Inmate Education Provides Valuable Lessons For All
BORDENTOWN, N.J. (AP) ― Parents of some area college students are beginning to hear a declaration they may not have heard from their children before: "I'm going to prison now."
Facing budget cuts and simultaneous mandates for increased educational offerings to New Jersey's prison population, institutions such as the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility have opened their doors to volunteer college students and professors to provide instruction to inmates.
DOC spokesman Matt Schuman said that due to staff cuts, there will be 67 fewer positions department-wide in 2011, including recreation employees, teaching assistants, nontenured teachers and vocational instructors. As a result, there's an increased need for volunteers — and officials say volunteers have responded.
"We discovered an untapped resource," said Alfred Kandell, administrator at the Bordentown facility which houses about 1,300 male inmates ranging in age from 18 to 35. "Suddenly, volunteers started coming out of the woodwork."
On any given day, students and faculty from The College of New Jersey and Princeton University, as well as members of the Princeton community, can be found at the facility teaching classes, serving as teaching assistants, and tutoring inmates one-on-one in various subjects.
Kandell said about 30 volunteers come to the facility on a regular basis, though the faces change as students get jobs, start internships or take summer vacations.