substance would damage the paint on her vehicle, the report said.

Bloomington police officer Amy Romoser responded and managed to find approximately 36 people dressed as zombies, some of whom were covered in a purple substance.

However, the victim was unable to identify the specific zombies that vandalized her vehicle.

A damage estimate to the Land Rover was not available

Update: Birch has posted a flickr set of photos from the zombie parade.

Update: Another flickr set from the zombie parade.

new phone situation

So I’m in Slovakia right now.  I had this intention of making blog posts all across Europe, but the reality of things is that there just hasn’t been time.  But, I wanted to let people know en masse, that, due to a complicated sense of circumstances, my phone number or 812.369.8609 is going away.  If you want to reach me by phone when I get back from tour, please use my house phone at 812.331.0654.  The best way to get ahold of me though, will probably be e-mail at geoff at terrorware dot com.

“Horses and Bees” BFA Photography Group Show @ Sweet Hickory

“Horses and Bees” BFA Photography opening @ Sweet Hickory. 7-9 pm. free. | terrorware:

Horses and Bees BFA Photography Group Show
at Sweet Hickory Art & Music (317 E. 3rd St.)
Opening: Saturday, September 9, 7-9 PM
Runs through: October 6

Sweet Hickory Art & Music is excited to host Horses and Bees, a group photography show featuring the work of 13 artists in Indiana University’s BFA photography program. This show collects work completed throughout the artists’ involvement in the BFA program and shows a variety of techniques and intentions. The photos range from portraits to items that incorporate elements of sculpture or book arts. Across the show, one recognizes the struggle of these young artists to find a voice through the lenses of their cameras. The show opens with a reception on Saturday, September 9 from 7-9 PM and will run until October 6.

For more information about the Horses and Bees show, contact Asia Harman at aharman at indiana dot edu. For more information about Sweet Hickory Art and Music, please contact sweethickory at gmail dot com or Ryan Woods at 812.369.5284.

Photos from the show: http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00363.sized.jpg http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00373.sized.jpg http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00374.sized.jpg http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00365.sized.jpg http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00366.sized.jpg http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/gallery/albums/horses_bees/DSC00372.sized.jpg

NPR : ‘Lifestyle Centers’ Make Shopping Fashionable

This is something that I’ve been thinking of a lot.  How people are searching for a physical convergence of community but the spaces that they find for this are all mediated by capitalism.

NPR : ‘Lifestyle Centers’ Make Shopping Fashionable:

The fast-growing suburb of South Windsor, Conn., has a problem. It has lots of big highways and subdivisions, but no “town center.” So South Windsor is creating one by building a “lifestyle center,” a kind of latter-day shopping center that’s become very popular with architects and designers.

more on development

So I was ranting in the lobby at Bullwinkles, and the person I was talking to said, “If it wasn’t for IU, Bloomington would be another Spencer”.  This is completely true.  The same thing that makes Bloomington a frustrating place in the years since I’ve moved here is also what has made it pretty sweet in the first place.  It’s hard to reconcile my feelings with that reality, and the only way that I can make sense of it is to think in terms of wasted potential.  It seems too defeatist for me to adopt a personal “at least it’s not Spencer” standpoint – I’d rather think that Bloomington could be (can be?) a really exceptional place instead of a resignedly, marginally better place.

As I was riding to work today, I passed a storefront that will be the new home of Roadworthy Guitar and Amp whose exisiting storefront will be displaced by the new Finelight offices.  The move-in date was listed as some time in October and it terrifies me a little of all that could happen in my abscence.

Citizens for Effective Justice interview on WFHB’s Interchange tonight

Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project:

Mylo Roze will be interviewing representatives of Citizen’s for Effective Justice on tonight’s (8/29) interchange program on WFHB. Mylo writes:

Rev. Hal Taylor & Vid Beldavs, the President & Secretary (respectively) of Citizens for Effective Justice, an advocacy group for prisoners in Monroe County Jail that started up in reaction to the TASERing death of James Borden in the Jail about 3 years ago. They have received a large grant & are being integrated into County governance.

You can listen to Interchange starting at 6pm on WFHB in Bloomington at 98.1 (and 91.3) FM or stream it on the web from wfhb.org. I believe that there a podcast and archive of the show will be posted at http://news.wfhb.org/ eventually.