COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD CORRECTIONAL INMATES AND TOWARD TEACHING OFF‐CAMPUS COURSES AT CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

A total of 165 faculty from 8 of the 9 colleges in the Virginia Community College System that offer educational programs to prisoners were tested to investigate attitudes toward correctional inmates and willingness to participate in off‐campus programs at correctional institutions. Attitudes were defined operationally as scores on a 17‐item semantic differential with “correctional inmate” as the concept and a 12‐item Likert rating scale, both developed specifically for use in the study. Via an orientation program designed to provide contact among faculty, inmates, and the correctional environment, the attitudes of a portion of the sample were significantly altered. Generally faculty who consider their prior contact with inmates to be greater than average and those who have had experience teaching in correctional settings express more favorable attitudes. In addition, black faculty members and assistant professors score higher (more positively) on evaluative criteria than white faculty members and those of...