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1 Jonah Silverman – Information Inequality in Prisons

Introduction

In this chapter, I will explore the ways in which incarcerated individuals face inequalities in access to information, education, and opportunities for civic participation. These themes tie together the lack of access to the broader theme of citizenship and social justice.

Issue Summary

The main problem is that incarcerated individuals are systematically prevented from accessing information and education which suppresses their ability to engage and be participating citizens. The primary issue is access information and education. Throughout history, prisons have restricted prisoner access to media, the internet, and educational tools that naturally bolster an individual’s understanding of a civic identity. The problem stems from these structural restrictions and perpetuates prisoners’ inability to rehabilitate and optimally reenter society. Not only does it restrict this ability to rehabilitate and reenter society, but this also reinforces the public perception of prisoners being undeserving of rehabilitation and civic contribution. When prisons limit the access to information, they suppress personal growth and prisoners’ ability to exercise their rights. These inequalities contrast the concept of social justice and illustrate how tangible factors of social justice are unevenly distributed, negatively impacting incarcerated individuals and society.

 

Key Stakeholders

Identifying Stakeholders

● Incarcerated individuals– These are the individuals that experience this issue firsthand. They are directly affected by access to information, education, and other participatory nuances of their prisons.– Participation also plays into the rehabilitation, recidivism, reentry, and democraticinclusion when their sentences are over.
● The Department of Corrections– These individuals and groups within this legislative structure have the power to make decisions with regards to educational programs, communication policies, and voting access.– Their policies directly enable or revoke prisoner participation.
● Advocacy & Education Groups– These programs work on restoring prisoner rights, expanding public knowledge, aiding in the promotion of educational access, and challenging common false narratives.– These groups influence much of policies and sew the rifts in societal understanding.
Facilitating Conversations:
● Incarcerated Individuals – The interest for incarcerated individuals would be in ability to get opportunities to gain education, civic involvement, and rehabilitation experiences. In terms of influence, they can provide firsthand experiences to help paint a clearer picture and reform discourse. Some questions I would ask would surround difficulties and successes with regard to the topic. 1. What difficulties have you faced when attempting to access education or contribute to the community via personal output? 2. In what ways do your opportunities (or lack thereof) to participate meaningfully affect your motivation and hope? In order to keep the conversation going I would make sure to affirm that their opinions and experiences can make a legitimate difference. I would also maintain active listening strategies like eye contact and smaller physical gestures like nodding. I wanted to mention this in the first one but I find it important regardless so I won’t mention it in the next two again but I believe it would help under any conversation.

 

● Department of Corrections: The interest for this group would be in the hopes of structural change and fortification among things like control, security, and reform for prisons and prisoners. In terms of influence, the DOJ has a lot of power and control over how much access and participation is implemented in facilities. Two questions I would ask are: How does access to education affect rehabilitation and safety outcomes? What is challenging about implementing programs that are realistically optional where prisoners might not utilize them to their intended value and how do you balance that intangible value with the monetary value of implementation? For continuing conversation, I would try to lean on topics like their goals as they relate to their projects and reentry success.
● Advocacy & Education Groups: Interest is mostly in spreading public awareness andcommunicating justice reform. Their influence includes pushing for legislation andfunding for these programs and initiatives. The two questions I would ask are: Whatstrategies have been efficient and effective in promoting prisoner education andparticipation? The other one is how can we as a community and country make strides towards a more accurate and positive public perception of your goals and efforts? To keep conversation I could ask about stories and data to get more information and extend the session.

Interactive Timeline

Historical Context

The broader aspects and intricacies regarding the issue of access to information and education in prisons has changed radically throughout history via legal and social involvement. In 1955, the Mandela Rules changed the landscape by implementing standards for humane treatment and access to information for prisoners. In 1977, Bounds v. Smith cemented the fact that incarcerated individuals have a constitutional right to access courts which ensured access to legal information. Further forwards, in 1990, the Prison Radio Project was founded which created an outlet for inmates to participate meaningfully in society by means of sharing their thoughts, perspectives, and knowledge through uploaded podcasts that were released to anyone who had access to the internet. This project helped reduce stigmas and illustrate a better understanding of incarceration for the public.

Four years later, in 1994, the Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act relinquished Pell Grants for prisoners which cut them off from important educational opportunities and took a step back in progressing towards equality. Now, nearly thirty years later in 2020, the FAFSA Simplification Act reversed this ruling and restored prisoner’s ability to harness Pell Grants in order to access education. Despite this overturning legislature that took society a step backwards, this Act demonstrated progress towards inclusion and equity for incarcerated individuals as more barriers continue to be broken down.

