By Donald Gilliland
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — With some help from the federal government, Pennsylvania hopes to educate its state prison inmates so they won’t commit more crimes after they are released.
Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday morning that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections nearly $1 million - the largest single grant in the department’s history - to improve education programs in the state’s prison system.
“These funds will help Secretary Wetzel and Department of Corrections to bolster their efforts to reduce recidivism and prepare offenders for the world outside their walls,” Wolf said in a press release.
The programs funded by the grant will focus on inmates age 25 and younger who are considered to be highly likely to re-offend after they are released.
One of the greatest challenges facing inmates after release is finding a job. 81 percent of inmates are unskilled, and those age 25 and under have one of the highest recidivism rates at 73 percent.
The three-year grant “will help us to enter offenders into programs that are geared toward careers that best suit (their education) levels and skills and that also meet employers’ recruiting needs,” Wetzel said.
PA Department of Labor & Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino said: “We need to provide offenders with the education and skills that fit the employer needs in the communities to which they will return after prison.”
The $976,301 direct federal grant will be matched with $108,221 of in-kind funds from the state for a total of $1,084,522, according to the governor’s release.
The prisons will not be able to use the federal money until state lawmakers and the governor agree on a budget.
“We can’t spend or draw down the funds because the federal monies need to be approved via the state budget,” said Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton; however, she said, “a lot of the ramp-up costs are staff time – which is what we are doing currently and mostly for the next month or two... which is our in-kind match.”