Academic Major: Sociology
Advisor: Nancy Lewis
Title: Rehabilitation: From Punishment to Education
To truly create opportunities for rehabilitation within the prison system, we must offer the programs and treatments that empirical evidence demonstrates leads to lower rates of recidivism. There is a heavy weight of empirical evidence that shows the success of college in prison programs to lower recidivism rates and create opportunities for returning citizens to thrive in the community.
College in prison programs are well represented by fields of study in the humanities and social sciences. However, there is a dearth of college in prison programs providing a natural sciences education. Consequently, college in prison graduates lack the opportunity to gain the critical thinking skills and professional employment opportunities offered by the natural sciences.
The focus of my Presidential Scholars project is to examine the relationship between college level natural science education and the prison system as a site of conflict.