 

Glossary Terms & Definitions

1. Prisoner Participation – The involvement of and participation of prisoners in prison life.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477370818773616?utm_
– Prisoner participation is how prisoners live their lives in prison and how they interact with the different ways of life physically and psychologically.– This is important to my topic because a lot of the things I will talk about in my project arerelated to materials or activities for prisoners and how it relates to their sense of citizenship. This takes form in the prisoner podcasts with inmates creating media in prisons, and with the access to general media and legal materials.Brosens, D. (2018, May 14). Prisoners’ participation and involvement in prison life: Examining the possibilities and boundaries – Dorien Brosens, 2019. SageJournals.

2. Citizenship – Membership in a community, often tied to one’s legal status as a member of a country.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citizenship
– Citizenship is when someone has legal or general ties to a group or community.– This is important to my topic because there are multiple ties to communities with the sense of prison communities and outside world communities. As I continue to develop my project I will talk about prisoner participation which contributes to prisoners’ sense of community in prison but also about reentry where released prisoners have the chance to reintegrate into many communities on broad and niche scales, where citizenship provides a valuable “title” and sense of community and worth.Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Citizenship definition & meaning. Merriam Webster.
3. Prisoner Reentry – The process by which prisoners who have been released from prison return to their communities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_reentry
– How prisoners are able to reintegrate into the real world but also how well they reintegrate in different facets and ways.– This is important to my project because I will delve deeply into how prisoners interact and have access to media in prisons which then plays into their sense of self worth and citizenship. Self-education in prisons and creating senses of community and citizenship then filter into their reentry when those prisoners apply their learned skills and knowledge to their “second chance” in the world. As I am doing this assignment I’m also realizing just how interconnected these terms are with regard to informing the other terms.Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Prisoner reentry. Wikipedia.
4. Access to Justice – When individuals encounter issues regarding the law, they have the ability to understand and employ their rights in a neutral process.
https://ncaj.org/what-access-justice
– Access to Justice is the idea that anyone who becomes entangled in the legal process might or might not have the ability to access knowledge and put it to use.– This is important because the basis of my project is on information inequality in prisons and a big part of what I’ve researched has enlightened me to understand that information access with regard to legal content is very scarce in many places and has been for a long time. I’ve also come to understand that this issue has been pulled in both directions by legislation over the past 100 years.NCAJ. (n.d.). What is access to Justice?. National Center for Access to Justice.
5. Informed Citizen – The ability to listen, empathize, and understand the different lived experiences of others.
https://hsjmc.umn.edu/what-does-it-mean-be-informed-citizen-our-contemporary-digital-media-environment
– One who has learned about and how to employ empathy in their lives through interactions and observational circumstances in order to be able to better hear, understand, and process other individuals and groups’ lived experiences.– This is important because it ties to the idea of prison being a reformative experience for individuals that are not past saving from a set of negative actions they took. This term ties well into the idea of reentry and citizenship because it is very easy for anyone to hear that an individual was incarcerated and immediately assume negative physical and psychological intent and ethics when there are strong possibilities that they have beenrehabilitated. Being able to understand and empathize with people can improve perception of reintegrated individuals that were formerly incarcerated and contribute to a better sense of citizenship and community for those people.Toff, B. (n.d.). What does it mean to be an informed citizen in our contemporary Digital Media Environment?. What does it mean to be an informed citizen in our contemporary digital media environment? | Hubbard School of Journalism.

Connections to Social Justice and Citizenship

Social Justice Implications

The restriction of access to information at prisons demonstrates an important social justice issue. Social justice can be defined as the fair distribution of opportunities, rights, and resources in order to make sure all individuals maintain the ability to participate in society equally and meaningfully. When incarcerated individuals have this access to information, media, and education revoked, they are legitimately excluded from the rights that non-incarcerated individuals enjoy in society. These discrepancies in access create systematic inequalities that hinder incarcerated individuals’ ability to rehabilitate properly. It also reinforces preexisting disadvantages for populations that are already disproportionately represented in prisons.

The world would be more just if this problem was omitted from reality due to the fact that every individual, incarcerated or not, would retain access to information, education, and opportunities for civic engagement. While legislative and social steps are being taken, they are slow in progressing towards the ultimate goal of eradicating this issue. If this problem were fully solved, it would not only benefit the incarcerated individuals, but society in its entirety. Former prisoners that are better educated and informed are much more likely to reenter society successfully and contribute positively. This would drop the rates of recidivism and prove educational equality to be crucial to the fabric of society and prove that we, as a society, should ensure that inclusion is the leading principle over exclusion.

