Summary

We are going to team up with various Community Colleges and Penitentiary's throughout California to offer inmates the opportunity to take college courses online while they work towards obtaining an AA degree. We will set up a student loan system for the inmates in order for them to pay their college tuition. The inmates will then be responsible for paying this debt back after their sentences are up and have found a full time job. This way many inmates will have a college education by the time they are released from jail.

Team

Stephen Johnson: I'm a junior Legal Studies major. I'm very interested in this topic and would love the opportunity to develop this plan further.

Jeff Galper: I'm a sophomore CS student. I have pre-existing plans to travel most of the summer. I would be willing to work behind the scenes on the technology part of this project in the future.

Teddy Framhein: I'm a Junior CE student, currently working for CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) as a 'techie.' My interest in this topic is somewhere around a 5 - I wouldn't mind devoting time for it, but I have other plans over the Summer as well.

Jose Hurtado: I am a junior in the community studies major, I work for Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos and I am very interested in this issue. I have worked on it before but never with the kind of perspective this course teaches, mainly, to make whatever your solution is self-sustainable. I am doing an internship at SC Youth Services this summer-fall, but I would find the time to work on this project should the opportunity arise.

Social

• What social problem are you solving?

Were attempting to lower the recidivism rate of prisoners in California. We are providing a rehabilitation program through an online education system that would be offered to current California inmates. To start out we would implement this program in one single prison preferably in Tracy, Soledad and Solano penitentiary's. These current prisons have authorities there who look favorably on rehabilitation projects such as this.

• What is the magnitude of this problem?

This problem is widespread throughout the country. The recidivism rate in California is at 70% which happens to be the largest in the country. California also has 170,588 inmates as of 2007 which equates to 475 people incarcerated per every 100,000 state residents. Since 1980 we have built 21 prisons costing the California taxpayers 5.8 billion dollars it also cost our state 4.8 billion dollars annually to maintain and house these prisoners. The problems is also present in federal institutions which have more resources than the state prisons. The implications for this project should it succeed are that it could be adopted nationwide.

-This info was taken from an article in the Black Issues in Higher Education magazine and a document issued by the California Governor.

http://findarticles.com/p/articl es/mi_m0DXK/is_24_18/ai_82770923

&

http://www.cya.ca.gov/Communicat ions/docs/PrisonProposalsFactShe et-June%2024.pdf

One of the main reason the recidivism rate continues to be so high is the lack of educated inmates as well as a lack of educational programs in our corrections system. This info was taken from the National Institute for Literacy web site.

In 1997, state prison inmates' educational levels were:

• 14.2% had an 8th grade education or less;
• 28.9% had some high school education;
• 25.1% had a GED;
• 18.5% were high school graduates;
• 10.7% had some college education; and
• 2.7% were college graduates or had advanced degrees.

http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/c orrectional.html

Another telling statistic is the example of the federal prison in Florence Colorado, where there is an inmate population of 2000 while the education program that exists there serves only 12 inmates. There is actually a community college that sends instructors to the facility to teach a business management course over a period of time of 1 year. That leaves out the majority of the inmate population.

• How will you evaluate progress/success?

We will judge our success/progress by the number of inmates that obtain a college degree from our program and by the recidivism rate of ex-prisoners who graduated from our education program. Our goal is to have 80% of our students graduate with an AA degree and to have our students recidivism rate at 25%. Our goal is based on the statistics taken from the National Institute for Literacy web site.

A study of recidivism rates conducted by the Virginia Department of Correctional Education found that:

• of those who had no educational programming (1,037 persons) while incarcerated, 49.1% were reincarcerated in the Virginia Department of Corrections;
• of those who enrolled in an academic program (469 persons) but did not complete it, 38.2% were reincarcerated; and
• of those who completed an academic program (451), 19.1% were reincarcerated.

http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/c orrectional.html

• What is your expected social return?

By increasing the number and jobs that are offered to inmates who are reentering society and by lowering the number of inmates who return to prison. This will reduce the burden that is currently being placed on our overcrowded state penitentiary system.As well as the burden on all the social service agencies who use many resources to help parolees who cannot help themselves.

Background

• What have people done with regard to this social issue already?

