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Education program and costs comparison for inmates

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Case Scenario

The Department of Corrections (DOC) has identified the lack of education credentials as a key factor in reoffending. In other words, inmates with a high school diploma are less likely to reoffend upon release as compared to inmates without a high school diploma. On the average, 80 percent of the inmates without a high-school degree re-offend as compared to 40 percent of inmates with a degree.

Programmers at DOC have identified two model programs:

The first program is called Education First; the outcome of the program is passing the high-school equivalency examination. This program has undergone extensive outcome evaluations, and the success rate is figured to be 50 percent, which means that 50 percent of the inmates are successful in passing the high-school equivalency examination.
The second program is General Education Development Preparatory program (GED Prep). The outcome of this program is also passing the high-school equivalency examination. The success rate of this program is identified as 80 percent, which means that 80 percent of the inmates that take this program are successful in passing the high-school equivalency examination.
The first program, Education First, costs $500 per pupil, and the second program, GED Prep, costs $5000 per pupil. Currently, the cost of incarceration is $32,000 per year.

Since the DOC has experienced decreasing budgets over the past 20 years, cost of programs is a very real concern. Which of the two—Education First or the GED Prep program should be adopted? Why? Analyze the scenario and the programs and provide a logical justification for your answer considering:

The quality of the programs
The goal(s) and objective(s) of the programs
The policies' design
The success rate of the programs
The cost considerations
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Solution Summary

An opinion on which program is better for the DOC to choose for the education and earning of a high school diploma is provided.

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Education program comparison for prison
After using 1000 as the number of prisoners and 5 years as the time they are required to serve, I came up with the savings of nearly $50,000,000 for the second program over the first. Though it costs more, the 2.5 million dollars is well spent to lower the number of people who will return to prison, as discussed in the scenario, by 80% because of the number of people who pass their high school equivalency exam. The fact that 40% of inmates rescind ...

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