Would you consider a school that looks and feels like a prison to be a model for success? The topic is all but unthinkable, yet one that no one so far has been willing to speak about with passion. Hilderbrand Pelzer III's acclaimed school model transformed a school inside a prison and is recognized as a guide for those facing educational challenges!
With increasing number of students dropping out of public school and traveling the school-to-prison pipeline, there is a growing national consensus that more must be done to educate these students during their confinement in juvenile detention facilities and adult county jails in the United States.
Throughout the United States, especially in the poor neighborhoods of large cities, too many public schools are failing to reach, teach, and engage thousands of struggling youths. Whether because of poor educational backgrounds, reluctance to be in the school environment, or both, they are defeated by the schools they attend. As a result of these failures, thousands of school-age youths are represented among the rising number of incarcerated juveniles. These students have already struggled greatly before setting off on the path that leads them to prison. To make matters worse, once arrested and awaiting trial in juvenile detention centers or adult county jails across the nation, these school-aged youths find themselves part of a system that fails to educate them.
Nationally, educational services for incarcerated juveniles are viewed as abysmal. Reform of juvenile correctional education is a decade or more behind reform in regular public schools and has simply not been a priority. The educational needs of incarcerated juveniles in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems are unmet. School districts have failed to take a leading role in improving the educational outcomes for incarcerated juveniles.
Hilderbrand Pelzer III, an award-winning educator, has created a solution to help provide the education that these juveniles so desperately need. He shares his experiences in his book, Unlocking Potential: Organizing a School Inside a Prison. Stressing the power of education and importance of leadership, the book covers topics such as the assumptions that have existed about the capacities and capabilities of schools for incarcerated youths inside juvenile detention centers and adult county jails. Heralded by the Midwest Book Review as "strongly recommended for those in charge of education of imprisoned youth" and called "a guide" for those facing educational challenges, the book has received positive responses from scholars, public officials and experts from around the world in the fields of public education, correctional education, prison administration, human services, and criminal justice.
Throughout the United States, especially in the poor neighborhoods of large cities, too many public schools are failing to reach, teach, and engage thousands of struggling youths. Whether because of poor educational backgrounds, reluctance to be in the school environment, or both, they are defeated by the schools they attend. As a result of these failures, thousands of school-age youths are represented among the rising number of incarcerated juveniles. These students have already struggled greatly before setting off on the path that leads them to prison. To make matters worse, once arrested and awaiting trial in juvenile detention centers or adult county jails across the nation, these school-aged youths find themselves part of a system that fails to educate them.
Nationally, educational services for incarcerated juveniles are viewed as abysmal. Reform of juvenile correctional education is a decade or more behind reform in regular public schools and has simply not been a priority. The educational needs of incarcerated juveniles in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems are unmet. School districts have failed to take a leading role in improving the educational outcomes for incarcerated juveniles.
Hilderbrand Pelzer III, an award-winning educator, has created a solution to help provide the education that these juveniles so desperately need. He shares his experiences in his book, Unlocking Potential: Organizing a School Inside a Prison. Stressing the power of education and importance of leadership, the book covers topics such as the assumptions that have existed about the capacities and capabilities of schools for incarcerated youths inside juvenile detention centers and adult county jails. Heralded by the Midwest Book Review as "strongly recommended for those in charge of education of imprisoned youth" and called "a guide" for those facing educational challenges, the book has received positive responses from scholars, public officials and experts from around the world in the fields of public education, correctional education, prison administration, human services, and criminal justice.
