If you have read anything of mine than you probably know that college education is extremely important to me. It has been proven that college education reduces recidivism rates by 30%. When the current Washington State recidivism rate is 67%, 30% is a lot of offenses prevented. Let me do the math for you:
There is an est. 17500 inmates in WA DOC, a 67% recidivism rate means that 11,725 people, on average, commit new offenses upon release. By educating us, it has the opportunity to reduce that number to 6,475...big difference!
We all know that not everyone is going to take education while incarcerated and you waste your time on the unwilling, usually. However, this is a tool that will be used diligently by so many that it WILL have a giant impact on our communities in an amazing way. In fact, it has the potential to prevent nearly 5000 victims...and possibly more depending on how the newly educated people become leaders.
As a queer person I am happy to use this opportunity to become better educated, even if its in a different field than I originally intended. I believe that LGBT especially need to become highly educated because we need representation in the communities and government offices, we need leaders and mentors. This is us, you and I. We are much more effective when we not only know more and effectively use that information to help our people, but the fact we show enough tenacity to complete a formal education is saying so much. Particularly in an age where fast and easy money dominates.
All those responsible for getting this back deserves a big round of applause. This is the single best use of money for fighting crime, in my opinion. (but numbers don't lie...30% reduction in recidivism...hard to argue that an nit has also been proven that educated people across the board commit less crime)
With Love
Jeff
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