Education is good for lifelong Washington inmates, too

Re: “He got life sentence as a Pierce County teen. Now he might one day be released,” (TNT, 9/7).

This recent article reminded me of a letter I once read.

One day last winter while working for a member of the state House of Representatives, I opened a letter from an inmate in a Washington prison.

He was seeking help to change a state law that requires inmates sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) to pay for any vocational and education programs they participate in. This is unlike those who are not serving a LWOP term.

I was surprised that a law exists that would be a barrier to LWOP inmates who seek to educate themselves. So I brought the letter to the attention of the representative and set out to do some research on the state laws that the inmate referenced.

I discovered most inmates who will be reentering society are encouraged to pursue educational and vocational programs, which for the most part are free.

However, this encouragement did not extend to LWOP inmates, such as the one who wrote to my representative. These findings piqued my interest. I was curious to know more about how Washington laws treat inmates differently.

According to state law, inmates who are sentenced to LWOP or death may not participate in an associate degree program offered by the Department of Corrections unless they pay some fraction of the cost.

At first, this difference in treatment made sense to me: Why should we invest in people who won’t be re-entering society, especially when Washington’s prison system already lacks resources for these programs?

Probably anticipating this reaction, my letter writer had made the case that vocational and educational programs for inmates like him provide substantial benefits by reducing prison violence and improving rehabilitation. Intrigued by his argument, I decided to dig deeper to see if research supported his claim.

What I learned surprised me: Inmates who participate in educational and work programs are less likely to engage in serious misconduct in prison. One study investigates how increasing structured time during incarceration by encouraging offenders to partake in educational programs reduces their misconduct and violence.

The study included more than 1,000 inmates incarcerated in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The authors found that prisoners who took part in college classes had lower rates of violent episodes compared to nonparticipants.

Those who completed college classes were 9 percent less likely to engage in violent encounters and 5 to 6 percent less likely to steal or destroy property.

Reading this research made me realize that barring LWOP inmates from pursuing free educational opportunities accessed by other inmates comes with its own costs. Reducing in-prison violence enhances both the safety of inmates and officers. When the prison environment is safer, it allows prison officials to focus more on rehabilitating inmates.

I’ve come to realize that society as a whole needs to change its perspective on why we offer inmates vocational and education programs. We should aim to help them restore their identity, dignity and sense of purpose so they can improve and learn from their mistakes.

Removing the distinction between LWOP inmates and those who will be reentering society is good for them as individuals and good for us. And as we read in the TNT last month, LWOP sentences are not always set in stone.

I now agree with the inmate whose letter I read. We must revise state law that affects inmates like him.

I urge you to do what I did and contact your elected state officials and advocate for inmates who face life sentences.

One letter can be powerful; it changed my mind. But we need more than one to bring about change.

This story was originally published November 9, 2019 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Education is good for lifelong Washington inmates, too."