The information currently available on education services offered in correctional facilities indicates that it can be an effective method for preparing individuals for their eventual release into community supervision. Yet, little is known about the effects of those same services offered in the community to those on parole or probation. Research does show, however, that community supervision is not effective on its own; rather, it should be combined with treatment services and other support. Given these facts, combining community supervision with community-based correctional education and other support may be a viable and more cost-efficient alternative to incarceration that will improve public safety and decrease recidivism rates.

To explore this hypothesis, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education Division of Adult Education and Literacy commissioned a report evaluating the effectiveness of community-based correctional education.

Community-based correctional education — education services offered to individuals serving all or part of their criminal sentence under community supervision — is receiving increased attention by states attempting to find more cost-efficient approaches to addressing rising correctional costs and a growing incarcerated population. Some states are cutting costs by placing more offenders under community supervision as an alternative to incarceration, since average costs of $3.42 per day for parolees and $7.47 per day for probationers are considerably less than the $79 per day cost for incarcerated prisoners.

The Community-Based Correctional Education report, @#$%& apart from cost considerations, the strategies states need to adopt to ensure that these individuals successfully serve their community supervision sentence and do not jeopardize public safety.

This Community-Based Correctional Education report is available on the U.S. Department of Education website at: [www.ed.gov].