Budget cuts hit prison college classes

CARSON CITY -- Prison inmates seeking education behind bars have joined the ranks of those hit by state budget cuts.

Western Nevada College, which until this year offered classes in multiple Northern Nevada correctional facilities, has placed much of the prison program on hold after cuts eliminated its director and most of its instructors, WNC Marketing Director Anne Hansen told the Reno Gazette-Journal in Saturday editions.

"We've had many hundreds of students over several decades," she said. "They reached levels all the way from basic literacy up to college. But starting this year, most of the people who worked (on the program) aren't there anymore."

While the program once encompassed Northern Nevada Correctional Center, Nevada State Prison, Warm Springs Correctional Center, Lovelock Correctional Center and Silver Springs Correctional Center, it has been suspended in all facilities except for Lovelock, WNC Admissions Director Dianne Hilliard said.

In the past year, enrollment has dropped from 166 to 72 and the number of classes offered has plunged, leaving many inmates just a few credits shy of completing associate's or occupational degrees, she said.

Hilliard said inmates and their families pay for classes.

Since Texas opened its Windham School for inmates in the 1960s, studies across the country have shown that educated offenders are less likely to wind up back in trouble.

According to a study conducted by the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council in 2000, offenders with higher levels of education tend to have lower recidivism rates, and those who have been released and are employed have a lower recidivism rate than those without jobs.

It's a belief shared by Dave Pollard, education director at Lovelock Correctional Center. Since the cuts, he has served as the facility's only teacher and the de facto coordinator of the entire WNC inmate program.

"I figure it costs us about $1,300 to get someone to their associate's degree and $20,000 to incarcerate them," he said. "A lot of studies show less recidivism with more education, so I feel that's very important."

Lovelock now offers three courses, down from 12 last year

"You have to realize, inmates make about $1 a day doing their jobs in the facility," he said. "It takes a lot for them and their families to pay for college courses."