美国国家公共电台 NPR Earning A 2-Year Degree While Serving A 6-Year Sentence

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And we have one more issue in education for you. For the last year, inmates¹ in some prisons have been able to use federal Pell Grants to take college courses and earn degrees while serving time. It's an Obama-era pilot program. Nearly 70 colleges are working with and within prisons to reach about 12,000 students behind bars. Among them is Ashland University in Ohio. WGBH's Lydia Emmanouilidou went to check in.

LYDIA EMMANOUILIDOU, BYLINE²: Before prison, Waymann Washington wasn't exactly prioritizing his college education.

WAYMANN WASHINGTON: In 1978, I was in school for about two months, and I dropped out.

EMMANOUILIDOU: And what were you studying there?

WASHINGTON: (Laughter).

EMMANOUILIDOU: You didn't know?

WASHINGTON: (Laughter). I was there on a scholarship - football scholarship. And I really didn't take it serious.

EMMANOUILIDOU: Washington's taking it very seriously now. He's at the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio, serving a six-year sentence for drug trafficking.

WASHINGTON: And, you know, that song with Michael Jackson, "The Man In The Mirror"? Well, in here, it's a real mirror and it's a real man. And you have to really look at yourself and say, why am I here? Then you could say, well, how can I avoid from ever coming back here and improve my life? That's where Ashland came in.

EMMANOUILIDOU: Ashland University is a Christian³ liberal arts school about an hour south of Cleveland. It's one of dozens of colleges selected to educate inmates who qualify for federal Pell Grants. Right now, Washington and 15 other inmates here, who are said to be released within the next five years, are working toward their associate's degrees from the school.

WASHINGTON: This is real - a lot of hard work, a lot of studying, a lot of time invested. And it's real. But it really gives us a brotherhood⁴ because we help each other out with homework. I have guys on the block who tutor me because a lot of guys, you know, might have been teachers or so forth⁵.

EMMANOUILIDOU: This isn't the first time prisoners have had access to these grants. They were first introduced decades ago but fell out of favor during the tough-on-crime era of the 1990s. The argument went something like this - if families of law-abiding citizens are struggling to afford college, why are prisoners getting it for free?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BILL CLINTON: There must be no doubt about whose side we're on.

EMMANOUILIDOU: That's President Bill Clinton. In 1994, he signed a crime bill that banned prisoners from using Pell funding.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CLINTON: This bill puts government on the side of those who abide⁶ by the law, not those who break it, on the side of the victims, not their attackers.

EMMANOUILIDOU: Without those resources, the educational infrastructure⁷ inside prisons crumbled⁸.

DAVID WEBB: We could do college classes but not offer degree programs.

EMMANOUILIDOU: David Webb is Ashland's director of correctional programs. He's been on the job for decades. He was there when prisoners were still allowed to use federal funding to get degrees. He was there when the practice got banned. And he's there now as the school is once again offering associate's degrees to about 650 prisoners and building a bachelor's program. The pilot doesn't take funds away from students on the outside, but Webb says educating this population is just as controversial as it was when he first came on the job.

WEBB: Their argument is, you know, why is my daughter paying to go to college and this person that committed a felony is going to - for free? I've put two through college. I have another one coming, so I completely understand the cost involved. But we also have to look at what is the impact to society because 90 percent of them are going to return to society.

EMMANOUILIDOU: Research shows that when inmates get a college education, they're half as likely to end up back in prison. That's according to a 2013 study by the RAND Corporation. It found prison education can equal big savings⁹ for taxpayers¹⁰, approximately $4 to $5 for every dollar invested in education. Still, funding for the pilot expires in 2019, and there's no indication that the Trump¹¹ administration will extend it. For now, prisoners like Washington are getting their degrees.

WASHINGTON: I don't want to say this the wrong way, but it's really a good thing that I got here. And a lot of guys on this compound, they'll tell you - because we just heading the wrong direction. And if we didn't get stopped, we would have kept on down that street, and we might not have been here talking to you. We might not be here at all.

EMMANOUILIDOU: Next summer, at 59 years old, Washington will walk out of prison with an associate's degree in hand. He says he wants to use that degree to land a job and stay out of prison. He does want to go back to school, he says, and get his bachelor's. For NPR News, I'm Lydia Emmanouilidou.

1 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

5 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

6 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。

9 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

10 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。