Ethical Considerations and Reimaging State Corrections: Education and Work Partnerships for Offenders Return to Home and Community

Abstract

This paper describes a mixed method study of 16,000 postings on Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit related to corrections (prison) reforms and a survey of 140 participants in this discourse who expressed a strong interest in reform focused on ethics, education, and work partnerships. The theoretical modeling of “what works,” arguably, can facilitate the reform of individual offenders as well as rehabilitation and recidivism-reduction programs. The methodology combined a review of empirical research for years 1990 to 2018 with social media posts by members of the public and a narrative survey of public professionals. The results indicated that work, education, and morality all have significant roles to play in reimagining prison systems so that simply warehousing prisoners and “nothing works” thinking become ideas of the past. The COVID-19 pandemic and social justice concerns about prisoners have created conditions conducive to social media activism aimed at making prisons more humane. Accordingly, corrections professionals, policymakers, and students need solid research on these issues to assess the outcomes of corrections policies for communities.