Educating Troubled and Incarcerated Youth

A New NEA Report to Download

The statistics are sobering. Today, nearly a quarter of a million youth are in custody in public and private juvenile correctional facilities in the United States. Approximately 10 million children have a parent who has been imprisoned or under criminal justice supervision at some point in their lives.

The effects of incarceration, rarely considered by society, ripple well beyond prison walls into the homes and communities where families and children reside. Possibly even into your own community or classroom.

But there are solutions to this crisis, many of which are outlined in a new NEA report: Education Opportunities and Concerns for Current and Former Prisoners . This directory is geared toward NEA members who want to find entry points to support the education of prisoners or people coming home from prisons, or to expand their techniques for dealing with hard-to-reach youth populations.

In addition to offering solutions to this far-reaching social problem, Education Opportunities profiles youth education services in juvenile justice systems around the country, includes a list of exemplary programs for educating youth during and after incarceration, reviews programs for non-incarcerated youth involved in juvenile justice systems, and discusses the impact of incarceration on children and families. Specific recommendations for educators include:

• Increase communication by informing incarcerated parents of their child’s progress in school.
• Avoid being judgmental.
• Attend in-service training for dealing with the specific challenges of children of incarcerated parents.
• Make arrangements for school-based support groups for children of incarcerated parents and provide for confidentiality of information and sensitivity of program participation.

Helping youth acquire education skills is one of the most effective approaches to the prevention of delinquency and the reduction of recidivism. Because education is critical to rehabilitation for troubled youth, it should be a priority in most juvenile institutions.

NEA has held workshops on judicial intervention and education/incarceration issues across the country at regional training seminars.

Download report ( 1MB, 106 pp).