NCJ Number
232295
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 61 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2010 Pages: 203-222
Date Published
September 2010
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the nature of schooling in a youth prison and investigates how youth describe their experiences of school in an incarceration facility.
Abstract
This paper examines schooling inside a youth prison. The authors drew on interview and observation data from a study of a youth prison school to understand the practices and tensions of schooling in a juvenile incarceration facility. They describe the processes of schooling in the facility with an eye towards understanding both the conditions of learning and the ways that the prison context affords or constrains student learning opportunities. The paper describes several key features of schooling in a youth prison, which include: physical contest and classroom settings; institutional emphasis on safety and control; the stigmatization of students; student transience due to movement through the legal system; and the disconnection between the incarceration school and the school they attended before imprisonment. Possibilities of youth prison education to be transformative are also discussed. References (Published Abstract)