Organizational Barriers To the Administration of Correctional Education: an Analysis of a Correc Tional School District

Abstract

A case study of the correctional school district for New Jersey prisons identified a number of organizational barriers to the administration of educational programs in correctional institu tions. The location of the correctional school district within the state departmental structure, the nature of the relationship between the correctional school district and the correctional institu tion, and the effect of this relationship on the functioning of the correctional school district were examined. The findings suggest that the major organizational barriers to the administration of educa tional programs in correctional institutions are: (1) the correctional institution's prioritization of containment and control over the care and treatment function; (2) the low status of correctional education within the correctional institution; (3) the low decision making autonomy of the cor rectional school district in areas of staff hiring and firing, program implementation and student participation; and (4) the overall marginality of the correctional education unit both within the Department of Education and the individual correctional institution.