I want to delve into the important issue of making prison education accessible and effective for those with learning disabilities. It is specific in its focus on tailoring programs to individual needs, acknowledging the diversity of learning disabilities and the need for differentiated approaches.
Indeed many prison inmates have some form of learning disability.
I'm not sure if your question is specific to intellectual disability, or neurodevelopmental disabilities more broadly -such as adult ADHD, autism spectrum or academically oriented learning issues? Many of these issues are under-diagnosed in criminal justice institutional settings.
Tailoring psychoeducational programming must take into consideration at least...
1) the cognitive accessibility of the information, including the readability statistics, use of plain language, etc.
2) the influences of specific mental illnesses and medications on learning and memory
3) the amount and effects of adverse experiences in childhood and adulthood the participants may have had, and
4) use of media and materials that the participants find interesting while addressing singular topics at a time.
These issues are of course not limited to institutional settings, but they certainly occur among the individuals there.
Gerry D. Blasingame, Psy.D.
Inmates motivation + reading ability + math ability effect what will happen. Let’s be honest: Poor readers hate school. Poor attendance, poor behavior, then giving up are common themes. I didn’t mention schools often are not responsive, but at this point, one cannot changed history. Targeted growth in reading and math can change everything, but initially improvements are slow. Getting buy in that there might be 6-18 months of slow growth is challenging.
Lastly, highly effective instruction is rare. The transformation requires a constant push.
First we need to identify individual needs of a prisoner, whether he is literate, did he obtain any formal education etc..,
A good second step is preparation of a holistic individual rehabilitation plan that will help him fulfill his educational needs and help him obtain the life skills he will need upon release. A good add on would also be getting him into social work system and making sure that he is assigned a case worker with experience in the field that would work with him starting at his imprisonment and continuously work with him even after his release.
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