Citizenship Implications

We can define citizenship as an individual’s ability to participate and make informed decisions in their desired community or society. Incarcerated individuals have faced and continue to face challenges that hinder their ability to exercise their rights as legitimate citizens. With a lack of access to education, media, and communication tools, they are unable to stay properly informed and share their perspectives while participating in civic life. Even beyond accessibility to these different aspects of information, many are still entirely unable to even vote or communicate with individuals outside their prisons. These regulations reasonably spark discourse on what it means to be a participatory citizen in our society.

It is crucial for citizens outside of prisons to recognize and understand these inequalities because citizenship is built on the foundation of inclusion and shared responsibilities. Societies cannot function properly when a segment of its population has restricted access to the resources that allow them to participate and enjoy the norms of society. Recognizing, understanding, and addressing these problems would strengthen civic participation amongst prisoners and thereby reestablish the founding principles of a society and the inherent truth that all individuals whether incarcerated or not are equal members of our society.

 

Facilitating Conversations

In order to engage someone who holds opposing views, I would focus on understanding their foundation and concerns and subsequently ground conversation in evidence and information rather than emotion. I would emphasize commonplace values in the subject such as safety, fairness, and rehabilitation. This would build a common ground before spearheading discourse in the benefits of educational access in prisons. When speaking with key stakeholders such as educators and policymakers, I would transition to a more structured and data driven approach that emphasizes measurable outcomes like reduced recidivism and improved reentry success. If I were engaging with someone who was impacted directly by incarceration, I would make sure to prioritize actively listening and letting their experiences stage the conversation rather than myself. By reflecting and practicing not to make assumptions, I could make sure to hear and subsequently understand their perspective. Generally speaking, my approach would change with each stakeholder, but the foundations of respect, empathy, and a commitment to productive conversations would remain constant.

Action Plan

Short Term

For the small scale action plan, I specifically want to approach this through digital activism given the short time frame. I want this to increase public awareness about information inequality and lack of access to educational tools for incarcerated individuals. The audience is college students and young adults because they are the youngest individuals that have reasonably forming opinions and morals who can be informed and thereby convinced of the civic injustices that occur regarding prisoners.

For the physical steps, I would fabricate a two-week social media campaign to spread awareness and educate individuals on the issue. I would do so by spreading designed infographics and visual media. I believe would be effective due to research showing that digital awareness campaigns significantly improve individuals’ knowledge which shifts public perception. This would be extremely effective as my target audience is younger adults and college students who access social media frequently as a source for news and information. I can track my effectiveness easily through interaction metrics such as likes, comments, saves, and reposts. I can also follow this up with anonymous surveys that assess decisive change in opinions and understanding of the issue. Greater public understanding would also aid injustices by challenging incorrect or hateful perceptions of incarcerated individuals.

If I were to solidify this action plan, there would be an obvious need to design and post digital materials such the infographic, educational/awareness content, and other visual models. Most of the work consists of continued research of the issue, deciding what information is necessary to consolidate into the media, and physically putting together the media with digital tools. Digital media is the most realistic way to take actionable steps in a short time frame to reach the most people.

 

Kite, J., Foley, B. C., Grunseit, A. C., & Freeman, B. (2023). A model of social media effects in public health campaigns: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e46345. https://doi.org/10.2196/46345

Pager, D. (2007). Marked: Race, crime, and finding work in an era of mass incarceration. University of Chicago Press.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2015). The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules). https://www.unodc.org

 

Medium Term

For the medium-scale action plan, I would address the issue through institutional collaboration by hosting frequent educational workshops run by students for college students in social justice clubs, criminology courses, and service organizations on campus.

I would implement a monthly set of workshops to help inform students about information inequality in prisons and to ease student participation in reforming campus conditions. Educational settings like workshops have been shown to improve learning and civic motivation because they provide time for participants to process new information, utilize that new knowledge, and have meaningful conversations. When you compare that to a one-off campaign, this workshop approach allows for a greater depth of engagement. Success will be measured in attendance, feedback on post-session surveys, and number of students signing up for volunteering opportunities and projects. This plan would reasonably inform and engage citizens and provide an avenue to ensure social justice by building a community of students. When these students know about the issue of incarceration, they will want to act on the issue.

These workshop requires a workshop space and one or more professor to work with and material to present. Reasonably, these workshops would need participants, and a group of 3-5 students to be responsible for organizing, promoting, and creating the content for the workshops. These aspects of creation and facilitation will promote organization, clarity, and efficiency in the way these workshops are executed.

