I wholeheartedly agree with Patrick O’Connor’s Jan. 18 column, “Out of school and headed for jail.” The underfunding of Holyoke’s schools can lead to young people with learning disabilities and high needs into Massachusetts’ jails and prisons.
As O’Connor writes, “The risk of being jailed jumps even higher for students who drop out of high school.” Unfortunately, youths who do drop out of school because of a lack of investment in them and their futures, and then find themselves incarcerated in state prison, will receive even fewer learning opportunities than they did when they were struggling students in Holyoke’s under-resourced schools.
In response to several public information requests to the Department of Correction, Claire Masinton, staff attorney at the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, found as of June 2023, only 904 incarcerated people, or 15% of DOC’s total population of 5,990, were enrolled in non-college education classes such as adult basic education.
As of August, only 202, or 3.38% of DOC’s total population of 5,974, were enrolled in any vocational, tech or vocational certificate programs. At the same time, an astonishing 5,469 incarcerated people, or 91.55% of DOC’s population of 5,974 people, were wait-listed for one or more programs.
In 2023, $746,554,721 of our tax dollars went to incarcerating 5,847 people in state prisons, or $127,681 per person. Educational staff at 16 prisons were 82 or 2% of expenditures. There were 2,849 security staff.
Add to this $673,000,000 to incarcerate approximately 6,600 people, more than half held pre-trial in jails.
Where do you want your tax dollars to go?
Lois Ahrens
Founder, Real Cost of Prisons Project, Northampton