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The real threat to recidivism isn’t the offender, contrary to popular belief. It’s the insufficient prison rehabilitation package offered to at-risk citizens housed in correctional settings.

To be more specific, our prisons need revision. Our correctional settings currently lack the proper educational and vocational programs to successfully complete the inmate rehabilitation process for society.

The current education offerings don’t match the literacy our colleges teach. The vocational offerings lack the opportunities that our training centers give.

In today’s world, this makes for a low survival percentage. With the modern way of life being increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, maintaining our prison education and vocational programs endangers reentry for the prison population, which in turn poses a threat to our democracy.

People released from prison often return to society to discover that their attempts at rehabilitation have left them unprepared for the modern world. Their education is often not equivalent to traditional academic credentials, and the vocational training they received doesn’t always translate into real job opportunities.

As a result, their applications are overlooked and interviews are cast away. Many are unable to support themselves, let alone a family. In this way, the cycle of recidivism is perpetuated, not because of the person, but because of the inadequacy of the system designed to rehabilitate them.

Keeping in mind that we already knew they were susceptible to criminality, we placed them in prisons to help them through institutionalization and learn how to be law abiding. Yet, as society evolved, we failed to evolve every sector within it. This is how we failed not just our inmate population, but our correctional departments! If we don’t take the necessary action, the joke being told around kitchen tables across our nation is democracy itself. De-mock-racy.

It’s no wonder our correctional departments are facing staff shortages. Correctional officers work in constant temptation, while inmates live in constant danger. Gangs thrive, violence continues in its culture and black markets python established commerce. In adapting these institutional structures for criminal purposes while incarcerated, some begin to internalize them, even to replicate them. ‘Tis those hip-hop lyrics. The Most High is screaming for our attention.

Prisons need equal education and adequate vocational opportunities for the rehabilitation process to be successful. The prison education needs to be equal to at least a community college level, and the vocational opportunities need to be broadened to at least reflect society’s minimum-wage employment. In this way, it’s a win-win. Herein is the mind of wisdom.

This revision doesn’t require massive funding, large-scale hiring or more territorial expansion. The aid we give to corrections should focus on programs that maintain security and align with the reasoning of facility procedures. The revision is simply to revise the prison education and vocational system to better reflect society.

Understanding that although two people may share the same employment interest, not all prisoners do. Therefore, we need more vocational programs.

If inmates are allowed to truly rehabilitate, then we are to allow them to discover God-given talent and provide program opportunities with stipends based upon those skill sets.

The theory is that when inmates make a living off of what makes them happy, it not only makes for safer corrections and more stable authority for the department, but also provides for effective rehabilitation and a successful reentry. Their first response behavior in their survival kit would not be offense, but to endure tough times lawfully, having already been conditioned over the years.

Reentering society should mean the education and vocational training received in prison should offer a chance at life again. When that preparation is effective, it will keep them from returning to the streets. Instead of pondering how to survive and knowing that they lack the credentials and education desired by the job market, they will be busy with jobs, family and schooling to remove the risk of reoffense.

That is what rehabilitation is. That is what taxpayer dollars pay for. That is what lobbyists want. That is the rest our justice system needs. That is the security our crime victims long to see. That is what families love. That is why schooling is so important. The circle of life.

REVISE OUR PRISONS.

Shaheen Elmore, founder of ASTVC and formerly incarcerated, can now be reached at shaheenelmore44@gmail.com.

Published on April 22, 2026 at 8:56 pm