 

Vorhaus, J. (2014). Prisoners’ Right to Education: A Philosophical Survey. Law & Ethics of Human Rights, 8(1), 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1163/17455214-08801002

Kite, J., Foley, B. C., Grunseit, A. C., & Freeman, B. (2023). A model of social media effects in public health campaigns: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e46345. https://doi.org/10.2196/46345

Pager, D. (2007). Marked: Race, crime, and finding work in an era of mass incarceration. University of Chicago Press.

 

Long Term

The large scale action plan would consist of working within institutions by working with organizations that operate prison education programs. The target audience would be state correctional departments, non profit educators, and policymakers. These individuals and collectives all influence the long-term structure of prison education access which makes it the most valuable target audience.

For this, I would work with an organization such as the Prison Education Initiative, Prison University Project, or a Department of Corrections. This would allow me to increase educational programs in prisons. This strategy is proven to be effective from research that illustrates the correlation between higher educational access in prisons, and lower recidivism. This increases employment after release from jail and boosts reintegration. By expanding these processes to multiple prisons, the outcome would effect the system as a whole rather than just a singular prison. We can measure success through the implementation, or lack thereof, of programs, enrollment numbers, and completion rates. Expanding these educational opportunities means repairing injustices and barriers to incarcerated individuals that were infringing on their ability to participate meaningfully in society.

This action plan needs extensive coordinating between all invested organizations and policymakers. Other necessities include securing funding, working on curriculums with colleges and educators, and designing and implementing evaluative systems. This would require multiple stakeholders, volunteers, academic organizations, and government support. Due to the complexities with coordination, funding, and design, this project would take multiple years to complete.

 

Davis, L. M., Bozick, R., Steele, J. L., Saunders, J., & Miles, J. (2013). Evaluating the effectiveness of correctional education: A meta-analysis of programs that provide education to incarcerated adults. RAND Corporation. https://doi.org/10.7249/RR266

Hannan, M. A. (2013). Education, training and human rights of the prisoners. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2212653

Kite, J., Foley, B. C., Grunseit, A. C., & Freeman, B. (2023). A model of social media effects in public health campaigns: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e46345. https://doi.org/10.2196/46345

 

Advocacy

To advocate for change on this issue, I could raise awareness on how access to legal resources and education for prisoners directly reduces recidivism and strengthens communities. Making people care begins with emphasizing that supporting rehabilitation is not simply morally right, but leads to safer neighborhoods, lower public costs, and better outcomes upon reentry. By sharing real stories, clear data, and simple ways to get involved, I can show people how this issue is part of their civic responsibility. Some of these actionable involvements include supporting educational programs, voting for reform-minded policies, and simply challenging stereotypes. Advocacy is a type of actionable citizenship where individuals can use their voices, votes, and influence to take steps toward a justice system that prioritizes opportunity.

Resources and Discussion Questions

Additional Readings

  1. A clear overview of how college programs inside prisons improve safety, reduce recidivism, and strengthen reentry outcomes.
    Vera Institute of Justice. (n.d.). The impacts of college-in-prison participation on safety, education, and employment. https://www.vera.org/publications/the-impacts-of-college-in-prison
  2. A data-driven breakdown showing how incarcerated people face major educational disadvantages and why expanding prison education matters.Prison Policy Initiative. (2022). Getting back on course: Educational exclusion and prisoners’ educational attainment. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/education.html
  3. A short, accessible summary explaining how prison education leads to lower reoffending and better employment results after release.Mackinac Center for Public Policy. (2023). Research finds prison education programs reduce recidivism, improve employment. https://www.mackinac.org/pressroom/2023/research-finds-prison-education-programs-reduce-recidivism

Questions For Further Discussion

  • How does limiting access to education and information in prisons shape society’s understanding of who counts as a “citizen”?
  • In what ways might access to education change an incarcerated person’s sense of identity, purpose, or future possibilities?
  • What fears or misconceptions do you think prevent policymakers from supporting prison education programs, and how could those be addressed?
  • How would the justice system look different if access to education was treated as a right rather than a privilege?

Citations

Author Bio

My name is Jonah, and I am currently a student at THE Ohio State University pursuing a business degree through the Fisher College of Business. Growing up a Manhattanite, I often find solace in hectic, dynamic environments and love socializing and meeting new people. I played ice hockey for eight years prior to taking to the big stage at Ohio State’s Intramural Ice Hockey League. My love for the sport translates to my educational and professional goals as I continue to delve deeper into the business of hockey, with the expectation of someday working with an NHL organization.

Headshot of Jonah Silverman.

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