Schools for the boys or prisons for the men?

This year I am fortunate and honored to be part of the Vermont Leadership Institute. Last week we spent a day inside the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, VT, a medium-security prison for men.
http://teachersylvia.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/schools-for-the-boys-or-prisons-for-the-men/

Schools for the boys or prisons for the men?
This entry was posted on March 19, 2012, in advocacy, at-risk, education costs. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment

This year I am fortunate and honored to be part of the Vermont Leadership Institute (VLI). It’s a year-long program which introduces Vermonters from all over the public and private sectors to many of the issues facing Vermont; and gives us personal leadership development skills so that we may act in our spheres of influence to make positive change.

Last week, we went to prison.

We spent a day inside the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, VT, a medium-security prison for men. After a comprehensive tour, we spoke with prison officials and a victim advocate, judge, district attorney, and restorative justice worker.

It would be too simple to say that the visit was “sobering” or “thought-provoking” or “disturbing,” though in fact all of that is true. I’ll be thinking about what I saw for a long time. Here’s something else I’m thinking about: The average annual cost to incarcerate someone in Vermont is about $58,000.* This year there’s a lot of talk in Vermont about the ~$17,000 per student per year price tag for public education (read a great summary from VTDigger.org here).

One of my VLI colleagues said, you can tell what a society values by what they’re willing to pay for. We saw that Vermonters are willing to pay for reinforced concrete and razor wire, far up a new road out of view of the highway; are we willing to pay a few cents more to ensure that every student has the support they need to get the skills they need to compete in the job market and be happy, productive members of our communities?

I’m figuring out that my leadership role, right now, is to be the fly in the ointment, and advocate hard, for the students who are most at risk of not getting those skills. It’s not a role I’m super comfortable with; but I am newly motivated to do it.

*Here’s the VT Dept. of Corrections Facts & Figures for 2011 with this and many more interesting facts. In 2008, each Vermonter paid $192 to support Corrections.