Prisoners released from our bloated American correctional institutions return to a mostly unwelcoming society where they face onerous post-release challenges. No wonder recidivism is near fifty percent, adding tens of billions of dollars annually to the cost of American prisons. Sisyphus No More is a multifaceted argument for increasing prisoner education and training programs to promote the reintegration into society of returning prisoners and increase the likelihood of their securing living-wage jobs. By greatly reducing recidivism, the programs will pay for themselves several times over. Such programs also humanize the treatment of prisoners and help them escape the fate of Sisyphus, the mythological king condemned to a bitterly repetitive fate. The book has two parts. The first provides background on the American prison system and enumerates the tolls incarceration takes on prisoners, their families, and their communities and the costs released prisoners continue to pay that severely hinder their reintegration. In the second part, the authors set forth compelling psychological, sociological, ethical, and financial grounds for increasing education and training to support the reintegration of released prisoners. The final two chapters report on innovative prison education programs and identify steps toward making education and training a priority in our prisons.
Roger C. Byrd is the manager of business and industry service at Oconee Fall Line Technical College. He is a highly accomplished and focused manager with extensive experience in governance, education, policy development, and business and industry. With over thirty-five years of experience in public service and higher education, he is experienced in organizational/higher education leadership, project management and consensus building, and curriculum design and instruction, including online/distance learning. Byrd is also an adjunct professor of political science, criminal justice, and business at Brewton-Parker College and East Georgia State College. Harvey McCloud, PhD, is the owner and principal at Clear Copy Editorial Services where he does researching, writing, rewriting, substantive editing, and copy editing of books, articles, and other documents in a wide variety of fields, including national and international politics, economics, sociology, psychology, archaeology, higher education, engineering, and health. He has also ghostwritten several books on mind-body-spirit medicine, psychosexual evaluation, New York City politics, chronic pain, and a personal memoir.
Part One: Understanding the Situation Chapter One: Getting our Bearings Chapter Two: Who's in Prison? Chapter Three: The Many Costs of Incarceration Chapter Four: The Tolls of Reentering Society Chapter Five: Prison Education in the United States Part Two: Reducing Recidivism Chapter Six: The Psychological Argument: Intrinsic Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and Postrelease Success Chapter Seven: The Sociological Argument: Strengthening Communities Chapter Eight: The Ethical Argument: Many Good Consequences Chapter Nine: The Financial Argument: The ROI of Prison Education Chapter Ten: Today's Trailblazers in Prison Education Chapter Eleven: Work to Be Done
