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| This graph shows average annual income potential with different levels of education. Information courtesy of the U.S. Dept of Education |
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| This data is according to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services 2012 US Poverty guidelines. |
Exploring the link
between education and the Criminal Justice system brings us today to the impact
of a high school diploma on the earning potential of an individual. We have
looked already at how education plays a role in the social returns of building
a person of greater self-worth who is able to make more positive contributions
to society (Lochner, 2007) (Moretti, 2005). Today, we will crunch the numbers of what it
means to have a basic education in terms of CJ.
A High
school education is a foundational building block to life. Without that foundation nearly all elements
of one’s life will be strained. It will be nearly impossible for a person to
get a job or advance in any chosen field without this most basic of degrees.
Let’s look at what that means by the numbers:
Imagine
a family of 4 supported mainly by one person who does not have a high school
diploma. According to the US Census Study the family survives on the average
salary of $15,346.00 annually. To put that into perspective consider that the
US Dept. of Health and Human Services considers this family to be impoverished
if they earn less than $23,050.00 a year (US Department of Health and Human
Services, 2012). Our family of four is living 33% below the poverty line. Keep
in mind that these numbers do not account for racial or gender differences. On
average the life time earnings difference is 20% based on attaining just a high
school diploma. The disparity is more staggering the higher the education level
gets. Add to these numbers the fact that 24.5% of high school freshmen do not
reach graduation. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics,
in 2009 the high school freshman graduation rate was 75.5 percent, meaning only
75 percent of incoming freshmen will graduate from high school in “normal”
amount of time (Stillwell, 2011). Needless to say that is a huge number of
people who cannot even hope to reach the poverty line let alone earn beyond it.
It becomes easy to see how a desperate
financial situation with little hope of escape translates directly into
desperate measures.
In
my own life, I came head on into the education wall. After graduating high
school I continued on to attain my AA degree. Much like an 18 year old student
fails to see the potential importance of a college education; I did not see
much value in continuing on to a four year university. Fast forward through
many years and several jobs it became apparent that I had hit a wall which
could only be overcome by continuing my advanced education.
How
does this lack of earning potential impact the CJ system? After looking in my
first posting at how a person’s social & economic worth tie directly into
their interactions with the law it is important to note the impact of education
for someone who has already intersected with the system. It has been proven
that a continued lack of education hampers the prospect of rehabilitation once
out of jail. In New York State, the
Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) created a study that discussed
education and its link to recidivism.
The results of this study found that if younger inmates, particularly
those under 21 years of age, received a GED while incarcerated, the likelihood
of them to end up back in jail was five percent less. This may seem like a small number, but as the
study indicated, these men felt they had more value, in fact enough value to
stay out of the criminal justice system.
The GED also gave them the opportunity to get a better job which helped
them as well. (Nuttall, Hollmen, & Staley, 2003)
Although education has become an integral piece of the
Criminal Justice conversation, this has not always been the case. In the next
installment of my blog I will take a look back in time to the history of
education with regards to incarceration & rehabilitation.
Works Cited
Stillwell, R. S. (2011). Public School Graduates and
Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008–09 First Look.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.
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