AN EDUCATIONAL PLEA FROM THE PRISONERS

by

Dortell Williams

(400 words - non fiction)

As prisoners we are tired. As confined citizens we are wearied. We are absolutely worn-out by non-productive incarceration. We are tired of sharing these cramped cells with our children; heck, we were tired of prison when we were young and had to write our incarcerated fathers.

Now the game is up. Our consistent and past accusations have finally been proven. The claims of our parents and grandparents are at last validated:

According to a study by the Center for the Future of Teachers, called "The Status of the Teaching Profession - 2005," some 91 percent of California's poor and minority students receive inadequate or unequal educational opportunities; comparable to the resulting prison population.

The two year study revealed inadequacies in funding, materials and the quality of teachers. According to the study, only three-in-ten teachers were adequately qualified and only one- in-fifty were above qualifications.

Common sense and the department of correction's own website shows the indisputable nexus between deprivations in education and how such deprivations intrinsically lead to poverty and prison. We needed equal and meaningful education prior to prison and we need it now, while incarcerated, more than ever for successful parole.

Haven't enough politicians, prosecutors and police officers advanced on this transparent and inhumane game of locking up the poor under the guise of "tough on crime" political platform?

There is no question that education is the pathway toward advancement. So why are w being deprived of it? And more importantly, why isn't society insisting on it? If for no other reason but to be safe from desperate, undeducated, and optionless ex-felons.

To the elite who just can't seem to relate because their children have all the resources they need delivered on a silver platter; please, in the name of humanity, look at the evidence yourself. It's quite evident. Isn't it about time we start holding those responsible who manipulate these predictable travesties?

And to the many victims: Most of us fervently lament our past mistakes. A lot of us are civilly dead now, so you don't have to worry about us anymore - life sentences hold us quite securely. But if you're still indifferent about the future of our children, then it might serve well to consider your own safety. It doesn't take a wizard to realize that educated people are the least likely to commit crimes. They are also the most likely to be productive taxpaying members of society.

If society wants to be tough on crime, and truly diminish criminal behavior, then it seems obvious that an unwavering push for education inside these oppressive walls is the most sensible way to go.

Finally, our message to society from behind these crushing concrete confinements is: Focus on education, not incarceration. Let's stop this practice of neglecting our children until they become convicts and then spending upwards of $35,000 a year to just warehouse then in prison. Invest in them now and let them marvel you with their colorful show of human, financial and social returns.

C'mon, let 's face it, it's plain ludicrous to be wasting close to $7 billion a year locking up primarily non-violent offenders. Even the undereducated know that.

Source list:

California Teacher's Association

First-5 California (powerofschools.com)

Lynn Tafoya, Principal of Hiram Johnson High School, Sacramento, CA (hosted commercial for First-5 California campaign, KABC, Channel 7 December 12, 2005)

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (www. cdcr.ca.gov)

December 2005