There were many programs aimed at trying to rehabilitate inmates in the 80's and early 90's. Much of the governmental funding that was being used to supplement these programs were taken away by state and federal legislature in the 1990's. The funding for these programs came in the form of Pell Grants. These Pell Grants were used to provide financial assistance for prisoners who could not otherwise afford to pay for an education while in prison. These are the statistics were taken from the National Institute for Literacy web site.

In 1999, jail jurisdictions, which often include more than one jail facility, offered the following types of programs:

• 55% had a secondary education program;
• 25% had a basic adult education program;
• 11% a special education program;
• 9% a study release program;
• 6% a vocational program; and
• 3% a college program.

http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/c orrectional.html

Only one percent of the prison budget goes to rehabilitation programs such as this project. Basically the authorities have taken the punitive attitude rather than the rehabilitation attitude. Individual wardens do the best they can with the resources that they have, but there is not much being done.

• If anyone is pursuing a similar strategy, have they been successful?

Yes, there is only one program like this in California which is located at the San Quentin State prison. http://www.prisonuniversityproje ct.org/

There are many programs in other states that have been very successful. One of the most successful programs is offered by Bard college. The program offers associate and bachelor degrees to about 100 students. They have slashed the recidivism rate of their students by 45% (from 60% to 15%)

University of California at Santa Cruz has submitted a proposal to the prison authorities in Sacramento to implement a remote distance education program but as of right now there has been no response. The person working on that project for UCSC is Ronaldo Ramirez.

Here is the link to the Bard Prison Initiative

http://www.bard.edu/bpi/

• • Quantify past success or failure of similar plans*

There have been many successful programs like this but in recent years there has been a drop in the funding provided to these programs. In the early 90's these programs were used a lot more frequently than they are used today. In 1991 43% of soon to be released prisoners were enrolled on educational programs while in 1997 that number dropped to 35%. These statistics came from the National Institute for Literacy web site. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/c orrectional.html

• Why are existing methods not solving the problem?

There are not enough funds being provided by the government for rehabilitation programs in our states prison system. This is due to the governments get tough policy on criminals, which is leading to a record number of incarcerations. Due to such a high number of criminals there is not enough money to provide these prisoners with an adequate means of rehabilitation.

Any attempt at reform must take into account the political atmosphere and the political party in power. As of right now, the nation is in a neo liberal atmosphere that uses the prison system as an industry where capital may be invested that was once invested in the war machine.

• Who is the “customer" in terms of the social good you are providing?

The current inmates in the California penitentiary system.

• Do the people you are serving think this project is a good idea?

Yes I have talked to many former inmates who believe this is a great idea. Research has shown these types of projects can be very beneficial in lowering recidivism rates. http://findarticles.com/p/articl es/mi_m0DXK/is_24_18/ai_82770923

• What are the risks of failure, in broad terms?

There is a very low risk of failure especially when we first start out. We will only be offering a limited number of classes in the first year of operation which means the demand to get into our program will be very high. Even if we don't succeed the capital to start the business was so low there would almost be no negative side effects.

• What are the potential pitfalls of your plan?

-There could be a lack of colleges or prisons that are willing to provide online education for prisoners.

-There could be many illerate prisoners that are not at a college reading or writing level.

-Students would shy away from the program because the cost is too high.

• What are the potential consequences if something doesn't go as expected?

If something does not go as expected we would not experience that much of a problem. We would lose very little money if the program didn't go as expected because the money needed for capital and sustainability is so low.

Economics

• What sustainable business are you running?

Our business will be sustainable through charging the inmates a registration fee for the service we provide them. This fee will be around $600 a semester.

The prisoners will have two ways to pay for their education:

-By providing the tuition out of their own bank account

-By taking out private student loans

Another possible source of income could be a fee that we charge to the prisons themselves for our services. There are many who cannot pay for a service such as this if there is a profit to be made by the provider, but who would be willing to pay for the service if it is a reasonable fee and run by a nonprofit group such as ourselves.

• What are you selling, and to who?

We are selling a Community College education to inmates located in the California State Prison system.

• How big is your expected market?

In California there are 170,000 inmates. For the first year of our program only people with two years or less on their sentence would be eligible for our educational program. This source of this information was found in this article from the Black Issues in Higher Education: http://findarticles.com/p/articl es/mi_m0DXK/is_24_18/ai_82770923

In our first year of operation our class size will be around 10-20 students.

