Not distance learning but... Georgetown to offer bachelor's degree program to Maryland inmates https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/547174-georgetown-to-offer-bachelors-degree-program-to-maryland-prison-inmates
An incredibly worthwhile endeavor! Prison education programs carry quite the political stigma at times, but financially make sense with their lower recidivism outcomes. Thrilled to see a private grant launching the program as well.
LOL, for some reason - before I clicked on the thread - I thought MD stood for Medical Doctor. <insert facepalm here>
Kudos to all involved in this! There needs to be more groups replicating this idea. I have a friend who acquired a felony while still a child. She had to fight for her right to an education and managed to finish college courses through distance learning while. She later got into juvenile detention reformation and goes out to DC to speak all the time. Eventually, she became the first person pardoned by the state governor for a juvenile felony. While they government took her out of the bad situation she was growing up in, they also created a lot of additional trauma that she still deals with. Often, people end up as inmates because the did not have good opportunities. It seems the least we could do is try to give them something positive to walk away with.
I know you all don't mean it the way some people mean it, but the triple parentheses are creeping me out.
Without knowing specifics, it sounds like your friend has made a change for the positive - and I hope her experience as a teen turns into a positive for another troubled youth. I tend to believe prisons no longer reform, but continuously punish felons into a vicious cycle of desperation and hopelessness. Let's hope this new program is successful!
Some do a better job than others but rehabilitation does take place. Liberals have always supported rehabilitation, while conservatives favor punishment through incapacitation. However, in the 1980-1990s (violent crime skyrocketed), liberals sided with conservatives to support a get-tough approach, including juvenile offenders. Today, liberals support rehabilitation while conservatives still support punishment. When it comes to juvenile justice, Pennsylvania does an excellent job with rehabilitation through its restorative justice approach.
I have taught college classes in several of New Mexico's correctional facilities over the years. It is both rewarding and deeply creepy at times. Rewarding because the students take the work very seriously. They are always on time and their homework is always done. Creepy because you're alone in a locked room with a bunch of violent criminals and no panic button. I was scared, really scared, only once though.