JSTOR is Now Available in 1,000 Prisons (jstor.org) 22
JSTOR: At the end of 2023, JSTOR -- a vast digital library of secondary and primary sources to support teaching and learning -- reached a once unimaginable goal: providing JSTOR access in 1,000 prisons. Spread across four continents, the JSTOR Access in Prison initiative now supports the education and growth of more than 550,000 incarcerated people.
Incarcerated learners have been left behind for decades. Limited access to the internet and scarce funding and support for higher education in prisons made access to digital libraries like JSTOR all but impossible. In October 2021, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, JSTOR set an ambitious goal to change that. The aspiration? For every incarcerated college student in the United States to have access to JSTOR, along with the research skills to use it and other digital resources.
Prior to 2021, JSTOR developed an offline index of its digital library. At the time, less than twenty prisons had access to it. Since then, developers have created an online version that meets the unique needs of carceral settings, most recently delivering online access on tablets. These changes -- and the leadership of Stacy Burnett, a graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative who was hired to lead the JSTOR Access in Prison initiative -- have enabled 1,000 prisons and more than 500,000 people to gain access to the digital equivalent of a college library.
Incarcerated learners have been left behind for decades. Limited access to the internet and scarce funding and support for higher education in prisons made access to digital libraries like JSTOR all but impossible. In October 2021, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, JSTOR set an ambitious goal to change that. The aspiration? For every incarcerated college student in the United States to have access to JSTOR, along with the research skills to use it and other digital resources.
Prior to 2021, JSTOR developed an offline index of its digital library. At the time, less than twenty prisons had access to it. Since then, developers have created an online version that meets the unique needs of carceral settings, most recently delivering online access on tablets. These changes -- and the leadership of Stacy Burnett, a graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative who was hired to lead the JSTOR Access in Prison initiative -- have enabled 1,000 prisons and more than 500,000 people to gain access to the digital equivalent of a college library.
only prisoners may use it freely (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:only prisoners may use it freely (Score:5, Informative)
Q. What are you in here for kid? A. I got 35 years for downloading JSTOR documents. United States v. Swartz [wikipedia.org]
Now teach 'em to read (Score:5, Insightful)
Incentivize Teaching for Literacy. (Score:4, Interesting)
A disproportionately high percentage of people in prisons are illiterate or have very low literacy levels. Reading materials that require high levels of literacy & academic abilities are going to be of use to a relatively small number of prisoners. Simply increasing literacy rates among inmates would go a long way to reducing recidivism, i.e. They can open bank accounts, read job ads, apply for jobs in writing, & read their pay checks.
Isn't literacy one of those things that can be addressed with minimal resources, even in prisons? If the number incarcerated and educated to a decent level in literacy was only 10%, teaching that to others is pretty straightforward with basic materials. Teachers ultimately creating more teachers can resolve that issue quite quickly internally, especially if the message was universally positive and accepted. Time is quite an abundant resource for most students otherwise.
If the system doesn't want to create a more direct funding incentive for that, perhaps other incentives with "soft" costs (from extra phone cards to reducing sentences) could be provided to those that step up as recognized teachers.
Re: (Score:3)
Thinking about it, I think that it might be tougher than average.
Prisons contain the full spectrum of abilities, from the marginally retarded to the occasional actual doctor. But prison is still very much a selected, not a random, population. It trends less intelligent, less educated, much higher rates of mental illness, etc...
So, I figure that the average illiterate prisoner is much more likely to be a difficult case, with learning disabilities at a much higher percentage. They have likely already been fa
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry, but bull. "Most Americans" don't have a certification of anything.
And a lot of people in prisons - let's be real, and note that there are far more blacks than their percentage of the population - are in prison and are close to illiterate due to a) home issues and b) outright racism in the school system.
That would be like the high school my son went to in Chicago, that was 70%-80% black and Hispanic, where the school system figured they were going to jail and die young anyway, so why bother actually t
Re: (Score:2)
You need to update your knowledge,
Percentage Of Adults With College Degrees Edges Higher, Finds New Lumina Report [forbes.com]
A new update from the Lumina Foundation finds the percentage of working age adults who’ve earned a college degree or other postsecondary credential climbed to 54.3% in 2022, the most recent year for which data are available.
And a lot of people in prisons - let's be real, and note that there are far more blacks than their percentage of the population - are in prison and are close to illiterate due to a) home issues and b) outright racism in the school system.
True, but those who learn to read easily are still learning and getting filtered out. They don't need to learn to read even if they end up in prison. But yes, that's why I said "likely already been failed by the school system". IE they would have learned to read if they'd gone to a better school.
And yes, prison education system is going to be very much what the prisoner can make of it, becaus
Re: (Score:2)
If you've ever dealt with someone like this (I'm assuming most people know someone who's at least a little bit like this, even if th
Re: (Score:2)
While I don't disagree with you, I was concentrating on the education aspect.
Re: (Score:2)
Going to prison was meant to rehabilitate.
If we’re finding attitudes instead that dismiss opportunities for personal improvement and feed the repeat customer problem, then maybe we should stop giving them the luxuries in “prison” that enable that attitude.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you need adult literacy resources to teach reading to adults, which aren't easy to find; the vast majority of early literacy materials are aimed at primary-aged children. A highly qualified, skilled, experienced teacher can do a lot with relatively little but it's slower, a lot of extra work, & not good for teacher/tutor retention, so you're likely to end up with more novice & under-qualified tutors who can cope even less without adequate resources... added to all
Re: (Score:3)
Unfortunately, the problem isn't resources or the lack thereof.
The problem is that in the United States, prisoners are barely treated as human beings. The very idea that they are due anything but the minimum allowable is pretty much a non-starter.
"Team Red" is big on punishment and "Team Blue" only uses that to differentiate themselves from the fellow Party members. They really aren't interested in changing the system, as then they lose the "campaign contributions" of the corporations that own the private
Re: (Score:2)
The problem in the US is that there are powerful vested interests who profit off people being in jail so anything that means less people go to jail (or return to jail after getting released) means less profits for them and less "campaign contributions" for their bought and paid for politicians.
Who will pay for this? (Score:1)
There will always be people who pop up and will level the argument about why should taxpayers pay for this stuff for criminals, saying that they can't get this on the street, why should some gangbanger who held up a Kwik-E-Mart and shot the cashier be able to get stuff like this, when younger people are going into debt for the rest of their lives for an education.
Problem is that neither party should be needing to pay for this, and skilled workers may cost a government something, but the benefit is obvious t
Re: (Score:1)
going into debt for the rest of their lives for an education.
to be fair those younger people could get the same amount of education as the prisoners for free just the same. you aren't going into debt for the education but for the piece of paper that confirms you got the education
i also don't disagree with really here otherwise but only to suggest that to please stop the "private prison" argument, they only account for like 10% of prisons in the US. it's just a bit of an overblown and distracting issue
not that they don't exist and they do suck sucks and should be st
Taking this bootcamp thing a bit far (Score:1)
Prison life isnt what people think it is (Score:2)