• If you controlled all of the customers, how much could you make?

Our profits are expected to be very low. We would not charge the students anything more than what it costs to pay for their tuition and the cost of keeping our program sustainable. If we charge each student $600 per semester and we have 20 students we would make about $12,000 a semester.

Incoming Revenue -

Student Fees - 20 students x $600 each = $24,000 per year

Outgoing Costs -

Prison Guard to Monitor Students 20hr a week at $12 an hr(for 7 months out of the year) = $8,400

The help of one part time worker(Preferably a member of our team who would be willing to work this as a side job once the project has been started) working 7 months a year at 1,800 a month = 12,600

Internet would be free because we would be able to use the prisons already existent connection.

1st years revenue = + $3,000

We would use this money to help pay for the web cast equipment that we are planing to use in our second year of operation.

• Who makes money in this market right now?

All of the California Community Colleges.

• How will you compete against prior business X?

We are providing a service to a very unique population who's market has no competition. Only one California State Prison has a program like this so we won't be competing against any other businesses.

• Who is your economic “customer"?

Any current California State Penitentiary inmate who is interested in receiving a college education from a California Community College.

• Who is handing you $$?

We can maintain sustainability by having the prisoners pay our program $600 a semester. They would obtain this money through loans, or other private assistance.

• How do you plan to reach this customer?

By setting up a network with many local prisons and Community Colleges that are willing to offer an online education program to inmates. If this program were to be done locally the nearest Community College we be at Cabrillo JC and the nearest State Prison would either be in Tracy or Vacaville.

• What are your costs associated with doing business?

In a similar project located in New York it cost $2,000 a year for each student. Our program would cost much less than that because California Community College offers the cheapest form of higher education in the country.

As reflected in the numbers presented above our business will cost about 21,000 a year to keep running.

We intend to hire the majority of our workers from inside the prison. They will all receive proper training before they start. This will provide multiple benefits.

-Gives them valuable work experience in either technology of administrative duties.

-Provides our company with cheap labor. We will pay all the employees who are inmates minimum wage.

-It will be very handy to have our employees so close to where they work.

-The inmates will get more attached to the program, which will lead to a higher graduation rate.

• What are the financial risks of failure?

We may not find enough students to sign up so that we can have a sustainable revenue.

Technology

• Is the technology feasible?

This technology already exists and is being used by almost every college in the country. There are many community colleges who offer classes that are just located on web ct or Blackboard.

After our first year of operation we will also implement web casts for the students to watch lectures to some of their classes online. At UCSC, several classes are recorded and available after-the-fact, while being web casted to other campuses (Silicon Valley Center, for example). CITRIS recently set up a web casting cart for use in E2 rooms 180 and 506, which allows the streaming and archiving of lectures in both rooms - including the talk given in class on Friday 5/18. As a demonstration (or if you're reading this and happened to have... missed... class on that day :) ), this talk is available online at:

http://www.citris-uc.org/event/c itris_distinguished_speaker_seri es_james_fruchterman

Every prison has internet access, but the inmates are not allowed to use these computers because of fear they will get into trouble on the internet. We will need to design a computer program where it restricts prisoners from accessing anything but their online courses on the internet. (Online access does not exist for inmates. The process would have to be monitored by a prison staff member.)

The loans will be provided by a private company. These loans can be processed online and done very quickly. This will eliminate us the cost of having to hire an employee whose task would have been to register the inmates for student loans (although it may still be beneficial to have an adviser on board until a solid, proven system for securing loans is in place.)

Three examples:

https://www.wellsfargo.com/stude nt/ (I have already talked with Wells Fargo and the claimed that being a prisoner will not affect the status of obtaining a student loan)

www.educationone.com

www.estudentloan.com

• What are the risks of failure associated with the technology?

Many inmates are not computer literate so they could have a hard time navigating through internet to access their online classes and also when they conduct research for their classes online.

Resource Requirements

• What resources do you need?

Startup Capital-

We would need around $5,000 in capital to start up. About $2,000 of that would go towards the computers needed by the prisoners to access their courses online. The other $3,000 would go toward the wages of prison guards that would have to watch over the inmates while they access their courses online.

In our first year of operation we plan to offer the inmates an opportunity to take online courses taught solely through web ct or blackboard. This will keep the startup cost of our program relatively low.

Here is a list of the online courses offered through Cabrillo Community college.(This is just a sample of the classes these inmates could take. We will provided them the opportunity to take online classes through any Community College in California)

http://www.cabrillo.edu/services /disted/online.html

In our second year of operation we plan to offer a larger variety of courses that are taught through a live web cast channel. We would placed a Camera inside the classroom where the actual course is taught and project this image inside the prisons computer lab through a projector screen. We will use these web based classes to supplement the classes we offer that are taught solely on web ct or blackboard.

Here is a list of the equipment we would need after our first year of operation. This equipment would enable us to offer other courses through web casts.

$600 for a decent camera: this is variable, depending on the rooms used - varying levels of zoom, etc. may be needed. Many campuses have rooms already equipped with a system like this.

$800 for a computer set to webcast: this includes an expansion card that can take in a VGA signal

$1,500 for other Community College - side hardware: to combine display of notes/lecturer (assuming one video signal is being webcast) - It may also be possible to transmit two signals, one displaying notes and the other displaying the professor, in which case these signals do not need to be combined. In both cases some sort of microphone system will be needed.

$600 for a decent projector: again, variable, depending on the setup of the prison room used. A decent TV may also be used, and if we are able to transmit two signals instead of just one, we could (for example) use an older TV for the lower-quality video stream of the professor, and either a higher-quality TV or a projector for display of notes, which requires a higher-quality stream.

$300 for a PC to display the lecture prison-side: this system doesn't need to be powerful by any means

http://www.intechraoutlet.com/rb www/home/

These are used PC's, many of them still relatively recent, that offices have discarded - when an office renovates its computer systems, it generally discards their older equipment.

=$5800

This cost is extremely variable, and most of the numbers listed above are worst-case. UCSC, for example, has several rooms already set up to webcast; in a case like this, all we would need is hardware on the prison side (computers, displays, etc.) to take advantage of the system already in place (and permission from the college to use these resources).

Contacts-

Local Community Colleges and Local State Prisons-(A partnership with UCSC or Cabrillo Community College would add to the resources as well as to the respectability and technical resources, equipment, etc. of the project.)

Technological Inventions-

1 CC - side hardware(to combine display of notes/lecturer)

1 Video Camera

1 Projector

10 Computers that are capable of accessing the internet.

We will also need a room located in the prison that could be used as a computer lab.

How long will these resources last?

I would expect these resources to last at least 3 -5 years. Most of the computers will be well taken care of since they are only being used to access their web based class.

Especially in the case of money, how long until you run out of startup funds and need to be making money?

We would probably run out of money after the first year of schooling. We would be receiving money form each students tuition and educational fees which would then provide us with more money to fund our program after our first year is done.

Objections

Many people believe that we should not be providing prisoners an opportunity to receive a higher education while incarcerated, especially when there are many people who are not in jail that can't receive a college education.

This program is providing a huge relief for the states taxpayers. It cost the state $50,000 a year to house each inmate which adds up to $4.8 billion a year in California. If we were to spend $2,000 dollars on each prisoner a year and provide them with education it would cost around $3,040,000. This would lower our recidivism rate in our state by 35,000 prisoners (our state currently has 170,000 prisoners). Thus saving our taxpayers $1,750,000,000 that would have been spent on housing inmates. Instead this money can be used to better our states educational system.

Even the people who object to this program because of moral reasons will still reap some of the benefits that our programs provides. This program will lower the amount of crime that is taking place on our streets, thus making our society a better and safer place to live.

Prisoners should not have to pay off school loans directly after they have been released from prison

The tuition at a Community College is only $20 a unit. Most prisoners will accumulate about $2000-3000 of debt while completing their education in prison. You can spread out college loans over 10 years which means their loan payment would be less than $20 a month. This is a very low cost that almost anyone could payback.

Prisoners will not be eligible to receive student Loans

I talked to the Student Loan branch at Wells Fargo bank and they said there is no way for them to tell if whether or not the person applying for a loan is in fact an inmate. Thus we will have no problems providing these inmates with loans for their college education.

Prisoners will not partake in our online education program because they have no interest in getting an education

With the lack of programs in our current prison system most prisoners are isolated all day with nothing to do. They would be happy to do this program just for the simple fact it would keep them busy throughout the day.